The Wilderness Years

you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him.

Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.

Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

If, regarding one of the cities the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said

that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known),

then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,

you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock.

And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

Nothing devoted to destruction shall cling to your hands, so that the LORD will turn from His fierce anger, grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as He swore to your fathers,

because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today and doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,

for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

You must not eat any detestable thing.

These are the animals that you may eat: The ox, the sheep, the goat,

the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud.

But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger.

Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you, as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass.

Of all the creatures that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales,

but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you.

You may eat any clean bird,

but these you may not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite,

any kind of raven,