The Wilderness Years

thou dost not consent to him, nor hearken unto him, nor doth thine eye have pity on him, nor dost thou spare, nor dost thou cover him over.

`But thou dost surely kill him; thy hand is on him, in the first place, to put him to death, and the hand of all the people last;

and thou hast stoned him with stones, and he hath died, for he hath sought to drive thee away from Jehovah thy God, who is bringing thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants;

and all Israel do hear and fear, and add not to do like this evil thing in thy midst.

`When thou hearest, in one of thy cities which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee to dwell there, one saying,

Men, sons of worthlessness, have gone out of thy midst, and they force away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known--

and thou hast enquired, and searched, and asked diligently, and lo, truth; the thing is established; this abomination hath been done in thy midst:

`Thou dost surely smite the inhabitants of that city by the mouth of the sword; devoting it, and all that is in it, even its cattle, by the mouth of the sword;

and all its spoil thou dost gather unto the midst of its broad place, and hast burned with fire the city and all its spoil completely, before Jehovah thy God, and it hath been a heap age-during, it is not built any more;

and there doth not cleave to thy hand any of the devoted thing, so that Jehovah doth turn back from the fierceness of His anger, and hath given to thee mercies, and loved thee, and multiplied thee, as He hath sworn to thy fathers,

when thou dost hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep all his commands which I am commanding thee to-day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God.

`Sons ye are to Jehovah your God; ye do not cut yourselves, nor make baldness between your eyes for the dead;

for a holy people art thou to Jehovah thy God, and on thee hath Jehovah fixed to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ground.

`Thou dost not eat any abominable thing;

`this is the beast which ye do eat: ox, lamb of the sheep, or kid of the goats,

hart, and roe, and fallow deer, and wild goat, and pygarg, and wild ox, and chamois;

and every beast dividing the hoof, and cleaving the cleft into two hoofs, bringing up the cud, among the beasts--it ye do eat.

`Only, this ye do not eat, of those bringing up the cud, and of those dividing the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit, for they are bringing up the cud but the hoof have not divided; unclean they are to you;

and the sow, for it is dividing the hoof, and not bringing up the cud, unclean it is to you; of their flesh ye do not eat, and against their carcase ye do not come.

`This ye do eat of all that are in the waters; all that hath fins and scales ye do eat;

and anything which hath not fins and scales ye do not eat; unclean it is to you.

`Any clean bird ye do eat;

and these are they of which ye do not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

and the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after its kind,

and every raven after its kind;