The Wilderness Years

and the owl, and the night-hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind;

the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,

and the pelican, and the gier-eagle, and the cormorant,

and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the lapwing, and the bat;

and every teeming thing which is flying, unclean it is to you; they are not eaten;

any clean fowl ye do eat.

`Ye do not eat of any carcase; to the sojourner who is within thy gates thou dost give it, and he hath eaten it; or sell it to a stranger; for a holy people thou art to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

`Thou dost certainly tithe all the increase of thy seed which the field is bringing forth year by year;

and thou hast eaten before Jehovah thy God, in the place where He doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle, the tithe of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd, and of thy flock, so that thou dost learn to fear Jehovah thy God all the days.

`And when the way is too much for thee, that thou art not able to carry it--when the place is too far off from thee which Jehovah thy God doth choose to put His name there, when Jehovah thy God doth bless thee; --

then thou hast given it in money, and hast bound up the money in thy hand, and gone unto the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix;

and thou hast given the money for any thing which thy soul desireth, for oxen, and for sheep, and for wine, and for strong drink, and for any thing which thy soul asketh, and thou hast eaten there before Jehovah thy God, and thou hast rejoiced, thou and thy house.

As to the Levite who is within thy gates, thou dost not forsake him, for he hath no portion and inheritance with thee.

`At the end of three years thou dost bring out all the tithe of thine increase in that year, and hast placed it within thy gates;

and come in hath the Levite (for he hath no part and inheritance with thee), and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, so that Jehovah thy God doth bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou dost.

`At the end of seven years thou dost make a release,

and this is the matter of the release: Every owner of a loan is to release his hand which he doth lift up against his neighbour, he doth not exact of his neighbour and of his brother, but hath proclaimed a release to Jehovah;

of the stranger thou mayest exact, and that which is thine with thy brother doth thy hand release;

only when there is no needy one with thee, for Jehovah doth greatly bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--an inheritance to possess it.

`Only, if thou dost diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all this command which I am commanding thee to-day,

for Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee as He hath spoken to thee; and thou hast lent to many nations, and thou hast not borrowed; and thou hast ruled over many nations, and over thee they do not rule.

`When there is with thee any needy one of one of thy brethren, in one of thy cities, in thy land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee, thou dost not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy needy brother;

for thou dost certainly open thy hand to him, and dost certainly lend him sufficient for his lack which he lacketh.

`Take heed to thee lest there be a word in thy heart--worthless, saying, Near is the seventh year, the year of release; and thine eye is evil against thy needy brother, and thou dost not give to him, and he hath called concerning thee unto Jehovah, and it hath been in thee sin;

thou dost certainly give to him, and thy heart is not sad in thy giving to him, for because of this thing doth Jehovah thy God bless thee in all thy works, and in every putting forth of thy hand;