Deuteronomy 13-14

Easy-to-Read Version

Don’t Serve Other Gods

13 “A prophet or someone who explains dreams might come to you and tell you that they will show you a sign or a miracle. ² And the sign or miracle they told you about might come true. Then they might ask you to follow other gods (gods you don’t know) and say to you, ‘Let’s serve these gods!’ ³ Don’t listen to them, because the Lord your God is testing you. He wants to know if you love him with all your heart and all your soul. ⁴ You must follow the Lord your God. Respect him. Obey his commands and do what he tells you. Serve the Lord your God, and never leave him. ⁵ Also, you must kill that prophet or person who explains dreams, because they told you to turn against the Lord your God. And it was the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. They tried to pull you away from the life he commanded you to live, so you must kill them to remove this evil from your people.

⁶ “Someone close to you might secretly persuade you to worship other gods. It might be your own brother, your son, your daughter, the wife you love, or your closest friend. They might say, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods.’ (These are gods that you and your ancestors never knew. ⁷ They are the gods of the people who live in the other lands around you, some near and some far away.) ⁸ You must not agree with them. Don’t listen to them or feel sorry for them. Don’t let them go free or protect them. ^9-10 No, you must kill them with stones. You be the first one to pick up stones and throw at them. Then everyone must throw stones to kill them, because they tried to pull you away from the Lord your God. And it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹ Then all the Israelites will hear about it and be afraid. And they will not do those evil things any more.

¹² “The Lord your God has given you cities to live in. Sometimes you might hear some bad news about one of these cities. You might hear that ¹³ some troublemakers from your own nation are persuading the people of their city to do bad things. They might say to the people of their city, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods.’ (These gods would be gods that you never knew before.) ¹⁴ If you hear this kind of news, you must do all you can to learn if it is true. If you learn that it is true, if you prove that such a terrible thing really did happen, ¹⁵ then you must kill all the people of that city and their animals too. You must destroy that city completely. ¹⁶ You must gather up everything of value and take it to the center of the city. Burn the whole city and everything in it as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. You must turn that city into an empty pile of rocks forever, and that city must never be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Everything in that city must be destroyed as an offering to God. So you must not keep any of the things for yourselves. If you follow this command, the Lord will stop being so angry with you. He will be kind to you. He will feel sorry for you. He will let your nation grow larger, as he promised your ancestors. ¹⁸ This will happen if you listen to the Lord your God—if you obey all his commands that I give you today. You must do what the Lord your God says is right.

Israel, God’s Special People

14 “You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, you must not cut yourselves or shave your heads^[a] to show your sadness. ² This is because you are different from other people. You belong to the Lord your God. From all the people in the world, the Lord chose you to be his own special people.

Food the Israelites Are Allowed to Eat

³ “Don’t eat anything that the Lord hates. ⁴ You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats, ⁵ deer, gazelles, roe deer, wild sheep, wild goats, antelopes, and mountain sheep. ⁶ You may eat any animal that has hooves divided into two parts and that chews the cud. ⁷ But don’t eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but they don’t have split hooves. So these animals are not a clean food for you. ⁸ And you must not eat pigs. Their hooves are divided, but they don’t chew the cud. So pigs are not a clean food for you. Don’t eat any meat from pigs. Don’t even touch a pig’s dead body.

⁹ “You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But don’t eat anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales. It is not a clean food for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But don’t eat any of these birds: eagles, vultures, buzzards, ¹³ red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ horned owls, screech owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶ little owls, great owls, white owls, ¹⁷ desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸ storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, or bats.

¹⁹ “All insects with wings are unclean, so don’t eat them. ²⁰ But you may eat any clean bird.

²¹ “Don’t eat any animal that has died by itself. You may give the dead animal to the foreigner in your town, and he can eat it. Or you may sell the dead animal to a foreigner. But you yourselves must not eat the dead animal, because you belong to the Lord your God. You are his special people.

“Don’t cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving One-Tenth

²² “Every year you must be sure to save one-tenth of all the crops that grow in your fields. ²³ Then you must go to the place the Lord chooses to be the home for his name. You will go there to be with the Lord your God. At that place you will eat the tenth of your crops—one-tenth of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks. In this way you will always remember to respect the Lord your God. ²⁴ But that place might be too far for you to travel to. Maybe you will not be able to carry one-tenth of all the crops that the Lord has blessed you with. If that happens, ²⁵ sell that part of your crops and take the money with you to the special place the Lord has chosen. ²⁶ Use the money to buy anything you want—cattle, sheep, wine or beer or any other food. Then you and your family should eat and enjoy yourselves there in that place with the Lord your God. ²⁷ But don’t forget the Levites living in your town. Share your food with them because they don’t have a share of the land like you have.

²⁸ “At the end of every three years, you must gather one-tenth of your harvest for that year. Store this food in your towns. ²⁹ Keep this food for the Levites, because they don’t have any land of their own. Also keep this food for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. This will provide enough for them to come and eat all they want. If you do this, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.