Reading for March:  Deuteronomy 14:1 — 1 Samuel 17:25

March 1

Deuteronomy 14:1 — 17:20

14 “Sons YOU are of Jehovah YOUR God. YOU must not make cuttings upon yourselves or impose baldness on YOUR foreheads for a dead person. 2 For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to become his people, a special property, out of all the peoples who are on the surface of the ground.

3 “You must eat no detestable thing of any sort. 4 This is the sort of beast that YOU may eat: the bull, the sheep and the goat, 5 the stag and gazelle and roebuck and wild goat and antelope and wild sheep and chamois; 6 and every beast that splits the hoof and that forms a cleft into two hoofs, chewing the cud among the beasts. It YOU may eat. 7 Only this sort YOU must not eat out of those that chew the cud or that split the hoof, cloven: the camel and the hare and the rock badger, because they are chewers of the cud but do not split the hoof. They are unclean for YOU. 8 The pig also, because it is a splitter of the hoof but there is no cud. It is unclean for YOU. None of their flesh must YOU eat, and their carcasses YOU must not touch.

9 “This sort out of everything that is in the waters YOU may eat: Everything that has fins and scales YOU may eat. 10 And everything that has no fins and scales YOU must not eat. It is unclean for YOU.

11 “Any clean bird YOU may eat. 12 But these are the ones of which YOU must not eat: the eagle and the osprey and the black vulture, 13 and the red kite and the black kite and the glede according to its kind; 14 and every raven according to its kind; 15 and the ostrich and the owl and the gull and the falcon according to its kind; 16 the little owl and the long-eared owl and the swan, 17 and the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant, 18 and the stork and the heron according to its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19 And every winged swarming creature is unclean for YOU. They should not be eaten. 20 Any clean flying creature YOU may eat.

21 “YOU must not eat any body [already] dead. To the alien resident who is inside your gates you may give it, and he must eat it; or there may be a selling of it to a foreigner, because you are a holy people to Jehovah your God.

“You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

22 “Without fail you should give a tenth of all the produce of your seed, that which comes forth of the field year by year. 23 And before Jehovah your God, in the place that he will choose to have his name reside there, you must eat the tenth part of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the firstborn ones of your herd and of your flock; in order that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.

24 “Now in case the journey should be too long for you, because you will not be able to carry it, since the place that Jehovah your God will choose to place his name there will be too far away for you, (because Jehovah your God will bless you,) 25 you must then turn it into money, and you must wrap the money up in your hand and travel to the place that Jehovah your God will choose. 26 You must also give the money for whatever your soul may crave in the way of cattle and sheep and goats and wine and intoxicating liquor and anything that your soul may ask of you; and you must eat there before Jehovah your God and rejoice, you and your household. 27 And the Levite who is inside your gates, you must not abandon him, for he has no share or inheritance with you.

28 “At the end of three years you will bring out the entire tenth part of your produce in that year, and you must deposit it inside your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no share or inheritance with you, and the alien resident and the fatherless boy and the widow, who are inside your gates, must come, and they must eat and satisfy themselves; in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in every deed of your hand that you will do.

15 “At the end of every seven years you should make a release. 2 And this is the manner of the release: there will be a releasing by every creditor of the debt that he may let his fellow incur. He should not press his fellow or his brother for payment, because a release to Jehovah must be called. 3 The foreigner you may press for payment; but whatever of yours may prove to be with your brother let your hand release. 4 However, no one should come to be poor among you, because Jehovah will without fail bless you in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance to take possession of it, 5 only if you will without fail listen to the voice of Jehovah your God so as to be careful to do all this commandment that I am commanding you today. 6 For Jehovah your God will indeed bless you just as he has promised you, and you will certainly lend on pledge to many nations, whereas you yourself will not borrow; and you must dominate over many nations, whereas over you they will not dominate.

7 “In case some one of your brothers becomes poor among you in one of your cities, in your land that Jehovah your God is giving you, you must not harden your heart or be closefisted toward your poor brother. 8 For you should generously open your hand to him and by all means lend him on pledge as much as he needs, which he is in want of. 9 Watch out for yourself for fear a base word should come to be in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of the release, has come close,’ and your eye should indeed become ungenerous toward your poor brother, and you should give him nothing, and he has to call out to Jehovah against you, and it has become a sin on your part. 10 You should by all means give to him, and your heart should not be stingy in your giving to him, because on this account Jehovah your God will bless you in every deed of yours and in every undertaking of yours. 11 For someone poor will never cease to be in the midst of the land. That is why I am commanding you, saying, ‘You should generously open up your hand to your afflicted and poor brother in your land.’

12 “In case there should be sold to you your brother, a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, and he has served you six years, then in the seventh year you should send him out from you as one set free. 13 And in case you should send him out from you as one set free, you must not send him out empty-handed. 14 You should surely equip him with something from your flock and your threshing floor and your oil and winepress. Just as Jehovah your God has blessed you, you should give to him. 15 And you must remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt and Jehovah your God proceeded to redeem you. That is why I am commanding you this thing today.

16 “And it must occur that in case he says to you, ‘I shall not go out from your company!’ because he does love you and your household, since it was well with him while with you, 17 you must also take an awl and put it through his ear and to the door, and he must become your slave to time indefinite. And to your slave girl you should also do this way. 18 It should not be something hard in your eyes when you send him out from your company as one set free; because for double the value of a hired laborer he served you six years, and Jehovah your God has blessed you in everything that you would do.

19 “Every male firstborn that will be born in your herd and in your flock you should sanctify to Jehovah your God. You must do no service with the firstborn of your bull, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 Before Jehovah your God you should eat it year by year in the place that Jehovah will choose, you and your household. 21 And in case there should prove to be in it a defect, being lame or blind, any bad defect, you must not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God. 22 Inside your gates you should eat it, the unclean one and the clean one together, like the gazelle and like the stag. 23 Only its blood you must not eat. Upon the earth you should pour it out as water.


16 “Let there be an observing of the month of Abib, and you must celebrate the passover to Jehovah your God, because in the month of Abib Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 And you must sacrifice the passover to Jehovah your God, of the flock and of the herd, in the place that Jehovah will choose to have his name reside there. 3 You must eat nothing leavened along with it for seven days. You should eat along with it unfermented cakes, the bread of affliction, because it was in haste that you came out of the land of Egypt, that you may remember the day of your coming out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. 4 And no sourdough should be seen with you in all your territory seven days, neither should any of the flesh, which you will sacrifice in the evening on the first day, stay all night until the morning. 5 You will not be allowed to sacrifice the passover in any one of your cities that Jehovah your God is giving you. 6 But at the place that Jehovah your God will choose to have his name reside there, you should sacrifice the passover in the evening as soon as the sun sets, at the appointed time of your coming out of Egypt. 7 And you must do the boiling and the eating in the place that Jehovah your God will choose, and in the morning you must turn around and go to your own tents. 8 Six days you should eat unfermented cakes; and on the seventh day there will be a solemn assembly to Jehovah your God. You must do no work.

9 “Seven weeks you should count for yourself. From when the sickle is first put to the standing grain you will start to count seven weeks. 10 Then you must celebrate the festival of weeks to Jehovah your God, according to the voluntary offering of your hand that you will give, just as Jehovah your God may bless you. 11 And you must rejoice before Jehovah your God, you and your son and your daughter and your man slave and your slave girl and the Levite who is inside your gates and the alien resident and the fatherless boy and the widow, who are in your midst, in the place that Jehovah your God will choose to have his name reside there. 12 And you must remember that you became a slave in Egypt, and you must observe and carry out these regulations.

13 “The festival of booths you should celebrate for yourself seven days when you make an ingathering from your threshing floor and your oil and winepress. 14 And you must rejoice during your festival, you and your son and your daughter and your man slave and your slave girl and the Levite and the alien resident and the fatherless boy and the widow, who are inside your gates. 15 Seven days you will celebrate the festival to Jehovah your God in the place that Jehovah will choose, because Jehovah your God will bless you in all your produce and in every deed of your hand, and you must become nothing but joyful.

16 “Three times in the year every male of yours should appear before Jehovah your God in the place that he will choose: in the festival of the unfermented cakes and in the festival of weeks and in the festival of booths, and none should appear before Jehovah empty-handed. 17 The gift of each one’s hand should be in proportion to the blessing of Jehovah your God that he has given you.

18 “You should set judges and officers for yourself inside all your gates that Jehovah your God is giving you by your tribes, and they must judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You must not pervert judgment. You must not be partial or accept a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of wise ones and distorts the words of righteous ones. 20 Justice—justice you should pursue, in order that you may keep alive and may indeed take possession of the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.

21 “You must not plant for yourself any sort of tree as a sacred pole near the altar of Jehovah your God that you will make for yourself.

22 “Neither should you set up for yourself a sacred pillar, a thing Jehovah your God hates indeed.

17 “You must not sacrifice to Jehovah your God a bull or a sheep in which there proves to be a defect, anything bad; because it is a thing detestable to Jehovah your God.

2 “In case there should be found in your midst in one of your cities that Jehovah your God is giving you a man or a woman who should practice what is bad in the eyes of Jehovah your God so as to overstep his covenant, 3 and he should go and worship other gods and bow down to them or to the sun or the moon or all the army of the heavens, a thing that I have not commanded, 4 and it has been told you and you have heard it and have searched thoroughly, and, look! the thing is established as the truth, this detestable thing has been done in Israel! 5 you must also bring that man or that woman who has done this bad thing out to your gates, yes, the man or the woman, and you must stone such one with stones, and such one must die. 6 At the mouth of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one dying should be put to death. He will not be put to death at the mouth of one witness. 7 The hand of the witnesses first of all should come upon him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward; and you must clear out what is bad from your midst.

8 “In case a matter for judicial decision should be too extraordinary for you, one in which blood has been shed, in which a legal claim has been raised, or a violent deed has been committed, matters of dispute, inside your gates, you must also rise and go up to the place that Jehovah your God will choose, 9 and you must go to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who will be acting in those days, and you must make inquiry, and they must hand down to you the word of the judicial decision. 10 Then you must do in accordance with the word that they will hand down to you from that place which Jehovah will choose; and you must be careful to do according to all that they instruct you. 11 In accordance with the law that they will point out to you, and according to the judicial decision that they will say to you, you should do. You must not turn aside from the word that they will hand down to you, to the right or to the left. 12 And the man who will behave with presumptuousness in not listening to the priest who is standing to minister there to Jehovah your God or to the judge, that man must die; and you must clear out what is bad from Israel. 13 And all the people will hear and become afraid, and they will not act presumptuously anymore.

14 “When you eventually come into the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of it and have dwelt in it, and you have said, ‘Let me set a king over myself like all the nations who are round about me’; 15 you should without fail set over yourself a king whom Jehovah your God will choose. From among your brothers you should set a king over yourself. You will not be allowed to put over yourself a foreigner who is not your brother. 16 Only he should not increase horses for himself, nor make the people go back to Egypt in order to increase horses; whereas Jehovah has said to YOU, ‘YOU must never go back again by this way.’ 17 He should also not multiply wives for himself, that his heart may not turn aside; nor should he increase silver and gold for himself very much. 18 And it must occur that when he takes his seat on the throne of his kingdom, he must write in a book for himself a copy of this law from that which is in the charge of the priests, the Levites.

19 “And it must continue with him, and he must read in it all the days of his life, in order that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God so as to keep all the words of this law and these regulations by doing them; 20 that his heart may not exalt itself above his brothers and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, in order that he may lengthen his days upon his kingdom, he and his sons in the midst of Israel.