Food that is acceptable to God and food that is not

1Yahweh said to Aaron and Moses/me,

2“Tell the Israeli people that this is what Yahweh says: From all the animals that live on the land, these are the ones that you are permitted to eat:

3The ones that have hooves that are completely split and that ◄chew their cuds/bring their food up from their stomachs to chew it again►.

4There are some animals that chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, and some animals that have split hooves but do not chew their cuds. You must not eat any of those animals. For example, camels chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

5Rock badgers chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

6Rabbits chew their cuds but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

7Pigs have completely split hooves but they do not chew their cuds, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.

8All of those animals are unacceptable for you, so you must not eat their meat or even touch their carcasses.

9From all the creatures that live in the oceans and the streams, you are permitted to eat any that have fins and scales.

10But you must detest and not eat those that do not have fins and scales. That includes ones that are very small.

11You must despise them, and you must not eat their meat, and you must detest their carcasses.

12You must detest everything that lives in the water that does not have fins and scales.

13There are some birds that you must detest and not eat. They include eagles, bearded vultures, black vultures,

14kites, any kind of falcon/buzzard,

15any kind of raven,

16horned owls, screech owls, seagulls, any kind of hawk,

17small owls, cormorants, large owls,

18white owls, desert owls, vultures that eat dead animals,

19storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, and bats.

20You must detest and not eat flying insects that sometimes walk on the ground [MTY].

21But you are permitted to eat creatures with wings that sometimes walk on the ground if they have jointed legs for hopping around.

22They include locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers.

23But you must detest and not eat other insects with wings that have four legs.

24‘There are certain creatures that if you touch their carcasses you will become defiled. Anyone who touches their carcasses must not touch other people until that evening.

25Anyone who picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes and not touch other people until that evening.

26‘The animals whose carcasses you must not touch are those that have hooves that are not completely divided or animals that do not chew their cuds. Anyone who touches the carcasses of any of those animals becomes ◄defiled/unacceptable to me►.

27From all the animals that walk on the ground, you must not touch the carcasses of those that have paws to walk on. Anyone who touches one of their carcasses must not touch other people until that evening.

28Anyone who picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes and not touch other people until that evening, because touching their carcasses ◄defiles you/causes you to become unacceptable to me►.

29‘From all the animals that walk on the ground, these are the ones that ◄defile you/cause you to become unacceptable to me► if you touch them: Moles, rats, any kind of lizard,

30geckos, skinks, and chameleons.

31Those creatures that scurry across the ground ◄defile you/cause you to become unacceptable to me►; anyone who touches one of their carcasses must not touch other people until the evening.

32When one of those creatures dies and falls on something, the thing that it falls on, whatever it is used for, will become ◄defiled/unacceptable to me►, whether it is made of wood or cloth or the hide of some animal or from rough cloth. You must put it in water. Then you must not use it until that evening.

33If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it becomes defiled, and you must break that pot into pieces.

34If you pour water from that pot on any food, you must not eat that food. And you must not drink any water from that pot.

35Anything that one of the carcasses of those creatures falls on becomes ◄defiled/unacceptable to me►; even if it falls on an oven or a cooking pot, anything that it falls on must be broken into pieces. It becomes unacceptable to me and you must not use it again.

36If one of their carcasses falls into a spring or a pit for storing water, the water may still be drunk, but anyone who touches one of those carcasses becomes unacceptable to me.

37If one of those carcasses falls on seeds that are to be planted, those seeds are still acceptable to be planted.

38But if water has been put on the seeds and then a carcass falls on them, the seeds must be thrown away.

39‘If an animal whose meat you are permitted to eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass must not touch other people until that evening.

40Anyone who eats some meat from that carcass must wash his clothes, and then he must not touch anyone until that evening.

41‘All creatures that scurry across the ground, including those that move on their bellies and those that crawl, are detestable, and they must not be eaten.

43Do not ◄defile yourselves/cause you to become unacceptable to me► by eating any of those creatures [DOU].

44I am Yahweh your God, and I am holy, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy. You must avoid eating things that cause you to be unacceptable to me. Do not cause yourselves to become unacceptable to me by eating creatures that scurry across the ground.

45I am Yahweh, the one who freed you from being slaves in Egypt, in order to be your God. Therefore, because I am holy, you must be holy.

46'Those are the regulations concerning animals and birds, all the living creatures that live in water or scurry across the ground.

47You must learn what things I say are acceptable to me and what things are not, and learn what things you are permitted to eat and what things you are not permitted to eat.’”