Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, February 28 [Press play below]

14.1 “You are sons of Jehovah your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads bald for a dead person.
14.2 For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to become his people, his special property, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
14.3 “You must not eat anything that is detestable.
14.4 These are the animals that you may eat: the bull, the sheep, the goat,
14.5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the antelope, the wild sheep, and the mountain sheep.
14.6 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided into two and that chews the cud.
14.7 However, you must not eat the following animals that chew the cud or that have split hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not have split hooves. They are unclean for you.
14.8 Also the pig because it has a split hoof but does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat their flesh or touch their carcasses.
14.9 “Of everything that is living in the waters, you may eat these: Anything with fins and scales, you may eat.
14.10 But you must not eat anything that has no fins and scales. It is unclean for you.
14.11 “You may eat any clean bird.
14.12 But you must not eat these: the eagle, the osprey, the black vulture,
14.13 the red kite, the black kite, every kind of glede,
14.14 every kind of raven,
14.15 the ostrich, the owl, the gull, every kind of falcon,
14.16 the little owl, the long-eared owl, the swan,
14.17 the pelican, the vulture, the cormorant,
14.18 the stork, every kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.
14.19 Every winged swarming creature also is unclean for you. They should not be eaten.
14.20 Any clean flying creature you may eat.
14.21 “You must not eat any animal that was found dead. You may give it to the foreign resident who is inside your cities, and he may eat it, or it may be sold to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. “You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
14.22 “You must without fail give a tenth of everything your seed produces in the field year by year.
14.23 You will eat the tenth part of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock before Jehovah your God in the place that he chooses to have his name reside, so that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.
14.24 “But if the journey should be too long for you and you are not able to carry it to the place that Jehovah your God chooses as the place for his name because it is far away from you (because Jehovah your God will bless you),
14.25 you may then convert it into money, and with your money in hand, travel to the place that Jehovah your God will choose.
14.26 You may then spend the money on whatever you desire—cattle, sheep, goats, wine and other alcoholic beverages, and anything you please; and you will eat there before Jehovah your God and rejoice, you and your household.
14.27 And do not neglect the Levite who is inside your cities, for he has not been given a share or an inheritance with you.
14.28 “At the end of every three years, you should bring out the entire tenth part of your produce for that year and deposit it inside your cities.
14.29 Then the Levite, who has not been given a share or an inheritance with you, the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow who are in your cities will come and eat their fill, so that Jehovah your God may bless you in all that you do.
15.1 “At the end of every seven years, you should grant a release.
15.2 This is the nature of the release: Every creditor will release his neighbor from the debt he incurred. He should not demand payment from his neighbor or his brother, for it will be proclaimed a release to Jehovah.
15.3 You may demand payment from the foreigner, but you should release your claim on whatever your brother owes you.
15.4 However, no one among you should become poor, for Jehovah will surely bless you in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,
15.5 but only if you strictly obey the voice of Jehovah your God and carefully observe all this commandment that I am giving you today.
15.6 For Jehovah your God will bless you just as he has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not need to borrow; and you will dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you.
15.7 “If one of your brothers becomes poor among you in one of your cities of the land that Jehovah your God is giving you, do not harden your heart or be tightfisted toward your poor brother.
15.8 For you should generously open your hand to him and by all means lend whatever he needs or is lacking.
15.9 Be careful not to harbor this evil idea in your heart, ‘The seventh year, the year of the release, has approached,’ and hold back your generosity toward your poor brother and give him nothing. If he calls out to Jehovah against you, it will be a sin on your part.
15.10 You should generously give to him, and you should not give to him grudgingly, for this is why Jehovah your God will bless your every deed and undertaking.
15.11 For there will always be poor people in the land. That is why I am commanding you, ‘You should generously open up your hand to your afflicted and poor brother in your land.’
15.12 “If one of your brothers, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you and has served you for six years, then in the seventh year you should set him free.
15.13 And if you should set him free, do not send him away empty-handed.
15.14 You should supply him generously with something from your flock, your threshing floor, and your press for oil and wine. Just as Jehovah your God has blessed you, you should give to him.
15.15 Remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt and that Jehovah your God redeemed you. That is why I am commanding you to do this today.
15.16 “But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from your company!’ because he loves you and your household, since he has been happy while with you,
15.17 you should then take an awl and put it through his ear into the door, and he will become your slave for life. You should do the same with your slave girl.
15.18 Do not consider it a hardship when you set him free and he leaves you, because his service to you for six years was worth twice as much as that of a hired worker, and Jehovah your God has blessed you in everything that was done.
15.19 “You should sanctify every firstborn male of your herd and your flock to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work with the firstborn of your herd nor shear the firstborn of your flock.
15.20 You and your household should eat it before Jehovah your God year by year in the place that Jehovah will choose.
15.21 But if it has a defect—lameness, blindness, or any other serious defect—you must not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God.
15.22 You should eat it inside your cities, the unclean and clean person together, as though it were a gazelle or a deer.
15.23 But you must not eat its blood; you should pour it out on the ground like water.
16.1 “Observe the month of Abib, and celebrate the Passover to Jehovah your God, for in the month of Abib, Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
16.2 And you should sacrifice the Passover offering to Jehovah your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place that Jehovah chooses to have his name reside.
16.3 You must not eat anything leavened along with it; for seven days you should eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Do this so that you may remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt as long as you live.
16.4 No sourdough should be found with you in all your territory for seven days, nor should any of the meat that you will sacrifice in the evening on the first day remain all night until the next morning.
16.5 You will not be allowed to sacrifice the Passover offering in just any of the cities that Jehovah your God is giving you.
16.6 But it should be done at the place that Jehovah your God chooses to have his name reside. You should sacrifice the Passover offering in the evening as soon as the sun sets, at the appointed time of your coming out of Egypt.
16.7 You must cook it and eat it in the place that Jehovah your God will choose, and in the morning you may return to your own tents.
16.8 Six days you should eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there will be a solemn assembly to Jehovah your God. You must do no work.
16.9 “You should count off seven weeks. You should begin counting off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
16.10 Then you are to celebrate the Festival of Weeks to Jehovah your God with the voluntary offering from your hand, given in proportion to how Jehovah your God blesses you.
16.11 And you are to rejoice before Jehovah your God, you and your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, the Levite who is inside your cities, the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow, who are in your midst, in the place that Jehovah your God chooses to have his name reside.
16.12 Remember that you became a slave in Egypt, and observe and carry out these regulations.
16.13 “You should celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days when you make an ingathering from your threshing floor and from your press for oil and wine.
16.14 Rejoice during your festival, you and your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, the Levite, the foreign resident, the fatherless child, and the widow, who are inside your cities.
16.15 Seven days you will celebrate the festival to Jehovah your God in the place that Jehovah chooses, for Jehovah your God will bless all your produce and all that you do, and you will become nothing but joyful.
16.16 “Three times a year, all your males should appear before Jehovah your God in the place that he chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths, and none of them should appear before Jehovah empty-handed.
16.17 The gift that each one brings should be in proportion to the blessing that Jehovah your God has given you.
16.18 “You should appoint judges and officers for each tribe in all the cities that Jehovah your God is giving you, and they must judge the people with righteous judgment.
16.19 You must not pervert justice, show partiality, or accept a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous.
16.20 Justice—justice you should pursue, so that you may keep living and take possession of the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.
16.21 “You should not plant any sort of tree as a sacred pole near the altar of Jehovah your God that you make for yourself.
16.22 “Neither should you set up a sacred pillar for yourself, something Jehovah your God hates.