Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people,

a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests."

I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt so that I could be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy.

to say to the community of Israel, "Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

"Do not eat any animal that dies a natural death. You may let the foreigners who live among you eat it, or you may sell it to other foreigners. But you belong to the LORD your God; you are his people. "Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.

Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy.

The scripture says, "Be holy because I am holy."

Any people, Israelites or foreigners, who eat meat from an animal that has died a natural death or has been killed by wild animals must wash their clothes, take a bath, and wait until evening before they are ritually clean.

If they do not, they must suffer the consequences.

So then, you must make a clear distinction between animals and birds that are ritually clean and those that are not. Do not eat unclean animals or birds. I have declared them unclean, and eating them would make you unclean.

He shall not eat the meat of any animal that has died a natural death or has been killed by wild animals; it will make him unclean. I am the LORD.

"Do not eat any animal that dies a natural death. You may let the foreigners who live among you eat it, or you may sell it to other foreigners. But you belong to the LORD your God; you are his people. "Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.

But I replied, "No, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From childhood on I have never eaten meat from any animal that died a natural death or was killed by wild animals. I have never eaten any food considered unclean."

The priests must not eat any bird or animal that dies a natural death or is killed by another animal."

But Peter said, "Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten anything ritually unclean or defiled."

Instead, we should write a letter telling them not to eat any food that is ritually unclean because it has been offered to idols; to keep themselves from sexual immorality; and not to eat any animal that has been strangled, or any blood.