"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.

Do this because you belong to the LORD your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.

Today the LORD has accepted you as his own people, as he promised you; and he commands you to obey all his laws.

He will make you greater than any other nation that he has created, and you will bring praise and honor to his name. You will be his own people, as he promised."

"If you obey the LORD your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised.

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.

You shall be holy and belong only to me, because I am the LORD and I am holy. I have set you apart from the other nations so that you would belong to me alone.

Even if one person out of ten remains in the land, he too will be destroyed; he will be like the stump of an oak tree that has been cut down." (The stump represents a new beginning for God's people.)

You will be called "God's Holy People," "The People the LORD Has Saved." Jerusalem will be called "The City That God Loves," "The City That God Did Not Forsake."

"Mortal man," he said, "denounce Jerusalem. Denounce the places where people worship. Warn the land of Israel

He will grow strong---but not by his own power. He will cause terrible destruction and be successful in everything he does. He will bring destruction on powerful men and on God's own people.

The angel raised both hands toward the sky and made a solemn promise in the name of the Eternal God. I heard him say, "It will be three and a half years. When the persecution of God's people ends, all these things will have happened."

He gave himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to him alone and are eager to do good.

But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.