Deuteronomy 12

¹These are the statutes and the ordinances that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD the God of your fathers has given to you to possess, all the days that you are alive on the ground.

²You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations that you are dispossessing served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

³You shall tear down their altars and shatter their pillars, and you shall burn their Asherah poles with fire; you shall hew down the carved images of their gods, and you shall destroy their name from that place.

⁴You shall not do so to the Lord, God of you all.

⁵but only to the place that the LORD the God of you all will choose from all the tribes of you all to set his name there — his habitation — you shall seek, and there you shall come.

⁶And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes and the contribution of the hand of you all, and your vows and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your cattle and of your flock.

⁷And there you shall eat before the Lord, the God of you all, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to -- you and the households of you all -- in that the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸You shall not do everything that we are doing here today, each man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.

⁹for you have not yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving to you.

¹⁰And you shall cross the Jordan and settle in the land that the Lord, the God of you all, is giving you all as an inheritance, and he will give rest to you all from all your enemies all around, and you shall dwell in security.

¹¹then to the place that the Lord, God of you all, shall choose to make his name dwell, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you: the burnt offerings of you all and the sacrifices of you all, the tithes of you all and the contribution of the hand of you all, and all the choice vow-offerings of you all that you vow to the Lord.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the Lord, the God of you all -- you and the sons of you all and the daughters of you all and the male servants of you all and the female servants of you all, and the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion and inheritance with you.

¹³Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at every place that you see;

¹⁴Only in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

¹⁵However, within all the desire of your soul you may slaughter and eat meat, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given to you, in all your towns; the unclean and the clean alike may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.

¹⁶Only the blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

¹⁷You are not permitted to eat within your gates: the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and your flock, and any of your vows that you vow, and your freewill offerings, and the contribution of your hand.

¹⁸Only before the Lord your God you shall eat it, in the place that the Lord your God will choose -- you and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and the Levite who is within your gates -- and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all the undertaking of your hand.

¹⁹Take care lest you forsake the Levite all your days upon your land.

²⁰When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised you, and you say, 'I want to eat meat,' because your soul craves to eat meat, in all that your soul desires you may eat meat.

²¹If the place that the Lord your God will choose to set his name there is too far from you, then you shall slaughter from your herd and from your flock that the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates to the full desire of your soul.

²²Just as the gazelle and the deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.

²³Only be resolute not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

²⁵You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁶Only your holy things which you may have, and your vows, you shall take up, and you shall come to the place that the LORD will choose.

²⁷And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat.

²⁸Keep and obey all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

²⁹When the Lord your God cuts off the nations which you are entering to dispossess before you, and you dispossess them and settle in their land --

³⁰Watch yourself that you are not ensnared after them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? -- and I will do the same also.'

³¹You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every abomination of the LORD that he hates they have done for their gods, for even their sons and their daughters they burn in fire for their gods.

³²Everything that I am commanding you all, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.