Deuteronomy 12

1These are the statutes and ordinances that you must be careful to follow in the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has given you to take possession of, as long as you live on the earth.

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

3Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from that place.

4Do not worship Yahweh your God in that way.

5Instead, seek the place that Yahweh your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name there as his dwelling, and go there.

6Bring there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your contributions, your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

7There you and your households are to eat before Yahweh your God and rejoice in all that you have undertaken, because Yahweh your God has blessed you.

8You must not do as we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,

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

10But when you cross the Jordan and live in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in safety,

11then to the place that Yahweh your God will choose to make his name dwell there, you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your contributions, and all the choice vow offerings that you vow to Yahweh.

12And you are to rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who lives within your towns, since he has no share or inheritance with you.

13Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in any place you happen to see,

14but only in the place that Yahweh will choose in one of your tribes. There you are to offer your burnt offerings, and there you are to do everything I command you.

15However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns whenever you desire, according to the blessing that Yahweh your God has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or a deer.

16But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

17Within your towns you may not eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, or your olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds or flocks, or any of the vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings, or your contributions.

18Instead, you are to eat them before Yahweh your God in the place that Yahweh your God will choose—you, your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite who lives within your towns—and you are to rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you undertake.

19Be careful not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire.

21If the place that Yahweh your God chooses to put his name there is too far from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks that Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.

22Eat it just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it.

23Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

24Do not eat it; pour it out on the ground like water.

25Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

26But take the holy things that are yours and your vow offerings, and go to the place that Yahweh will choose.

27Offer your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, but you may eat the meat.

28Be careful to obey all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

29When Yahweh your God cuts off before you the nations that you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land,

30be careful that you are not ensnared into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’

31Do not worship Yahweh your God in that way, for they have done for their gods every detestable thing that Yahweh hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

32Be careful to do everything I command you. Do not add to it or take away from it.