The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 12

¹These are the statutes and the ordinances which you must observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. ²You must utterly destroy all the places in which the nations you'll dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. ³Bbreak down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. Cut down the engraved images of their gods. Destroy their name from that place. ⁴Don't do this to Yahweh your God; ⁵But to the place where Yahweh your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name, seek his habitation, and you will come there. ⁶Bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. ⁷You and your households eat there before Yahweh your God, and rejoice in all that you put your hand to, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. ⁸Don't do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; ⁹for you haven't yet come into the rest and into the inheritance which Yahweh your God is giving you. ¹⁰But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you live in safety, ¹¹then bring all that I command you to the place where Yahweh your God chooses to cause his name to reside: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. ¹²Rejoice before Yahweh your God- you, your sons, your daughters, your male servants, and your female servants; and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion or inheritance with you. ¹³Be careful that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, offer your burnt offerings there, and do all that I command there.

¹⁵Yet you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God's blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. ¹⁶Only don't eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; ¹⁸but eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God chooses: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. Rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. ¹⁹Be careful that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, "I want to eat meat," because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, as much as your soul desires. ²¹If the place which Yahweh your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, then kill from your herd and from your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you. You may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. ²²Eat it like the gazelle and the deer is eaten. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it. ²³Only be sure that you don't eat the blood; for the blood is the life. Don't eat the life with the flesh. ²⁴Don't eat it. Pour it out on the earth like water. ²⁵Don't eat it. So that it goes well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in Yahweh's eyes. ²⁶Only take your holy things which you have, and your vows, and go to the place which Yahweh chooses: ²⁷Offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on Yahweh your God's altar. Pour out the blood of your sacrifices on Yahweh your God's altar, and eat the flesh. ²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in Yahweh your God's eyes.

²⁹When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and live in their land, ³⁰be careful that you don't [become] ensnared [to follow their ways] after they are destroyed from before you, and that you don't inquire after their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise." ³¹Don't do that to Yahweh your God. They have done for their gods all the abominations which Yahweh hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. ³²Observe to do whatever I command you. Don't add to it, or take away from it.