Chapter 12
1
These are the statutes and the judgments that you shall keep to do in the land that the LORD God of your fathers has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the ground.
2
You shall utterly 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 luxuriant tree.
3
And you shall tear down their altars, and you shall break their pillars, and their Asherahs you shall burn in the fire, and the images of their gods you shall cut down, and you shall destroy their name from that place.
4
You shall not do so to the LORD your God.
5
for except to the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes to put his name there to dwell, you shall seek and you shall come there.
6
And you shall bring there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the contribution of your hand and your vows and your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your cattle and your sheep.
7
And you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in every sending-forth of your hand, you and your houses, which the LORD your God has blessed you.
8
You shall not do as all that we are doing here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes.
9
for you have not yet come to the rest and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.
10
And you shall cross the Jordan and dwell in the land that the LORD your God is causing you to inherit, and he will give you rest from all your enemies all around, and you shall dwell securely.
11
And it will be, the place which the LORD your God will choose in it to cause his name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand, and all the choice of your vows which you will vow to the LORD.
12
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you and your sons and your daughters and your servants and your maidservants and the Levite who is in your gates—for he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13
Take heed to yourself lest you offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see.
14
for except at the place where the LORD will choose in one of your tribes there you shall cause your burnt offering to ascend and there you shall do all that I have commanded you
15
Only according to all the desire of your nephesh you shall sacrifice and eat flesh according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given to you in all your gates—the unclean and the clean shall eat it, like the gazelle and like the deer.
16
Only you shall not eat the blood on the land; you shall pour it out like water.
17
You shall not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your fresh oil or the firstborn of your herd or your flock, nor any of your vows that you vow or your freewill offerings or the contribution of your hand.
18
for only before the LORD your God you shall eat it in the place which the LORD your God will choose, in it you and your son and your daughter and your servant and your slave girl and the Levite who in your gates, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all the sending forth of your hand.
19
Take heed to yourself lest you abandon the Levite all your days on your land.
20
When the LORD your God enlarges your border as he spoke to you, and you say, "I will eat meat because your nephesh desires to eat meat," because your nephesh desires—you shall eat meat, in all the desire of your nephesh.
21
If the place that the LORD your God chooses to put his name there is far from you, and you sacrifice from your cattle and from your sheep that the LORD has given you, as he commanded you, and you eat within your gates according to all the desire of your soul.
22
Just as one eats the gazelle and the deer, so you shall eat it; the ritually impure and the ritually pure shall eat it together.
23
But take care not to eat the blood, for the blood is the nephesh, and you shall not eat the nephesh with the flesh.
24
You shall not eat it within the land; you shall pour it out like water.
25
You shall not eat it, so that it may be well for you and for your sons after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
26
Only your holy things that you have and your vows you shall take and come to the place that the LORD will choose.
27
You shall offer your burnt offering, 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, and you shall eat the flesh.
28
Keep and hear all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may be well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
29
When the LORD your God cuts off the nations where you are going to dispossess them from before you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land.
30
Be careful that you are not ensnared by following them after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods?"—that I may do likewise.
31
You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for they did for their gods every abominable thing that the LORD hates—even burning their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32
Every word that I command you, you shall take care to do; you shall not add to it, and you shall not diminish from it.