1Here are the rules and laws you must obey. Be careful to obey them in the land the LORD has given you to take as your own. He’s the God of your people who lived long ago. Obey these rules and laws as long as you live in the land.2You will soon drive the nations out of it. Completely destroy all the places where they worship their gods. Destroy them on the high mountains, on the hills and under every green tree.3Break down their altars. Smash their sacred stones. Burn up the poles they use to worship the female god named Asherah. Cut down the statues of their gods. Wipe out the names of their gods from those places.4You must not worship the LORD your God the way those nations worship their gods.5Instead, go to the special place he will choose from among all your tribes. He will put his Name there. That’s where you must go.6Take your burnt offerings and sacrifices to that place. Bring your special gifts and a tenth of everything you produce. Take with you what you have promised to give. Bring any other offerings you choose to give. And bring the male animals among your livestock that were born first to their mothers.7You and your families will eat at the place the LORD your God will choose. He will be with you there. You will find joy in everything you have done. That’s because he has blessed you.8You must not do as we’re doing here today. All of us are doing only what we think is right.9That’s because you haven’t yet reached the place the LORD is giving you. Your God will give you peace and rest there.10But first you will go across the River Jordan. You will settle in the land he’s giving you. It will belong to you as your share. He will give you peace and rest from all your enemies around you. You will live in safety.11The LORD your God will choose a special place. He will put his Name there. That’s where you must bring everything I command you to bring. That includes your burnt offerings and sacrifices. It includes your special gifts and a tenth of everything you produce. It also includes all the things of value that you promised to give to the LORD.12Be filled with joy there in the sight of the LORD your God. Your children should also be joyful. So should your male and female servants. And so should the Levites from your towns. The Levites won’t receive any part of the land as their share.13Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you want to.14Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes. There you must obey everything I command you.15But you can kill your animals in any of your towns. You can eat as much of the meat as you want to. You can eat it as if it were antelope or deer meat. That is part of the blessing the LORD your God is giving you. Those who are ‘clean’ and those who are not can eat it.16But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.17Here are the things you must not eat in your own towns. You must not eat the tenth part of your corn, olive oil and fresh wine. It belongs to the LORD. You must not eat the male animals among your livestock that were born first to their mothers. Don’t eat anything you have promised to give. Don’t eat any offerings you have chosen to give. And you must not eat any of your special gifts.18Instead, you must eat all those things in the sight of the LORD your God. Do it at the place he will choose. You, your children, your male and female servants and the Levites from your towns can eat them. Be filled with joy in the sight of the LORD your God. Be joyful in everything you do.19Don’t forget to take care of the Levites as long as you live in your land.20The LORD your God will increase your territory, just as he has promised you. When he does, you might get hungry for meat. You might say, ‘I’d really like some meat.’ Then you can eat as much of it as you want to.21The LORD your God will choose a special place. He will put his Name there. But suppose that place is too far away from you. Then you can kill animals from the herds and flocks the LORD has given you. Do it just as I have commanded you. In your own towns you can eat as much of the meat as you want to.22Eat it as you would eat antelope or deer meat. Those who are ‘clean’ and those who are not can eat it.23But be sure you don’t eat meat that still has blood in it. The blood is the animal’s life. So you must not eat the life along with the meat.24You must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.25Don’t eat it. Then things will go well with you and your children after you. You will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.26But go to the place the LORD will choose. Take with you the things you have set apart for him. Bring what you have promised to give him.27Sacrifice your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. Offer the meat and the blood there. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured out beside his altar. But you can eat the meat.28Make sure you obey all the rules I’m giving you. Then things will always go well with you and your children after you. That’s because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.29You are about to attack the land and take it over as your own. When you do, the LORD your God will destroy the nations who live there. He will do it to make room for you. You will drive them out. You will settle in their land.30They will be destroyed to make room for you. But when they are destroyed, be careful. Don’t be trapped. Don’t ask questions about their gods. Don’t say, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? We’ll do it in the same way.’31You must not worship the LORD your God the way they worship their gods. When they worship, they do all kinds of evil things the LORD hates. They even burn up their children in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.32Be sure you do everything I am commanding you to do. Do not add anything to my commands. And do not take anything away from them.
Deuteronomy 12
English Standard Version
The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship
1“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. (De 4:10; De 6:1)2You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. (Ex 34:13; De 7:5; 1Ki 14:23; 2Ki 16:4; 2Ki 17:10; Jer 3:6)3You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. (De 16:21; De 16:22; Zep 1:4; Zec 13:2)4You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. (De 12:31)5But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation[1] there. There you shall go, (De 16:2; De 26:2; Jos 18:1; 1Ki 8:29; 2Ch 7:12)6and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. (De 14:22; De 14:23; De 15:19)7And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. (Le 23:40; De 14:23; De 14:26; De 15:20; De 16:11; De 16:14; De 26:11; De 27:7; De 28:8)8“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, (Jud 17:6; Jud 21:25)9for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. (1Ki 8:56; Ps 95:11; Heb 4:8)10But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, (De 11:31; De 25:19; Jos 23:1; 2Sa 7:1; 1Ki 5:4)11then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. (De 12:5; De 12:6)12And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. (Nu 18:20; De 12:7)13Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, (Le 17:3; 1Ki 12:28; 1Ki 12:33)14but at 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. (De 12:5)15“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. (De 14:5; De 15:22; De 16:17)16Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. (Le 3:17)17You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, (De 12:6)18but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. (De 12:5; De 12:7)19Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land. (De 14:27; 2Ch 31:4)20“When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. (Ge 28:14; Ex 34:24; De 11:24; De 19:8)21If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. (De 12:5; De 12:15)22Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. (De 14:5; De 15:22)23Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. (Ge 9:4; Le 3:17)24You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.25You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. (Ex 15:26; De 4:40; De 6:18; De 13:18; 1Ki 11:38; Ec 8:12; Isa 3:10)26But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose, (Nu 5:9; Nu 18:19; De 12:21; 1Sa 1:21)27and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. (Le 1:5; Le 1:9; Le 1:13; Le 17:11)28Be careful to obey all these words that 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 the sight of the Lord your God. (De 12:25)
Warning Against Idolatry
29“When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, (De 19:1; Jos 23:4)30take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ (De 7:16)31You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. (Le 18:3; Le 18:26; Le 18:30; De 7:25; De 12:4; De 17:1; De 18:12; De 23:18; De 25:16; De 27:15; 2Ki 17:15; 2Ki 17:31; Jer 7:31; Jer 19:5)32[2] “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. (De 4:2)