Deuteronomy 12

1These are the statutes and the judgments that you shall be careful to do in the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you are living on the earth.

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

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

4You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.

5But to the place that Yahweh your God will choose from all your tribes to put his name there, for his dwelling, you shall seek, and there you shall go.

6And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

7And there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all the work of your hand, you and your households, with which Yahweh your God has blessed you.

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

9For you have not yet come to the resting place and to 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 to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, then you will live in safety.

11Then the place that Yahweh your God will choose for his name to dwell there—to that place you shall bring all that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, and all the choicest of your vows that you vow to Yahweh.

12And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you and your sons and your daughters, and 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 lest you offer up your burnt offerings in any place that you see;

14but only at the place that Yahweh will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer up your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

15But whenever your soul desires, you may slaughter and eat meat, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given you, within all your gates. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as they would the gazelle or the deer.

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

17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, your new wine, or your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or your flock, or any of your vows that you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the contribution of your hand.

18Instead, you shall eat it before Yahweh your God in the place that Yahweh 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 Yahweh your God in all to which you put your hand.

19Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite all your days on your land.

20When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because you crave to eat meat, you may eat meat according to all the desire of your soul.

21If the place that Yahweh your God chooses to put his name there is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock that Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates according to all the desire of your soul.

22But just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.

23Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

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

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

26But only your holy things that belong to you, and your vow offerings, you shall carry and come to the place that Yahweh will choose.

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

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

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

30Be careful for yourself, lest you be ensnared after them, after they have been destroyed from before you, and lest you inquire about their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods, so that I too may do the same?”

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