Deuteronomy 12

1 “And these are the rules and the judgments you are to be careful to do in the land the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to hold, all the days you live on the ground. 2 You are to destroy completely all the places where the nations you are taking over served their gods — on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree. 3 And you are to pull down their altars and smash their standing stones and cut down their sacred groves, and burn the carved images of their gods with fire, and wipe out their name from that place. 4 You are not to do this to the Lord your God. 5 But the place the Lord your God chooses, in one of your tribes, to put his name there and to be called on — that is where you are to seek him out and go. [a] 6 And there you are to bring your whole burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your first fruits and your vow offerings and your freewill offerings and your thank offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and of your flocks. 7 And you are to eat there before the Lord your God, and be glad in everything you put your hand to, you and your households, as the Lord your God has blessed you. 8 You are not to do as we do here today, each man whatever seems right in his own eyes — 9 for you have not yet come to the rest and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to hold; and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you, and you will live in safety. 11 And there will be a place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be called on. That is where you are to bring everything I am ordering you today: your whole burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tenths and the first fruits of your hands, and your gifts, and every choice gift of yours, whatever you vow to the Lord your God. 12 And you are to be glad before the Lord your God — you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite who is at your gates, because he has no share or inheritance with you.

13 Watch yourself, that you do not offer your whole burnt offerings in any place you happen to see — 14 only in the place the Lord your God chooses, in one of your tribes. There you are to offer your whole burnt offerings, and there you are to do everything I charge you with today.

15 But you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your towns, as much as you want, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you; the unclean among you and the clean may eat it alike, as they eat the gazelle and the deer. [b] 16 Only you are not to eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water. 17 You are not permitted to eat in your own towns the tenth of your grain and your wine and your oil, or the firstborn of your herd and of your flock, or any of your vows that you vow, or your thank offerings, or the first fruits of your hands. 18 You are to eat them before the Lord your God, in the place the Lord your God chooses for himself — you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the newcomer who is inside your gates; and you are to be glad before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to. 19 Watch yourself, that you do not abandon the Levite, as long as you live on the earth.

20 And when the Lord your God enlarges your borders, as he said he would, and you say, ‘I will eat meat’ — if your soul wants to eat meat, you may eat meat, as much as your soul wants. 21 And if the place the Lord your God chooses for himself, to have his name called on it, is far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock, which God has given you, just as I have commanded you, and eat in your own towns as much as your soul wants. 22 You are to eat it as the gazelle and the deer are eaten; the unclean among you and the clean may eat it alike. 23 Take strict care that you eat no blood, because the blood is its life; you are not to eat the life with the meat. 24 You are not to eat it; you are to pour it out on the ground like water. 25 You are not to eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God. 26 But your holy things, if you have any, and your vow offerings, you are to take and come to the place the Lord your God chooses to have his name called on it. 27 And you are to offer your whole burnt offerings — the meat you are to put on the altar of the Lord your God; but the blood of your sacrifices you are to pour out at the base of the altar of the Lord your God, and the meat you may eat. 28 Be careful and listen, and do everything I charge you with, so that it may go well with you and with your sons forever, if you do what is pleasing and good before the Lord your God.

29 And when the Lord your God destroys the nations you are going in to take over, from in front of you, and you take their land and live in it, 30 watch yourself that you do not go looking to copy them after they have been destroyed in front of you. Do not go looking for their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’ 31 You are not to do this to your God. For they have offered to their gods the things the Lord detests, the things he hates: they burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 Every word I command you today, that is what you are to be careful to do; you are not to add to it, and you are not to take away from it. [c]