Deuteronomy 12

One place for Yahweh’s name

1These are the statutes and ordinances you are to keep and do in the land Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days you live on the earth. 2You must utterly destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods — on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. 3Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their name from that place. 4You must not do this to Yahweh your God. 5Instead, seek out the place Yahweh your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name — the place where he dwells — and go there. 6There you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, your vows and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7There, before Yahweh your God, you and your households are to eat and rejoice in everything your hand has produced, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 8You are not to do as we are doing here today, everyone as he sees fit, 9for you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance Yahweh your God is giving you. 10But when you cross the Jordan and live in the land Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you live in safety, 11then, to the place Yahweh your God chooses for his name to dwell, you are to bring everything I command you — your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all the choice vows you vow to Yahweh. 12Rejoice before Yahweh your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

Meat for the table, blood for the ground

13Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings just anywhere you please. 14Only in the place Yahweh chooses, in one of your tribes, are you to offer your burnt offerings, and there you are to do everything I command you. 15But whenever you wish, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing Yahweh your God has given you; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as they would gazelle or deer. 16Only you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. 17You may not eat within your own gates the tithe of your grain, new wine, and oil, or the firstborn of your herd and flock, or any of your vow offerings, freewill offerings, or the contribution of your hand. 18You are to eat these only before Yahweh your God, in the place Yahweh your God chooses — you, your son and daughter, your male and female servant, and the Levite within your gates — and you are to rejoice before Yahweh your God in everything your hand has produced. 19Be careful not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land. 20When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because you crave it, you may eat meat whenever you wish. 21If the place Yahweh your God chooses for his name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of the herd or flock Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you, and eat within your own gates, whenever you wish. 22Eat it just as you would eat gazelle or deer; the unclean and the clean may eat it alike. 23Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the flesh. 24Do not eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. 25Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in Yahweh’s eyes. 26But take your holy offerings and whatever you have vowed, and go to the place Yahweh chooses. 27Offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God; the blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28Be careful to obey all these words I am commanding you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

Do not learn the nations’ ways

29When Yahweh your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you dispossess them and settle in their land, 30be careful not to be ensnared into following them after they have been destroyed before you — not to inquire about their gods, asking, “How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.” 31You must not do this to Yahweh your God, for they have done for their gods every detestable thing Yahweh hates — they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.