chapter: 12
Verse 1
These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.
Verse 2
You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
Verse 3
You shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place.
Verse 4
You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.
Verse 5
But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come.
Verse 6
There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
Verse 7
There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
Verse 8
You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;
Verse 9
for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you.
Verse 10
But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety;
Verse 11
then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh.
Verse 12
You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
Verse 13
Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;
Verse 14
but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
Verse 15
Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer.
Verse 16
Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
Verse 17
You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;
Verse 18
but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to.
Verse 19
Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
Verse 20
When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat; you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul.
Verse 21
If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.
Verse 22
Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.
Verse 23
Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.
Verse 24
You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
Verse 25
You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
Verse 26
Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose.
Verse 27
You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar; and you shall eat the meat.
Verse 28
Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
Verse 29
When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;
Verse 30
be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
Verse 31
You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
Verse 32