Deuteronomy 12

1These are the statutes and judgments that you shall keep by doing in the land that Yahweh, God of your fathers, has given you to possess—all the days you live upon the ground.

2Completely destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every flourishing tree.

3And you shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; you shall 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 Yahweh your God will choose from all your tribes to set his name there, to his dwelling, you shall seek, and there you shall come.

6There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the lifted offering from your hand, your vows, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and flock.

7and there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that your hand sends forth, you and your households, where Yahweh your God has blessed you.

8You shall not do all that we are doing here today, every man whatever is upright in his own sight.

9For you have not yet come to the rest and the inheritance that Yahweh your God is giving you.

10When you cross the Jordan and settle in the land that Yahweh your God is allotting to you, and he grants you rest from all your enemies surrounding you, so you live securely.

11Then at the place Yahweh your God chooses to have his name dwell there, you shall bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vows that you vow to Yahweh.

12You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you, your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates—for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

13Take care lest you offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see.

14But only in the place where Yahweh chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall bring up your burnt offerings, and there you shall perform everything I command you.

15However, whatever your appetite craves, you may slaughter and eat meat in all your gates, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat it, as the gazelle and the deer.

16Only do not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, nor any of your vows that you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the offering of your hand.

18But you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place that Yahweh your God will choose—you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maidservant, and the Levite in your gates—and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you set your hand to.

19Take care that you do not forsake the Levite all your days upon your land.

20When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory, as he has spoken to you, and you say, “I will eat meat,” because your soul craves to eat meat, you may eat meat however much your soul desires.

21If the place Yahweh your God chooses to place his name there is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock what Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates whatever your soul desires.

22Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you shall eat it; the unclean and the clean shall eat it alike.

23Only be firm not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and do not eat the life with the flesh.

24Do not eat it, but pour it on the ground like water.

25You shall not eat it, so that it goes well for you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

26Only your consecrated things that you have, and your vows, you shall take up and go to the place that Yahweh will choose.

27Present your burnt offerings—their meat and blood—on the altar of Yahweh your God; pour out the blood of your sacrifices on the altar of Yahweh your God; and eat the meat.

28Take heed and hear all these words that I command you, so that things go well for you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations where you go to dispossess them from before you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,

30Take care lest you get snared by following them after they are destroyed from before you, and lest you inquire about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods, that I too might do likewise?"

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

32Take care to do everything I command you; do not add anything to it, nor take anything away from it.