Deuteronomy 12:1-16 ▼

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

2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

3 And you shall tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut the graven images of their gods in pieces and destroy their name from that place.

4 You shall not do thus toward Yahweh your God.

5 But you shall seek Yahweh at the place which Yahweh your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.

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

7 There also you and your households shall eat before Yahweh your God, and be glad in all that you send forth your hand to do, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.

8 “You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes;

9 for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which Yahweh your God is giving you.

10 Now you will cross the Jordan and live in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit. And He will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security.

11 Then it will be that the place in which Yahweh your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to Yahweh.

12 And you shall be glad before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

13 “Beware, lest you offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see,

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 am commanding you.

15 “However, you may sacrifice and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever you desire, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.

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