Deuteronomy 12:1-21 ▼

1 |These are the statutes and ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the LORD God of your ancestors has given you to possess every day that you live on the earth.

2 Be sure you destroy there all the places where the nations that you're going to dispossess serve their gods—upon the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree.

3 Tear down their altars, cut down their sacred poles, and burn them. Cut down the carved images of their gods to erase their memory from that place.|

4 |You must not act like this with respect to the LORD your God.

5 Instead, you must seek to enter only the place that the LORD your God will choose among your tribes. There he will establish his name and live.

6 Bring your burnt offerings there, along with your sacrifices, your tithes, your hand-carried gifts, your offerings in fulfillment of promises, your freely given offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

7 Then you and your household will eat in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with all the works of your hand with which he blessed you.

8 |You must not act as we have been doing here today, where everyone acts as they see fit,

9 for you haven't arrived yet to your allotted place that the LORD your God is about to give you.

10 But after you have crossed the Jordan River and settled in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and after you have received relief from the enemies around you and are living securely,

11 then bring to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling place—where he will establish his name—everything that I'm commanding you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your hand-carried gifts, and all your best offerings in fulfillment of promises that you pledged to the LORD.

12 |Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your city—for there is no territorial allotment for him as you have.

13 Be careful not to offer burnt offerings at any location you happen to see

14 instead of at the place the LORD will choose in one of the tribal areas. There you may offer burnt offerings, and there you may do everything that I'm commanding you.|

15 |You may slaughter and eat as much meat as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God, when he provides for you in all your cities. Both ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat it as they would gazelle and deer.

16 Only, you must not consume the blood; instead, pour it out on the ground as you would water.

17 |You won't be allowed to eat your tithe of grain, new wine, oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, your voluntary offerings that you pledged, your free-will offerings, and the works of your hands in your own cities.

18 You'll eat only in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that he will choose—you, your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your cities. Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God in everything you undertake.

19 Be careful not to forget the descendant of Levi while you live in the land.

20 When the LORD your God enlarges your territory—just as he told you—and you say 'I want to eat meat' since you desire to eat it, you may do so as much as you please.

21 |If the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish his name is distant from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and your flock what the LORD has provided for you, as he instructed you. You may consume them in your cities as much as you please.