DEUTERONOMY 12

These are the statutes and regulations which you shall take care to observe in the land which Yehowah the God of your fathers has given you as a possession, all the days that you live in the land. 2 You shall utterly destroy all the places in which the nations which you will dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and the hills, and under every spreading tree; 3 and you shall break down their altars, and break their pillars in pieces, and you shall burn their asherim with fire; and you shall hew down the carved images of their gods, and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not do so to Yehowah your God. 5 But you shall resort to his habitation, to the place where Yehowah your God will choose to put his name, out of all your tribes, and there you shall go; 6 and there you shall take your burnt-offerings, sacrifices, and tithes, and the reserved-offerings from your hands, and your vow-offerings and freewill-offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before Yehowah your God, and you and your households shall be glad for everything to which you put your hands, with which Yehowah your God has blessed you. 8 You shall not always act as we do here today, every man doing whatever. is right in his own eyes; 9 for you have not yet come to the rest and inheritance which Yehowah your God will give you. 10 But when you cross the Jordan, and live in the land which Yehowah your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all the enemies surrounding you, and you live in safety, 11 the place which Yehowah your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, will be there; you shall take there all that I command you: your burnt-offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and the reserved-offerings from your hands, and all your choice vow-offerings which you vow to Yehowah. 12 And you shall be glad before Yehowah your God, you and your sons and daughters, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite within your gates who has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 Take care not to present your burnt-offerings in every place you see, 14 but you shall present your burnt-offerings in the place which Yehowah will choose in one of your tribes, and there you shall do all that I command you.

l5 Nevertheless, you may slaughter and eat flesh within all your gates according to all your heart's desire, according to the blessing of Yehowah your God which he has given you; unclean as well as clean persons may eat it, as they can eat the gazelle and the deer. 16 Even so, you shall not consume the blood; you must pour it on the earth like water. 17 You shall not eat within your gates the tithes of your corn or your new wine or your oil, or the firstborn of your herds or your flocks, or any of your vow-offerings which you vow, or your freewill-offerings, or the reserved-offerings of your hand; 18 but you shall eat them before Yehowah your God in the place which Yehowah your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, and your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall be glad before Yehowah your. God for everything to which you put your hands. 19 Take care that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in the land.

20 When Yehowah your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, I will eat flesh-because you long to eat flesh-you may eat flesh according to all your heart's desire. 21 If the place where Yehowah your God has chosen to put his name is far away from you, you may slaughter from your herd and your flock which Yehowah has given you, as I have commanded you; then you may eat within your gates whatever your heart desires. 22 You may eat them, even as the gazelle and the deer are eaten; the unclean as well as the clean may eat of them. 23 Only be determined not to consume the blood, for the blood is the life; and you shall not consume the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not consume it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You shall not consume it, so that it may go well with you and your sons after you when you do what is right in Yehowah's eyes. 26 Still, you shall take up the holy gifts which you have and your vow-offerings, and shall go to the place which Yehowah will choose; 27 and you shall present your burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yehowah your God: the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yehowah your God, and the flesh you shall eat. 28 Observe and hear all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and your sons after you for ever, when. you do what is good and right in the eyes of Yehowah your God.

29 When Yehowah your God cuts off before you the nations which you are entering to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land, 30 take care that you are not ensnared by them, even when they have been destroyed by you, and that you do not ask about their gods, and say, How did these nations serve their gods?-for I will do the same. 31 You shall not do this to Yehowah your God; for they have done to their gods everything which is abhorrent to Yehowah, which he hates; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

32 You shall take care to do all the things which I command you, neither adding to them nor taking away from them.