Deutéronome 12

The place the LORD will choose

¹These are the statutes and rulings you must be careful to keep in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess, for as long as you live on its soil. ²You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you are driving out worshiped their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their name from that place. ⁴You must not worship the LORD your God in that way. ⁵Instead, you must seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name there as his dwelling, and go there.^{a 6}Bring there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the gifts you set apart, your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷There you and your households are to eat in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice in all that you have set your hand to, all that the LORD your God has blessed you with. ⁸You must not do as we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever seems right to them, ⁹because you have not yet reached the place of rest, the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. ¹⁰But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. He will give you rest from all the enemies around you, and you will live in safety, ¹¹then you are to bring everything I am commanding you to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the gifts you set apart, and all the fine offerings you vow to the LORD. ¹²And you shall rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who lives in your towns, since he has no share or inheritance among you. ¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see, ¹⁴but only at the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes. There you are to offer your burnt offerings, and there you are to do everything I am commanding you. ¹⁵However, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your towns whenever you wish, as much as the LORD your God has blessed you with. Both those who are ritually unclean and those who are clean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or a deer. ¹⁶But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷You may not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or any of the offerings you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the gifts you set apart, ¹⁸but you are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite who lives in your towns. Rejoice there before the LORD your God in all that you have set your hand to. ¹⁹Be careful not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

Eating meat in your towns

²⁰When the LORD your God enlarges your territory as he promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat some meat,’ because you are longing for meat, you may eat meat whenever you want. ²¹If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks that the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and eat them in your own towns whenever you wish. ²²Eat it just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten; those who are ritually unclean and those who are clean may eat it alike. ²³Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴Do not eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD. ²⁶But take your holy offerings that are due from you and your vow offerings, and go with them to the place that the LORD will choose. ²⁷Offer your burnt offerings, both meat and blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat. ²⁸Be careful to obey all these words I am commanding you, so that all may go well with you and your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

Do not follow the ways of the nations

²⁹When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are going in to drive out, and you drive them out and settle in their land, ³⁰be careful not to be trapped into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not ask about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I will do the same.’ ³¹You must not worship the LORD your God in that way, because for their gods they have done every detestable thing that the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as offerings to their gods.