| Deut. 12:1 |
These are the statutes and the ordinances that you shall be certain to do in the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. |
| Deut. 12:2 |
You shall completely destroy all the places where the nations whom you will dispossess have served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every flourishing tree. |
| Deut. 12:3 |
And you shall tear down their altars and crush their pillars; and their Asherahs you shall burn with fire, and the idols of their gods you shall cut down; and you shall destroy their name from that place. |
| Deut. 12:4 |
You shall not do so to Jehovah your God. |
| Deut. 12:5 |
But to the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name, to His habitation, shall you seek, and there shall you go. |
| Deut. 12:6 |
And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and your vows and your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; |
| Deut. 12:7 |
And there you shall eat before Jehovah your God, and you and your households shall rejoice in all your undertakings, in which Jehovah your God has blessed you. |
| Deut. 12:8 |
You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each man [doing] all that is right in his own eyes; |
| Deut. 12:9 |
For until now you have not come to the rest and to the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you. |
| Deut. 12:10 |
But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies surrounding [you] so that you dwell securely; |
| Deut. 12:11 |
Then to the place where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and all your choice vows which you vow to Jehovah. |
| Deut. 12:12 |
And you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God, you and your sons and daughters, and your male servants and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. |
| Deut. 12:13 |
Be careful that you do not offer up your burnt offerings in every place that you see; |
| Deut. 12:14 |
But in the place which Jehovah will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer up your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you. |
| Deut. 12:15 |
Yet you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, in all that your soul desires, according to the blessing of Jehovah your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat it as the gazelle and the deer [are eaten.] |
| Deut. 12:16 |
However, you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out upon the earth like water. |
| Deut. 12:17 |
You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or of your new wine or of your fresh oil, nor the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vows which you vow or of your freewill offerings or of the heave offering of your hand; |
| Deut. 12:18 |
But you shall eat them before Jehovah your God in the place which Jehovah your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male servant and female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God in all your undertakings. |
| Deut. 12:19 |
Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite all your days upon the earth. |
| Deut. 12:20 |
When Jehovah your God enlarges your territory, as He has promised you, and you say, I will eat meat, because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat according to all that your soul desires. |
| Deut. 12:21 |
If the place where Jehovah your God will choose to put His name is too far away from you, you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock, which Jehovah has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates according to all that your soul desires; |
| Deut. 12:22 |
Indeed, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean may eat it alike. |
| Deut. 12:23 |
But make sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. |
| Deut. 12:24 |
You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out upon the earth like water. |
| Deut. 12:25 |
You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of Jehovah. |
| Deut. 12:26 |
But you shall take your holy things which you have and your vows, and go to the place which Jehovah will choose; |
| Deut. 12:27 |
And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of Jehovah your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of Jehovah your God, and you shall eat the flesh. |
| Deut. 12:28 |
Keep and listen to all these words which I am commanding you so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of Jehovah your God. |
| Deut. 12:29 |
When Jehovah your God cuts off the nations before you, which you are entering to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, |
| Deut. 12:30 |
Be careful that you are not ensnared in following them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not seek after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, so that I also may do likewise? |
| Deut. 12:31 |
You shall not do so for Jehovah your God, for every abomination to Jehovah, which He hates, they have done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned with fire to their gods. |
| Deut. 12:32 |
The whole thing that I am commanding you, you shall be certain to do; you shall not add to it, nor shall you take away from it. |