Deuteronomy 12

¹These are the precepts and judgments, that you must do in the Land, which the Lord God of thy fathers will give thee, to possess it all the days, that thou shalt go upon the earth.

²Subvert all places, wherein the nations, which you shall possess, worshipped their gods upon the high mountains, and hills, and under every tree full of leaves.

³Overthrow their altars, and break their statues, their groves burn with fire, and their idols hew all to pieces: destroy their names out of those places.

⁴You shall not do so to the Lord your God:

⁵but to the place, which the Lord your God hath chosen of all your tribes, to put his name there and to dwell in it, shall you come:

⁶and shall offer in that place your holocausts and victims, the tithes and first fruits of your hands, and your vows and donaries, the first born of your oxen and sheep.

⁷And you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord your God: and you shall rejoice in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand, you and your house, wherein the Lord your God hath blessed you.

⁸You shall not do there the things, that we do here this day every man that which seemeth good to himself.

⁹For until this present time you are not come to rest, and to the possession, which the Lord your God will give you.

¹⁰You shall pass over Jordan, and shall dwell in the Land which the Lord your God will give you, that you may have rest from all enemies round about: and may dwell without all fear,

¹¹in the place, which the Lord your God shall choose, that his name may be therein. Thither shall you bring all the things, that I command you, holocausts, and hosts, and tithes, and the first fruits of your hands: and whatsoever is the principal in the gifts, that you shall vow to our Lord.

¹²There shall you feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, men servants and women servants, and the Levite, that dwelleth in your cities. For he hath no other part and possession among you.

¹³Beware thou offer not thy holocausts in every place, that thou shalt see:

¹⁴but in that which our Lord shall choose, in one of thy tribes shalt thou offer hosts, and shalt do what things soever I command thee.

¹⁵But if thou wilt eat, and the eating of flesh delight thee, kill, and eat according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee in the cities: whether it be unclean, that is to say, blemished and feeble: or clean, that is to say, sound and without blemish, such as is lawful to be offered, as the doe and the hart, shalt thou eat it,

¹⁶only without eating the blood, which thou shalt pour out upon the earth as water.

¹⁷Thou canst not eat in thy towns the tithe of thy corn, and wine, and oil, the first born of thy herds and cattle, and all things that thou vowest, and that thou wilt offer voluntarily, and the first fruits of thy hands:

¹⁸but before the Lord thy God shalt thou eat them in the place, which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and man servant, and woman servant, and the Levite, that dwelleth in thy cities: and thou shall rejoice and be refreshed before the Lord thy God in all things, whereunto thou shalt extend thy hand.

¹⁹Take heed thou forsake not the Levite all the time that thou livest in the land.

²⁰When the Lord thy God shall have dilated thy borders, as he hath spoken to thee, and thou wilt eat the flesh, that thy soul desireth:

²¹and if the place be far off, which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may be there, thou shalt kill of the herds and cattle, which thou hast, as I have commanded thee, and shalt eat in thy towns, as it pleaseth thee.

²²As the doe is eaten and the hart, so shall thou eat them: both the clean and unclean shall eat in common.

²³This only beware, that thou eat not the blood, for their blood is for the soul: and therefore thou must not eat the soul with the flesh:

²⁴but upon the earth thou shalt pour it as water,

²⁵that it may be well with thee and thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which pleaseth in the sight of our Lord.

²⁶But the things which thou hast sanctified, and vowed to our Lord, thou shalt take up, and shalt come to the place, which our Lord shall choose:

²⁷and shalt offer thy oblations the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the Lord thy God: the blood of thy hosts thou shalt pour on the altar: and the flesh thyself shalt eat.

²⁸Observe and hear all things that I command thee, that it may be well with thee & thy children after thee for ever, when thou shalt do that which is good & pleasing in the sight of the Lord thy God.

²⁹When the Lord thy God shall have destroyed before thy face the nations, that thou enterest in to possess, & thou shalt possess them, & dwell in their land:

³⁰beware lest thou imitate them, after they be subverted at thy entering in, and thou require their ceremonies, saying: As these nations have worshipped their gods, so will I also worship.

³¹Thou shalt not do in like manner to the Lord thy God. For all the abominations, that our Lord doth abhor, have they done to their gods, offering their sons and daughters, and burning them with fire.

³²What I command thee, that only do to our Lord: neither add any thing, nor diminish.