Deut 12
1 These are the decrees
and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the LORD, the
God of your fathers, has given you to possess--as long as you live in the
land.
2 Destroy completely
all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every
spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.
3 Break down
their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in
the fire;
cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
4 You must not
worship the LORD your God in their way.
5 But you are
to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes
to
put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go;
6 there bring
your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what
you have
vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds
and flocks.
7 There, in
the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and
shall
rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your
God has blessed
you.
8 You are not
to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit,
9 since you
have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your
God is
giving you.
10 But you will
cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you
as an
inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you
so that you will live in
safety.
11 Then to the
place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name--there you
are
to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices,
your tithes and special
gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD.
12 And there
rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons and daughters, your
menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns, who have
no allotment or
inheritance of their own.
13 Be careful
not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.
14 Offer them
only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there
observe
everything I command you.
15 Nevertheless,
you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of
the
meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing
the LORD your God
gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.
16 But you must
not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
17 You must
not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and oil,
or the
firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give,
or your freewill
offerings or special gifts.
18 Instead,
you are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the
LORD
your God will choose--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and
maidservants,
and the Levites from your towns--and you are to rejoice before the LORD
your God in
everything you put your hand to.
19 Be careful
not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.
20 When the
LORD your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave
meat and say, "I would like some meat," then you may eat as much of it
as you want.
21 If the place
where the LORD your God chooses to put his Name is too far away from you,
you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the LORD has given
you, as I have
commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you
want.
22 Eat them
as you would gazelle or deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean
may eat.
23 But be sure
you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not
eat the
life with the meat.
24 You must
not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
25 Do not eat
it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because
you will be
doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
26 But take
your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to
the place
the LORD will choose.
27 Present your
burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God, both the meat and the
blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of
the LORD your God,
but you may eat the meat.
28 Be careful
to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go
well with you
and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and
right in the eyes of
the LORD your God.
29 The LORD
your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and
dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,
30 and after
they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring
about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We will
do the same."
31 You must
not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their
gods,
they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their
sons and
daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
32 See that
you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.
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