Deuteronomy 12

1. “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to do in the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives you to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth.

2. You shall utterly destroy all the sacred places where the nations which you shall possess have served their gods—on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

3. And you shall demolish their altars and smash their standing pillars, and burn their Asherim, Asherim are goddess statues in their groveswith fire. And you shall cut to shards the carved images of their gods, and destroy their names out of that place.

4. You shall not do so to the LORD your God.

5. But you shall seek to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even to His dwelling place you shall seek, and there you shall come.

6. And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and of your flocks.

7. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

8. You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each doing whatever is right in his own eyes,

9. For you have not as yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you.

10. But when you go over Jordan and live in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies all around, so that you live in safety,

11. Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. There you shall bring all that I command 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 the LORD.

12. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons, your daughters, your menservants, your female servants, and the Levite that is within your gates (because he has no part nor inheritance with you).

13. Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see.

14. But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15. However, as much as you desire, you may slaughter and eat flesh in all your gates, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you, the one who is clean and the one who is unclean may eat, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer.

16. Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it on the earth like water.

17. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herds or of your flock, or any of your vows which you vow, or your freewill offerings or the heave offering of your hand.

18. But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite within your gates. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hand to.

19. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live on the earth.

20. When the LORD your God shall enlarge your border, as He has promised you, and you shall say, ‘I will eat flesh’ because your soul longs to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, whatever your soul desires.

21. If the place which the LORD your God has chosen to put His name there is too far from you, then you shall slaughter animals of your herd and of your flock which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you shall eat in your gates whatever your soul desires.

22. Even as the gazelle and the deer is eaten, so you shall eat them. The one who is unclean and the one who is clean shall eat of them alike.

23. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life. And you may not eat the life with the flesh.

24. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it on the earth like water.

25. You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you; indeed you shall do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

26. Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD shall choose.

27. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD your God. And the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out at the base of the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the flesh.

28. Be careful to observe and obey all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

29. When the LORD your God shall cut off the nations before you, where you go to possess them, and you take their place and dwell in their land,

30. Take heed to yourself that you do not become ensnared by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods that I may also do likewise?’

31. You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every abomination to the LORD, which He hates, they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.

32. Whatsoever thing that I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.”