Deuteronomy 12

A Prescribed Place of Worship

1 These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.4 You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. 5 But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.8 You shall not at all do as we are doing here today every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord.12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion 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 chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.15 However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.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 your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of 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 chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands.19 Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.20 When the Lord your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, Let me eat meat, because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.21 If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them.23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat.24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water.25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses.27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat.28 Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Beware of False Gods

29 When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.32 Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

DEUTERONOMY 12

Only One Place //To Worship the [Lord]

Moses said to Israel:

1 Now I'll tell you the laws and teachings that you have to obey as long as you live. Your ancestors worshiped the [Lord], and he is giving you this land. 2 But the nations that live there worship other gods. So after you capture the land, you must completely destroy their places of worship—on mountains and hills or in the shade of large trees. 3 t Wherever these nations worship their gods, you must tear down their altars, break their sacred stones, burn the sacred polest used in worshiping the goddess Asherah, and smash their idols to pieces. Destroy these places of worship so completely that no one will remember they were ever there.

4 Don't worship the [Lord] your God in the way those nations worship their gods.

5-19  t Soon you will cross the Jordan, and the [Lord] will help you conquer your enemies and let you live in peace, there in the land he has given you. But after you are settled, life will be different. You must not offer sacrifices just anywhere you want to. Instead, the [Lord] will choose a place somewhere in Israel where you must go to worship him. All of your sacrifices and offerings must be taken there, including sacrifices to please the [Lord]t and any gift you promise or voluntarily give him. That's where you must also take one tenth of your grain, wine, and olive oil, t as well as the first-born of your cattle, sheep, and goats.t You and your family and servants will eat your gifts and sacrificest and celebrate there at the place of worship, because the [Lord] your God has made you successful in everything you have done. And since Levites will not have any land of their own, you must ask some of them to come along and celebrate with you.
Sometimes you may want to kill an animal for food and not as a sacrifice. If the [Lord] has blessed you and given you enough cows or sheep or goats, then you can butcher one of them where you live. You can eat it just like the meat from a deer or gazelle that you kill when you go hunting. And even those people who are unclean and unfit for worship can have some of the meat. But you must not eat the blood of any animal—let the blood drain out on the ground.
20-21 The [Lord] has promised that later on he will give Israel more land, and some of you may not be able to travel all the way from your homes to the place of worship each time you are hungry for meat.t But the [Lord] will give you cattle, sheep, and goats, and you can butcher any of those animals at home and eat as much as you want.

22 It is the same as eating the meat from a deer or a gazelle that you kill when you go hunting. And in this way, anyone who is unclean and unfit for worship can have some of the meat.t
23-24  t But don't eat the blood. It is the life of the animal, so let it drain out on the ground before you eat the meat.

25 Do you want the [Lord] to make you successful? Do you want your children to be successful even after you are gone? Then do what pleases the [Lord] and don't eat blood.

26-27 All sacrifices and offerings to the [Lord] must be taken to the place where he chooses to be worshiped. If you offer a sacrifice to please the [Lord], all of its meat must be burned on the altar. You can eat the meat from certain kinds of sacrifices, but you must always pour out the animal's blood on the altar.

28 If you obey these laws, you will be doing what the [Lord] your God says is right and good. Then he will help you and your descendants be successful.

Worship the [Lord] //in the Right Way

Moses said:

29 Israel, as you go into the land and attack the nations that are there, the [Lord] will get rid of them, and you can have their land.
30 But that's when you must be especially careful not to ask, “How did those nations worship their gods? Shouldn't we worship the [Lord] in the same way?”

31 No, you should not! The [Lord] hates the disgusting way those nations worship their gods, because they even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices.
32  t Obey all the laws and teachings I am giving you. Don't add any, and don't take any away.