Deuteronomy 12

1 These are the rules and regulations that you must diligently observe for as long as you live in this country that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, has given you to possess.

2 Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines where the nations that you're driving out worship their gods-wherever you find them, on hills and mountains or in groves of green trees.3 Tear apart their altars. Smash their phallic pillars. Burn their sex-and-religion Asherah shrines. Break up their carved gods. Obliterate the names of those god sites.

4 Stay clear of those places-don't let what went on there contaminate the worship of God, your God.

5 Instead find the site that God, your God, will choose and mark it with his name as a common center for all the tribes of Israel. Assemble there.6 Bring to that place your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and Tribute-Offerings, your Vow-Offerings, your Freewill-Offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.7 Feast there in the Presence of God, your God. Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing of God, your God.

8 Don't continue doing things the way we're doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish.9 Until now you haven't arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that God, your God, is giving you.10 But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the land God, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he'll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You'll be able to settle down and live in safety.

11 From then on, at the place that God, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow to God.12 Celebrate there in the Presence of God, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance.

13 Be extra careful: Don't offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy.14 Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place that God chooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.

15 It's permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.

16 But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.17 Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings.18 All these you must eat in the Presence of God, your God, in the place God, your God, chooses-you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence of God, your God, all the things you've been able to accomplish.

19 And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.

20 When God, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, "I'm hungry for meat," because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want.21 If you're too far away from the place that God, your God, has marked with his name, it's all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks that God has given you, as I've commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want.22 Just as the nonsacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.

23 Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don't eat the blood. Blood is life; don't eat the life with the meat.24 Don't eat it; pour it out on the ground like water.25 Don't eat it; then you'll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing in God's eyes.

26 And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the place God designates.27 Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar of God, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar of God, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.

28 Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you'll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God, your God.

29 When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land,30 be careful that you don't get curious about them after they've been destroyed before you. Don't get fascinated with their gods, thinking, "I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I'd like to try that myself."31 Don't do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!

32 Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don't add to it; don't subtract from it.

Deuteronomy 13

1 When a prophet or visionary gets up in your community and gives out a miracle-sign or wonder,2 and the miracle-sign or wonder that he gave out happens and he says, "Let's follow other gods" (these are gods you know nothing about), "let's worship them,"3 don't pay any attention to what that prophet or visionary says. God, your God, is testing you to find out if you totally love him with everything you have in you.4 You are to follow only God, your God, hold him in deep reverence, keep his commandments, listen obediently to what he says, serve him-hold on to him for dear life!

5 And that prophet or visionary must be put to death. He has urged mutiny against God, your God, who rescued you from Egypt, who redeemed you from a world of slavery and put you on the road on which God, your God, has commanded you to walk. Purge the evil from your company.

6 And when your brother or son or daughter, or even your dear wife or lifelong friend, comes to you in secret and whispers, "Let's go and worship some other gods" (gods that you know nothing about, neither you nor your ancestors,7 the gods of the peoples around you near and far, from one end of the Earth to the other),8 don't go along with him; shut your ears. Don't feel sorry for him and don't make excuses for him.9 Kill him. That's right, kill him. You throw the first stone. Take action at once and swiftly with everybody in the community getting in on it at the end.10 Stone him with stones so that he dies. He tried to turn you traitor against God, your God, the one who got you out of Egypt and the world of slavery.

11 Every man, woman, and child in Israel will hear what's been done and be in awe. No one will dare to do an evil thing like this again.

12 When word comes in from one of your cities that God, your God, is giving you to live in,13 reporting that evil men have gotten together with some of the citizens of the city and have broken away, saying, "Let's go and worship other gods" (gods you know nothing about),14 then you must conduct a careful examination. Ask questions, investigate. If it turns out that the report is true and this abomination did in fact take place in your community,15 you must execute the citizens of that town. Kill them, setting that city apart for holy destruction: the city and everything in it including its animals.16 Gather the plunder in the middle of the town square and burn it all-town and plunder together up in smoke, a holy sacrifice to God, your God. Leave it there, ashes and ruins. Don't build on that site again.17 And don't let any of the plunder devoted to holy destruction stick to your fingers. Get rid of it so that God may turn from anger to compassion, generously making you prosper, just as he promised your ancestors.

18 Yes. Obediently listen to God, your God. Keep all his commands that I am giving you today. Do the right thing in the eyes of God, your God.

Deuteronomy 14

1 You are children of God, your God, so don't mutilate your bodies or shave your heads in funeral rites for the dead.2 You only are a people holy to God, your God; God chose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.

3 Don't eat anything abominable.4 These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat,5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep -6 any animal that has a cloven hoof and chews the cud.7 But you may not eat camels, rabbits, and rock badgers because they chew the cud but they don't have a cloven hoof-that makes them ritually unclean.8 And pigs: Don't eat pigs-they have a cloven hoof but don't chew the cud, which makes them ritually unclean. Don't even touch a pig's carcass.

9 This is what you may eat from the water: anything that has fins and scales.10 But if it doesn't have fins or scales, you may not eat it. It's ritually unclean.

11 You may eat any ritually clean bird.12 These are the exceptions, so don't eat these: eagle, vulture, black vulture,13 kite, falcon, the buzzard family,14 the raven family,15 ostrich, nighthawk, the hawk family,16 little owl, great owl, white owl,17 pelican, osprey, cormorant,18 stork, the heron family, hoopoe, bat.

19 Winged insects are ritually unclean; don't eat them.20 But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.

21 Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don't eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner. Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk.

22 Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year.23 Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live.24 But if the place God, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can't carry your tithe that far, God, your God, will still bless you:25 exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped.26 Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer-anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of God, your God, and have a good time.

27 Meanwhile, don't forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns; they won't get any property or inheritance of their own as you will.

28 At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage.29 Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won't get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they'll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work.