DeuteronomyChapter 12

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹These are the laws and rules you must be careful to follow. Follow them all the days you live in the land. The LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you this land to own. ²You are driving out the nations there. Completely destroy all the places where they served their gods. Destroy them on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. ³Tear down their altars. Smash their sacred stone pillars. Burn up their Asherah poles. Cut down the idols of their gods. Wipe out their names from every one of those places. ⁴You must not worship the LORD your God the way they worship their gods. ⁵Instead, the LORD your God will choose a place from among all your tribes. He will put his Name there to live. You must look for that place and go there. ⁶That is the place where you must bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices. Bring your tithes and your raised offerings. Bring the offerings you promised and the offerings you choose to give. Bring the firstborn of your herds and flocks too.a ⁷There you and your families will eat in the presence of the LORD your God. You will celebrate all that you have done, because the LORD your God has blessed you. ⁸You must not do what we are doing here today. Right now everyone does whatever he thinks is right. ⁹That is because you have not yet come to the place of rest. You have not yet come to the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own. ¹⁰But you will cross the Jordan and live in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own. He will give you rest from all the enemies around you. You will live there safely. ¹¹Then the LORD your God will choose a place to be the home for his Name. You must bring everything I command you to that place. Bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts. Bring all the best offerings you promise to give the LORD. ¹²And you will celebrate before the LORD your God. Celebrate with your sons and daughters and your male and female servants. Celebrate with the Levite who lives in your town, since he has no share of land among you. ¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings at just any place you see. ¹⁴You must offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in the land of one of your tribes. That is where you must do everything I command you. ¹⁵But you may kill animals and eat meat in any of your towns whenever you want. Eat as much as the LORD your God has blessed you with. People who are ceremonially clean and people who are unclean may both eat it. They may eat it as they would eat a gazelle or a deer. ¹⁶But you must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷There are some things you must not eat in your own towns. Do not eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, or your olive oil there. Do not eat the firstborn of your herds or flocks there. Do not eat there any offering you promised to give, your freewill offerings, or your special gifts. ¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God. Eat them at the place the LORD your God will choose. Eat them with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite in your town. Celebrate before the LORD your God in all that you do. ¹⁹And be careful not to forget about the Levites as long as you live in your land. ²⁰The LORD your God will make your land bigger, as he has promised. Then you may want meat and say, "I want to eat some meat." If so, you may eat it whenever you want. ²¹The place where the LORD your God chooses to put his Name may be too far away from you. If it is, you may kill any of the cattle or sheep the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you. You may eat it in your own town whenever you want. ²²Yes, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or a deer. People who are ceremonially unclean and people who are clean may both eat it. ²³Just be sure you do not eat the blood. The blood is the life. You must not eat the life along with the meat. ²⁴You must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵Do not eat it. Then things will go well for you and for your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the LORD's eyes. ²⁶But take your holy things and the offerings you have promised. Go with them to the place the LORD will choose. ²⁷Offer the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. For your other sacrifices, the blood must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God. But you may eat the meat. ²⁸Be careful to obey all these things I command you. Then it will always go well for you and for your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. ²⁹You are going in to take the land from the nations there. The LORD your God will cut them off in front of you. You will drive them out and live in their land. ³⁰After they are destroyed in front of you, be careful not to be trapped by their ways. Do not ask about their gods. Do not say, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same thing." ³¹You must not worship the LORD your God that way, because they do every disgusting thing the LORD hates for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. ³²Make sure you do everything I command you. Do not add anything to it, and do not take anything away from it.