Deuteronomy 12
12
The Proper Place to Worship
1Here are the laws and rules you must faithfully obey in the land that the Lord God of your ancestors is giving you as your own. You must obey them as long as you live in the land.
2Completely destroy all the worship sites on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every large tree. The people you’re forcing out worship their gods in these places. 3Tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, burn their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, cut down their idols, and wipe out the names of their gods from those places.
4Never worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods. 5The Lord your God will choose a place out of all your tribes to live and put his name. Go there and worship him. 6Bring him your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your income, your contributions, the offerings you vow to bring, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats. 7There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families will eat and enjoy everything you’ve worked for, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8Never worship in the way that it’s being done here today, where everyone does whatever he considers right. 9Up until now you haven’t come to your place of rest, the property the Lord your God is giving you. 10But you will cross the Jordan River and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own property. He will give you peace from all your enemies around you so that you will live securely. 11Then the Lord your God will choose a place where his name will live. You must bring everything I command you to that place. Bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your income, your contributions, and all the best offerings you vow to bring to the Lord. 12Enjoy yourselves in the presence of the Lord your God along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, and the Levites. (The Levites live in your cities because they have no land of their own as you have.) 13Be careful that you don’t sacrifice your burnt offerings wherever you want. 14Instead, sacrifice them ⌞only⌟ at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There you must do everything I command you.
15In whatever city you live, you may slaughter and eat as much meat as you want from what the Lord your God has blessed you with. Clean and unclean #12:15 “Clean” refers to anything that is presentable to God. “Unclean” refers to anything that is not presentable to God. people may eat it as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer. 16But never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water. 17You may not eat ⌞the Lord’s offerings⌟ in your cities. Those offerings are: one-tenth of your grain, new wine, and olive oil; the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, or goats; the offerings you vow to bring; your freewill offerings; and your contributions. 18Instead, you, your sons and daughters, male and female slaves, and the Levites who live in your cities must eat these in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose. There in the presence of the Lord your God enjoy everything you’ve worked for. 19Don’t forget to take care of the Levites as long as you live in your land.
20The Lord your God will expand your ⌞country’s⌟ borders as he promised. You will say, “I’m hungry for meat.” Then eat as much meat as you want. 21If the place the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far away from you, you may slaughter an animal from the herds or flocks that the Lord has given you. Eat as much as you want in your city. I have commanded you to do this. 22Eat it as you would eat a gazelle or a deer: Clean and unclean people may eat it together. 23However, be sure you never eat blood, because blood contains life. Never eat the life with the meat. 24Never eat blood. Pour it on the ground like water. 25If you don’t eat blood, things will go well for you and your descendants. You will be doing what the Lord considers right.
26Take the holy things and the offerings you have vowed to bring, and go to the place the Lord will choose. 27Sacrifice the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat. 28Be sure you obey all these instructions I’m giving you. Then things will always go well for you and your descendants because you will be doing what the Lord your God considers good and right.
29The Lord your God will destroy the nations where you’re going and force them out of your way. You will take possession of their land and live there. 30After they’ve been destroyed, be careful you aren’t tempted to follow their customs. Don’t even ask about their gods and say, “How did these people worship their gods? We want to do what they did.” 31Never worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods, because everything they do for their gods is disgusting to the Lord. He hates it! They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.#12:31 Deuteronomy 12:32 in English Bibles is Deuteronomy 13:1 in the Hebrew Bible.
32Be sure to do everything I command you. Never add anything to it or take anything away from it.
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Deuteronomy 12: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Deuteronomy 12
12
1These are the statutes and the ordinances which ye shall observe to do in the land which Jehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath given thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2Ye shall surely destroy all the places wherein the nations that ye shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: 3and ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. 4Ye shall not do so unto Jehovah your God. 5But unto the place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come; 6and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock: 7and there ye shall eat before Jehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee. 8Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes; 9for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee. 10But when ye go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Jehovah your God causeth you to inherit, and he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; 11then it shall come to pass that to the place which Jehovah your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, thither shall ye 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 ye vow unto Jehovah. 12And ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite that is within your gates, forasmuch as he hath no portion nor inheritance with you. 13Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest; 14but in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.
15Notwithstanding, thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart. 16Only ye shall not eat the blood; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. 17Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy grain, or of thy new wine, or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill-offerings, nor the heave-offering of thy hand; 18but thou shalt eat them before Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God in all that thou puttest thy hand unto. 19Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest in thy land.
20When Jehovah thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul desireth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, after all the desire of thy soul. 21If the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose, to put his name there, be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which Jehovah hath given thee, as I have commanded thee; and thou mayest eat within thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul. 22Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat thereof: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof alike. 23Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou shalt not eat the life with the flesh. 24Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. 25Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah. 26Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which Jehovah shall choose; 27and thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of Jehovah thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of Jehovah thy God; and thou shalt eat the flesh. 28Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God.
29When Jehovah thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them, and dwellest in their land; 30take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31Thou shalt not do so unto Jehovah thy God: for every abomination to Jehovah, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.
32What thing soever I command you, that shall ye observe to do: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
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