²⁷ and ^(A)offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. ²⁸ Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, ^(B)that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Warning Against Idolatry

²⁹ “When ^(C)the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take care ^(D)that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ ^31 (E)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every ^(F)abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for ^(G)they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

^32 [a] “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. ^(H)You shall not add to it or take from it.

13 “If a prophet or ^(I)a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and ^(J)the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God ^(K)is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall ^(L)walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and ^(M)hold fast to him. ⁵ But ^(N)that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(O)So you shall purge the evil^[b] from your midst.

^6 (P)“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or ^(Q)the wife you embrace^[c] or your friend ^(R)who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ ^(S)which neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷ some ^(T)of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, ⁸ you shall ^(U)not yield to him or listen to him, nor ^(V)shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. ⁹ But you shall kill him. ^(W)Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ^10 (X)You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹ And ^(Y)all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

¹² “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, ¹³ that certain ^(Z)worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, ¹⁴ then you shall inquire and make search and ask ^(AA)diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, ¹⁵ you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction,^[d] all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and ^(AB)burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a ^(AC)heap forever. It shall not be built again. ^17 (AD)None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, ^(AE)that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, ^(AF)as he swore to your fathers, ¹⁸ if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, ^(AG)keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Clean and Unclean Food

14 “You are ^(AH)the sons of the Lord your God. ^(AI)You shall not cut yourselves or make any ^(AJ)baldness on your foreheads for the dead. ² For ^(AK)you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

^3 (AL)“You shall not eat any abomination. ^4 (AM)These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex,^[e] the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. ⁷ Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the ^(AN)rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. ⁸ And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and ^(AO)their carcasses you shall not touch.

⁹ “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat all clean birds. ¹² But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle,^[f] the bearded vulture, the black vulture, ¹³ the kite, the falcon of any kind; ¹⁴ every raven of any kind; ¹⁵ the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; ¹⁶ the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl ¹⁷ and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.