Deuteronomy 12:27-14:19

New King James Version

²⁷And ^(A)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. ²⁸Observe and obey all these words which I command you, ^(B)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 ^(C)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, ³⁰take 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^(D)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every ^[a]abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for ^(E)they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³²“Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; ^(F)you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Punishment of Apostates

13 “If there arises among you a prophet or a ^(G)dreamer of dreams, ^(H)and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ²and ^(I)the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ ³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God ^(J)is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴You shall ^(K)walk^[b] after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and ^(L)hold fast to Him. ⁵But ^(M)that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(N)So you shall ^[c]put away the evil from your midst.

⁶^(O)“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, ^(P)the wife ^[d]of your bosom, or your friend ^(Q)who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, ⁷of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, ⁸you shall ^(R)not ^[e]consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; ⁹but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to ^(S)death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ¹⁰And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹¹So all Israel shall hear and ^(T)fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

¹²^(U)“If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, ¹³^[f]‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” ’—which you have not known— ¹⁴then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[g]abomination was committed among you, ¹⁵you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and ^[h]completely ^(V)burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the Lord your God. It shall be ^(W)a ^[i]heap forever; it shall not be built again. ¹⁷^(X)So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may ^(Y)turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and ^[j]multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, ¹⁸because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, ^(Z)to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Improper Mourning

14 “You are ^(AA)the children of the Lord your God; ^(AB)you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[k]shave the front of your head for the dead. ²^(AC)For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat^(AD)

³^(AE)“You shall not eat any ^[l]detestable thing. ⁴^(AF)These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ^[m]mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. ⁷Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. ⁸Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh ^(AG)or touch their dead carcasses.

⁹^(AH)“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. ¹⁰And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹“All clean birds you may eat. ¹²^(AI)But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; ¹⁴every raven after its kind; ¹⁵the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; ¹⁶the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, ¹⁷the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, ¹⁸the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.