Deuteronomy 12:13-28

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ “Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. ¹⁴ But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything I command you.^(A)

¹⁵ “Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.^{(B) 16} The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.^{(C) 17} Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; ¹⁸ these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings.^{(D) 19} Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.^(E)

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I am going to eat some meat,’ because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.^{(F) 21} If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. ²² Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.^{(G) 23} Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.^{(H) 24} Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.^{(I) 26} But the sacred donations that are due from you and your votive gifts you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose.^{(J) 27} You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside^[a] the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.

²⁸ “Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.^(K)