Deuteronomy 12:1-19

English Standard Version

The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship

12 ^(A)“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, ^(B)all the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (C)You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(D)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^(E)their pillars and burn their ^(F)Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^(G)destroy their name out of that place. ^4 (H)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. ⁵ But you shall seek ^(I)the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation^[a] there. There you shall go, ⁶ and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^(J)your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(K)firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And ^(L)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(M)you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, ^(N)everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, ⁹ for you have not as yet come to ^(O)the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when ^(P)you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, ^(Q)and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, ¹¹ then to ^(R)the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^(S)your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. ¹² And ^(T)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since ^(U)he has no portion or inheritance with you. ^13 (V)Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, ¹⁴ but at ^(W)the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

¹⁵ “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, ^(X)according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. ^(Y)The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. ^16 (Z)Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your towns ^(AA)the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, ¹⁸ but ^(AB)you shall eat them before the Lord your God in ^(AC)the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And ^(AD)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. ^19 (AE)Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.