Deuteronomy 12:13-32

English Standard Version

¹³^(A)Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, ¹⁴but at ^(B)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, ^(C)according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. ^(D)The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. ¹⁶^(E)Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. ¹⁷You may not eat within your towns ^(F)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, ¹⁸but ^(G)you shall eat them before the Lord your God in ^(H)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 ^(I)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. ¹⁹^(J)Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰“When the Lord your God ^(K)enlarges your territory, ^(L)as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. ²¹If ^(M)the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, ^(N)then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. ²²Just ^(O)as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. ^(P)The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. ²³^(Q)Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, ^(R)for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. ²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. ²⁵You shall not eat it, ^(S)that all may go well with you and with your children after you, ^(T)when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶But the ^(U)holy things that are due from you, and ^(V)your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to ^(W)the place that the Lord will choose, ²⁷and ^(X)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. ²⁸Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, ^(Y)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 ^(Z)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, ³⁰take care ^(AA)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^(AB)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every ^(AC)abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for ^(AD)they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.