The Chosen Place of Worship

12 “Be careful to follow these statutes and ordinances in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors,^(A) has given you to possess all the days you live on the earth. ² Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods^(B)—on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.^{(C) 3} Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every^[a] place.^{(D) 4} Don’t worship the Lord your God this way. ⁵ Instead, turn to the place the Lord your God chooses^(E) from all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling and go there. ⁶ You are to bring there your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tenths and personal contributions,^[b] your vow offerings and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ You will eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice with your household in everything you do,^[c] because the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You are not to do as we are doing here today; everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own sight.^{(F) 9} Indeed, you have not yet come into the resting place^(G) and the inheritance^(H) the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit,^(I) and he gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you live in security, ¹¹ then the Lord your God will choose the place to have his name dwell.^(J) Bring there everything I command you: your burnt offerings, sacrifices, offerings of the tenth, personal contributions,^[d] and all your choice offerings you vow to the Lord. ¹² You will rejoice^(K) before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your city gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.^{(L) 13} Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in all the sacred places you see. ¹⁴ You must offer your burnt offerings only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribes, and there you must do everything I command you.

Slaughtering Animals to Eat

¹⁵ “But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your city gates,^(M) according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer, ¹⁶ but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.^{(N) 17} Within your city gates you may not eat the tenth of your grain, new wine, or fresh oil; the firstborn of your herd or flock; any of your vow offerings that you pledge; your freewill offerings; or your personal contributions.^{[e] 18} You are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God chooses—you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who is within your city gates. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do, ¹⁹ and be careful not to neglect the Levite, as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you,^(O) and you say, ‘I want to eat meat’ because you have a strong desire to eat meat, you may eat it whenever you want. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of your herd or flock he has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your city gates whenever you want. ²² Indeed, you may eat it as the gazelle and deer are eaten; both the clean and the unclean may eat it. ²³ But don’t eat the blood, since the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.^{(P) 24} Do not eat blood; pour it on the ground like water.^{(Q) 25} Do not eat it, so that you and your children after you will prosper, because you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.

²⁶ “But you are to take the holy offerings you have and your vow offerings and go to the place the Lord chooses. ²⁷ Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your other sacrifices is to be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat. ²⁸ Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that you and your children after you may prosper forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

²⁹ “When the Lord your God annihilates the nations before you,^(R) which you are entering to take possession of,^(S) and you drive them out and live in their land, ³⁰ be careful not to be ensnared by their ways^(T) after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I’ll also do the same.’ ³¹ You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practice every detestable act, which the Lord hates, for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. ³² Be careful to do everything I command you; do not add anything to it or take anything away from it.^(U)

The False Prophet

13 “If a prophet or someone who has dreams^(A) arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, ² and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let’s follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let’s worship them,’ ³ do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.^{(B) 4} You must follow the Lord your God and fear him. You must keep his commands and listen to him; you must worship him and remain faithful^[a] to him.^{(C) 5} That prophet or dreamer must be put to death,^(D) because he has urged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slavery,^(E) to turn you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to walk. You must purge the evil from you.^(F)

Don’t Tolerate Idolatry

⁶ “If your brother, the son of your mother,^[b] or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let’s go and worship other gods’—which neither you nor your ancestors have known, ⁷ any of the gods of the peoples around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other— ⁸ do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity,^[c] and do not spare him or shield him.^{(G) 9} Instead, you must kill him. Your hand is to be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.^{(H) 10} Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.^{(I) 11} All Israel will hear and be afraid, and they will no longer do anything evil like this among you.^(J)

¹² “If you hear it said about one of your cities the Lord your God is giving you to live in, ¹³ that wicked men have sprung up among you, led the inhabitants of their city astray, and said, ‘Let’s go and worship other gods,’ which you have not known,^{(K) 14} you are to inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable act has been done among you, ¹⁵ you must strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Completely destroy everyone in it as well as its livestock with the sword. ¹⁶ You are to gather all its spoil in the middle of the city square and completely burn the city and all its spoil for the Lord your God. The city is to remain a mound of ruins forever;^(L) it is not to be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Nothing set apart for destruction is to remain in your hand, so that the Lord will turn from his burning anger and grant you mercy, show you compassion, and multiply you as he swore to your ancestors. ¹⁸ This will occur if you obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commands I am giving you today, doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Forbidden Practices

14 “You are sons of the Lord your God;^(A) do not cut yourselves or make a bald spot on your head^[a] on behalf of the dead,^{(B) 2} for you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be his own possession^(C) out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Foods

³ “You must not eat any detestable thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat:

⁶ You may eat any animal that has hooves divided in two and chews the cud.^{[b] 7} But among the ones that chew the cud or have divided hooves, you are not to eat these:

Do not eat their meat or touch their carcasses.^(D)

⁹ “You may eat everything from the water that has fins and scales, ¹⁰ but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales—it is unclean for you.^(E)

¹¹ “You may eat every clean bird, ¹² but these are the ones you may not eat:

¹⁹ All winged insects are unclean for you; they may not be eaten. ²⁰ But you may eat every clean flying creature.^(G)

²¹ “You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to a resident alien within your city gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Warning against Idolatry

¹⁴ So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵ I am speaking as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I am saying. ¹⁶ The cup^(A) of blessing^(B) that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread^(C) that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we who are many are one^(D) body, since all of us share the one bread. ¹⁸ Consider the people of Israel.^[a] Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?^{(E) 19} What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰ No, but I do say that what they^[b] sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! ²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. ²² Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?^(F)

Christian Liberty

²³ “Everything is permissible,”^[c] but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,”^[d] but not everything builds up. ²⁴ No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.^(G)

²⁵ Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, ²⁶ since the earth is the Lord’s,^(H) and all that is in it.^{[e](I) 27} If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience. ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it,^(J) out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience.^{[f] 29} I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged^(K) by another person’s conscience? ³⁰ If I partake with thanksgiving,^(L) why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks?

³¹ So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.^(M)