Deuteronomy 12

1 “(I will now tell you again/These, [again], are) the rules and regulations that you must faithfully obey in the land that Yahweh, the God whom our ancestors [worshiped], is giving to you to occupy. You must obey these laws all the time that you are alive.

These are the statutes and the regulations which ye must observe to do, in the land which Yahweh the God of thy fathers hath given unto thee, to possess it, —all the days that ye are living upon the soil:

2 You must destroy all the places where the people-groups that you will expel worship their gods, on the tops of mountains and hills and under big green trees.

Ye must utterly destroy, all the places where the nations whom ye are dispossessing have served their gods, —Upon the high mountains And upon the hills, And under every green tree;

3 You must tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Completely burn the statues of their goddess Asherah in fires, and chop down their wooden idols, in order that no one will ever worship them [MTY] in those places again.

And ye must tear down their altars And break in pieces their pillars, And, their sacred stems, must ye consume with fire, And the carved images of their gods, must ye fell to the ground, —And destroy their name out of that place.

4 “Do not worship Yahweh like [the people in Canaan worship their gods].

Ye must not do thus unto Yahweh your God;

5 Instead, you must go to the place that Yahweh will choose. It will be in the area where one of your tribes will live. That is where you must go to worship Yahweh.

but, unto the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, —as his habitation, shall ye ask your way, and come in thither;

6 That is the place where you must bring your sacrifices that will be completely burned on the altar, and your other sacrifices, (your tithes/ten percent of all of your crops), other offerings that you decide to give, and the firstborn animals from your cattle and sheep.

and bring in thither your ascending-offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, —and your vow-offerings and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock;

7 There, in the presence of Yahweh our God, who has [greatly] blessed you, you and your families will eat the good things that you have worked to produce, and you will be happy.

and shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and rejoice in all whereunto ye are putting your hand, Ye, and your households, —wherewith Yahweh thy God hath blessed thee.

8 “[When you are in that land], you must not do some of the things that we have been doing. Until now, you have all been worshiping [Yahweh] the way you wanted to,

Ye must not do according to all that we are doing here to-day, —every man, whatsoever is right in his own eyes.

9 because you have not yet arrived in the land which Yahweh is giving to you, where you will be able to live peacefully.

Because ye have not entered as yet, —into the resting-place and into the inheritance which Yahweh thy God is giving unto thee.

10 But when you cross the Jordan [River], you will start to live in the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you. He will protect you from all your enemies that will surround you, and you will live peacefully/safely.

But, when ye shall pass over the Jordan, and settle down in the land which, Yahweh your God, is causing you to inherit, —and he shall give you rest from all your enemies round about, and ye shall dwell securely,

11 “Yahweh will choose one place where he wants you to worship him. That is the place to which you must bring all the offerings that I command you to bring: The sacrifices that must be completely burned [on the altar], your other sacrifices, other offerings that you yourselves decide to give, (your tithes/ten percent of all your crops), and all the special offerings that you will solemnly promise to give to Yahweh.

then shall it be, that unto the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to make a habitation for his name there, thither, shall ye bring in all that I am commanding you, —your ascending-offerings and your sacrifices your tithes and the heave-offering of your hand, and all your chosen vow-offerings which ye shall vow unto Yahweh.

12 Rejoice there in the presence of Yahweh, along with your children, your male and female servants, and the descendants of Levi who live in your towns. Do not forget that the descendants of Levi will not have their own land, like you will have.

So shall ye rejoice before Yahweh your God, Ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your servants and your handmaids, —and the Levite that is within your gates, forasmuch as he hath neither portion nor inheritance with you.

13 Be sure that you do not offer sacrifices anywhere you want to.

Take heed to thyself, lest thou cause thine ascending-sacrifice to go up in just any place which thou shalt see;

14 You must offer them only in the place that Yahweh will choose for you, in an area that belongs to one of your tribes. That is the only place where he wants you to offer sacrifices that will be completely burned [on the altar], and to do the other things that I am commanding you to do [when you worship him].

but, in the place which Yahweh shall choose in one of thy tribes, there, shalt thou cause thine ascending-sacrifice to go up, and, there, shalt thou do all that I am commanding thee.

15 “However, you will be permitted to kill and eat the meat of your animals in the places where you live. As often as you want to, you may eat the meat of the animals that Yahweh our God will bless you by giving them to you. Those who have done things that cause them to become unacceptable to God and those who have not done things like that may all eat that meat, just like you would eat the meat of a deer or an antelope.

Howbeit of anything thy soul desireth, mayest thou sacrifice and so eat flesh—according to the blessing of Yahweh thy God which he hath bestowed upon thee, in all thy gates, the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, —as the gazelle and as the hart,

16 But you must not eat the blood [of any animals]; you must let the blood drain onto the ground [before you cook the meat].

Howbeit, the blood, shall ye not eat, —upon the earth, shalt thou pour it out, like water.

17 In the places where you live, you must not eat the things that you are offering [to Yahweh]: You must not eat the (tithes/ten percent) of your grain or of your wine, or of your [olive] oil, or the firstborn of your cattle and sheep, or the offerings that you yourselves decide to give to Yahweh, or any other offerings.

Thou mayest not eat within thy gates, the tithe of thy corn or of thy new wine or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd, or of thy flock, —nor any of thy vow-offerings which thou shalt vow, nor thy freewill, offerings, nor the heave-offering of thy hand;

18 Instead, you and your children and your male and female servants and the descendants of Levi who live in your towns must go to the place that he has chosen and eat those things there in the presence of Yahweh. And you should rejoice in the presence of Yahweh about everything that you do.

but before Yahweh thy God, shalt thou eat it in the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy servant and thy handmaid, and the Levite who is within thy gates, —so shalt thou rejoice before Yahweh thy God, in all whereunto thou puttest thy hand.

19 Be sure that you take care of the descendants of Levi all during the time that you live in your land.

Take heed to thyself, lest thou forsake the Levite, —all thy days upon thy soil.

20 “When Yahweh our God gives you much more land [than you will have when you first occupy it], which is what he has promised to do, and you say ‘I would like some meat to eat’ because you are craving/wanting some meat, you will be permitted to eat meat whenever you want to.

When Yahweh thy God shall enlarge thy boundary—as he hath spoken unto thee—and thou shalt say. I would eat flesh because thy soul desireth to eat flesh, of whatsoever thy soul desireth, mayest thou eat flesh.

21 If the place that Yahweh our God chooses to be the place for you to worship him is far [from where you live], you are permitted to kill some of your cattle or sheep that Yahweh has given to you, and you may eat that meat at the places where you live, just like I have told you to do.

When the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose to put his name there, shall be, too far for thee, then shalt thou sacrifice of thy herd or of thy flock which Yahweh hath given unto thee, as I have commanded thee, —and shalt eat, within thine own gates, of whatsoever thy soul desireth.

22 Those who have done things that cause them to become unacceptable to God, and those who have not done things like that, are all permitted to all eat that meat, just like you would eat the meat of a deer or an antelope.

Even as the gazelle and the hart is eaten, so, shalt thou eat it, —the unclean and the clean, alike shall eat it.

23 But be sure that you do not eat the blood [of any animal], because it is the blood that sustains life in living beings, and so you must not eat the life along with the meat.

Howbeit firmly refrain from eating the blood; for the blood, is the life, —therefore must thou not eat the life with the flesh.

24 Do not eat the blood; instead, let it drain onto the ground.

Thou shalt not eat it, —upon the earth, shalt thou pour it out, like water.

25 If you obey this command and do what Yahweh says is right [for you to do], things will go well for you and for your descendants.

Thou shalt not eat it, —that it may be well with thee and with thy children after thee when thou shalt do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

26 “But the sacred offerings that Yahweh has told you to give and the other offerings that you yourselves decide to give, you must take to the place that Yahweh will choose.

Howbeit, thy holy things which thou shalt have and thy vow-offerings, shalt thou take and come in, unto the place which Yahweh shall choose;

27 You must offer there the sacrifices that will be completely burned [on Yahweh’s altar]. You must also offer there the sacrifices from which you may eat some of meat after you [kill the animals and] drain out the blood and some of it is thrown on the [sides of the] altar.

and shalt offer thine ascending-sacrifices, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of Yahweh thy God, —and the blood of thine [other] sacrifices, shall be poured out upon the altar of Yahweh thy God, and then the flesh, shalt thou eat.

28 Faithfully obey all these things that I have commanded you. If you do that, things will go well forever for you and your descendants, because you will be doing what Yahweh our God says is right [for you to do] and what pleases him.

Observe and hear all these things which I am commanding thee, —that it may be well with thee and with thy children after thee, —unto times age-abiding, so long as thou shalt do that which is pleasing and right in the eyes of Yahweh thy God.

29 “When you enter the land that you will occupy, as you advance, Yahweh our God will get rid of the people-groups that live there.

When Yahweh thy God shall cut off from before thee, the nations Whom thou art going in to dispossess, —and thou do dispossess them, and dwell in their land,

30 After he does that, be sure that you do not [worship the gods] that they have been worshiping, because if you do that, you will be caught in the same trap [that they were caught in] [MET]. Do not ask anyone about those gods, saying, ‘Tell me how they worshiped their gods, in order that I can [worship them] also.’

take heed to thyself lest thou be thrust after them, after they have been destroyed from before thee, —and lest thou enquire after their gods, saying—In what manner, did these nations serve their gods, that, I too, may do likewise?

31 Do not try to worship Yahweh our God like they have worshiped their gods, because when they worship them, they do disgusting things, things that Yahweh hates. [The worst thing that they do is] that they sacrifice their own children and burn them [on their altars].

Thou shalt not do likewise unto Yahweh thy God, —for everything that is an abomination unto Yahweh which he doth hate, have they done unto their gods, for even their sons and their daughters, do they consume with fire unto their gods.

32 “Be sure to do everything that I have commanded you to do. Do not add anything to these commands, and do not take anything away from them.”

Whatsoever be the thing which I am commanding you, the same, shall ye observe to do, —thou shalt neither add thereunto, nor take away therefrom.