Deuteronomy 12

And these are the ordinances and the judgments which you shall keep to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you by lot, all the days that you live upon the land.

With destruction you shall destroy all the places where the nations whom you are dispossessing served their gods there, on the high mountains and on the hills and under a leafy tree.

And you shall tear down their altars and break in pieces their pillars and cut down their groves and burn their gods' carved images with fire; and their name shall perish from that place.

You shall not do so to the Lord your God.

But only to the place which the Lord your God shall choose in one of your tribes, to put his name there, for it to be invoked; and you shall seek it out and shall come there.

And you shall bring there your whole burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your firstfruits and your vow offerings and your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your oxen and of your sheep.

And you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you and your households shall rejoice over everything on which you lay your hand, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

You shall not do all that we are doing here today, each one what is pleasing in his own sight.

For you have not yet come, up to now, into the rest and into the inheritance which the Lord your God gives you.

And you shall cross the Jordan and shall dwell in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance; and he shall give you rest from all your enemies round about, and you shall dwell in safety.

And the place which the Lord your God shall choose for his name to be invoked there — there you shall bring everything that I command you today: your whole burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the firstfruits of your hands and your gifts and every choice thing of your gifts, whatever you vow to your God.

And 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 who is at your gates, because he has no portion or inheritance with you.

Take heed to yourself that you do not offer up your whole burnt offerings in every place that you may see.

But only in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself in one of your tribes — there you shall offer up your whole burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you today.

But you may slaughter and eat meat according to all your desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you, in every city; the unclean among you and the clean may eat it alike, as one eats the gazelle or the deer.

Only the blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

You may not eat within your cities the tithe of your grain and of your wine and of your oil, the firstborn of your oxen and of your sheep, and all the vows that you may vow, and your pledged offerings, and the firstfruits of your hands.

But you shall eat them before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself — you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the sojourner who is in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God over everything on which you lay your hand.

Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite all the time that you live upon the land.

And when the Lord your God enlarges your borders, just as he said to you, and you say, I will eat meat — if your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat according to all the desire of your soul.

And if the place which the Lord your God shall choose for his name to be invoked there is too far from you, then you shall slaughter from your oxen and from your sheep which God may give you, in the manner I commanded you, and you shall eat within your cities according to the desire of your soul.

As the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you shall eat it; the unclean among you and the clean alike shall eat it.

Take strong care not to eat blood, for its blood is life; the life shall not be eaten with the flesh.

You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.

Only your holy things, if you have any, and your vow offerings you shall take and go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose for his name to be invoked there.

And you shall offer your whole burnt offerings; the flesh you shall offer up on the altar of the Lord your God, but the blood of your sacrifices you shall pour out at the base of the altar of the Lord your God, and the flesh you may eat.

Guard yourself and listen, and you shall do all the words that I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your sons forever, if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.

And when the Lord your God utterly destroys before you the nations to whom you are going in there to inherit their land, and you take possession of them and dwell in their land,

take heed to yourself that you do not seek to follow after them, after they have been destroyed from before you; do not seek out their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.

You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for they did to their gods the abominations that the Lord hated; for they burn up their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.