Deuteronomy 12 "These are the statutes and the judgments you should carefully observe in the land the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ "These are the statutes and the judgments you should carefully observe in the land the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. ² "Destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ »Tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles with fire. Cut down the carved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴ You shall not worship the LORD your God like this. ⁵ ¶ But ye shall seek the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there for his habitation, and thou shalt go there. ⁶ and bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ and there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye and your households shall rejoice in every work of your hands in which the LORD thy God has blessed thee. ⁸ "You must not act as we have been doing here today, where every one acts as they see fit, ⁹ »For you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. ¹⁰ "When you cross the Jordan and live in the land the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security. ¹¹ then to the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to cause His name to dwell there, you must bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the wave offering of your hand and all your chosen vows which you vow to the LORD. ¹² And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God; you, your sons, your daughters, your menservants, your female servants, and the Levite that is within your gates (because he has no part nor inheritance with you). ¹³ Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, ¹⁴ But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes shalt thou offer sacrifices, and shalt do all that I command thee. ¹⁵ Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may take of it. ¹⁶ but you must not eat the blood: that you shall pour on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; ¹⁸ But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God shall choose; you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite within your gates. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hand to. ¹⁹ Be careful that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. ²⁰ When the LORD your God enlarges your territory just as he told you and you say 'I want to eat meat' since you desire to eat it, you may do so as much as you please. ²¹ "If the place the LORD your God chooses to put his name is too far away from you, you may slaughter an animal from the herds or flocks that the LORD has given you. Eat as much as you want in your city. I have commanded you to do this. ²² It will be your food, like the gazelle and the roe; the unclean and the clean may take of it. ²³ Only, be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You must not eat it. You must pour it out on the ground, like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, so that it will go well for you and your children after you, because then you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD. ²⁶ »Take the holy things and the offerings you have vowed to bring, and go to the place the LORD will choose. ²⁷ "Sacrifice the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your 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 that I am commanding you, so that it will go well for you and for your children after you forever, because then you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. ²⁹ When the LORD your God will cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ after they have been destroyed in your sight, be careful not to be ensnared as they were. Otherwise, you will seek their gods and ask yourselves, 'How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.' ³¹ You shall not do so to your God; for they have sacrificed to their gods the abominations of the Lord which He hates, for they burn their sons and their daughters in fire to their gods. ³² »Be careful to do what I command you. Do not add to it nor take away from it.