Deuteronomy 12–13

The One Place for Worship

12“Here are the laws that you are to obey as long as you live in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Listen to them! ²In the land that you are taking, destroy all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees. ^3*Tear down their altars and smash their sacred stone pillars to pieces. Burn their symbols of the goddess Asherah and chop down their idols, so that they will never again be worshipped at those places.

⁴“Do not worship the Lord your God in the way that these people worship their gods. ⁵Out of the territory of all your tribes the Lord will choose the one place where the people are to come into his presence and worship him. ⁶There you are to offer your sacrifices that are to be burnt and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep. ⁷There, in the presence of the Lord your God, who has blessed you, you and your families will eat and enjoy the good things that you have worked for.

⁸“When that time comes, you must not do as you have been doing. Until now you have all been worshipping as you please, ⁹because you have not yet entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, where you can live in peace. ¹⁰When you cross the River Jordan, the Lord will let you occupy the land and live there. He will keep you safe from all your enemies, and you will live in peace. ¹¹The Lord will choose a single place where he is to be worshipped, and there you must bring to him everything that I have commanded: your sacrifices that are to be burnt and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, and those special gifts that you have promised to the Lord. ¹²Be joyful there in his presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns; remember that the Levites will have no land of their own. ¹³You are not to offer your sacrifices wherever you choose; ¹⁴you must offer them only in the one place that the Lord will choose in the territory of one of your tribes. Only there are you to offer your sacrifices that are to be burnt and do all the other things that I have commanded you.

¹⁵“But you are free to kill and eat your animals wherever you live. You may eat as many as the Lord gives you. All of you, whether ritually clean or unclean, may eat them, just as you would eat the meat of deer or antelope. ^16*But you must not use their blood as food; you must pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷Nothing that you offer to the Lord is to be eaten in the places where you live: neither the tithes of your corn, your wine, or your olive oil, nor the firstborn of your cattle and sheep, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, or any other offerings. ¹⁸You and your children, together with your servants and the Levites who live in your towns, are to eat these offerings only in the presence of the Lord your God, in the one place of worship chosen by the Lord your God. And you are to be happy there over everything that you have done. ¹⁹Be sure, also, not to neglect the Levites, as long as you live in your land.

²⁰“When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised, you may eat meat whenever you wish. ²¹If the one place of worship is too far away, then, whenever you wish, you may kill any of the cattle or sheep that the Lord has given you, and you may eat the meat at home, as I have told you. ²²Anyone, ritually clean or unclean, may eat that meat, just as he would eat the meat of deer or antelope. ^23*Only do not eat meat with blood still in it, for the life is in the blood, and you must not eat the life with the meat. ^24*Do not use the blood for food; instead pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵If you obey this command, the Lord will be pleased, and all will go well for you and your descendants. ²⁶Take to the one place of worship your offerings and the gifts that you have promised the Lord. ²⁷Offer there the sacrifices which are to be completely burnt on the Lord’s altar. Also offer those sacrifices in which you eat the meat and pour the blood out on the altar. ²⁸Obey faithfully everything that I have commanded you, and all will go well for you and your descendants for ever, because you will be doing what is right and what pleases the Lord your God.

Warning against Idolatry

²⁹“The Lord your God will destroy the nations as you invade their land, and you will occupy it and settle there. ³⁰After the Lord destroys those nations, make sure that you don’t follow their religious practices, because that would be fatal. Don’t try to find out how they worship their gods, so that you can worship in the same way. ³¹Do not worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods, for in the worship of their gods they do all the disgusting things that the Lord hates. They even sacrifice their children in the fires on their altars.

^32*“Do everything that I have commanded you; do not add anything to it or take anything from it.

13“Prophets or interpreters of dreams may promise a miracle or a wonder, ²in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshipped before. Even if what they promise comes true, ³do not pay any attention to them. The Lord your God is using them to test you, to see if you love the Lord with all your heart. ⁴Follow the Lord and honour him; obey him and keep his commands; worship him and be faithful to him. ⁵But put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets who tell you to rebel against the Lord, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that the Lord has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to rid yourselves of this evil.

⁶“Even your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods, gods that you and your ancestors have never worshipped. ⁷One of them may encourage you to worship the gods of the people who live near you or the gods of those who live far away. ⁸But do not let him or her persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no mercy or pity, and do not protect them. ⁹Kill them! Be the first to stone them, and then let everyone else stone them too. ¹⁰Stone them to death! They tried to lead you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹Then all the people of Israel will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing.

¹²“When you are living in the towns that the Lord your God gives you, you may hear ¹³that some worthless people of your nation have misled the people of their town to worship gods that you have never worshipped before. ¹⁴If you hear such a rumour, investigate it thoroughly; and if it is true that this evil thing did happen, ¹⁵then kill all the people in that town and all their livestock too. Destroy that town completely. ¹⁶Bring together all the possessions of the people who live there and pile them up in the town square. Then burn the town and everything in it as an offering to the Lord your God. It must be left in ruins for ever and never again be rebuilt. ¹⁷Do not keep for yourselves anything that was condemned to destruction, and then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and show you mercy. He will be merciful to you and make you a numerous people, as he promised your ancestors, ¹⁸if you obey all his commands that I have given you today, and do what he requires.