A Prescribed Place of Worship

12 “These aare the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, ball 1the days that you live on the earth. 2 cYou shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, don the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And eyou shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their 2wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not fworship the Lord your God with such things.

5 “But you shall seek the gplace where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His hdwelling 3place; and there you shall go. 6 iThere you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the jfirstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And kthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and lyou shall rejoice in 4all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—mevery man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—9 for as yet you have not come to the nrest 5and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you orest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. 12 And pyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the qLevite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15 “However, ryou may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; sthe unclean and the clean may eat of it, tof the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 uOnly you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the 6heave offering of your hand. 18 But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in 7all to which you put your hands. 19 8Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 “When the Lord your God venlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. 21 If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from wyou, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, xfor the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, ythat it may go well with you and your children after you, zwhen you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 Only the aholy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. 27 And byou shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. 28 Observe and obey all these words which I command you, cthat it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Beware of False Gods

29 “When dthe Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31 eYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every 9abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for fthey burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; gyou shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Punishment of Apostates

13 “If there arises among you a prophet or a adreamer of dreams, band he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and cthe sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God dis testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall ewalk 1after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and fhold fast to Him. 5 But gthat prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. hSo you shall 2put away the evil from your midst.

6 i“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, jthe wife 3of your bosom, or your friend kwho is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall lnot 4consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to mdeath, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and nfear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

12 o“If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 13 5‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” ’—which you have not known—14 then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an 6abomination was committed among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and 7completely pburn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the Lord your God. It shall be qa 8heap forever; it shall not be built again. 17 rSo none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may sturn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and 9multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, tto keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Improper Mourning

14 “You are athe children of the Lord your God; byou shall not cut yourselves nor 1shave the front of your head for the dead. 2 cFor you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat

3 d“You shall not eat any 2detestable thing. 4 eThese are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the 3mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. 7 Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. 8 Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh for touch their dead carcasses.

9 g“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

11 “All clean birds you may eat. 12 hBut these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, 13 the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; 14 every raven after its …