12
1 These are the commandments and judgments you shall observe to do in the land that the Lord the God of your fathers will give to thee to inherit all the days that you subsist upon the earth. 2 You shall destroying destroy all the places wherein the peoples (whose lands) you will inherit have served their idols, upon the high mountains, and the hills, and under every leafy tree. 3 And you shall lay their altars in ruin, break their statues, burn their groves with fire, cut the images of their idols in pieces, and blot out their names from that place. 4 Not so shall you do before the Lord your God; 5 But, to the place which the Lord your God will choose that His Shekinah may dwell there, unto the house of His Shekinah you shall seek, 6 and thither come to offer there your burnt offerings, your consecrated victims, your tenths, and the separations of your hands, your vows and free-will gifts, and the firstlings of your oxen and sheep. 7 And there shall you eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all that you have set your hand unto, you and your households, for that the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. 8 You shall not (then) do as we are doing here this day, every man as (seemeth) proper in his own eyes; 9 For you are not come as yet to the place of quietness, and to the inheritance which the Lord thy God will give thee. 10 But (when) you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and He hath given you rest from all your enemies round about, and you dwell in safety, 11 Then there will be a Place which the Lord your God will choose, to make His Shekinah to dwell there; thither shall you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and consecrated oblations, your tenths and the separations of your hands, and all the goodly things of your vows which you may vow before the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and handmaids, and the Levite who is among you, for he hath no part or inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest; 14 But in the Place which the Lord will choose out of one of thy tribes thou shalt offer thy sacrifices, and there do all that I command thee.
15 Though in any place where thy soul may desire thou mayest kill and eat flesh, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which He will give thee in all thy cities; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as the flesh of the gazelle and the deer. 16 Only of blood you may not eat; thou shalt pour it upon the ground like water. 17 It is not lawful for thee to eat in thy cities of the tithe of the produce of thy wine or oil, or the firstlings of thy bullocks or thy sheep, or of any vow which thou hast devoted, or of thy free-will offerings, or separations of thy hands; 18 But before the Lord thy God shalt thou eat it, in the place which the Lord thy God will choose; thou and thy son and daughter, thy servant and handmaid, and the Levite who is in thy cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou settest thy hand unto. 19 Take heed to thee that thou forsake not the Levite all thy days upon thy land.
20 When the Lord thy God shall have enlarged thy border, as He bath said to thee, and thou sayest, I will eat flesh, when thy soul desireth to eat flesh, of all the desire of thy soul thou mayest eat flesh. 21 If the place which the Lord thy God will choose for His Shekinah to dwell there, be too far from thee, thou mayest kill of thy oxen and sheep which the Lord will give thee, as I have commanded thee, and eat in thy cities of all the desire of thy soul. 22 As the flesh of the gazelle and the deer so shalt thou eat it, the unclean and the clean may eat it alike. 23 Only, be steadfast in not eating the blood, for blood is life, and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh: 24 Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it like water upon the ground; 25 Thou shalt not eat it, that it may be well with thee and with thy children after thee, when thou doest that which is right before the Lord. 26 Only thy consecrated things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take and bring to the place that the Lord will choose; 27 And make thy burnt sacrifices, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God; and the blood of thy consecrated victims thou shalt pour out at the altar of the Lord thy God, but of the flesh thou mayest eat. 28 Observe and obey all these commandments which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is meet and right before the Lord thy God.
29 When the Lord thy God shall have destroyed the nations (of the land) whither thou art going to cast them out from before thee, and He cast them out, and thou dwell in their land, 30 take heed to thyself that thou stumble not after them when they shall have been dispersed before thee, and that thou seek not to their idols, saying, How did these nations serve their idols? For so will I do also. 31 Thou shalt not do so before the Lord thy God; for all that is abominable before the Lord, and that He hateth, have they done to their idols. For even their sons and daughters they have burned in the fire.