1These are the statutes and the ordinances that you shall be careful to do in the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live upon the ground.
2You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you are dispossessing served their gods—on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
3You shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and burn their Asherah poles with fire, and cut down the carved images of their gods, and blot out their name from that place.
4You shall not do so for Yahweh your God.
5But rather to the place that Yahweh your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name there—to his dwelling you shall seek, and there you shall come.
6And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
7And there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all the undertaking of your hand, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
8You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, each man whatever is right in his own eyes.
9For you have not yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance that Yahweh your God is giving you.
10But when you cross the Jordan and dwell in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in security—
11then it shall be that to the place that Yahweh your God will choose to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vow offerings that you vow to Yahweh.
12And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you and your sons and your daughters, and your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13Take care for yourself, lest you offer up your burnt offerings in every place that you see.
14But rather in the place that Yahweh will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer up your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15Nevertheless, whenever your throat craves it, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat it, as of the gazelle and the deer.
16Only the blood you shall not eat; on the ground you shall pour it out like water.
17You are not permitted to eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your fresh oil, or the firstborn of your herd and your flock, or any of your vows that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution of your hand.
18But rather before Yahweh your God you shall eat it, in the place that Yahweh your God will choose—you and your son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all the undertaking of your hand.
19Take care for yourself, lest you forsake the Levite all your days upon your land.
20When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory as he has spoken to you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because your throat craves to eat meat, then according to all the craving of your throat you may eat meat.
21If the place that Yahweh your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock that Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates according to all the craving of your throat.
22Only, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.
23Only be firm not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the meat.
24You shall not eat it; on the ground you shall pour it out like water.
25You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
26Only your holy things that you have, and your vow offerings, you shall carry and come to the place that Yahweh will choose.
27And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, but the flesh you may eat.
28Keep and obey all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.
29When Yahweh your God cuts off before you the nations whom you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
30take care for yourself, lest you be ensnared after them after they are destroyed from before you, and lest you inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I too will do likewise.’
31You shall not do so for Yahweh your God, for every abomination of Yahweh that he hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire for their gods.
32The whole word that I am commanding you—it you shall keep to do; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.
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