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Chapter 12
1 These are the precepts and judgments, that you must do in the land, which the Lord the God of your fathers will give you, to possess it all the days that you shall walk upon the earth.
2 Destroy all the places in which the nations, that you shall possess, worshipped their gods upon high mountains, and hills, and under every shady tree:
3 Overthrow their altars, and break down their statues, burn their groves with fire, and break their idols in pieces: destroy their names out of those places.
4 You shall not do so to the Lord your God:
5 But you shall come to the place, which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, and to dwell in it:
6 And you shall offer in that place your holocausts and victims, the tithes and firstfruits of your hands and your vows and gifts, the firstborn of your herds and your sheep.
7 And you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord your God: and you shall rejoice in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand, you and your houses wherein the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not do there the things we do here this day, every man that which seems good to himself.
9 For until this present time you are not come to refit, and to the possession, which the Lord your God will give you.
10 You shall pass over the Jordan, and shall dwell in the land which the Lord your God will give you, that you may have rest from all enemies round about: and may dwell without any fear,
11 In the place, which the Lord your God shall choose, that his name may be therein. Thither shall you bring all the things that I command you, holocausts, and victims, and tithes, and the firstfruits of your hands: and whatsoever is the choicest in the gifts which you shall vow to the Lord.
12 There shall you feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and maid- servants, and the Levite that dwells in your cities. For he has no other part and possession among you.
13 Beware lest you offer your holocausts in every place that you shall see:
14 But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of your tribes shall you offer sacrifices. and shall do all that I command you.
15 But if you desire to eat, and the eating of flesh delight you, kill, and eat according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you, in your cities: whether it be unclean, that is to say, having blemish or defect: or clean, that is to say, sound and without blemish, such as may be offered, as the roe, and the hart, shall you eat it:
16 Only the blood you shall not eat, but you shall pour it out upon the earth as water.
17 You may not eat in your towns the tithes of your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the firstborn of your herds and your cattle, nor any thing that you vow, and that you will offer voluntarily, and the firstfruits of your hands:
18 But you shall 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 maidservant, and the Levite that dwells in your cities: and you shall rejoice and be refreshed before the Lord your God in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand.
19 Take heed you forsake not the Levite all the time that you live in the land.
20 When the Lord your God shall have enlarged your borders, as he has spoken to you, and you will eat the flesh that your soul desires:
21 And if the place which the Lord your God shall choose, that his name should be there, be far off, you shall kill of your herds and of your docks, as I have commanded you, and shall eat in your towns, as it pleases you.
22 Even as the roe and the hart is eaten, so shall you eat them: both the clean and unclean shall eat of them alike.
23 Only beware of this, that you eat not the blood, for the blood is for the soul: and therefore you must not eat the soul with the flesh:
24 But you shall pour it upon the earth as water,
25 That it may be well with you and your children after you, when you shall do that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
26 But the things which you have sanctified and vowed to the Lord, you shall take, and shall come to the place which the Lord shall choose:
27 And shall offer your oblations the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the Lord your God: the blood of your victims you shall pour on the altar: and the flesh you yourself shall eat.
28 Observe and hear all the things that I command you, that it may be well with you and your children after you for ever, when you shall do what is good and pleasing in the sight of the Lord your God.
29 When the Lord your God shall have destroyed before your face the nations, which then shall go in to possess, and when you shall possess them, and dwell in their land:
30 Beware lest you imitate them, after they are destroyed at your coming in, and lest you seek after their ceremonies, saying: As these nations have worshipped their gods, so will I also worship.
31 You shall not do in like manner to the Lord your God. For they have done to their gods all the abominations which the Lord abhors, offering their sons and daughters, and burning them with fire.
32 What I command you, that only do you to the Lord: neither add any thing, nor diminish.