1 "These are the statutes and rules you must be careful to carry out in the land the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, as long as you live on the earth.
2 You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
3 Tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, and burn their Asherim in the fire. Cut down the carved images of their gods and wipe out their names from that place.
4 You shall not treat the LORD your God in this way.
5 Instead, you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his name there for his dwelling, and there you are to go.
6 There you are to bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
7 There you and your households are to eat before the LORD your God and rejoice in all you have undertaken, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
8 "You must not do as we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever seems right in his own eyes,
9 for you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you.
10 But when you cross the Jordan and live in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in safety,
11 then to the place the LORD your God will choose to make his name dwell, there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.
12 And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no share or inheritance among you.
13 Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in any place you happen to see.
14 Offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there you are to do everything I command you.
15 "However, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your towns as much as you desire, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the unclean and the clean may eat it, as they would gazelle or deer.
16 But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
17 Within your towns you may not eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, or your olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds or flocks, or any of the offerings you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the contribution of your hand.
18 Instead, you are to eat them before the LORD your God in the place the LORD your God will choose, you, your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you have undertaken.
19 Be careful not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 "When the LORD your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, 'I would like some meat,' because you crave meat, you may eat meat as much as you desire.
21 If the place the LORD your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat as much as you desire within your towns.
22 Eat it as gazelle or deer is eaten; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.
23 Only be firm about not eating the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
24 Do not eat it; pour it out on the ground like water.
25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.
26 But take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.
27 Present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.
28 Be careful to obey all these words I am commanding you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
29 "When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are going in to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,
30 be careful not to be lured into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.'
31 You shall not treat the LORD your God in this way, for they have done for their gods every abomination the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.
32 "Be careful to do everything I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.