A Holy Place for Worship
Deuteronomy 12These are the statutes and the ordinances which y’all are to be careful to do in the land which YHWH, the God of y’all’s ancestors, has given y’all to possess all the days that y’all live on this ground. Y’all must destroy-destroy all the places where the nations that y’all are driving out worship their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Y’all must break down their altars, smash their pillars into pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire, cut down the idols of their gods. Y’all must destroy their name from that place. Y’all must not do this to YHWH y’all’s God. But y’all are to seek the place which YHWH y’all’s God will choose from among all y’all’s tribes, to put his name there as ʜɪꜱ habitation. To that place, y’all are to go. Y’all are to bring there y’all’s burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, gifts of y’all’s hand, what y’all’s vowed, free will offerings, and the firstborn of y’all’s herd and of flock. There y’all will eat before YHWH y’all’s God, and y’all will rejoice in all that y’all put your* hand to, y’all and y’all’s households, in which YHWH your God has blessed y’all. Y’all must not do all the things that we do here today, everyone doing whatever is right in their own eyes; since y’all have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which YHWH your God is giving you. But when y’all cross over the Jordan and live in the land that YHWH y’all’s God is giving y’all to inherit, and ʜᴇ gives y’all rest from all y’all’s enemies around y’all, so that y’all live in safety, then YHWH y’all’s God will choose a place for ʜɪꜱ name to dwell. Y’all are to bring all that I command y’all: y’all’s burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the contribution of y’all’s hand, and all y’all’s choice offerings that y’all vow to YHWH. Y’all will rejoice before YHWH y’all’s God—y’all, and y’all’s sons, y’all’s daughters, y’all’s male servants, y’all’s female servants, and the Levite who is within y’all’s gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with y’all. You must be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place that YHWH chooses in one of your tribes, there you will offer your burnt offerings, and there you will do all that I command you.
Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of YHWH your God which ʜᴇ has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would gazelle and the deer. However, y’all must not eat the blood. You are to pour it out on the earth like water. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; but you are to eat them before YHWH your God in the place which YHWH your God will choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You will rejoice before YHWH your God in all that you put your hand to. Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
When YHWH your God enlarges your border, as ʜᴇ has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. If the place which YHWH your God chooses to put ʜɪꜱ name is too far from you, then you are to kill of your herd and of your flock, which YHWH has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood, for the blood is the life. You must not eat the life with the meat. You must not eat it. You are to pour it out on the earth like water. You must not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in eyes of YHWH. You are to take only your holy things that you have, and your vows, and go to the place that YHWH chooses. You are to offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on YHWH your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices will be poured out on YHWH your God’s altar, and you may eat the meat. Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in YHWH your God’s eyes.
When YHWH your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” You must not do so to YHWH your God, because every abomination to YHWH, which ʜᴇ hates, they have done to their gods. They even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command y’all, y’all must observe to do. You must not add to it, nor take away from it.