Deuteronomy 12

Modern

Literal

One Place for Worship

¹These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess.

¹These are the statutes and ordinances that you shall be careful to observe in the land that YHWH, God of your fathers, is giving to you to possess all the days that you live on the earth.

²Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.

²You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

³And you shall break down their altars and smash their pillars, and their Asherah poles you shall burn with the fire, and the carved images of their gods you shall cut down, and you shall destroy their names from that place.

⁴You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way.

⁴You shall not do thus to YHWH your God.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

⁵For rather, unto the place where YHWH your God chooses out of all your tribes to establish His Name as His dwelling, you shall seek and you shall go there.

⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

⁶And you shall bring there your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the contributions of your hands, and your vowed offerings, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks.

⁷There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁷And you shall eat there before the face of YHWH your God, and you shall rejoice in all the sending out of your hands—you and your households—with which YHWH your God has blessed you.

⁸You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.

⁸You shall not do at all as we are doing here today—every man, whatever is right in his own eyes.

⁹For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

⁹For you have not come as yet to the rest and the inheritance that YHWH your God is giving to you.

¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely,

¹⁰And you will pass over the Jordan and dwell in the land that YHWH your God is giving you to inherit, and He will give rest to you from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,

¹¹then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.

¹¹and there will be the place where YHWH your God chooses for His Name to dwell in it there; there you shall bring all that I command you—your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contributions of your hands, and all your choice offerings that you vow to YHWH.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your God—you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

¹³Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see.

¹⁴you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁴Indeed rather, in the place that YHWH chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,

¹⁵Nevertheless, whatever your soul desires, you may slaughter and eat flesh according to the blessing of YHWH your God that He has given you within all your gates. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle or the deer.

¹⁶but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

¹⁶Only the blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

¹⁷Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

¹⁷You must not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or your new wine, or your oil, or of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, or of any of your offerings that you vow, or of your freewill offerings, or of the contribution of your hand.

¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do,

¹⁸Indeed rather, before the face of YHWH your God you must eat them in the place that YHWH your God in it chooses—you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your God in all to which you put your hands.

¹⁹and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

¹⁹Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

²⁰When YHWH your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, “Let me eat flesh,” because you long to eat flesh, you may eat flesh of all the desire of your soul.

²¹If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.

²¹If the place is too far from you where YHWH your God chooses to put His Name, you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock that which YHWH has given to you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates all the desire of your heart.

²²Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

²²Indeed, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them. The unclean and the clean alike may eat them.

²³Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

²³Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you may not eat the life with the flesh.

²⁴You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

²⁵Do 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 eyes of the LORD.

²⁵You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you when you do what is right in the eyes of YHWH.

²⁶But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.

²⁶Only the holy things that are to you, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place that YHWH chooses.

²⁷Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.

²⁷And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of YHWH your God. And the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of YHWH your God, and you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸Be careful to obey all these things I command 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 eyes of the LORD your God.

²⁸Observe and obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, even to forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of YHWH your God.

A Warning against Idolatry

²⁹When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,

²⁹When YHWH your God cuts off the nations that you go to dispossess from before you, and you displace them and dwell in their land,

³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

³⁰take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods, and I also will do likewise?”

³¹You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

³¹You shall not do thus to YHWH your God, for every abomination to YHWH, which He hates, they have done to their gods. For even their sons and daughters they burn in the fire to their gods.

³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

³²The whole thing, whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.