Deuteronomy 12 · Parashat Reeh

These are the statutes and judgments, which you shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers gives thee to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth.

You shall utterly destroy all the places, in which the nations whom you are to dispossess, served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every leafy tree:

and you shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their asherim with fire; and you shall hew down the carvings of their gods, and destroy the name of them out of that place.

This you shall not do to the Lord your God.

But to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, there shall you seek him, at his dwelling, and there shalt thou come:

and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and your flocks:

and there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that to which you put your hand, you and your households, wherein the Lord thy God has blessed thee.

You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes.

For you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God gives you.

But when you traverse the Yarden, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;

then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; there shall you bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the Lord:

and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite who is within your gates; for he has no part or inheritance with you.

Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:

but only in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

Nonetheless, thou mayst slaughter animals and eat their flesh to thy heart’s desire, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he has bestowed on thee, throughout all thy gates, the unclean and the clean may eat of it as they do of the gazelle and the deer.

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

Thou mayst not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, or any of thy vows which thou vowest, or thy freewill offerings, or offering of thy hand:

but thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite who is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that to which thou puttest thy hand.

Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.

When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he has promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat meat, because thou longest to eat meat; thou mayst eat meat, to thy heart’s desire.

If the place which the Lord thy God has chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the Lord has given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates to thy heart’s desire.

Even as the gazelle and the deer is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.

Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayst not eat the life with the meat.

Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth like water.

Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take and go to the place which the Lord shall choose:

and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the meat.

Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.

When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to dispossess them, and thou dost succeed them and dost dwell in their land;

take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared into following them, after they are destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

Thou shalt not do so to the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.