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are the statutes and the ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days you live on the earth.
2 “You must completely destroy all the places where the nations that you are about to dispossess worship their gods—on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every spreading tree. 3 You must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the carved images of their gods and wipe out their names from that place.
4 “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. 5 But you are to seek the place that the Lord your God will choose from among the tribes to put His Name there for His dwelling; and that is where you must go. 6 There you are to bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you will eat and rejoice with your household in everything that you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 “You must not do as we are doing here today—where everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own eyes— 9 for as yet you have not reached the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. 10 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 the Lord your God will choose the place for His Name to dwell. There you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, and all your choice offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 Then you will rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13 “Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any place you please, 14 but only in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, and there you are to offer your burnt offerings, and there you must do everything I command you.
15 “But you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as though it were gazelle or deer. 16 But you must not eat the blood: pour it on the ground like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, new wine, or oil; the firstborn of your herds or your flocks, or any offering you have vowed to give; your freewill offerings, or your personal contributions. 18 Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God chooses—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you will rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put you hand to. 19 Take care that you do not 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 want to eat meat’, because you have a strong desire to eat meat, then you may eat meat whenever you want. 21 If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His Name is too far away from you, then you may slaughter any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle and deer are eaten, so you may eat it; both the clean and the unclean may eat it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that it may be 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 the holy offerings and your vow offerings to the place that the Lord chooses. 27 You are to present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
29 “When the Lord your God has cut off from before you the nations that you are going in to dispossess, and when you have driven them out and settled in their land, 30 be careful that you are not ensnared to follow after their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I, too, will also do the same’. 31 You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practice for their gods every detestable thing that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe, you must not add to it or take away from it.”