Deuteronomy 12:1-Deuteronomy 26:19 - Detailed Stipulations: Purity And Unity

¹ These are the statutes and the ordinances which ye shall observe to do in the land which LORD, the God of thy fathers, has given thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the earth. ² Ye shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that ye shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree. ³ And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire. And ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. ⁴ Ye shall not do so to LORD your God. ⁵ But to the place which LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even to his habitation ye shall seek, and there thou shall come. ⁶ And there ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And there ye shall eat before LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand to, ye and your households, in which LORD thy God has blessed thee.

⁸ Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which LORD thy God gives thee. ¹⁰ But when ye go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which LORD your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety, ¹¹ then it shall come to pass that to the place which LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, there ye shall bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offe ¹² And ye shall rejoice before LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite who is within your gates--inasmuch as he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³ Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou see, ¹⁴ but in the place which LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes. There thou shall offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shall do all that I command thee.

¹⁵ Notwithstanding, thou may kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of LORD thy God which he has given thee, the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and ¹⁶ Only ye shall not eat the blood. Thou shall pour it out upon the ground as water. ¹⁷ Thou may not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy grain, or of thy new wine, or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vow, nor thy freewill-offerings, nor the heave-offering of ¹⁸ But thou shall eat them before LORD thy God in the place which LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite who is within thy gates. And thou shall rejoic ¹⁹ Take heed to thyself that thou not forsake the Levite as long as thou live in thy land.

²⁰ When LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he has promised thee, and thou shall say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul desires to eat flesh, thou may eat flesh, after all the desire of thy soul. ²¹ If the place which LORD thy God shall choose, to put his name there, be too far from thee, then thou shall kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which LORD has given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou may eat within thy gates, a ²² Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so thou shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. ²³ Only be sure that thou not eat the blood. For the blood is the life, and thou shall not eat the life with the flesh. ²⁴ Thou shall not eat it. Thou shall pour it out upon the ground as water. ²⁵ Thou shall not eat it, that it may go well with thee, and with thy sons after thee, when thou shall do that which is right in the eyes of LORD.

²⁶ Only thy holy things which thou have, and thy vows, thou shall take, and go to the place which LORD shall choose. ²⁷ And thou shall offer thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of LORD thy God, and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of LORD thy God, and thou shall eat the flesh. ²⁸ Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy sons after thee forever, when thou do that which is good and right in the eyes of LORD thy God.

²⁹ When LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, where thou go in to dispossess them, and thou dispossess them, and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before thee, and that thou not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? Even so I will do likewise. ³¹ Thou shall not do so to LORD thy God. For every abomination to LORD, which he hates, they have done to their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. ³² Whatever thing I command you, that shall ye observe to do. Thou shall not add to it, nor diminish from it.

¹ If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives thee a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou have not known, and let us serve them, ³ thou shall not hearken to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams, for LORD your God proves you, to know whether ye love LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ Ye shall walk after LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cling to him. ⁵ And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside

⁶ If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, who is as thine own soul, entices thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou have not known, thou, ⁷ of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, near to thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth, ⁸ thou shall not consent to him, nor hearken to him. Neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shall thou spare, neither shall thou conceal him, ⁹ but thou shall surely kill him. Thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ And thou shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw thee away from LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹¹ And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall no more do any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee.

¹² If thou shall hear tell concerning one of thy cities, which LORD thy God gives thee to dwell there, saying, ¹³ Certain base fellows have gone out from the midst of thee, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known, ¹⁴ then thou shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently. And, behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the midst of thee, ¹⁵ thou shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is in it, and the cattle in it, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ And thou shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street of it, and shall burn the city with fire, and all the spoil of it, every whit, to LORD thy God, and it shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. ¹⁷ And nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to thy hand, that LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he has sworn to thy fathers, ¹⁸ when thou shall hearken to the voice of LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of LORD thy God.

¹ Ye are the sons of LORD your God. Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ² For thou are a holy people to LORD thy God, and LORD has chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

³ Thou shall not eat any abominable thing. ⁴ These are the beasts which ye may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, ⁵ the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the chamois.

⁶ And every beast that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two, [and] chews the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat. ⁷ Nevertheless of those that chew the cud, or of those that have the hoof cloven, these ye shall not eat: the camel, and the hare, and the coney, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, they are unclean to you, ⁸ and the swine, because he parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, he is unclean to you. Of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch.

⁹ These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales ye may eat. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean to you. ¹¹ Of all clean birds ye may eat, ¹² but these are those of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, ¹³ and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite according to its kind, ¹⁴ and every raven after its kind, ¹⁵ and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-gull, and the hawk according to its kind, ¹⁶ the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl, ¹⁷ and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant, ¹⁸ and the stork, and the heron according to its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹ And all winged creeping things are unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. ²⁰ Of all clean birds ye may eat.

²¹ Ye shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. Thou may give it to the sojourner who is within thy gates, that he may eat it, or thou may sell it to a foreigner, for thou are a holy people to LORD thy God. Thou shall not boil a

²² Thou shall surely tithe all the increase of thy seed; that which comes forth from the field year by year. ²³ And thou shall eat before LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of thy grain, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock, that thou may ²⁴ And if the way is too long for thee, so that thou are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from thee, which LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there when LORD thy God shall bless thee, ²⁵ then thou shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shall go to the place which LORD thy God shall choose. ²⁶ And thou shall bestow the money for whatever thy soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever thy soul asks of thee. And thou shall eat there before LORD thy God, and thou shall rejoice, t ²⁷ And the Levite who is within thy gates, thou shall not forsake him, for he has no portion nor inheritance with thee.

²⁸ At the end of every three years thou shall bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within thy gates. ²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with thee, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied, that LORD thy God may bless thee in al

¹ At the end of every seven years thou shall make a release. ² And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it from his neighbor and his brother, because LORD's release has been proclaimed. ³ From a foreigner thou may exact it, but whatever of thine is with thy brother, thy hand shall release.

⁴ However there shall be no poor with thee (for LORD will surely bless thee in the land which LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance to possess it), ⁵ if only thou diligently hearken to the voice of LORD thy God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command thee this day. ⁶ For LORD thy God will bless thee as he promised thee, and thou shall lend to many nations, but thou shall not borrow, and thou shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.

⁷ If there be with thee a poor man, one of thy brothers, within any of thy gates in thy land which LORD thy God gives thee, thou shall not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother, ⁸ but thou shall surely open thy hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need which he wants. ⁹ Beware that there not be a base thought in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou give him nothing, and he cry to LORD against thee, and it be ¹⁰ Thou shall surely give him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou give to him, because for this thing LORD thy God will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou put thy hand to. ¹¹ For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shall surely open thy hand to thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land.

¹² If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to thee, and serves thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shall let him go free from thee. ¹³ And when thou let him go free from thee, thou shall not let him go empty. ¹⁴ Thou shall furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy winepress. As LORD thy God has blessed thee thou shall give to him. ¹⁵ And thou shall remember that thou were a bondman in the land of Egypt, and LORD thy God redeemed thee. Therefore I command thee this thing today. ¹⁶ And it shall be, if he says to thee, I will not go out from thee, because he loves thee and thy house, because he is well with thee, ¹⁷ then thou shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also to thy maid-servant thou shall do likewise. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to thee when thou let him go free from thee, for he has been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years. And LORD thy God will bless thee in all that thou do.

¹⁹ All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy flock thou shall sanctify to LORD thy God. Thou shall do no work with the firstling of thy herd, nor shear the firstling of thy flock. ²⁰ Thou shall eat it before LORD thy God year by year in the place which LORD shall choose, thou and thy household. ²¹ And if it has any blemish, [as] lame or blind, any ill blemish whatever, thou shall not sacrifice it to LORD thy God. ²² Thou shall eat it within thy gates. The unclean [man] and the clean [man] alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart.