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

¹ "These are the statutes and ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the LORD God of your ancestors has given you to possess every day that you live on the earth. ² Be sure you destroy there all the places where the nations that you're going to dispossess serve their gods upon the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ³ Tear down their altars, cut down their sacred poles, and burn them. Cut down the carved images of their gods to erase their memory from that place." ⁴ "You must not act like this with respect to the LORD your God. ⁵ Instead, you must seek to enter only the place that the LORD your God will choose among your tribes. There he will establish his name and live. ⁶ Bring your burnt offerings there, along with your sacrifices, your tithes, your hand-carried gifts, your offerings in fulfillment of promises, your freely given offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ Then you and your household will eat in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with all the works of your hand with which he blessed you.

⁸ "You must not act as we have been doing here today, where everyone acts as they see fit, ⁹ for you haven't arrived yet to your allotted place that the LORD your God is about to give you. ¹⁰ But after you have crossed the Jordan River and settled in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and after you have received relief from the enemies around you and are living securely, ¹¹ then bring to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling place where he will establish his name everything that I'm commanding you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your hand-carried gifts, and all your best offerings in fulfillment of promises that you pledged to the LORD. ¹² "Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your city for there is no territorial allotment for him as you have. ¹³ Be careful not to offer burnt offerings at any location you happen to see ¹⁴ instead of at the place the LORD will choose in one of the tribal areas. There you may offer burnt offerings, and there you may do everything that I'm commanding you."

¹⁵ "You may slaughter and eat as much meat as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God, when he provides for you in all your cities. Both ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat it as they would gazelle and deer. ¹⁶ Only, you must not consume the blood; instead, pour it out on the ground as you would water. ¹⁷ "You won't be allowed to eat your tithe of grain, new wine, oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, your voluntary offerings that you pledged, your free-will offerings, and the works of your hands in your own cities. ¹⁸ You'll eat only in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that he will choose you, your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your cities. Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God in everything you undertake. ¹⁹ Be careful not to forget the descendant of Levi while you live in the land.

²⁰ When the LORD your God enlarges your territory just as he told you and you say "I want to eat meat' since you desire to eat it, you may do so as much as you please. ²¹ "If the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish his name is distant from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and your flock what the LORD has provided for you, as he instructed you. You may consume them in your cities as much as you please. ²² You may eat them, just as you would gazelle and deer. Ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat them. ²³ Only be sure to refrain from eating blood, because blood is the source of life and you must not consume blood with the meat. ²⁴ You must not consume it; instead, pour it on the ground as you would water. ²⁵ You must not eat it, so that life will go well for you and for your children after you. Then you'll do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

²⁶ "You may carry and bring only your consecrated gifts and offerings in fulfillment of promises to the place that the LORD will choose. ²⁷ You must offer your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. You must offer the blood by pouring it on the altar of the LORD your God while you consume the meat. ²⁸ Be sure to observe all these words that I'm commanding you, in order that life may go well for you and your children after you forever, for this is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God."

²⁹ "When the LORD your God eliminates the nations that you are about to dispossess so you can live in their land, ³⁰ after they have been destroyed in your sight, be careful not to be ensnared as they were. Otherwise, you will seek their gods and ask yourselves, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.' ³¹ You must not do the same to the LORD your God, because they practiced in the presence of their gods every sort of abomination that the LORD hates. Moreover, they sacrificed their sons and daughters to their gods. ³² Now as to everything I'm commanding you, you must be careful to observe it. Don't add to or subtract from it."

¹ "A prophet or a diviner of dreams may arise among you, give you an omen or a miracle ² that takes place, and then he may tell you, "Let's follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let's serve them.' Even though the sign or portent comes to pass, ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or that diviner of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to make known whether or not you'll continue to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. ⁴ You must follow the LORD your God, fear him, observe his commandments, listen to his voice, serve him, and cling to him. ⁵ That prophet or diviner of dreams must be executed, because he advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and because he lured you from the way in which the LORD your God instructed you to live. Purge the evil from among you."

⁶ "Your own blood brother, your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your friend who is like your soul mate may entice you quietly. He may tell you, "Let's go and serve other gods,' (whom neither you nor your ancestors have known ⁷ from the gods of the people that surround you whether near or far from you from one end of the earth to the other). ⁸ You must not yield to him, listen to him, look with pity on him, show compassion to him, or even cover up for him. ⁹ But you must surely execute him. You must be the first to put him to death with your own hand, and then the hands of the whole community. ¹⁰ Stone him to death, because he sought to lure you from the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the land of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel will hear about it, be afraid, and won't do this evil thing again among you.

¹² "You may hear in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you to inhabit ¹³ that worthless men have come from among you to entice those who live in the towns. They may say, "Let's go and serve other gods that you haven't known.' ¹⁴ You must thoroughly investigate and inquire if it is true that this detestable thing exists among you. If it is so, ¹⁵ then put the inhabitants of the town to death by the sword. Devote everything in it to divine destruction even its livestock by the sword. ¹⁶ Gather whatever you've taken as spoils at the public square of the town, then burn the town, along with whatever you've taken, as an offering to the LORD your God. It will remain a permanent mound of ruins, never to be rebuilt again. ¹⁷ Moreover, you must never take any item from those condemned things, so the LORD may yet relent from his burning anger and extend compassion, have mercy, and cause you to increase in number as he promised by an oath to your ancestors ¹⁸ if you obey the voice of the LORD your God by observing all his commands that I'm commanding you today. Do what is right in the sight of the LORD your God."

¹ "You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your foreheads on account of the dead, ² because you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD chose to make you his precious possession from among all the nations of the earth."

³ "You must not eat any detestable food. ⁴ These are the animals that you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, ⁵ deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep.

⁶ You may eat every animal with a divided hoof those with split cloven hooves that chews the cud. ⁷ However, you must not eat these animals that chew the cud or have a divided hoof: the camel, hare, and rock badger. Even though they chew the cud, their hooves are not divided. Therefore they are unclean for you. ⁸ And also the pig, because even though its hoof is divided, it does not chew the cud. It is therefore unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or even touch their carcasses.

⁹ "You may choose to eat from these creatures in the water: you may eat anything with fin and scale, ¹⁰ but you may not eat anything without fin and scale, since it is unclean to you. ¹¹ "You may eat all clean birds. ¹² But you must not eat from any of these: the eagle, vulture, osprey, ¹³ buzzard, any kind of kite, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ the ostrich, night hawk, seagull, any kind of falcon, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the horned owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹ Any winged, swarming insect is unclean to you. They must not be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat every bird that is clean.

²¹ "You must not eat any carcass. But you may give it to the alien in your cities so he may eat it or sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. "You must not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

²² "Be sure to tithe annually from everything you plant that yields a harvest in the field. ²³ Then in the presence of the LORD your God, in the place where he'll choose to establish his name, you may consume the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your livestock and flock, so that you'll learn to revere the LORD your God all your life. ²⁴ Now the way may be distant from you, so that you are unable to transport your tithe because you have been blessed by the LORD your God and the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish his name may be distant from you. ²⁵ In that case, convert it into cash, secure the money, and then bring it to the place where the LORD will choose. ²⁶ You may spend the money to your heart's content to buy livestock, flocks, wine, strong drink, and whatever you desire. You and your household may eat there and rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God." ²⁷ "But you must not forget the descendant of Levi in your town because there is no tribal allotment for him as there is for you.

²⁸ Every third year, bring all the tithes of your produce of that year and store it in your cities ²⁹ so the descendants of Levi who have no tribal allotment as you do foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities may come, eat, and be satisfied. That way, the LORD your God shall bless you in everything you do."

¹ "You must cancel your debts at the end of every seventh year. ² This is the way to conduct remission: every creditor must cancel the loan that his friend borrowed, and he must not pressure his friend or brother to repay it, because remission to the LORD will be proclaimed. ³ You may exact payment from a foreigner, but cancel whatever your brother owes you.

⁴ Moreover, there will be no poor person among you, for the LORD will surely bless you in the land that he is about to give you to possess. ⁵ Only be certain to obey the voice of the LORD your God. Carefully observe all of these commands that I'm commanding to you today. ⁶ For the LORD your God will bless you just as he promised. You are to lend to many nations but not borrow. Also, you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you."

⁷ "If there should be a poor man among your relatives in one of the cities of the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your poor relative. ⁸ Instead, be sure to open your hand to him and lend him enough to lessen his need. ⁹ Be careful not to think this wicked thought to yourselves: "The seventh year, the year of remission, is drawing near,' and you show ill will toward your poor relative and not give to him. He may then call to the LORD on account of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ You must certainly give to him and not feel regret for doing so. Because of this, the LORD your God will bless all your works and everything you do. ¹¹ Since poor people won't cease to exist in the land, therefore I'm commanding you: Be sure to be generous to your poor and needy relatives in your land."

¹² "When a fellow Hebrew male or female slave is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you are to set them free. ¹³ But when you set them free, don't send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Provide for them liberally from your flock, threshing floor, and wine vat. As the LORD your God has blessed you, so give to them. ¹⁵ Don't ever forget that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, yet the LORD your God redeemed you. Therefore, I'm giving you these commands today. ¹⁶ "Should that slave say to you, "I won't leave you,' because he loves you and your household, and it was good for him to be with you, ¹⁷ then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the door. Then he will be your slave forever. You are to do the same for your female slaves. ¹⁸ Don't view this as a hardship for yourself when you set him free, for he will have served you for six years twice the time of a paid worker. Then the LORD will bless you in all that you do."

¹⁹ "Set apart for the LORD your God every firstborn male among your herd and flock. You must not put the firstborn of your ox to work or shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰ Then in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your household must eat them every year at the place the LORD will choose. ²¹ If it has a blemish lameness, blindness, or any kind of defect you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. ²² In your cities both the unclean and the clean together are to eat together, as the gazelle and the deer.