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

¹ These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to do in the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers gives you to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth. ² You shall completely destroy all the places in which the nations which you shall possess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ And you shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars, and burn their pillars with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and destroy their names out of that place. ⁴ You shall not do so to Jehovah your God. ⁵ But you shall seek to the place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even to His dwelling place you shall seek, and there you shall come. ⁶ And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your free-will offerings, and the first-born of your herds and of your flocks. ⁷ And there you shall eat before Jehovah your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households in which Jehovah your God has blessed you.

⁸ You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each doing whatever is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Jehovah your God gives you. ¹⁰ But when you go over Jordan and live in the land which Jehovah your God gives you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies all around, so that you live in safety, ¹¹ then there shall be a place which Jehovah your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. There you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Jehovah. ¹² And you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God; you, your sons, your daughters, your menservants, your female servants, and the Levite that is within your gates (because he has no part nor inheritance with you). ¹³ Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see. ¹⁴ But in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵ However, with all your soul's desire you shall sacrifice and eat flesh in all your gates, according to the blessing of Jehovah your God which He has given you, the clean and the unclean, one may eat, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart. ¹⁶ Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat inside your gates the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the first-born of your herds or of your flock, or any of your vows which you vow, or your free-will offerings or the heave offering of your hand. ¹⁸ But you must eat them before Jehovah your God in the place which Jehovah your God shall choose; you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite within your gates. And you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God in all that you put your hand to. ¹⁹ Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live on the earth.

²⁰ When Jehovah your God shall make your border larger, as He has promised you, and you shall say, I will eat flesh, because your soul longs to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, whatever your soul desires. ²¹ If the place which Jehovah your God has chosen to put His name there is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock which Jehovah has given you, as I have commanded you, and you shall eat in your gates whatever your soul desires. ²² Even as the gazelle and the hart is eaten, so you shall eat them. The unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. ²³ Only 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. ²⁴ You shall not eat it. You shall pour it on the earth like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, when you shall do what is right in the sight of Jehovah.

²⁶ Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Jehovah shall choose. ²⁷ And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Jehovah your God. And the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Jehovah your God, and you shall eat the flesh. ²⁸ Be careful to hear all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your sons after you forever, when you do the good and right in the sight of Jehovah your God.

²⁹ When Jehovah your God shall cut off the nations before you, where you go to possess them, and you take their place and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take heed to yourself that you do not become snared by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I too may do likewise? ³¹ You shall not do so to Jehovah your God. For every abomination to Jehovah, which He hates, they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods. ³² All the things I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

¹ If a prophet rises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder which he foretold to you occurs, saying, Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them, ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For Jehovah your God is testing you to know whether you love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall walk after Jehovah your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. ⁵ And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken to turn you away from Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, to thrust you out of the way in which Jehovah your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put the evil away from the midst of you.

⁶ If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is like your own soul, lures you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, ⁷ that is, of the gods of the people who are around you, near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth, ⁸ you shall not consent to him nor listen to him. Nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare, nor shall you hide him. ⁹ But you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ And you shall stone him with stones so that he dies, because he has sought to drive you away from Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves. ¹¹ And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this among you.

¹² If, in one of your cities which Jehovah your God has given you to dwell in, you shall hear one saying, ¹³ Men, the sons of Belial, have gone out from among you and have drawn away those who live in their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, ¹⁴ then you shall inquire and make search, and ask carefully. And behold, if it is true, and the thing is certain, that such an abomination is done among you, ¹⁵ you shall surely strike those who live in that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it completely, and all that is in it, and all the cattle of it, with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ And you shall gather all its spoil into the middle of its street, and shall burn the city with fire, and all its spoil, every bit of it, for Jehovah your God. And it shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. ¹⁷ And let nothing of the cursed thing cling to your hand, so that Jehovah may turn from the heat of His anger and show you mercy, and give mercies to you, and multiply you as He has sworn to your fathers, ¹⁸ when you listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do the right in the eyes of Jehovah your God.

¹ You are the sons of Jehovah your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. ² For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations that are on the earth.

³ You shall not eat any hateful thing. ⁴ These are the animals which you shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, ⁵ the hart, and the gazelle, and the roe deer, and the wild goat, and the mountain goat, and the wild ox, and the mountain-sheep.

⁶ And every animal that divides the hoof, and divides it into two hooves, and chews the cud among the animals, that you shall eat. ⁷ But these you shall not eat, of those which chew the cud, or of those that divide the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the rock badger, for they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof. They are unclean to you. ⁸ And the swine, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their dead body.

⁹ These you shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales you shall eat. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat. It is unclean to you. ¹¹ You shall eat all clean birds. ¹² But you shall not eat of these: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, ¹³ and the hawk, and the falcon, and the vulture after its kind, ¹⁴ and every raven after its kind, ¹⁵ and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind, ¹⁶ the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, ¹⁷ and the pelican, and the owl, and the cormorant, ¹⁸ and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹ And every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat all clean fowls.

²¹ You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You shall give it to the stranger that is in your gates, so that he may eat it. Or you may sell it to a stranger. For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

²² You shall truly tithe all the increase of your seed that the field brings forth year by year. ²³ And you shall eat before Jehovah your God in the place which He shall choose to place His name there, the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first-born of your herds and of your flocks, so that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always. ²⁴ And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, or if the place is too far from you, which Jehovah your God shall choose to set His name there, when Jehovah your God has blessed you, ²⁵ then you shall turn it into silver and bind up the silver in your hand, and shall go to the place which Jehovah your God shall choose. ²⁶ And you shall pay that silver for whatever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul desires. And you shall eat there before Jehovah your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household ²⁷ and the Levite within your gates, you shall not forsake him, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

²⁸ At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase the same year, and shall lay it up inside your gates. ²⁹ And the Levite, because he has no part nor inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are inside your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied, so that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

¹ At the end of every seven years you shall make a release. ² And this is the manner of the release. Every man who has a loan to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not exact it from his neighbor, or from his brother, because it is called Jehovah's release. ³ You may exact it from a foreigner, but your hand shall release that which is yours with your brother,

⁴ except when there shall be no poor among you. For Jehovah shall greatly bless you in the land which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, ⁵ only if you carefully listen to the voice of Jehovah your God to be careful to do all these commandments which I command you today. ⁶ For Jehovah your God blesses you as He promised you. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

⁷ If there is among you a poor man of one of your brothers inside any of your gates in your land which Jehovah your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother. ⁸ But you shall open your hand wide to him, and shall surely lend him enough for his need, that which he lacks. ⁹ Beware that there is not a thought in your wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye may be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing. And he may cry to Jehovah against you, and it is sin to you. ¹⁰ You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing Jehovah your God shall bless you in all your works, and in all that you put your hand to. ¹¹ For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command you saying, You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy, in your land.

¹² If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ¹³ And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty. ¹⁴ You shall richly bestow on him from your flock, and from your grain floor, and from your winepress; with what Jehovah your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. ¹⁵ And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. ¹⁶ And if he says to you, I will not go away from you, because he loves you and your house, because it has been good for him with you; ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and put it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. And also to your slave-girl you shall do so. ¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away from you free, for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. And Jehovah your God shall bless you in all that you do.

¹⁹ All the first-born males that come from your herd and from your flock, you shall set apart to Jehovah your God. You shall do no work with the first-born of your bull, nor shear the first-born of your sheep. ²⁰ You shall eat before Jehovah your God year by year in the place which Jehovah shall choose, you and your household. ²¹ And if there is a blemish in it, lame, or blindness, or any ill blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God. ²² You shall eat it inside your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart.