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

¹ These are the statutes and the judgments you should carefully observe in the land Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. ² Destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ Tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles with fire. Cut down the carved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴ Do not worship Jehovah your God with such things. ⁵ You should seek Jehovah at the place Jehovah your God chooses out of all your tribes. This is where he will dwell and establish his name. This is where you should go. ⁶ There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ You and your households should eat there before Jehovah your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings that Jehovah your God has blessed.

⁸ Do not behave the way we do here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross the Jordan and live in the land Jehovah your God gives you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security. ¹¹ It will happen in the place Jehovah choose for his name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you. Bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice vowed offerings that you will vow to Jehovah. ¹² Rejoice (be filled with joy) before Jehovah your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male 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 every place you see, ¹⁴ but in the place Jehovah chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵ In whatever city you live, you may slaughter and eat as much meat as you want from what Jehovah your God has blessed you with. Clean and unclean people may eat it as if they were eating a gazelle or a deer. ¹⁶ Never eat the blood. Pour it on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat Jehovah's offerings in your cities. Those offerings are: one-tenth of your grain, new wine, and olive oil; the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, or goats; the offerings you vow to bring; your freewill offerings; and your contributions. ¹⁸ You and your sons and daughters, male and female slaves, and the Levites who live in your cities must eat these in the presence of Jehovah your God at the place he will choose. There in the presence of Jehovah your God enjoy everything for which you have worked. ¹⁹ Remember to take care of the Levites as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ Jehovah your God will expand your country's borders as he promised. You will say: I am hungry for meat. Then eat as much meat as you want. ²¹ If the place Jehovah your God chooses to put his name is too far away from you, you may slaughter an animal from the herds or flocks that Jehovah has given you. Eat as much as you want in your city. I have commanded you to do this. ²² Eat it as you would eat a gazelle or a deer. Clean and unclean people may eat it together. ²³ Make sure you never eat blood, because blood contains life. Never eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ Never eat blood! Pour it on the ground like water. ²⁵ If you do not eat blood, things will go well for you and your descendants. You will be doing what Jehovah considers right.

²⁶ Take the holy things and the offerings you have vowed to bring, and go to the place Jehovah will choose. ²⁷ Sacrifice the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of Jehovah your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out beside the altar of Jehovah your God, but you may eat the meat. ²⁸ If you obey these laws, you will be doing what Jehovah your God says is right and good. Then he will help you and your descendants succeed.

²⁹ Israel, Jehovah will get rid of the nations you attack. You may have their land. ³⁰ Be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, for they will be destroyed. Do not inquire after their gods, saying: How do these nations serve their gods that I also may do likewise? ³¹ Do not behave this way toward Jehovah your God, for every abominable act Jehovah hates they have done for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. ³² Be careful to do what I command you. Do not add to it nor take away from it.

¹ If a prophet or an interpreter of dreams appears among you and gives you a sign or a wonder (portent) (omen) (forecast of the future), ² in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshiped before, and even if what they promise comes true, ³ do not listen to them. Jehovah your God is allowing them to test you. He will then know that you love Jehovah with all your heart. ⁴ Follow Jehovah and respect him. Obey him and keep his commandments. Worship him and be faithful to him (stick to him) (stay close to him) (cleave, cling to him). ⁵ Put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets that tell you to rebel against Jehovah. For he (Jehovah) rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that Jehovah has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to get rid of this evil.

⁶ If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your very best friend tries to secretly entice you, saying: 'Let us go and serve other gods, gods neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷ the gods of the people who are around you from one end of the earth to the other end.' ⁸ Do not yield to him or listen to him. Your eye should not have pity on him. You should not spare or conceal him. ⁹ You must kill him! Your hand should be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ Stone him to death because he has sought to draw you away from Jehovah your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹ All Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

¹² If you hear in one of the cities Jehovah has given you, anyone saying that ¹³ some worthless men have gone out from among you and have mislead the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let us go and serve other gods you have not known. ¹⁴ Investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you, ¹⁵ strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ Gather all its treasure into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its treasure with fire as a whole burnt offering to Jehovah your God. It shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Do not take anything that is put under ban. If you comply (obey), Jehovah may turn from his burning anger and show mercy to you. He may have compassion on you and make you increase, just as he swore to your fathers. ¹⁸ Listen to the voice of Jehovah your God. Obey all his commandments that I am commanding you today. Do what is right in the sight of Jehovah your God.

¹ You are the sons of Jehovah your God. Do not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. ² You are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Out of all the people on the face of the earth Jehovah has chosen you to be a people for His own possession.

³ Do not eat any detestable thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope (chamois) and the mountain sheep.

⁶ You may eat any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud. ⁷ Do not eat of these that chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan. Even though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof. They are unclean for you. ⁸ The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

⁹ These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat. ¹⁰ Do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you. ¹¹ You may eat any clean bird. ¹² These are the ones you should not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, ¹³ and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, ¹⁴ and every raven in its kind, ¹⁵ and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds, ¹⁶ the swan, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹ And all the teeming life with wings is unclean to you. Do not eat them. ²⁰ You may eat any clean bird.

²¹ Do not eat anything that dies by itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your town, so that he may eat it. You may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

²² You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. ²³ You shall eat in the presence of Jehovah your God, at the place where He chooses to establish his name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to respect Jehovah your God always. ²⁴ The place Jehovah your God will choose to put his name may be too far away. He may bless you with so much that you cannot carry the tithe of your income that far. ²⁵ If so, exchange the tenth part of your income for silver. Take the silver with you, and go to the place Jehovah your God will choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy whatever you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, liquor-whatever you choose. Then you and your family will eat and enjoy yourselves there in the presence of Jehovah your God. ²⁷ Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns. They have no property of their own.

²⁸ At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns. ²⁹ This food is for the Levites, since they own no property, and for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They are to come and get all they need. Do this, and Jehovah your God will bless you in everything you do.

¹ Release all debts at the end of every seven years. ² This is how you should release. Every man who has a loan to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not require it from his neighbor, or from his brother, because it is called Jehovah's release. ³ You may collect from a foreigner, but your hand should release that debt which is yours with your brother.

⁴ There should not be any poor people among you. Jehovah your God will certainly bless you in the land he is giving you as your own possession. ⁵ He will bless you only if you listen carefully to Jehovah your God and faithfully obey all these commandments I give you today. ⁶ Jehovah your God will bless you, as he promised. You will make loans to many nations. But you will not have to borrow from any of them. You will rule many nations. But no nation will ever rule over you.

⁷ This is what you must do whenever there are poor Israelites in one of your cities in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. ⁸ Be generous to these poor people. Freely lend them as much as they need. Never be hardhearted and stingy with them. ⁹ When the seventh year, the year when payments on debts are canceled, is near, you might be stingy toward poor Israelites and give them nothing. Be careful not to think these worthless thoughts. The poor will complain to Jehovah about you, and you will be condemned for your sin. ¹⁰ Give the poor what they need, because then Jehovah will make you successful in everything you do. ¹¹ There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy. That is why I am commanding you to be generous with them.

¹² If you buy Israelites (your own brothers) as slaves, you must set them free after six years. ¹³ Do not send him away empty handed when you set him free. ¹⁴ Supply him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat. Give to him as Jehovah your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this today! ¹⁶ If he says to you: I will not leave you. If it is because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you, ¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door. He will be your servant for a very long time. You should do likewise to your maidservant. ¹⁸ It should not seem hard to you when you set him free. After all he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man. Jehovah your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹ To Jehovah your God you shall consecrate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰ You and your household shall eat it every year before Jehovah your God in the place Jehovah chooses. ²¹ If it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God. ²² Eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as a gazelle or a deer.