Deuteronomy 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1406 BC, opening the detailed law code that occupies the middle of the book
Location
the plains of Moab, with instructions aimed at life across the Jordan in Canaan once the land is settled
Audience
Israelites preparing to live among Canaanite neighbours and their long established shrines
Situation
Moses commands the destruction of local worship sites and orders that sacrifices be brought to one place that God will choose, while permitting ordinary meat to be slaughtered and eaten in any town.
Key Background
Canaanite worship centred on high places, standing stones and sacred poles scattered across the countryside, so ordering a single sanctuary was a deliberate break with the region's normal religious geography and a way of keeping worship from splintering into local cults. Before this, killing an animal for food had been treated as a sacrificial act, so the new permission to slaughter for meat at home was a practical concession once the sanctuary might be days away. The repeated ban on consuming blood rests on the idea that life itself is in the blood, which is why it had to be poured out on the ground rather than eaten.
These are the and you must carefully follow in the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess — for as long as you live on this earth.
You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you're driving out worshiped their gods — on the on the hills, and under every large green tree.
Tear down their altars, smash their burn their chop down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from those places.
You must not worship Yahweh your God the way they worship their gods.
Instead, go to the place Yahweh your God will choose from among all your tribal territories to and make it home. That's where you must go.
Bring your and your sacrificial meals there, your the gifts you set aside, your vow your voluntary and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
There, in the presence of Yahweh your God, you and your families will eat and everything you've worked for, because Yahweh your God has brought good things to you.
You must not keep doing things the way we're doing them here today — where everyone does to them.
That's because you haven't yet arrived at the and the that Yahweh your God is giving you.
But once you cross the and settle in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as your inheritance, and he gives you rest from all your enemies on every side so that you live in safety —
then to the place that Yahweh your God will choose as the home for his name — that's where you must bring everything I'm commanding you: your burnt your sacrificial meals, your tenth-portion contributions, the gifts you set aside, and all your that you promise to Yahweh.
And you will celebrate there in the presence of Yahweh your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the who lives in your town, since he has no allotment or inheritance of his own among you.
Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings just anywhere you feel like it.
Only at the place Yahweh will choose in one of your tribal territories—that's where you must offer your burnt offerings, and that's where you must do everything I'm commanding you.
However, whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your towns, as much as Yahweh your God provides for you. Anyone may eat it — whether they are or not — just as you would eat gazelle or deer.
But you must not eat the Pour it out on the ground like water.
You may not eat within your own towns the tenth-portion of your grain, or olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or any of your vow offerings, voluntary offerings, or the gifts you set aside.
Instead, you must eat these in the presence of Yahweh your God, at the place Yahweh your God will choose—you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite who lives in your town. And you will celebrate in the presence of Yahweh your God over everything you've put your hands to.
Be careful not to neglect the Levite for as long as you live in your land.
When Yahweh God as he promised you, and you say, 'I'd like to eat some meat,' because you're craving it — then you may eat as much meat as you want.
If the place where Yahweh your God chooses to establish his name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any animal from the herd or flock that Yahweh has given you, just as I've commanded you, and eat it in your own town whenever you want.
Eat it the same way you'd eat gazelle or deer—anyone may eat it, whether ritually qualified or not.
Just be absolutely sure you don't eat the blood, because the blood is the and you must not eat the along with the meat.
Don't eat it. Pour it out on the ground like water.
Don't eat it — so that things will go well for you and your children after you, because you'll be doing what is in
But you have for along with the offerings you vowed, you must pick up and carry to the place Yahweh will choose.
Present your burnt offerings — the meat and the blood — on the of Yahweh your God. The blood of your other sacrificial meals must be poured out beside the of Yahweh your God, but you may eat the meat.
Guard and obey all these instructions I'm giving you, so that things will always go well for you and your children after you, because you'll be doing what is and in the eyes of Yahweh your God.
When Yahweh your God wipes out the nations ahead of you as you go in to take over their land, and you drive them out and settle in their territory—
be careful you don't get into following their ways after they've been destroyed ahead of you. Don't go investigating their gods, asking, 'How did these nations worship their gods? I want to do the same thing.'
You must not worship Yahweh your God their way, because every that Yahweh despises they have done for their gods. They even their own and in the as offerings to their gods.
Everything I'm commanding you — be careful to do it. to it, and from it.