5
But you shall seek
1the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,
6
and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,
2your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the
3firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
7
And
4there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and
5you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8
“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today,
6everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,
9
for you have not as yet come to
7the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.
10
But when
8you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit,
9and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,
11
then to
10the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,
11your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord.
12
And
12you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since
13he has no portion or inheritance with you.
13
14Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see,
14
but at
15the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire,
16according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.
17The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.
16
18Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
17
You may not eat within your towns
19the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present,
18
but
20you shall eat them before the Lord your God in
21the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And
22you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.
19
23Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20
“When the Lord your God
24enlarges your territory,
25as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat, ’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire.
21
If
26the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you,
27then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.
22
Just
28as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it.
29The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.
23
30Only be sure that you do not eat the blood,
31for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
24
You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
25
You shall not eat it,
32that all may go well with you and with your children after you,
33when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
26
But the
34holy things that are due from you, and
35your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to
36the place that the Lord will choose,
27
and
37offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat.
28
Be careful to obey all these words that I command you,
38that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Warning Against Idolatry
29 “When
39the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
30
take care
40that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? —that I also may do the same. ’
31
41You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every
42abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for
43they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32
“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.
44You shall not add to it or take from it.