Deuteronomy 12
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition
Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed
12 These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.
2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. 3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles[a] with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways. 5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there, 6 bringing there your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. 7 And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, 9 for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety, 11 then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).
A Prescribed Place of Worship
13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt-offerings at any place you happen to see. 14 But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt-offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.
15 Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer. 16 The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. 17 Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, or your oil, the firstlings of your herds or your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill-offerings, or your donations; 18 these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings. 19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I am going to eat some meat’, because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire. 21 If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat. 24 Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose. 27 You shall present your burnt-offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside[b] the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.
28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today,[c] so that it may go well with you and with your children after you for ever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Warning against Idolatry
29 When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land, 30 take care that you are not ensnared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same.’ 31 You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 [d] You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 12:3 Heb Asherim
- Deuteronomy 12:27 Or on
- Deuteronomy 12:28 Gk Sam Syr: MT lacks today
- Deuteronomy 12:32 Ch 13.1 in Heb
Deuteronomy 12
New Catholic Bible
The Deuteronomic Code[a]
Chapter 12
One Place of Worship.[b] 1 These are the statutes and the decrees that you must be careful to observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you as an inheritance for the whole time that you live upon the earth. 2 You must totally destroy all the places where the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, whether they be on the high mountains or upon the hills or under every green tree. 3 You are to overturn their altars and break their sacred pillars. You must burn their wooden idols in fires, you must cut down their carved idols and obliterate their names from that place. 4 This is not the way that you are to worship the Lord, your God.
5 You are to seek out the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen from among all the tribes to be where you shall place his name and establish his dwelling. This is where you are to go 6 to bring your burnt offering, your sacrifices, your tithes, your wave offerings, what you have vowed to give as a freewill offering, and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. 7 There you and your families will eat before the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice at everything you have put your hand to, for the Lord, your God, will have blessed you. 8 You are not to do things the way we do them today, that each person does as he sees fit, 9 for you have not yet come to your resting place, the inheritance that the Lord, your God, is giving you. 10 But when you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance, a place where he will give you peace from all the enemies who surround you so that you can live in safety, 11 then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen for the dwelling place of his name: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your wave offerings, and all of your choice vow offerings that you have vowed onto the Lord. 12 You and your sons and daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite who lives in your town (for he has no claim to your inheritance) will rejoice before the Lord, your God.
13 Make sure that you do not offer burnt offerings any place you might happen to see, 14 but you are to offer burnt offerings in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There you are to fulfill all that I command you to do.
15 Permissible Slaughter. Nevertheless, you can slaughter animals and eat meat within your town gates with the blessing that the Lord, your God, gives you, as much as you desire. The clean and the unclean may eat of it, the gazelle and the roebuck alike. 16 Only you are not to consume its blood; you are to pour it on the ground as if it were water.[c]
17 You are not to eat the following things within your town gates: the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil, the firstborn of the herds or flocks, any of the vow offerings you have offered with a vow, any freewill offering and any wave offering. 18 You are to eat these before the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, and the Levite who lives in your town. You are to rejoice before the Lord, your God, in all of your undertakings.
19 Take heed not to forsake the Levite for as long as you live in the land. 20 When the Lord, your God, enlarges your boundaries, as he has promised that he will do, and you say to yourself, “I am going to eat some meat,”[d] because you feel like eating some meat, you can eat as much meat as you desire.
21 If the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen to put his name is too far from where you are living, you can kill any animal from the herd or the flock that the Lord has given you, just as I have instructed you. You can eat as much as you want of it within your town gates. 22 You can eat them like you would eat the gazelle or the roebuck. Both the unclean and the clean can eat of it. 23 Only be careful that you do not consume the blood, for the blood is its life. You are not to eat the life with the meat. 24 You are not to consume the blood; you are to pour it on the ground as if it were water. 25 You are not to eat it, so that things may turn out well for you and your children after you, for you will be doing the right thing from the Lord’s point of view.
26 Take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place that the Lord has chosen. 27 Present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord, your God. You are to pour the blood out on the altar of the Lord, your God, but you can eat the meat. 28 Take heed to observe all of the things that I have commanded you, that things may go well with you and your children forever, when you do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, your God. 29 The Lord, your God, will cut down the nations of the place where you are going before you so that you can dispossess them. When you take their place and settle in their land 30 and they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by asking questions about their gods such as, “How did these nations serve their gods? We should do the same thing as they did.” 31 You shall not do these things to the Lord, your God. They have worshiped their gods with every kind of abomination that the Lord hates. They have even offered their sons and daughters as burnt sacrifices to their gods.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 12:1 By means of its liturgy the people of God seek to establish a lifegiving relationship with God. Deuteronomy does not mean to suppress all other liturgical activity; the point is that worship must express the faith of the entire people. It is enough that any deviations be avoided and that every trace of pagan practices be rejected.
- Deuteronomy 12:1 In the sanctuaries that had been built in various parts of the country the ceremonies were often contaminated by the Canaanite religion. To get rid of these pagan deviations and to strengthen the religious and political unity of the people, Deuteronomy requires the suppression of these sanctuaries, some of which had played an important role in Israel’s past, even though they had originally been pagan. This centralization of worship in the place determined by God, namely, the Jerusalem temple, goes back probably to the time of the great reform of King Josiah at the end of the seventh century (2 Ki 22–23), but it is here attributed to Moses, who had inspired Israel’s life of worship. As a result of this centralization, certain everyday actions such as the slaughtering of animals, which had hitherto been done at the sanctuaries, would be done by each individual at home and would therefore no longer have a sacral character (Deut 12:15).
- Deuteronomy 12:16 Blood is life and belongs to God (see v. 23; Gen 9:4).
- Deuteronomy 12:20 Eat some meat: this indicates the freedom to choose to eat meat when the people entered Canaan instead of only the manna they were forced to eat in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 12
1599 Geneva Bible
12 3 To destroy the idolatrous places. 5, 8 To serve God where he commandeth, and as he commandeth, and not as men fantasize. 19 The Levites must be nourished. 31 Idolaters burnt their children to their gods, to add nothing to God’s word.
1 These are the ordinances and the laws, which ye shall observe and do in the land, (which the Lord God [a]of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it) as long as ye live upon the earth.
2 (A)Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess, served their gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree.
3 (B)Also ye shall overthrow their altars, and break down their pillars, and burn their [b]groves with fire: and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and abolish their names out of that place.
4 Ye shall [c]not do so unto the Lord your God,
5 But ye shall seek the place which the Lord your God shall (C)choose out of your tribes, to put his Name there, and there to dwell, and thither thou shalt come,
6 And ye shall bring thither your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the [d]offering of your hands, and your vows, and your free offerings, and the firstborn of your kine and of your sheep.
7 And there ye shall eat [e]before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, both ye, and your households, because the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.
8 Ye shall not do after all these things that we do [f]here this day: that is, every man whatsoever seemeth him good in his own eyes.
9 For ye are not yet come to rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
10 But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land, which the Lord your God hath given you to inherit, and when he hath given you [g]rest from all your enemies round about, and ye dwell in safety,
11 When there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, thither shall ye bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the offering of your hands, and all your [h]special vows which ye vow unto the Lord:
12 And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons and your daughters, and your servants, and your maidens, and the Levite that is within your gates: (D)for he hath no part nor inheritance with you.
13 Take heed that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:
14 But in the place which the Lord shall [i]choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.
15 Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thine heart desireth, according to the [j]blessing of the Lord thy God which he had given thee: both the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, [k]as of the roebuck, and of the hart.
16 Only ye shall not eat the blood, but pour it upon the earth as water.
17 ¶ Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the [l]tithe of thy corn, nor of thy wine, nor of thine oil, nor the firstborn of thy kine, nor of thy sheep, neither any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy free offerings, nor the offering of thine hands,
18 But thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy servant, and thy maid, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, in all that thou puttest thine hand to.
19 Beware, that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth.
20 ¶ When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as (E)he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh (because thine heart longeth to eat flesh) thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thine heart desireth.
21 If the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to put his Name there, be far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy bullocks, and of thy sheep which the Lord hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates, whatsoever thine heart desireth.
22 But as the roebuck, and the hart is eaten, so shalt thou eat them: both the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.
23 Only be [m]sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood [n]is the life, and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.
24 Therefore thou shalt not eat it, but pour it upon the earth as water.
25 Thou shalt not eat it, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord:
26 But thine [o]holy things which thou hast, and thy vows thou shalt take up, and come unto the place which the Lord shall choose.
27 And thou shalt make thy burnt offerings of the flesh, and of the blood upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and the blood of thine offerings shall be poured upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.
28 Take heed, and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go [p]well with thee, and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.
29 ¶ When the Lord thy God shall destroy the nations before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou shalt possess them and dwell in their land,
30 Beware, lest thou be taken in [q]snare after them, after that they be destroyed before thee, and lest thou ask after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I may do so likewise?
31 Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for all abomination, which the Lord hateth, have they done unto their gods: for they have [r]burned both their sons and their daughters with fire to their gods.
32 Therefore whatsoever I command you, take heed you do it: (F)thou shalt put nothing thereto, nor take ought therefrom.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 12:1 Whereby they are admonished to seek none other God.
- Deuteronomy 12:3 Wherein they sacrificed to their idols.
- Deuteronomy 12:4 Ye shall not serve the Lord with superstitions.
- Deuteronomy 12:6 Meaning, the firstfruits.
- Deuteronomy 12:7 Where his Ark shall be.
- Deuteronomy 12:8 Not that they sacrificed after their fantasies, but that God would be served more purely in the land of Canaan.
- Deuteronomy 12:10 It had not been enough to conquer, except God had maintained them in rest under his protection.
- Deuteronomy 12:11 Or, that which ye choose out for your vows.
- Deuteronomy 12:14 As was declared ever by the placing of the Ark, as in Shiloh 243 years, or as some write more than 300 years, and in other places till the temple was built.
- Deuteronomy 12:15 As God hath given thee power and ability.
- Deuteronomy 12:15 Everyone might eat at home as well the beast appointed for sacrifice, as the other.
- Deuteronomy 12:17 Meaning, whatsoever was offered to the Lord, might not be eaten, but where he had appointed.
- Deuteronomy 12:23 Hebrew, be strong or constant.
- Deuteronomy 12:23 Because the life of beasts is in their blood.
- Deuteronomy 12:26 That which thou wilt offer in sacrifice.
- Deuteronomy 12:28 God by promise bindeth himself to do good to them that obey his word.
- Deuteronomy 12:30 By following their superstitions and idolatries, and thinking to serve me thereby.
- Deuteronomy 12:31 They thought nothing too dear to offer to their idols.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
