DEUTERONOMY - Chapter 12

"These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which YAHWEH Elohim of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.

"You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship YAHWEH your Elohim with such things.

"But you shall seek the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before YAHWEH your Elohim, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which YAHWEH your Elohim has blessed you.

"You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving you.

But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to YAHWEH. And you shall rejoice before YAHWEH your Elohim, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

"Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which YAHWEH chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

"However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of YAHWEH your Elohim which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

"You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before YAHWEH your Elohim in the place which YAHWEH your Elohim chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before YAHWEH your Elohim in all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

"When YAHWEH your Elohim enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.

"If the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which YAHWEH has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of YAHWEH.

"Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which YAHWEH chooses. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of YAHWEH your Elohim; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of YAHWEH your Elohim, and you shall eat the meat.

"Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of YAHWEH your Elohim.

"When YAHWEH your Elohim cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship YAHWEH your Elohim in that way; for every abomination to YAHWEH which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

"Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it."

Chapter 13

"If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods'—which you have not known—'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for YAHWEH your Elohim is testing you to know whether you love YAHWEH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.

"You shall walk after YAHWEH your Elohim and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from YAHWEH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which YAHWEH your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.

"If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from YAHWEH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

"If you hear someone in one of your cities, which YAHWEH your Elohim gives you to dwell in, saying, 'Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods"'—which you have not known—then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for YAHWEH your Elohim. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.

"So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that YAHWEH may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, because you have listened to the voice of YAHWEH your Elohim, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of YAHWEH your Elohim.

Chapter 14

"You are the children of YAHWEH your Elohim; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to YAHWEH your Elohim, and YAHWEH has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

"You shall not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you.

"Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.

"These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

"All clean birds you may eat. But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; every raven after its kind; the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

"Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

"You may eat all clean birds.

"You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to YAHWEH your Elohim. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

"You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before YAHWEH your Elohim, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear YAHWEH your Elohim always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to put His name is too far from you, when YAHWEH your Elohim has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which YAHWEH your Elohim chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before YAHWEH your Elohim, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

"At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that YAHWEH your Elohim may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

HalleluYah!