One Place for Worship

1These are the statutes and ordinances that you⁺ shall be careful to observe in the land that YHWH, God of your fathers, is giving to you to possess all the days that you⁺ live on the earth.

2You⁺ shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you⁺ shall dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 3And you⁺ shall break down their altars and smash their pillars, and their Asherah poles you⁺ shall burn with the fire, and the carved images of their gods you⁺ shall cut down, and you⁺ shall destroy their names from that place. 4You⁺ shall not do thus to YHWH your⁺ God.

5For rather, unto the place where YHWH your⁺ God chooses out of all your⁺ tribes to establish His Name as His dwelling, you⁺ shall seek and you shall go there. 6And you⁺ shall bring there your⁺ burnt offerings, and your⁺ sacrifices, and your⁺ tithes, and the contributions of your⁺ hands, and your⁺ vowed offerings, and your⁺ freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your⁺ herds and your⁺ flocks. 7And you⁺ shall eat there before the face of YHWH your⁺ God, and you⁺ shall rejoice in all the sending out of your⁺ hands—you⁺ and your⁺ households—with which YHWH your God has blessed you.

8You⁺ shall not do at all as we are doing here today—every man, whatever is right in his own eyes. 9For you⁺ have not come as yet to the rest and the inheritance that YHWH your God is giving to you.

10And you⁺ will pass over the Jordan and dwell in the land that YHWH your⁺ God is giving you⁺ to inherit, and He will give rest to you⁺ from all your⁺ enemies round about, so that you⁺ dwell in safety, 11and there will be the place where YHWH your⁺ God chooses for His Name to dwell in it there; there you⁺ shall bring all that I command you⁺—your⁺ burnt offerings, and your⁺ sacrifices, your⁺ tithes, and the contributions of your⁺ hands, and all your choice offerings that you⁺ vow to YHWH. 12And you⁺ shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your⁺ God—you⁺, and your⁺ sons, and your⁺ daughters, and your⁺ menservants, and your⁺ maidservants, and the Levite who is within your⁺ gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you⁺.

13Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see. 14Indeed rather, in the place that YHWH chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15Nevertheless, whatever your soul desires, you may slaughter and eat flesh according to the blessing of YHWH your God that He has given you within all your gates. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle or the deer. 16Only the blood you⁺ shall not eat; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

17You must not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or your new wine, or your oil, or of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, or of any of your offerings that you vow, or of your freewill offerings, or of the contribution of your hand. 18Indeed rather, before the face of YHWH your God you must eat them in the place that YHWH your God in it chooses—you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the face of YHWH your God in all to which you put your hands. 19Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20When YHWH your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, “Let me eat flesh,” because you long to eat flesh, you may eat flesh of all the desire of your soul. 21If the place is too far from you where YHWH your God chooses to put His Name, you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock that which YHWH has given to you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates all the desire of your heart. 22Indeed, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them. The unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you may not eat the life with the flesh. 24You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you when you do what is right in the eyes of YHWH.

26Only the holy things that are to you, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place that YHWH chooses. 27And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of YHWH your God. And the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of YHWH your God, and you shall eat the flesh. 28Observe and obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, even to forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of YHWH your God.

A Warning against Idolatry
(Deuteronomy 4:15–31; Ezekiel 6:1–7)

29When YHWH your God cuts off the nations that you go to dispossess from before you, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods, and I also will do likewise?”

31You shall not do thus to YHWH your God, for every abomination to YHWH, which He hates, they have done to their gods. For even their sons and daughters they burn in the fire to their gods.

32The whole thing, whatever I command you⁺, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.