1These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow in the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess — as long as you live in the land.
2Completely destroy all the places on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every spreading tree where the nations you are driving out worship their gods.
3Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from those places.
4You must not worship the LORD your God in the way they worship their gods.
5Instead, seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his name and establish his dwelling. Go there,
6and bring there your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
7There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and rejoice in everything you have accomplished, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
8You must not do as we do here today — everyone doing whatever seems right in their own eyes —
9since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you.
10But when you cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and when he gives you rest from all the enemies around you so that you live in safety,
11then you must bring everything I command you to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name — your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the finest of your vow offerings that you make to the LORD.
12And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no portion or inheritance of their own.
13Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you like.
14Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes. There you must do everything I command you.
15Nevertheless, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your towns whenever you desire, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, like the meat of a gazelle or a deer.
16But you must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.
17You may not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain, new wine, and olive oil; the firstborn of your herds and flocks; any of your vow offerings, freewill offerings, or special gifts;
18instead, eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose — you, your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite from your town — and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God in everything you do.
19Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.
20When the LORD your God expands your territory, as he promised, and you say, 'I want to eat meat,' because you crave it, you may eat as much of it as you want.
21If the place the LORD your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, you may slaughter animals from your herds and flocks he has given you as I have commanded, and you may eat in your own towns as much as you want.
22Eat it as you would the meat of a gazelle or a deer. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it.
23But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
24Do not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.
25Do not eat it, so that things will go well for you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
26But take the sacred things you have and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.
27Present your burnt offerings — both the meat and the blood — on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar, but the meat may be eaten.
28Be careful to obey all these things I am commanding you, so that things will always go well for you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
29The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are going to dispossess, and when you have driven them out and settled in their land,
30be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.'
31You must not worship the LORD your God in the way they worship their gods, because they do every detestable thing the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
32See that you do everything I command you. Do not add to it or subtract from it.