Deu 12:1-15 | ESV | STEP | These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord , the God of your fathers , has given you to possess , all the days that you live on the earth .

s[See ver. 5 above]

t[See ver. 6 above]

u[See ver. 7 above]

vSee Num. 18:20

w Lev. 17:3, 4; [1 Kgs. 12:28, 33]

x[See ver. 5 above]

y ch. 16:17

z ch. 14:5; 15:22

Deuteronomy 12:1-15

The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship

1 ^a“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, ^ball the days that you live on the earth. 2 ^cYou shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^don the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^etheir pillars and burn their ^fAsherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^gdestroy their name out of that place. 4 ^hYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek ⁱthe place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation ^{▼▼Or name as its habitation} there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^lfirstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And ^mthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ⁿyou 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, ^oeveryone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to ^pthe rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when ^qyou go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, ^rand when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to ^sthe 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, ^tyour tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And ^uyou 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 ^vhe has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 ^wTake care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at ^xthe 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, ^yaccording to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. ^zThe unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.