The Place for Worshiping God

12 “These are the laws and rules that you must obey in your new land. You must carefully obey these laws as long as you live in this land. The Lord is the God of your ancestors.* And the Lord is giving this land to you. ²You will take that land from the nations that live there now. You must completely destroy all the places where the people of these nations worship their gods. These places are on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees. ³You must smash their altars* and break their stone memorials* into pieces. You must burn their Asherah poles* and cut down the statues of their gods. ⁴“You must not worship the Lord your God in the same way that those people worship their gods. ⁵The Lord your God will choose a special place among your family groups. The Lord will put his name there. That will be his special house. You must go to that place to worship him. ⁶There you must bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one tenth of your crops and animals,* your special gifts, any gifts you promised to the Lord, any special gift you want to give, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks. ⁷You and your families will eat together at that place, and the Lord your God will be there with you. At that place, you will enjoy sharing the things you worked for. You will remember that the Lord your God blessed you and gave you those good things. ⁸“You must not continue to worship the way we have been worshiping. Until now, each of us has been worshiping God any way we wanted. ⁹Why? Because we have not yet entered the peaceful land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰But you will go across the Jordan River and live in that land. The Lord is giving that land to you. And the Lord will give you rest from all your enemies. You will be safe. ¹¹Then the Lord will choose a place to be his special house. The Lord will put his name there. And you must bring all the things I command you to that place. Bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one tenth of your crops and animals,* your special gifts, any gifts you promised to the Lord, and the first animals born in your herd and flock. ¹²Come to that place with all your people—your children, all your servants, and the Levites* living in your towns. (These Levites will not have a share of the land for their own.) Enjoy yourselves together there with the Lord your God. ¹³Be sure you don’t offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see. ¹⁴The Lord will choose his special place among your family groups. Offer your burnt offerings and do all the other things I told you only in that place. ¹⁵“Wherever you live you may kill and eat any good animals, like gazelles and deer. You may eat as much of the meat as you want, as much as the Lord your God gives to you. Any person may eat this meat—people who are clean* and people who are unclean.* ¹⁶But you must not eat the blood. You must pour the blood on the ground like water. ¹⁷“There are some things you must not eat in the places where you live. These things are: the part of your grain that belongs to God, the part of your new wine and oil that belongs to God, the first animals born in your herd or flock, any gift that you promised to God, any special gifts you want to give or any other gifts for God. ¹⁸You must eat those offerings only at the place where the Lord your God will be together with you—the special place that the Lord your God will choose. You must go there and eat together with your sons, your daughters, all your servants, and the Levites* living in your towns. Enjoy yourselves there with the Lord your God. Enjoy the things you have worked for. ¹⁹But be sure that you always share these meals with the Levites. Do this as long as you live in your land. ^20–21“The Lord your God promised to make your country larger. When the Lord does this, you might live too far from the place he chooses to be his special house. If it is too far, and you are hungry for meat, then you may eat any meat you have. You may kill any animal from the herd or flock that the Lord has given you. Do this the way I have commanded you. You may eat this meat there where you live any time you want. ²²You may eat this meat the same as you would eat gazelle or deer meat. Any person can do this—people who are clean* and people who are unclean.* ²³But be sure not to eat the blood. Why? Because the life is in the blood. And you must not eat meat that still has life in it. ²⁴Don’t eat the blood. You must pour the blood onto the ground like water. ²⁵So don’t eat blood. You must do everything that the Lord says is right. Then good things will happen to you and to your descendants.* ²⁶“If you decide to give something special to God, then you must go to the special place that the Lord your God will choose. And if you make a special promise, then you must go to that place to give that gift to God. ²⁷You must offer your burnt offerings in that place. Offer the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar* of the Lord your God. For your other sacrifices, you must pour the blood on the altar of the Lord your God. Then you may eat the meat. ²⁸Be careful to obey all the commands that I give you. When you do the things that are good and right—the things that please the Lord your God—then everything will go well for you and for your descendants* forever. ²⁹“You are going to take your land from other people. The Lord your God will destroy those people for you. You will force those people out of that land, and you will live there. ³⁰After that happens, be careful! You will destroy those people. So don’t fall into the trap of worshiping their false gods. Be careful! Don’t go to those false gods for help. Don’t say, ‘Those people worshiped these gods, so I will worship that way too!’ ³¹Don’t do that to the Lord your God! {Don’t worship God like that! Why?} Because those people do all kinds of bad things that the Lord hates. They even burn their children as sacrifices to their gods! ³²“You must be careful to do everything I command you. Don’t add anything to the things I tell you, and don’t take anything away.

ancestors Literally, “fathers,” meaning a person’s parents, grandparents, and all the people they are descended from. altar(s) A table or raised area used for offering sacrifices. memorial(s) Stones that were set up to help people remember the false gods they worshiped. Asherah poles Poles used to honor the goddess Asherah. People thought she could help them have many children. one tenth … animals Or, “tithes.” See Deut. 14:22–29. Levites People from the tribe of Levi. They helped the priests in the temple and worked for the civil government. clean Pure or acceptable to God for worship. unclean Not pure or not acceptable to God for worship. descendants A person’s children and their future families.

False Prophets

13 “A prophet or a person that explains dreams might come to you. He might tell you that he will show you a sign or a miracle. ²And the sign or miracle he told you about might come true. Then he might ask you to follow other gods (gods you don’t know). He might say to you, ‘Let’s serve those gods!’ ³Don’t listen to that person. Why? Because the Lord your God is testing you. The Lord wants to know if you love him with all your heart and all your soul. ⁴You must follow the Lord your God! Respect him. Obey the Lord’s commands, and do what he tells you. Serve the Lord, and never leave him! ⁵Also, you must kill that prophet or person that explains dreams. Why? Because he told you to turn against the Lord your God. And it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. That person tried to pull you away from the life the Lord your God commanded you to live. So you must kill that person to remove that evil from your people. ⁶“Someone close to you might secretly persuade you to worship other gods. It might be your own brother, your son, your daughter, the wife you love or your closest friend. That person might say, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods.’ (These are gods that you and your ancestors never knew. ⁷They are the gods of the people that live in the other lands around you, some near and some far away.) ⁸You must not agree with that person. Don’t listen to him. Don’t feel sorry for him. Don’t let him go free. And don’t protect him. ^9–10No! You must kill that person! You must kill him with stones. You be the first person to pick up stones and throw at him. Then all the people must throw stones to kill him. Why? Because that person tried to pull you away from the Lord your God. And it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹Then all the people of Israel will hear and be afraid. And they will not do those evil things any more.

Cities that Must Be Destroyed

¹²“The Lord your God has given you cities to live in. Sometimes you might hear some bad news about one of these cities. You might hear that ¹³some bad people in your own nation are persuading the people of their city to do bad things. They might say to the people of their city, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods.’ (These gods would be gods that you never knew before.) ¹⁴If you hear this kind of news, you must do all you can to learn if it is true. If you learn that it is true—if you prove that such a terrible thing really did happen—¹⁵then you must punish the people of that city. You must kill them all. And kill all their animals, too. You must destroy that city completely. ¹⁶Then you must gather all the valuable things and take them to the center of the city and burn the city and everything in it. It will be a burnt offering to the Lord your God. The city must become an empty pile of rocks forever. That city must never be built again. ¹⁷Everything in that city must be given to God to be destroyed. So you must not keep any of the things for yourselves. If you follow this command, then the Lord will stop being so angry at you. The Lord will be kind to you. He will feel sorry for you. He will let your nation grow larger, like he promised your ancestors.* ¹⁸This will happen if you listen to the Lord your God—if you obey all his commands that I give you today. You must do the things that the Lord your God says are right.

ancestors Literally, “fathers,” meaning a person’s parents, grandparents, and all the people they are descended from.

Israel, God’s Special People

14 “You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, you must not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness. ²Why? Because you are different from other people. You are the Lord’s special people. From all the people in the world, the Lord your God chose you to be his own special people.

Food the Israelites Are Allowed to Eat

³“Don’t eat anything that the Lord hates. ⁴You may eat these animals: cows, sheep, goats, ⁵deer, gazelles, roe deer, wild sheep, wild goats, antelopes, and mountain sheep. ⁶You may eat any animal that has hooves* divided into two parts and that chews the cud.* ⁷But don’t eat camels, rabbits or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but they don’t have split hooves. So those animals are not a clean* food for you. ⁸And you must not eat pigs. Their hooves are divided, but they don’t chew the cud. So pigs are not a clean food for you. Don’t eat any meat from pigs. Don’t even touch a pig’s dead body. ⁹“You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales. ¹⁰But don’t eat anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales. It is not a clean* food for you. ¹¹“You may eat any clean* bird. ¹²But don’t eat any of these birds: eagles, vultures, buzzards, ¹³red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, ¹⁴any kind of raven, ¹⁵horned owls, screech owls, sea gulls, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶little owls, great owls, white owls, ¹⁷desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes or bats. ¹⁹“All insects with wings are unclean.* So don’t eat them. ²⁰But you may eat any clean* bird. ²¹“Don’t eat any animal that has died by itself. You may give the dead animal to the foreigner in your town, and he can eat it. Or you may sell the dead animal to a foreigner. But you yourselves must not eat the dead animal. Why? Because you belong to the Lord your God. You are his special people. “Don’t cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving One Tenth

²²“Every year you must be sure to save one tenth of all the crops that grow in your fields. ²³Then you must go to the place the Lord chooses to be his special house. You will go there to be with the Lord your God. At that place you will eat the tenth of your crops—one tenth of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks. In this way, you will always remember to respect the Lord your God. ²⁴But that place might be too far for you to travel to. Maybe you will not be able to carry one tenth of all the crops that the Lord has blessed you with. If that happens, then ²⁵sell that part of your crops. Take the money with you and go to the special place that the Lord has chosen. ²⁶Use the money to buy anything you want—cows, sheep, wine or beer or any other food. Then you and your family should eat and enjoy yourselves there in that place with the Lord your God. ²⁷But don’t forget the Levites* living in your town. {Share your food with them} because they don’t have a share of the land like you have. ²⁸“At the end of every three years, you must gather one tenth of your harvest for that year. Store this food in your towns {where other people can use it}. ²⁹This food is for the Levites,* because they don’t have any land of their own. This food is also for other people in your towns that need it. That food is for foreigners, widows, and children that have no parents. If you do this, then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

hooves The hard part of the foot of certain animals. cud The food that is brought up from the stomach of some animals (like cows) and chewed again. clean Pure or acceptable for eating or for worship. unclean Not pure or not acceptable for eating or for worship. Levites People from the tribe of Levi. They helped the priests in the temple and worked for the civil government.