But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the LORD will choose.
You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside[30 (#ulink_0a5b9501-c56d-565e-8410-bc7ebf22048a)] the altar of the LORD your God, but the meat you may eat.
28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today,[31 (#ulink_783fd5f7-3324-5bc2-a455-22d508f63e7d)] so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
29 When the LORD your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land,
take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, “How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same.”
You must not do the same for the LORD your God, because every abhorrent thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
[32 (#ulink_878de992-7512-5199-b775-6e2de4c1ae87)] You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.
13 [33 (#ulink_20b7a6d7-e9fc-5391-8ded-5e7121f64345)] If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents,
and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (whom you have not known) “and let us serve them,”
you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.
The LORD your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.
But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the LORD your God—who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to turn you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
6 If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or[34 (#ulink_bef6e6a8-7687-597b-97cb-98dfd5882ed0)] your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have known,
any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other,
you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them.
But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and never again do any such wickedness.
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you to live in,
that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods,” whom you have not known,
then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you,
you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it—even putting its livestock to the sword.
All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt.
Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so that the LORD may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors,
if you obey the voice of the LORD your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.
14 You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; it is you the LORD has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
3 You shall not eat any abhorrent thing.
These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,
the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain-sheep.
Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cleft in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.
Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.
And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.
9 Of all that live in water you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat.
And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11 You may eat any clean birds.
But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,
the buzzard, the kite of any kind;
every raven of any kind;
the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind;
the little owl and the great owl, the water hen
and the desert owl,[35 (#ulink_822e2fd7-7a67-5013-9468-bda0bff996e8)] the carrion vulture and the cormorant,
the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.[36 (#ulink_e89cef27-c786-5244-94c4-ddc1104fde77)]
And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.
You may eat any clean winged creature.
21 You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
22 Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field.
In the presence of the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
But if, when the LORD your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you,
