⁵ But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,^{(A) 6} bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.^(B)

⁸ “You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, ⁹ for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety,^{(C) 11} then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.^{(D) 12} And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).^(E)

A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ “Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. ¹⁴ But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything I command you.^(F)

¹⁵ “Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.^{(G) 16} The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.^{(H) 17} Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; ¹⁸ these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings.^{(I) 19} Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.^(J)

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I am going to eat some meat,’ because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.^{(K) 21} If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.

¹³ for sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.