²³ Be careful, therefore, lest you forget the covenant which the Lord, your God, has made with you, and fashion for yourselves against his command an idol in any form whatsoever.^{(A) 24} For the Lord, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.^[a](B)

³¹ Since the Lord, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon or destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.^(A)

^4 (A)Hear, O Israel!^[a] The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! ⁵ Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.^(B)

^9 (A)Know, then, that the Lord, your God, is God: the faithful God who keeps covenant mercy to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,^{(B) 10} but who repays with destruction those who hate him; he does not delay with those who hate him, but makes them pay for it.

^2 (A)Destroy entirely all the places where the nations you are to dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.^{(B) 3} Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their asherahs, and chop down the idols of their gods, that you may destroy the very name of them from that place.

⁴ That is not how you are to act toward the Lord, your God. ⁵ Instead,^(C) you shall seek out the place which the Lord, your God, chooses out of all your tribes and designates as his dwelling to put his name there.^[a](D) There you shall go, ⁶ bringing your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, your votive and voluntary offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.^{(E) 7} There, too, in the presence of the Lord, your God, you and your families shall eat and rejoice in all your undertakings, in which the Lord, your God, has blessed you.^(F)

⁸ You shall not do as we are doing here today, everyone doing what is right in their own sight,^{(G) 9} since you have not yet reached your resting place, the heritage which the Lord, your God, is giving you. ¹⁰ But after you have crossed the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, when he has given you rest from all your enemies round about and you live there in security,^{(H) 11 [b](I)}then to the place which the Lord, your God, chooses as the dwelling place for his name you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, and every special offering you have vowed to the Lord. ¹² You shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord, your God, with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as with the Levite within your gates, who has no hereditary portion with you.

^13 (J)Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings in any place you like, ¹⁴ but offer them in the place which the Lord chooses in one of your tribal territories; there you shall do what I command you.

Profane and Sacred Slaughter. ^15 [c]However, in any of your communities you may slaughter and eat meat freely, according to the blessing that the Lord, your God, has given you; the unclean as well as the clean may eat it, as they do the gazelle or the deer.^{(K) 16 [d]}Only, you shall not eat of the blood, but must pour it out on the ground like water.^{(L) 17} Moreover, you may not, in your own communities, partake of your tithe of grain or wine or oil, of the firstborn of your herd or flock, of any offering you have vowed, of your voluntary offerings, or of your personal contributions. ¹⁸ These you must eat in the presence of the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord, your God, chooses, along with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite within your gates; and there, in the presence of the Lord, you shall rejoice in all your undertakings. ¹⁹ Be careful, also, that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.^(M)

^20 (N)After the Lord, your God, has enlarged your territory, as he promised you,^(O) and you think, “I will eat meat,” as it is your desire to eat meat, you may eat it freely; ²¹ and if the place where the Lord, your God, chooses to put his name is too far, you may slaughter in the manner I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, and eat it freely in your own community. ²² You may eat it as you would the gazelle or the deer: the unclean and the clean eating it together. ^23 (P)But make sure that you do not eat of the blood; for blood is life; you shall not eat that life with the flesh. ²⁴ Do not eat of the blood, therefore, but pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat of it, that you and your children after you may prosper for doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ However, any sacred gifts or votive offerings that you may have, you shall bring with you to the place which the Lord chooses, ²⁷ and there you must sacrifice your burnt offerings, both the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord, your God; of your other sacrifices the blood indeed must be poured out against the altar of the Lord, your God,^(Q) but their flesh you may eat.

²⁸ Be careful to heed all these words I command you today, that you and your descendants after you may forever prosper for doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord, your God.^(R)

Warning Against Abominable Practices. ^29 (S)When the Lord, your God, cuts down from before you the nations you are going in to dispossess, and you have dispossessed them and are settled in their land, ³⁰ be careful that you not be trapped into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire regarding their gods, “How did these nations serve their gods, so I might do the same.” ³¹ You shall not worship the Lord, your God, that way, because they offered to their gods every abomination that the Lord detests, even burning their sons and daughters to their gods.^(T)

Chapter 13

Penalties for Enticing to Idolatry. ¹ Every word that I command you, you shall be careful to observe, neither adding to it nor subtracting from it.

^2 (U)If there arises in your midst a prophet or a dreamer^[e] who promises you a sign or wonder, ³ saying, “Let us go after other gods,” whom you have not known, “and let us serve them,” and the sign or wonder foretold to you comes to pass, ⁴ do not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the Lord, your God, is testing you to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul.^{(V) 5} The Lord, your God, shall you follow, and him shall you fear; his commandments shall you observe, and to his voice shall you listen; him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.^{(W) 6} But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death, because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the Lord, your God, has commanded you to take, the prophet or dreamer has spoken apostasy against the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.^(X)

⁷ If your brother, your father’s child or your mother’s child, your son or daughter, your beloved spouse, or your intimate friend entices you secretly, saying, “Come, let us serve other gods,” whom you and your ancestors have not known, ⁸ any of the gods of the surrounding peoples, near to you or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: ⁹ do not yield or listen to any such person; show no pity or compassion and do not shield such a one,^{(Y) 10 (Z)}but kill that person. Your hand shall be the first raised to put such a one to death; the hand of all the people shall follow. ¹¹ You shall stone that person to death, for seeking to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹² And all Israel shall hear of it and fear, and never again do such evil as this in your midst.^(AA)

¹³ If you hear it said concerning one of the cities which the Lord, your God, gives you to dwell in, ¹⁴ that certain scoundrels have sprung up in your midst and have led astray the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Come, let us serve other gods,” whom you have not known, ¹⁵ you must inquire carefully into the matter and investigate it thoroughly. If you find that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has been committed in your midst,^{(AB) 16 (AC)}you shall put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, placing the city and all that is in it, even its livestock, under the ban. ¹⁷ Having heaped up all its spoils in the middle of its square, you shall burn the city with all its spoils as a whole burnt offering to the Lord, your God. Let it be a heap of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt. ¹⁸ You shall not hold on to anything that is under the ban; then the Lord will turn from his burning anger and show you mercy, and in showing you mercy multiply you as he swore to your ancestors,