1 These are the precepts, the norms and the laws that you shall endeavor to put into practice all the days of your life in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you.
2 Totally destroy all the places where the peoples you are going to drive away had worshiped their gods. Do this in the high mountains as well as in the hills and under every green tree.
3 Destroy their altars, smash their pedestals, burn their sacred pillars, and break into pieces the images of their gods. Wipe out in those places even the name of their gods.
4 Do not build similar sanctuaries for Yahweh,
5 for he himself has already chosen a place among all the tribes to put his Name there and dwell in it. There you will go and look for Yahweh.
6 To that place you will bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, tithes and offerings. There you will present the offerings that you promised to God and those which you voluntarily offer, as well as the firstlings of your cattle and sheep.
7 There you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh and feast together with your families, enjoying everything you have reaped through the blessing of Yahweh.
8 You shall not do there as we do here. For now everyone does what seems best for him,
9 because we have not yet come to the place of rest, that is, the land which Yahweh is giving you as your inheritance.
10 When you cross the Jordan and settle in the land which Yahweh will give you, when he has delivered you from all your enemies, you will at last find rest.
11 Then you shall bring to the place chosen by Yahweh as a dwelling place for his Name, everything which I commanded: the burnt offerings, the sacrifices, the tithes and the first-fruits of the work of your hand, and the selected offerings which you promised by vow to Yahweh:
12 There you shall celebrate your banquets before Yahweh: you and your children, your servants as well as the Levites who live among you, since they have no portion or inheritance as you have.
13 Be careful not to offer your holocaust in any place.
14 Only in the place chosen by Yahweh in the land of one of your tribes are you to offer your holocaust, and only there will you do all that I command you.
15 However, in all your cities you may slaughter and eat meat, as much as you like of the animals Yahweh has blessed you with. Both the clean and the unclean may eat of it, just as you would eat gazelle or deer.
16 Only you must not eat the blood but pour it out upon the earth like water.
17 You may not eat in your cities the tithes of your wheat, wine and oil, or the firstlings of your herd or your flock, or any of the things which you have offered to Yahweh either freely or by vow.
18 These you are to eat be fore Yahweh in the place Yahweh has chosen, together with your children and your servants, and you will feast before Yahweh, your God, enjoying the fruit of your labor.
19 Be care ful not to forget the Levite as long as you live.
20 When Yahweh has extended your bound aries as he promised you, and you would like to eat meat, you may do so whenever you like.
21 If the place chosen by Yahweh for his dwelling is too far, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which Yah weh has given you, in the manner that I have prescribed for you.
22 You may eat it within your cities as much as you like, but you shall eat it just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten: all may equally eat of it—the clean and the un clean.
23 Only take care not to eat the blood because blood and life are one and you must not eat the life with the flesh.
24 Do not eat it but pour it as water is poured upon the land,
25 that all may go well with you and with your children after you, doing what is pleasing in the eyes of Yahweh.
26 In turn, you shall bring with you the things you have consecrated and offered by vow to Yahweh and go to the place chosen by Yahweh.
27 There you will sacrifice your holocausts, the flesh as well as the blood, on the altar of Yahweh, your God. Pour out the blood on the altar, and then eat the flesh.
28 Be careful to obey all that I command you, and all shall always be well with you and with your children after you, for doing what is right and good in the eyes of Yahweh.
29 Yahweh, your God, will destroy be fore you the nations you drive away. When you have destroyed them and dwell in their land, be careful after having destroyed them.
30 Let it not be that you fall in the trap and follow their example. Do not look at their gods saying: “How did this nation serve their gods? We will do the same.”
31 This you shall not do, even to honor Yahweh your God, since in order to honor their gods,
32 they have done everything that Yahweh abhors, including burning their children in honor of their gods.
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Comments Deuteronomy, Chapter 12
• 12.1 In chapter 12 we have the beginning of the laws which must govern Israel if they are to really become God’s people.
The first law directs them to destroy the pagans’ sacred places. These were places set on hilltops in the middle of woods. There a pole was placed between vertical stones.
The second prescription deals with having no other temple than the one in Jerusalem. Attempting to counter abuses coming from the multiplication of cultic places, the Jewish priests managed to achieve religious unity around the Jerusalem Tem ple. This unification of the cult was part of King Josiah’s great project: to reunite the ancient kingdom of the north to the kingdom of Judah (1 K 23:8-9).
Why did God want only one Temple? Appar-ently for the same reasons that he wanted to make his promises to only one family of kings, David’s family. This is because, first Israel and then the Church, must be a sign of unity in the world. If it is a fact that people can address God at any time and in any way their faith dictates to them, they do. God’s chosen people how ever have to respect God’s will that they be only one peo ple serving him in his only House, his Church.
• 13. Chapter 12:13-19 establishes the distinction between killing animals to offer them in sacrifice, which was only allowed in the Jerusalem Temple, and killing them to use the meat, which can be done in any place.
From 12:29 to 13:19: a new warning against the danger of idolatry. You will purge the wicked from your midst (13:6). In 1 Cor 5:13, Paul will recall these words when he asks the Christian community to expel those who give bad example and who refuse to transform their lives. As it was mentioned about Joshua 6, this command to kill those who cause idolatry comes from the certainty that the faith of Israel is the most precious in the world: God’s chosen peo ple cannot allow their faith to be contaminated by human errors for any price or under any circumstance.