| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. | 1These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess. |
| 2You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. | 2You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods--on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. |
| 3You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. | 3You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place. |
| 4You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. | 4You must not worship the LORD your God the way they worship. |
| 5But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, | 5But you must seek only the place he chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, and you must go there. |
| 6and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. | 6And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. |
| 7And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. | 7Both you and your families must feast there before the LORD your God and rejoice in all the output of your labor with which he has blessed you. |
| 8“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, | 8You must not do like we are doing here today, with everyone doing what seems best to him, |
| 9for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. | 9for you have not yet come to the final stop and inheritance the LORD your God is giving you. |
| 10But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, | 10When you do go across the Jordan River and settle in the land he is granting you as an inheritance and you find relief from all the enemies who surround you, you will live in safety. |
| 11then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD. | 11Then you must come to the place the LORD your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing everything I am commanding you--your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. |
| 12And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. | 12You shall rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God, along with your sons, daughters, male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you). |
| 13Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, | 13Make sure you do not offer burnt offerings in any place you wish, |
| 14but 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 all that I am commanding you. | 14for you may do so only in the place the LORD chooses in one of your tribal areas--there you may do everything I am commanding you. |
| 15“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. | 15On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the LORD your God blesses you in all your villages. Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex. |
| 16Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. | 16However, you must not eat blood--pour it out on the ground like water. |
| 17You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, | 17You will not be allowed to eat in your villages your tithe of grain, new wine, olive oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, any votive offerings you have vowed, or your freewill and personal offerings. |
| 18but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake. | 18Only in the presence of the LORD your God may you eat these, in the place he chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the LORD your God in all the output of your labor. |
| 19Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land. | 19Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land. |
| 20“When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. | 20When the LORD your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, "I want to eat meat just as I please," you may do so as you wish. |
| 21If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. | 21If the place he chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages just as you wish. |
| 22Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. | 22Like you eat the gazelle or ibex, so you may eat these; the ritually impure and pure alike may eat them. |
| 23Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. | 23However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself--you must not eat the life with the meat! |
| 24You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. | 24You must not eat it! You must pour it out on the ground like water. |
| 25You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. | 25You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the LORD's sight. |
| 26But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the LORD will choose, | 26Only the holy things and votive offerings that belong to you, you must pick up and take to the place the LORD will choose. |
| 27and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat. | 27You must offer your burnt offerings, both meat and blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; the blood of your other sacrifices you must pour out on his altar while you eat the meat. |
| 28Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God. | 28Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God. |
| 29“When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, | 29When the LORD your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land. |
| 30take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ | 30After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same." |
| 31You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. | 31You must not worship the LORD your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods! |
| 32“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. | 32You must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! |
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