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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Deuteronomy 12 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/deuteronomy/12.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/deuteronomy/12-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</a> > Deuteronomy 12</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../deuteronomy/11.htm" title="Deuteronomy 11">◄</a> Deuteronomy 12 <a href="../deuteronomy/13.htm" title="Deuteronomy 13">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">Only One Place To Worship the <span class="nd">Lord</span></h3><h5 class="sp">Moses said to Israel:</h5><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_1"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.1" class="v5_12_1">1</span>Now I'll tell you the laws and teachings that you have to obey as long as you live. Your ancestors worshiped the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, and he is giving you this land. </span><span class="v5_12_2"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.2" class="v5_12_2">2</span>But the nations that live there worship other gods. So after you capture the land, you must completely destroy their places of worship—on mountains and hills or in the shade of large trees. </span><span class="v5_12_3"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.3" class="v5_12_3">3</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.3!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Wherever these nations worship their gods, you must tear down their altars, break their sacred stones, burn the sacred poles<a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.3!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> used in worshiping the goddess Asherah, and smash their idols to pieces. Destroy these places of worship so completely that no one will remember they were ever there. </span><span class="v5_12_4"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.4" class="v5_12_4">4</span>Don't worship the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God in the way those nations worship their gods.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_5"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.5-Deut.12.19" class="v5_12_5">5-19</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.5-Deut.12.19!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Soon you will cross the Jordan, and the <span class="nd">Lord</span> will help you conquer your enemies and let you live in peace, there in the land he has given you. But after you are settled, life will be different. You must not offer sacrifices just anywhere you want to. Instead, the <span class="nd">Lord</span> will choose a place somewhere in Israel where you must go to worship him. All of your sacrifices and offerings must be taken there, including sacrifices to please the <span class="nd">Lord</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.5-Deut.12.19!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and any gift you promise or voluntarily give him. That's where you must also take one tenth of your grain, wine, and olive oil,<a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.5-Deut.12.19!f.3" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> as well as the first-born of your cattle, sheep, and goats.<a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.5-Deut.12.19!f.4" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> You and your family and servants will eat your gifts and sacrifices<a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.5-Deut.12.19!f.5" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and celebrate there at the place of worship, because the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God has made you successful in everything you have done. And since Levites will not have any land of their own, you must ask some of them to come along and celebrate with you.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_5">Sometimes you may want to kill an animal for food and not as a sacrifice. If the <span class="nd">Lord</span> has blessed you and given you enough cows or sheep or goats, then you can butcher one of them where you live. You can eat it just like the meat from a deer or gazelle that you kill when you go hunting. And even those people who are unclean and unfit for worship can have some of the meat. But you must not eat the blood of any animal—let the blood drain out on the ground.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_20"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.20-Deut.12.21" class="v5_12_20">20-21</span>The <span class="nd">Lord</span> has promised that later on he will give Israel more land, and some of you may not be able to travel all the way from your homes to the place of worship each time you are hungry for meat.<a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.20-Deut.12.21!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> But the <span class="nd">Lord</span> will give you cattle, sheep, and goats, and you can butcher any of those animals at home and eat as much as you want. </span><span class="v5_12_22"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.22" class="v5_12_22">22</span>It is the same as eating the meat from a deer or a gazelle that you kill when you go hunting. And in this way, anyone who is unclean and unfit for worship can have some of the meat.<a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.22!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_23"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.23-Deut.12.24" class="v5_12_23">23-24</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.23-Deut.12.24!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> But don't eat the blood. It is the life of the animal, so let it drain out on the ground before you eat the meat. </span><span class="v5_12_25"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.25" class="v5_12_25">25</span>Do you want the <span class="nd">Lord</span> to make you successful? Do you want your children to be successful even after you are gone? Then do what pleases the <span class="nd">Lord</span> and don't eat blood.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_26"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.26-Deut.12.27" class="v5_12_26">26-27</span>All sacrifices and offerings to the <span class="nd">Lord</span> must be taken to the place where he chooses to be worshiped. If you offer a sacrifice to please the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, all of its meat must be burned on the altar. You can eat the meat from certain kinds of sacrifices, but you must always pour out the animal's blood on the altar.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_28"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.28" class="v5_12_28">28</span>If you obey these laws, you will be doing what the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God says is right and good. Then he will help you and your descendants be successful.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Worship the <span class="nd">Lord</span> in the Right Way</h3><h5 class="sp">Moses said:</h5><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_29"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.29" class="v5_12_29">29</span>Israel, as you go into the land and attack the nations that are there, the <span class="nd">Lord</span> will get rid of them, and you can have their land.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_30"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.30" class="v5_12_30">30</span>But that's when you must be especially careful not to ask, “How did those nations worship their gods? Shouldn't we worship the <span class="nd">Lord</span> in the same way?” </span><span class="v5_12_31"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.31" class="v5_12_31">31</span>No, you should not! The <span class="nd">Lord</span> hates the disgusting way those nations worship their gods, because they even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v5_12_32"><span class="reftext" id="Deut.12.32" class="v5_12_32">32</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Deut.12.32!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Obey all the laws and teachings I am giving you. Don't add any, and don't take any away.</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.3 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">sacred poles: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.5-19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">sacrifices to please the <char style="nd">Lord</char>: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">These sacrifices have traditionally been called “whole burnt offerings” because the whole animal was burned on the altar. A main purpose of such sacrifices was to please the <char style="nd">Lord</char> with the smell of the sacrifice, and so in the CEV they are often called “sacrifices to please the <char style="nd">Lord</char>.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.5-19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">one tenth of your grain, wine, and olive oil: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Israelites had to give one tenth of their harvest of these products to the <char style="nd">Lord</char> each year (see 14.22-29; 26.12,13; Leviticus 27.30-33).</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.5-19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">the first-born of your cattle, sheep, and goats: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Israelites had to sacrifice these to the <char style="nd">Lord</char> (see 15.19-22).</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.5-19 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">sacrifices: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Some sacrifices were completely burned on the altar; in other sacrifices, part of the animal was burned and part was given to the priests, but most of the meat was eaten by the worshipers as a sacred meal.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.20,21 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">meat: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Usually eaten only on special occasions, such as during a sacred meal when sacrifices were offered to the <char style="nd">Lord</char>.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">12.22 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">anyone … the meat: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Only those who were properly prepared for worship, or “clean,” could eat a sacred meal, but anyone could eat this kind of meat.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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