New International Version

Deuteronomy 12:12-24 New International Version (NIV)

12. And there rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own.

13. Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.

14. Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.

15. Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

16. But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

17. You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

18. Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to.

19. Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

20. When the Lord your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, “I would like some meat,” then you may eat as much of it as you want.

21. If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his Name is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want.

22. Eat them as you would gazelle or deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat.

23. But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

24. You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.