12. And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and your daughters and your slaves and your slave women and the Levite who is in your towns, because there is not for him a plot of ground and an inheritance with you.
13. “Take care for yourself so that you do not offer your burnt offerings at just any place that you happen to see,
14. but only at the place that Yahweh will choose among one of your tribes; there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all the things that I am commanding you.
15. “But whenever you desire you may slaughter, and you may eat meat according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given to you in all of your towns; the unclean and the clean may eat it just as they would the gazelle and as the deer.
16. Only the blood you must not eat, but on the ground you must pour it like water.
17. You are not allowed to eat in your towns the tithe of your grain and your wine and your olive oil and the firstborn of your herd and your flock and all of your votive gifts that you vowed and your freewill offering and your donations.
18. But only before Yahweh your God you shall eat it, at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite who is in your towns, and you must rejoice before your God in all your undertakings.
19. Take care so that you do not neglect the Levite all of your days on your land.
20. “When Yahweh your God enlarges your territory just as he has promised to you, and you say ‘I want to eat some meat,’ because you want it, whenever you desire you may eat meat.
21. If the place that Yahweh your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, and you slaughter any of your herd and any of your flock that Yahweh has given to you just as I have commanded you, then you may eat whenever you desire in your towns.
22. Surely just as the gazelle and the deer is eaten, so both the unclean and the clean together may eat it.
23. Only, be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.
24. You shall not eat it, but on the ground you shall pour it out like water.