Deuteronomy 11:29–12:14

²⁹And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set ^wthe blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the ^xArabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ^ythe oak⁵ of Moreh? ³¹For you are ^zto cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, ³²you shall be careful ^ato do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship

12^b“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, ^call the days that you live on the earth. ^2dYou shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^eon the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^ftheir pillars and burn their ^gAsherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^hdestroy their name out of that place. ⁴ⁱYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. ⁵But you shall seek ^jthe place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation¹ there. There you shall go, ⁶and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^lfirstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷And ^mthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ⁿyou shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, ^oeveryone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, ⁹for you have not as yet come to ^pthe rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰But when ^qyou go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, ^rand when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, ¹¹then to ^jthe 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, ^kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. ¹²And ⁿyou 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 ^she has no portion or inheritance with you. ^13tTake care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, ¹⁴but at ^jthe 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.