Deuteronomy 12:1–14

A Prescribed Place of Worship

12“These ^aare the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, ^ball ¹the days that you live on the earth. ^2cYou shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, ^don the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³And ^eyou shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their ²wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. ⁴You shall not ^fworship the Lord your God with such things.

⁵“But you shall seek the ^gplace where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His ^hdwelling ³place; and there you shall go. ⁶ⁱThere you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^jfirstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷And ^kthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^lyou shall rejoice in ⁴all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—^mevery man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—⁹for as yet you have not come to the ⁿrest ⁵and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you ^orest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, ¹¹then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹²And ^pyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^qLevite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.