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. 2 cYou 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. 3 And 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. 4 You 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. 6 iThere 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. 7 And 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—9 for as yet you have not come to the nrest 5and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But 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, 11 then 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. 12 And 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. 13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but 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.