Deuteronomy 12:1-7

English Standard Version

The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship

12 ^(A)“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, ^(B)all the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (C)You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(D)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^(E)their pillars and burn their ^(F)Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^(G)destroy their name out of that place. ^4 (H)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. ⁵ But you shall seek ^(I)the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation^[a] there. There you shall go, ⁶ and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^(J)your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(K)firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And ^(L)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(M)you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.