The One Place of Worship

12 These are the decrees(A) and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.(B) Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains,(C) on the hills and under every spreading tree,(D) where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash(E) their sacred stones and burn(F) their Asherah(G) poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names(H) from those places.

You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.(I)

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Destroying Altars to False Gods

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the Lord God of your ancestors has given you to possess every day that you live on the earth. Be sure you destroy there all the places where the nations that you’re going to dispossess serve their gods—upon the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. Tear down their altars, then cut down their sacred poles[a] and burn them. Cut down the carved images of their gods in order to destroy their names from that place.”

Sacrifice at the Central Sanctuary

“You must not act like this with respect to the Lord your God.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 12:3 Lit. their Asherim; i.e. cultic pillars