Deuteronomy 11:22-12:10

Amplified Bible

²²For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to hold tightly to Him— ²³then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall become yours; your territory shall be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea (the Mediterranean). ²⁵No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the fear and the dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.

²⁶“Behold, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— ²⁷the blessing, if you listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸and the curse, if you do not listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following (acknowledging, worshiping) other gods which you have not known.

²⁹“It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.^(A) ³⁰Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, ³²and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

Laws of the Sanctuary

12 “These are the statutes and judgments (precepts) which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. ²You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green [leafy] tree. ³You shall tear down their altars and smash their [idolatrous] pillars and burn their ^[a]Asherim in the fire; you shall cut down the carved and sculpted images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. ⁵But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to establish His ^[b]Name there for His dwelling [place], and there you shall come [to worship Him]. ⁶There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive (pledged, vowed) offerings, your freewill (voluntary) offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷And there you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all to which you put your hand, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not do at all what we are doing here [in the camp] today, every man doing whatever is right in his [own] eyes. ⁹For you have not yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,

Footnotes

Deuteronomy 12:3 Wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah.
Deuteronomy 12:5 The “Name” of God is equivalent to His gracious presence in passages such as this one. The place where God puts His Name is the place where He chooses to dwell.