Deuteronomy 11:22-12:10

English Standard Version

²² For if ^(A)you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and ^(B)holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord ^(C)will drive out all these nations before you, and you will ^(D)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ^24 (E)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ^(F)from the wilderness to^[a] the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. ^25 (G)No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay ^(H)the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ^(I)as he promised you.

^26 (J)“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (K)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, ²⁸ and ^(L)the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, ^(M)to go after other gods that you have not known. ²⁹ And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set ^(N)the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the ^(O)Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ^(P)the oak^[b] of Moreh? ³¹ For you are ^(Q)to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, ³² you shall be careful ^(R)to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship

12 ^(S)“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, ^(T)all the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (U)You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(V)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^(W)their pillars and burn their ^(X)Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^(Y)destroy their name out of that place. ^4 (Z)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. ⁵ But you shall seek ^(AA)the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation^[c] there. There you shall go, ⁶ and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^(AB)your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(AC)firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And ^(AD)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(AE)you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, ^(AF)everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, ⁹ for you have not as yet come to ^(AG)the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when ^(AH)you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, ^(AI)and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,