They did not see ¹  what he did to you in the desert before you reached this place,

You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ²  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

But you must seek only the place he ¹  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ²  and you must go there.

Only the holy things and votive offerings that belong to you, you must pick up and take to the place the Lord will choose. ¹ 

you may convert the tithe into money, secure the money, ¹  and travel to the place the Lord your God chooses for himself.

You must then do as they have determined at that place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught.

Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

When you came to this place King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to make war and we defeated them.

and in the desert, where you saw him ¹  carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.”

Remember – don’t ever forget ¹  – how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. ² 

Every place you set your foot ¹  will be yours; your border will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, the Euphrates) as far as the Mediterranean Sea. ² 

Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing ¹  everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ²  and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. ³ 

If the place he ¹  chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he ²  has given you just as I have stipulated; you may eat them in your villages ³  just as you wish.

When he ¹  blesses you, if the ²  place where he chooses to locate his name is distant,

but you must sacrifice it ¹  in the evening in ²  the place where he ³  chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt.

If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹  legal claim, ²  or assault ³  – matters of controversy in your villages ⁴  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ⁵ 

Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will ¹  from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, ²  to the place the Lord chooses

you must take the first of all the ground’s produce you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you, place it in a basket, and go to the place where he ¹  chooses to locate his name. ²