1. These are the statutes and ordinances which you must be careful to observe in the land which the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess, throughout the time you live on its soil.
2. Destroy entirely all the places where the nations you are to dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
3. Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their asherahs, and chop down the idols of their gods, that you may destroy the very name of them from that place.
4. That is not how you are to act toward the Lord, your God.
5. Instead, you shall seek out the place which the Lord, your God, chooses out of all your tribes and designates as his dwelling to put his name there. There you shall go,
6. bringing your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, your votive and voluntary offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.
7. There, too, in the presence of the Lord, your God, you and your families shall eat and rejoice in all your undertakings, in which the Lord, your God, has blessed you.
8. You shall not do as we are doing here today, everyone doing what is right in their own sight,
9. since you have not yet reached your resting place, the heritage which the Lord, your God, is giving you.