3. Tear down their altars and smash their sacred stone pillars to pieces. Burn their symbols of the goddess Asherah and chop down their idols, so that they will never again be worshipped at those places.
4. “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way that these people worship their gods.
5. Out of the territory of all your tribes the Lord will choose the one place where the people are to come into his presence and worship him.
6. There you are to offer your sacrifices that are to be burnt and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, the gifts that you promise to the Lord, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep.
7. There, in the presence of the Lord your God, who has blessed you, you and your families will eat and enjoy the good things that you have worked for.
8. “When that time comes, you must not do as you have been doing. Until now you have all been worshipping as you please,
9. because you have not yet entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, where you can live in peace.
10. When you cross the River Jordan, the Lord will let you occupy the land and live there. He will keep you safe from all your enemies, and you will live in peace.
11. The Lord will choose a single place where he is to be worshipped, and there you must bring to him everything that I have commanded: your sacrifices that are to be burnt and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, and those special gifts that you have promised to the Lord.
12. Be joyful there in his presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns; remember that the Levites will have no land of their own.
13. You are not to offer your sacrifices wherever you choose;