1. “These are the laws and rules that you must obey in your new land. You must carefully obey them as long as you live in this land. The Lord is the God of your ancestors, and he is giving this land to you.
2. You will take that land from the nations that live there now. You must completely destroy all the places where the people of these nations worship their gods. These places are on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees.
3. You must smash their altars and break their memorial stones into pieces. You must burn their Asherah poles and cut down the statues of their gods. Wipe out everything that would remind you of those gods.
4. “You must not worship the Lord your God in the same way these people worship their gods.
5. The Lord your God will choose a special place among your tribes. That will be the home for his name. You must go to that place to worship him.
6. There you must bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, one-tenth of your crops and animals, your special gifts, any gifts you promised to him, any special gift you want to give, and the first animals born in your herds and flocks.
7. You and your families will eat together at that place, and the Lord your God will be there with you. You will enjoy sharing the things you worked for there. You will remember that the Lord your God blessed you and gave you these good things.
8. “You must not continue to worship the way we have been worshiping. Until now each of us has been worshiping God any way we wanted.