2 Chronicles 14:3-5

14:3 He removed the pagan altars ¹  and the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. ²  14:4 He ordered Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors ³  and to observe his law and commands. ⁴  14:5 He removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. The kingdom had rest under his rule. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 12:13-14

12:13 Make sure you do not offer burnt offerings in any place you wish, 12:14 for you may do so ⁶  only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribal areas – there you may do everything I am commanding you. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ⁸  has given you to possess. ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 3:2-4

3:2 The Lord, however, said to me, “Don’t be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, ¹⁰  and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.” 3:3 So the Lord our God did indeed give over to us King Og of Bashan and his whole army and we struck them down until not a single survivor was left. ¹¹  3:4 We captured all his cities at that time – there was not a town we did not take from them – sixty cities, all the region of Argob, ¹²  the dominion of Og in Bashan.

Deuteronomy 22:1-2

Laws Concerning Preservation of Life

22:1 When you see ¹³  your neighbor’s ¹⁴  ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it; ¹⁵  you must return it without fail ¹⁶  to your neighbor. 22:2 If the owner ¹⁷  does not live ¹⁸  near you or you do not know who the owner is, ¹⁹  then you must corral the animal ²⁰  at your house and let it stay with you until the owner looks for it; then you must return it to him.

Deuteronomy 12:3

12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ²¹  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ²²  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

Deuteronomy 14:4

14:4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

¹ tn Heb “the altars of the foreigner.”

² sn Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

³ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁴ tn Heb “the law and the command.”

⁵ tn Heb “before him.”

⁶ tn Heb “offer burnt offerings.” The expression “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁷ sn This injunction to worship in a single and central sanctuary – one limited and appropriate to the thrice-annual festival celebrations (see Exod 23:14-17; 34:22-24; Lev 23:4-36; Deut 16:16-17) – marks a departure from previous times when worship was carried out at local shrines (cf. Gen 8:20; 12:7; 13:18; 22:9; 26:25; 35:1, 3, 7; Exod 17:15). Apart from the corporate worship of the whole theocratic community, however, worship at local altars would still be permitted as in the past (Deut 16:21; Judg 6:24-27; 13:19-20; 1 Sam 7:17; 10:5, 13; 2 Sam 24:18-25; 1 Kgs 18:30).

⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁹ tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

¹⁰ tn Heb “people.”

¹¹ tn Heb “was left to him.” The final phrase “to him” is redundant in English and has been left untranslated.

¹² sn Argob. This is a subdistrict of Bashan, perhaps north of the Yarmuk River. See Y. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, 314.

¹³ tn Heb “you must not see,” but, if translated literally into English, the statement is misleading.

¹⁴ tn Heb “brother’s” (also later in this verse). In this context it is not limited to one’s siblings, however; cf. NAB “your kinsman’s.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “hide yourself.”

¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “your brother” (also later in this verse).

¹⁸ tn Heb “is not.” The idea of “residing” is implied.

¹⁹ tn Heb “and you do not know him.”

²⁰ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the ox or sheep mentioned in v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²¹ sn Sacred pillars. These are the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.

²² sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.