Deuteronomy 12:5-6

12:5 But you must seek only the place he¹ chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence,² and you must go there. 12:6 And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared,³ your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

Deuteronomy 12:11

12:11 Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing⁴ everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared,⁵ and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him.⁶

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 so⁷ only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribal areas – there you may do everything I am commanding you.⁸

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,⁹ has given you to possess.¹⁰

Deuteronomy 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib¹¹ and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month¹² he¹³ brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 22:1

Laws Concerning Preservation of Life

22:1 When you see¹⁴ your neighbor’s¹⁵ ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it;¹⁶ you must return it without fail¹⁷ to your neighbor.

¹tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

²tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.

³tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

⁴tn Heb “and it will be (to) the place where the Lord your God chooses to cause his name to dwell you will bring.”

⁵tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

⁶tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

⁷tn Heb “offer burnt offerings.” The expression “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁸sn 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).

⁹tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁰tn 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.

¹¹sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

¹²tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹³tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹⁴tn Heb “you must not see,” but, if translated literally into English, the statement is misleading.

¹⁵tn 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.”

¹⁶tn Heb “hide yourself.”

¹⁷tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail.”