Deuteronomy 12:1-7
The Lord claims Israel's worship in the land by destroying rival worship and gathering His people to the place He chooses for His name.
1 These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth.
2 You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
3 You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place.
4 You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.
5 But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there.
6 You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there.
7 There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
The LORD claims Israel's worship in the land by destroying rival worship and gathering His people to the place He chooses for His name.
Moses begins the detailed statutes for life in the land by commanding Israel to destroy the nations' worship sites completely and to seek the LORD only at the place He will choose for His name, bringing offerings there and rejoicing before Him with their households.
Moses speaks east of the Jordan to the generation preparing to enter Canaan. After setting blessing and curse before Israel, he begins the detailed stipulations by addressing the land's religious landscape, where Canaanite worship used mountains, hills, trees, altars, pillars, Asherah poles, and images as visible structures of rival allegiance.
One Place, One People, One LORD: The Centralization of Worship
The law code opens with the most structurally radical command in Deuteronomy: destroy every Canaanite worship site and bring all Israel's sacrifices, tithes, firstlings, and offerings to the single place the LORD will choose — for the covenant community's worship must be as singular as their God, gathered around his chosen name rather than scattered across the land's high places, and the joy of eating together before the LORD at that one place is the visible sign of a covenant that has not been dissolved into the landscape's competing sanctuaries.