Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 12:11
then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, instructing them on centralized worship before they cross the Jordan. The command follows a promise of security from enemies and precedes instructions to rejoice before God.
The words — יִבְחַר (yivChar) means "he will choose," and שַכֵּן (shaKen) means "to cause to dwell." These terms establish that God alone selects the location and establishes it as His dwelling place.
The thread — The motif of a divinely chosen place for worship recurs in Deuteronomy 12:5, Deuteronomy 15:20, and Deuteronomy 16:2, where the same location becomes the exclusive site for offerings, communal meals, and festival sacrifices.
Why it lands — The text demands centralized obedience by requiring the people to bring all commanded offerings to the single location God selects. It requires readers to align their worship practices with divine instruction rather than personal convenience.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord:
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 12:5 Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.
- Deuteronomy 15:20 Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose.
- Deuteronomy 16:2 You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.
- Deuteronomy 17:8 If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.
- Deuteronomy 18:6 Now if a Levite moves from any town of residence throughout Israel and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose,
- John 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”
- Deuteronomy 12:14 you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.
- Deuteronomy 12:18 Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do,
- Deuteronomy 12:21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.
- Deuteronomy 12:26 But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.