Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, instructing them on how to worship once they enter the land. This verse sits between a prohibition (v. 4) and a list of offerings to be brought (v. 6).
The words — יִבְחַר (yivchar), "he will choose," is in the future tense, marking the location as not yet fixed at the time of speaking. The definite article in הַמָּקוֹם (hammaqom), "the place," signals a specific, singular location rather than any suitable spot.
The thread — The same "chosen place" language recurs in Deuteronomy 12:11 and 26:2, and is fulfilled in 2 Chronicles 7:12, where God names the Temple in Jerusalem as that place.
Why it lands — It removes the reader's discretion over where to worship; the obligation is to go to the one location God designates, wherever that turns out to be.
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
But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
Cross-references
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 26:2 you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name,
- 2 Chronicles 7:12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
- 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.
- 1 Kings 8:29 May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.
- Deuteronomy 12:13 Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;
- Psalms 78:68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.
- Psalms 132:13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:
- Psalms 87:2 The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
- Isaiah 66:1 This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?