The Place That the Lord Your God Will Choose

»The place that the Lord your God will choose« is the standard text in the Masoretic Text of Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18, etc., while the Samaritan Pentateuch reads »The place that the Lord your God has chosen.« This phrase is found almost exclusively in Deuteronomy 12–26, and it occurs in all three supposed layers. The phrase's earliest documentation is in the 7th century B.C.E. as a reference to Jerusalem. The same time involved the composition of the texts with the mountains for blessing and curse in Deut 11:29–30; 27:11, 13, as well as the altar law in Deut 27:4. This created a tension in Deuteronomy. This article discusses different approaches to this tension, and presents a new solution.