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.