Deuteronomy 12:5

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:

Unto the place which the Lord ... shall choose out of ... They were forbidden to worship either in the impure superstitious manner of the pagan, or in any of the places frequented by them. A particular place for the general rendezvous of all the tribes would be chosen by God Himself; and the choice of one common place for the solemn rites of religion was an act of divine wisdom for the security of the true religion. It was admirably calculated to prevent the corruption which would otherwise have crept in from their frequenting groves and high hills, to preserve uniformity of worship, and keep alive their faith in Him to whom all their sacrifices pointed.

The place was successively Shiloh, and especially Jerusalem, at the front door of the national sanctuary; but in all the references made to it by Moses the name is never mentioned; and this studied silence was maintained partly lest the Canaanites, within whose territory it lay, might have concentrated their forces to frustrate all hopes of obtaining it; partly lest the desire of possessing a place of such importance might have become a cause of strife or rivalry among the Hebrew tribes, as about the appointment to the priesthood, (Numbers 16:1.)