Comparing the three versions — , 8–12, and 13–19 — Von Rad argued that addressed the non-Israelite cultic practice of the Canaanites, taking an aggressive attitude because the Canaanite cults had been brought back to life within the Israelite cultic domain. explains the new position historically, demanding that the Israelites not act as before. Von Rad noted that alone of the three is composed in the second person singular and was thus the earliest. It begins at once with the demand for centralization, and explicitly draws the conclusion that the other two versions appear to assume tacitly, that slaughtering for secular use is permitted. Von Rad understood in connection with King Josiah's planned expansion reflected in and 19, arguing that adapted an earlier Northern text to Judean conditions, possibly envisaging David's increase of territory (as reflected in ) and especially the former Canaanite plain in the west, which had no Israelite sanctuaries.