Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 12:4/אור החיים על דברים י״ב:ד׳

1 לא חעשון כן לה׳ אלוקיכם, "Do not do so to the Lord your G'd!" Our sages in the Sifri on our verse understand this as a reference to the prohibition of erasing the holy name of G'd, or even part of it. They read together the words ואבדתם את שמם לא תעשו כן. Perhaps the wording of our verse is intended to draw attention to two separate halachot concerning erasing any part of G'd's name. We have a law about erasing the name of G'd itself, and there is a law about erasing suffixes appended behind the name of G'd. When the Torah says לשם, it refers to any of the various names of G'd and not merely the Tetragram. When the Torah adds the word אלוקיכם, it alludes to the suffix כם. Maimonides writes in chapter six of his treatise Yesodey Hatorah that the penalty of 39 lashes applies only to someone who actually erased letters of G'd's name, as the Torah is not outspoken about the suffixes. The Sifri also concludes from this verse that removing a single stone from the courtyard of the Temple is a violation of a negative commandment as it says in our verse: לא תעשון", "you must not do." It appears to me that this law is not limited to removal of a whole stone but to the removal of any quantity of stone which leaves a visible void.