1These the laws and the judgments which ye shall watch to do in the land which Jehovah the God of thy fathers gave to thee to possess it all the days which ye live upon the earth. 2Destroying, ye shall destroy all the places where the nations which ye possess them served there their Gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills and under every green tree. 3And break ye down their altars and break in pieces their pillars, and their columns ye shall burn with fire; and the carved things of their gods ye shall hew down, and destroy their names from that place 4Ye shall not do so to Jehovah your God. 5But the place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, to his dwelling shall ye seek, and there do thou come: 6And bring there your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, and your tenths, and the offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your voluntary gifts and the first-born. of your cattle and your sheep: . 7And eat there before Jehovah your God, and rejoice in all the stretching forth of your hand, ye and your houses in which Jehovah thy God blessed thee. 8Ye shall not do according to all we do here this day, every man the right in his eyes. 9For ye came not yet now to the rest and to the inheritance which Jehovah thy God gave to thee. 10And pass ye over Jordan and dwell in the land which Jehovah your God causes you to inherit, and he caused rest to you from all your enemies from round about, and ye dwelt confidently: 11And there was the place which Jehovah your God shall choose in it to cause his name to dwell there; there shall ye bring all which I command you: your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your tenths, and the offerings of your hands, and all the choice of your vows which ye shall vow to Jehovah. 12And rejoice ye before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons and your daughters, and your servants, and your maids, and the Levite who is in your gates; for not to him a portion and inheritance with you. 13Watch to thyself lest thou lift up thy burnt-offering in every place which thou shalt see. 14But in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt bring up thy burnt-offering, and there thou. shalt do all I command thee. 15Only in all the desire of thy soul thou shalt sacrifice and eat flesh according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he gave to thee in all thy gates: the unclean and the clean shall eat it, as the roe and as the stag. 16Only the blood thou shalt not eat: upon the earth ye shall pour it as water. 17Thou shalt not be able to eat in thy gates the tenth of thy grain, and thy new wine and thy new oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and thy flocks, and all the vows which thou shalt vow, and thy voluntaries, and the offerings of thy hand: 18But before Jehovah thy God thou shalt eat it, in the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose in it, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy servant, and thy maid, and the Levite which is in thy gates: and rejoice thou before Jehovah thy God in all the stretching forth of thy hand. 19Watch to thyself lest thou, shalt forsake the Levite all thy days upon the earth. 20When Jehovah thy God shall enlarge thy boundary, as he spake to thee, and thou said; I will eat flesh because thy soul shall desire to eat flesh, in all thy soul desired thou shalt eat flesh. 21When the place which Jehovah thy God shall choose to put his name there shall be far off from thee, and thou shalt sacrifice from thy cattle and from thy sheep which Jehovah gave to thee, as I commanded thee, and eat thou in thy gates in all thy soul desired. 22If as he shall eat the roe and the stag, so shalt thou eat it; the unclean and the clean together shall eat it. 23Only be striving not to eat the blood, for the blood it is the soul; and thou. shalt not eat the soul with the flesh. 24Thou shalt not eat it: upon the earth thou shalt pour it as water. 25Thou shalt not eat it.; so that it shall be well to thee and to thy sons after thee, when thou shalt do right in the eyes of Jehovah. 26Only thy holy things which shall be to thee, and thy vows, thou shalt lift up and go to the place which Jehovah shall choose: 27And do thou thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of Jehovah thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of Jehovah thy God, and the flesh thou shalt eat. 28Watch and hear all these words which I command thee, so that it shall be well to thee and to thy sons after thee, even till forever; for thou shalt do the good and the right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God. 29For Jehovah thy God shall cut off the nations where thou goest in there to possess them, from before thee, and thou shalt inherit them, and thou shalt dwell in their land. 30Watch to thyself lest thou shalt be snared after them after their being destroyed from before thee; and lest thou shalt seek to their gods, saying, How shall these nations serve their gods? and so will I do also. 31Thou shalt not do so to Jehovah thy God; for every abomination of Jehovah which he hated they did to their gods; for also their sons and their daughters they will burn in fire to their gods. 32Every word which I command you, ye shall watch to do it: thou shalt not add upon it, and thou shalt not take away from it
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 MONUMENTS OF IDOLATRY TO BE DESTROYED. (
Deut 12:1-
Deut 12:15)
These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe--Having in the preceding chapter inculcated upon the Israelites the general obligation to fear and love God, Moses here enters into a detail of some special duties they were to practise on their obtaining possession of the promised land.
2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods--This divine command was founded on the tendencies of human nature; for to remove out of sight everything that had been associated with idolatry, that it might never be spoken of and no vestige of it remain, was the only effectual way to keep the Israelites from temptations to it. It is observable that Moses does not make any mention of temples, for such buildings were not in existence at that early period. The "places" chosen as the scene of heathen worship were situated either on the summit of a lofty mountain, or on some artificial mound, or in a grove, planted with particular trees, such as oaks, poplars, and elms (
Isa 57:5-
Isa 57:7;
Hos 4:13). The reason for the selection of such sites was both to secure retirement and to direct the attention upward to heaven; and the "place" was nothing else than a consecrated enclosure, or at most, a canopy or screen from the weather.
3 And ye shall overthrow their altars--piles of turf or small stones.
and break their pillars--Before the art of sculpture was known, the statues of idols were only rude blocks of colored stones.
5 unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose . . . to put his name there . . . thou shalt come--They were forbidden to worship either in the impure superstitious manner of the heathen, 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 Mizpeh, Shiloh, and especially Jerusalem. But in all the references made to it by Moses, the name is never mentioned. This studied silence was maintained partly lest the Canaanites within whose territories 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 amongst the Hebrew tribes, as about the appointment to the priesthood (Num. 16:1-30).
7 there ye shall eat before the Lord--of the things mentioned (
Deut 12:6); but of course, none of the parts assigned to the priests before the Lord--in the place where the sanctuary should be established, and in those parts of the Holy City which the people were at liberty to frequent and inhabit.
12 ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, &c.--Hence it appears that, although males only were commanded to appear before God at the annual solemn feasts (
Exod 23:17), the women were allowed to accompany them (1Sa. 1:3-23).
15 Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates--Every animal designed for food, whether ox, goat, or lamb, was during the abode in the wilderness ordered to be slain as a peace offering at the door of the tabernacle; its blood to be sprinkled, and its fat burnt upon the altar by the priest. The encampment, being then round about the altar, made this practice, appointed to prevent idolatry, easy and practicable. But on the settlement in the promised land, the obligation to slay at the tabernacle was dispensed with. The people were left at liberty to prepare their meat in their cities or homes.
according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee--The style of living should be accommodated to one's condition and means--profuse and riotous indulgence can never secure the divine blessing.
the unclean and the clean may eat thereof--The unclean here are those who were under some slight defilement, which, without excluding them from society, yet debarred them from eating any of the sacred meats (
Lev 7:20). They were at liberty freely to partake of common articles of food.
of the roebuck--the gazelle.
and as of the hart--The Syrian deer (Cervus barbatus) is a species between our red and fallow deer, distinguished by the want of a bis-antler, or second branch on the horns, reckoning from below, and for a spotted livery which is effaced only in the third or fourth year.
16 BLOOD PROHIBITED. (
Deut 12:16-
Deut 12:25)
ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water--The prohibition against eating or drinking blood as an unnatural custom accompanied the announcement of the divine grant of animal flesh for food (
Gen 9:4), and the prohibition was repeatedly renewed by Moses with reference to the great objects of the law (
Lev 17:12), the prevention of idolatry, and the consecration of the sacrificial blood to God. In regard, however, to the blood of animals slain for food, it might be shed without ceremony and poured on the ground as a common thing like water--only for the sake of decency, as well as for preventing all risk of idolatry, it was to be covered over with earth (
Lev 17:13), in opposition to the practice of heathen sportsmen, who left it exposed as an offering to the god of the chase.
22 Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so shalt thou eat them, &c.--Game when procured in the wilderness had not been required to be brought to the door of the tabernacle. The people were now to be as free in the killing of domestic cattle as of wild animals. The permission to hunt and use venison for food was doubtless a great boon to the Israelites, not only in the wilderness, but on their settlement in Canaan, as the mountainous ranges of Lebanon, Carmel, and Gilead, on which deer abounded in vast numbers, would thus furnish them with a plentiful and luxuriant repast.
26 HOLY THINGS TO BE EATEN IN THE HOLY PLACE. (
Deut 12:26-
Deut 12:32)
Only thy holy things which thou hast--The tithes mentioned (
Deut 12:17) are not to be considered ordinary tithes, which belonged to the Levites, and of which private Israelites had a right to eat; but they are other extraordinary tithes or gifts, which the people carried to the sanctuary to be presented as peace offerings, and on which, after being offered and the allotted portion given to the priest, they feasted with their families and friends (
Lev 27:30).
29 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them . . . saying, How did these nations serve their gods?--The Israelites, influenced by superstitious fear, too often endeavored to propitiate the deities of Canaan. Their Egyptian education had early impressed that bugbear notion of a set of local deities, who expected their dues of all who came to inhabit the country which they honored with their protection, and severely resented the neglect of payment in all newcomers [WARBURTON]. Taking into consideration the prevalence of this idea among them, we see that against an Egyptian influence was directed the full force of the wholesome caution with which this chapter closes.