View Deuteronomy 12 in the note window.
A command, to destroy all relicks of idolatry, ver. 1 - 3.
To worship God in his own place, and according to his own
appointment, ver. 4 - 14.
A permission to eat flesh, but not blood, ver. 15, 16.
Directions to eat the tithe in the holy place, and to take
care of the Levite, ver. 17 - 19.
A farther permission to eat flesh, but not blood, ver. 20 - 25.
A direction to eat holy things in the holy place, ver. 26 - 28.
Farther cautions against idolatry, ver. 20 - 32.
2: All the places - Temples, chapels, altars, groves, as appears from
other scriptures. Green - tree - As the Gentiles consecrated divers
trees to their false gods, so they worshipped these under them.
3: Pillars - Upon which their images were set. Names - That is,
all the memorials of them, and the very names given to the places from
the idols.
4: Not do so - That is, not worship him in several places,
mountains, and groves.
5: To put his name there - That is, to set up his worship there, and
which he shall call by his name, as his house, or his dwelling - place;
namely, where the ark should be, the tabernacle, or temple: which was first
Shiloh, and then Jerusalem. There is not one precept in all the law
of Moses, so largely inculcated as this, to bring all their sacrifices
to that one altar. And how significant is, that appointment? They must
keep to one place, in token of their belief. That there is one God, and
one Mediator between God and man. It not only served to keep up the
notion of the unity of the godhead, but the one only way of approach to
God and communion with him in and by his son.
6: Thither bring your burnt - offerings - Which were wisely
appropriated to that one place, for the security of the true religion, and
for the prevention of idolatry and superstition, which might otherwise more
easily have crept in: and to signify that their sacrifices were not accepted
for their own worth, but by God's gracious, appointment, and for the sake of
God's altar, by which they were sanctified, and for the sake of Christ, whom
the altar manifestly represented. Your heave - offerings - That is, your
first - fruits, of corn, and wine, and oil, and other fruits. And these are
called the heave - offerings of their hand, because the offerer was first
to take these into his hands, and to heave them before the Lord, and then to
give them to the priest. Your free - will - offerings - Even your voluntary
oblations, which were not due by my prescription, but only by your own
choice: you may chuse what kind of offering you please to offer, but not
the place where you shall offer them.
7: There - Not in the most holy place, wherein only the priests might
eat, but in places allowed to the people for this, end in the holy city.
Ye shall eat - Your part of the things mentioned, (De 12:6).
Before the Lord - In the place of God's presence, where God's sanctuary
shall be.
8: Here - Where the inconveniency of the place, and the uncertainty
of our abode, would not permit exact order in sacrifices and feasts and
ceremonies, which therefore God was then pleased to dispense with; but,
saith he, he will not do so there. Right in his own eyes - Not that
universal liberty was given to all persons to worship how they listed;
but in many things their unsettled condition gave opportunity to do so.
11: His name - His majesty and glory, his worship and service, his,
special and gracious presence. Your choice vows - Heb. the choice of
your vows, that is, your select or chosen vows; so called, because
things offered for vows, were to be perfect, whereas defective creatures
were accepted in free - will - offerings.
12: Your daughters - Hence it appears, that though the males only
were obliged to appear before God in their solemn feasts, yet the women
also were permitted to come.
13: Thy burnt - offerings - Nor the other things mentioned above, this
one and most eminent kind being put for all the rest.
17: Within thy gates - That is, in your private habitations, here
opposed to the place of God's worship.
20: Enlarge thy border - Which will make it impossible to bring all
the cattle thou usest to the tabernacle.
21: If the place be too far - Being obliged to carry their sacrifices
to the place of worship, they might think themselves obliged to carry their
other cattle thither to be killed. They are therefore released from all
such obligations, and left at liberty to kill them at home, whether they
lived nearer that place, or farther from it; only the latter is here
mentioned, as being the matter of the scruple. As I have commanded - In
such a manner as the blood may be poured forth.
22: As the roe - buck - As common or unhallowed food, tho' they be of
the same kind with the sacrifices which are offered to God. The
unclean - Because there was, no holiness in such meat for which the
unclean might be excluded from it.
27: The flesh - Excepting what shall be burned to God's, honour,
and given to the priest according to his appointment.
30: By following them - By following the example they left,
when their persons are destroyed.
