Deuteronomy 12

THese are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do, in the land which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.

Ye shall utterly destroy all the places Temples, Chappels altars grov...... appears from... her Scriptures. wherein the nations, which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains Which the used to imploy for their Idolatry. See Isa. 5.... 5..... E.... 1......... 13., and upon the hills, and under every green tree A... the consecrated to, so they worshipped these under them..

And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars Upon which their images were......) All the memorials of them, and the very names given to the places from the Idols., and burn their groves with fire, and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them e out of that place.

Ye shall not do so (i. e.) Not worship him in several places mountains, grov..., &c. which sense i... evident from the following opposition. unto the LORD your God.

But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his Name there (i. e.) To set up his worship or which he shall call by his name, as his house, or dwel... -place to wit, where the Ark should, the Ta... rnacle or Temple. Which was first, Ios. 18. 1. next and... pecially., even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come.

And thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices Which were wisely appropriated to th... one and publick place, partly for the security of the true religion, and for the prevention of Idolatry and superstition, which otherwise might more easily have crept in: and partly to signify that their sacrifices were not accepted for their own worth, but by Gods gracious appointment and for the sake of Gods altar by which they were sanctified, and for the sake of Christ whom the Altar did manifestly represent. Of which see below on. 17., and your tithes h, and heave-offerings (i. e.) Your first-fruits, to, of the earth, as of corn and wine and oyl and other fruits, as plainl... appears by comparing this place with Deut. 18. 4. and 26. 2. where these are commanded to be brought thither, and seeing here is an exact and particular enumeration of all such things and these cannot be put under any of the other branches these must needs be intended here, the rather, because the other kind of first-fruits, to wit, of the and are here expressely mentioned. And these are called here, because the offerer was... irst to take these into his own hands, and to heave them before the lord (as other tell u...) and then to give them to the.... 1............ and 26. 4. of your hand, and your vows, and your free-will-offerings you please... o... ow and offer, but not the place where you shall offer them., and the firstlings of your herds, and of your flocks Either 1. the holy or first-born, as appears by Numb. 18 where they are commanded to be brought to this one place here designed, and to be offered upon Gods,. 17. It is objected by some, that those were given to the pries... Numb. 18. 18. but these were to be eaten by the people here. 7. But that the next verse does not say, but only in general,... all ye, to wit, such of the offerings mentioned. 6. as they were allowed to eat, but not such as were the Priests peculiar, for these they might not eat, nor all there expressed, for it is evident they might not eat any of the burnt-offerings, not some parts of the other sacrifices, which are here mentioned Or 2. the second births, which were the peoples first-born, or the first which they could eat of, which they were to eat before the Lord by way of acknowledgement of his favour in giving them to them and all their succeeding births. See more on ver. 17..

And there Not in the most holy place, wherein only the Priests might eat, Numb. 18. 10. but more generally in places allowed to the people for this end, in the holy city. ye shall eat To wit, your part of the things mentioned ver. 6. before the LORD (i. e.) In the place of Gods presence, where Gods Sanctuary shall be. your God, and ye shall rejoyce in all that ye put your hand unto Either to bestow your pains and labour upon it: or, to take and use or enjoy it. The sense is, You thus doing shall be blessed and enabled to rejoyce or to take comfort in all your labours and enjoyments, which otherwise would be accursed to you. We have the same phrase below ver. 18. and Deut. 15. 10., ye and your housholds, wherein the LORD thy God has blessed thee.

Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here Where the inconveniency of the place and the uncertainty of our abode in and removal from several places would not permit exact order in sacrifices and feasts and ceremonies, which therefore God was pleased then to dispense, but, says he, he will not do so there. this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes Not that universal liberty was given to all persons to worship whom and how they listed, but that in many things their unsettled condition gave every one opportunity to do so, if he thought good..

For ye are not as yet come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the LORD your God giveth you.

But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety,

Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his Name (i. e.) His Majesty and glory, his worship and service, his special and gracious presence, and the tokens of it. to dwell there, thither shall ye bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all your choice vows Heb. the choice of your vows, i. e. your select or chosen vows, so called, because things offered for vows were to be perfect, whereas superfluous or defective creatures were accepted in free-will offering, as appears from Levit. 22. 21, 22, 23., which ye vow unto the LORD.

And ye shall rejoyce before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters Hence it appears, that though the males only were obliged to appear before God in their solemn feasts, Exod. 23. 17. yet the women also were permitted to come, as they did. See Iudg. 21. 19, 21. 1 Sam. 1. 3, 7, 21, 22, 23., and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite that is within your gates, forasmuch as he has no part nor inheritance with you.

Take heed to thy self, that thou offer not thy burnt offerings Nor the other things mentioned above, this one and most eminent kind being put for all the rest, as is usual: for being all expressed before, it was needless to repeat them again. in every place that thou seest To wit, with complacency and approbation, which thou thinkest very fit and proper for such a work, as one might possibly judge of some high-places or groves or gardens.:

But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh To wit, for thy common use and food. in all thy gates (i. e.) Thy cities or dwellings., whatsoever thy soul lusteth after What you shall desire either for quantity or quality, provided always you observe the laws given you elsewhere about avoiding excess and uncleanness in the things you eat., according to the blessing of the LORD thy God, which he has given thee According to thy quality and estate: whereby he manifestly condemns those who profusely and riotously spend other mens money and live at a rate which their consciences know to be much above their ability: which certainly is an ungodly and unrighteous, though too common, practise.: the unclean Who is forbidden to eat of holy meats, Levit. 7. 20. and the clean may eat thereof To wit, of any sort of creatures, even of those sorts which are offered to God in sacrifices, which are as free to your use, as the ro-buck, and the hart, which were not accepted in sacrifice, Lev. 22. 19. yet were clean beasts, Deut. 14. 5. and therefore here is a tacit exception of unclean beasts., as of the roe-buck, and as of the hart.

Only ye shall not eat the bloud, ye shall pour it out upon the earth as water.

Thou Either 1. thou, O Levite: or rather 2. thou O Israelit..., whom he distinguisheth from the Levite ver. 18. accordingly as the following particulars agree to the one or to the other of you. mayest not eat within thy gates (i. e.) In your private habitations, here opposed to the place of Gods worship, ver. 18. the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil Here seems to be a great difficulty, not yet sufficiently observed nor cleared by Interpreters. There were divers kinds of tithes. 1. The tithes given to the Levites out of all, of which Numb. 18. 21, 24. Deut. 14. 22. Neh. 10. 37. 2. The tithe of those tithes, which were to be given by the Levites to the Priests, of which Numb. 18. 26, 28. Neh. 10. 38. 3. The third years tithe, of which Deut. 14. 28. To which some adde another tithe, which they call the second tithe, which they say was taken after the Levites tithe was laid by. Now each of these has its difficulty. It seems this place cannot be understood 1. Of the Levites tithe, partly because it might seem a great and wholly superfluous trouble to carry all their tithes up to Ierusalem, and to carry them back to their several habitations for their use; partly because those were holy to the Lord, Lev. 27. 30. and not to be eaten by the people, ver. 31. whereas these belonged principally to the people, the Levites being only taken in as accessories to eat with them, as it is here ver. 18. and partly because those might be eaten in every place, as is expresly affirmed, Numb. 18. 31. Nor 2. of the tithe of the tithe, which was the Priests, and neither Levites nor others might eat of it, except they were of or in the Priests houshold. Nor 3. of the third years tithe, because that was to be eaten within their gates, Deut. 14. 28, 29. as this was not. I do therefore humbly conceive, that this is meant of the second tithe, spoken of Deut. 14. 22. and that this was the very same tithe with that third years tithe, with this only difference, that in the third year they were to eat them, together with the Levites within their gates, Deut. 14. 28, 29. but in the two first years they were to eat them, together with the Levites also, in the place of Gods worship, as it is prescribed here and Deut. 14. 23. And that it is one and the same tithe which is spoken of Deut. 14. 22. and ver. 28. seems more than probable both because they are called by the same name all the tithe of their increase, and because that ver. 28. manifestly looks back to that ver. 22. and because otherwise every third year the Israelites were to pay three several tithes one after another, which Scripture no where affirms, and it seems to make the peoples burdens and the Levites provisions too great. For the objection taken from Deut. 26. 12, 13. it shall be considered in its place. And the reason of that difference of place, and why the same tithes were eaten for two years together in Ierusalem, and the third year in their own gates, seems to be this, that in the two first years there was a more special regard had to the Levites, who were very much conversant in Ierusalem, where these tithes were then eaten, and in the third year there is a respect had to the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are mentioned as ioynt-sharers with the Levites in this third years tithe, whose occasions and obligations of coming to Ierusalem were not so many nor strong as those of the Levites, and therefore they were to be found generally within their gates where these were to be eaten. And whereas the objection made before against the chargeable and useless carrying of the first tithes to Ierusalem might be applyed here, it is answered there, and it is provided, that when they lived at a great distance from Ierusalem they might turn it into money and bestow it there, Deut. 14. 24 25, 26. which both confirms the objection as to the first tithe, for which no such provision was made, and answers it as to this, where such a remedy is expressed. And whereas it may be pleaded on the behalf of the first or the Levitical tithe, that those tithes were brought to Ierusalem, and that there were store-houses or chambers in the Temple appointed for the receiving of the tithes, 2 Chro. 31. 5, 6, 11, 12. Neh. 10. 37, 33. and 12. 44. it may be answered, that those chambers, being only 38 in number and each of them, except two, but 6 cubits broad and 12 cubits long, were altogether uncapable of all those tithes, and seem principally, if not solely appointed for the Priests tithes, and not for all them neither, but only for so much of them as might serve for the use and necessity of those Priests and Levites too that were in the actual ministration., or the firstlings of thy herds, or of thy flock As the tithes now mentioned were not the Levitical, but second, tithes, as has been discoursed, so these firstlings do not seem to be the first firstlings, which being appropriated to the Levites were not to be eaten by any of the people, except those of or in the Levites families, but the second firstlings, which were the first which the owner could dispose of, and which, in conformity to the second tithes, he is required to set apart for this use., nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy free-will-offerings, or heave-offering of thine hand.

But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God, in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoyce before the LORD thy God, in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

Take heed to thy self Lest a worldly mind and self-love make thee rob the Levites of their dues, as afterwards the ungodly Iews did. See Mal. 3. 8., that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth.

When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border Which will make it inconvenient and impossible to do what now thou dost and because of the narrow bounds of thy camp canst conveniently do, to wit, to bring all the cattel thou usest to the Tabernacle, which it seems probable they did to prevent their eating of blood. Compare Levit. 17. 3. 1 Sam. 14. 34., as he has promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh; (because thy soul longeth to eat flesh) thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

If the place which the LORD thy God has chosen to put his name there, be too far from thee In which case being obliged to carry their sacrifices to the place of worship, that the blood might be there poured forth, &c. they might think themselves obliged, for the same reason to carry their other cattel 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 to that place or further from it, only the latter is here mentioned as being the matter of the scruple, and as containing the former in it., then thou shalt kill of thy herd, and of thy flock, which the LORD has given thee, as I have commanded thee In such manner as the blood may be poured forth, as above ver. 16. and below ver. 24., and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

Even as the ro-buck and the hart As common or unhallowed food, though they be of the same kind with the sacrifices, which are offered to God. is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike Because there was no holiness in such meat for which the unclean might be excluded from it..

Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life Of which see on Gen. 9. 4. Lev. 17. 11. The animal life depends upon the blood. and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.

Thou shalt not eat it, thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.

Thou shalt not eat it, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee; when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

Only thy holy things Mentioned before ver. 6. 12, 17. which thou hast consecrated to God. which thou hast, and thy vows thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose.

And thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh Excepting what shall be burned to Gods honour and given to the Priest according to his appointment..

Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou dost that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.

When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them Of which phrase see Deut. 9. 1. and 11. 23., and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land:

Take heed to thy self, that thou be not snared Drawn into their sin and ruine. by following them, after that they be destroyed (i. e.) By following the example they left, when their persons are destroyed. from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods Through curiosity to know their Gods and the manner of the worship, lest thy vain and foolish mind be seduced by its speciousness or newness., saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD Either 1. Not offer him that indignity and injury to worship other Gods together with him. Or rather 2. Not worship him in such manner as they worshipped their Gods, to wit, by offering thy children to him, as they did to their gods, as it here follows, or by thy own devises or superstitions, as is implied ver. 32. thy God: for every abomination to the LORD which he hateth, have they done unto their gods: for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.