Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 12
1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. 2You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 3You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. 4You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. 5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. 6You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. 7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 8You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you. 10But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, 11then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. 12You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
15Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. 16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 18but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. 19Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. 21If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. 22Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. 23Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. 24You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes. 26Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose. 27You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat. 28Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
Commentary
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What others are saying
4 commentators · 53 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
From those great original truths, That there is a God, and that there is but one God, arise those great fundamental laws, That that God is to be worshipped, and he only, and that therefore we are to have no other God before him: this is the first commandment…
There is not any one particular precept (as I remember) in all the law of Moses so largely pressed and inculcated as this, by which they are all tied to bring their sacrifices to that one altar which was set up in the court of the tabernacle, and there to…
John Gill32
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do,.... Which are recorded in this and the following chapters; here a new discourse begins, and which perhaps was delivered at another time, and respects things that were to be observed: in the…
Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods,.... The temples erected for the worship of them by the Canaanites, of which there were many, as appears by the various names of places given them from the…
And you shall overthrow their altars,.... Which were of stone, as Jarchi observes; whereas the altar ordered to be made by the Lord, before the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle was made, was of earth, Exodus 20:24 these were to be demolished, lest…
Keil & Delitzsch9
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
The laws relating to the worship of the Israelites commence with a command to destroy and annihilate all places and memorials of the Canaanitish worship (Deu 12:2-4), and then lay it down as an established rule, that the Israelites were to worship the Lord…
But if these instructions were really to be observed by the people in Canaan, it was necessary that the law which had been given with reference to the journey through the wilderness, viz., that no animal should be slain anywhere else than at the tabernacle in…
These rules were still to remain in force, even when God should extend the borders of the land in accordance with His promise. This extension relates partly to the gradual but complete extermination of the Canaanites (Deu 7:22, comp. with Exo 23:27-33), and…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown10
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
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…
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.
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…
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