Deuteronomy 12:6

6 bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

Deuteronomy 12:6 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 12:6

And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings
For the daily sacrifice, and upon any other account whatsoever; this was before ordered to be brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and now to the place where that should be fixed, ( Leviticus 17:8 Leviticus 17:9 )

and your sacrifices:
all other distinct from burnt offerings, as sin offerings, trespass offerings, and peace offerings, especially the latter. Jarchi interprets them of peace offerings of debt, such as a man was obliged to bring; but as the distance of some persons from Jerusalem was very great, and it was troublesome and expensive, they might, according to the Jewish writers, bring them the next grand festival, when all the males were obliged to appear there; so says Maimonides F3, all offerings of a man, whether by obligation (such as he was bound to bring) or freewill offerings, he must bring at the first feast that comes; and another of their writers observes F4, that if only one feast has passed, and he has not brought his vow, he transgresses an affirmative precept, ( Deuteronomy 12:6 ) the first feast on which thou comest thither, thou must needs bring it; and if three have passed, he transgresses a negative precept, ( Deuteronomy 23:21 )

and your tithes;
tithes of beasts, and the second tithes, according to Jarchi:

and heave offerings of your hand;
these according to the same writer were the firstfruits, and so it is rendered in the Septuagint version; and thus Maimonides F5 says, the firstfruits are called Trumot, or heave offerings; see ( Exodus 22:29 )

and your vows and your freewill offerings;
which were a type of peace offerings, ( Leviticus 7:16 )

and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks;
which were sanctified and devoted to the Lord, ( Exodus 13:2 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F3 Praefat. ad Yad Chazakah.
F4 Bartenora in Misn. Roshhashanah, c. 1. sect. 1. & in Misn. Ediot, c. 7. sect. 6.
F5 In Misn. Meilah, c. 4. sect. 2.

Deuteronomy 12:6 In-Context

4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways.
5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,
6 bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.
7 And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires,
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.