Deuteronomy 12:1-28

The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship

1 ¹"These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, ²all the days that you live on the earth.

2 ³You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ⁴on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ⁵their pillars and burn their ⁶Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ⁷destroy their name out of that place.

4 ⁸You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

5 But you shall seek ⁹the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation^[a] there. There you shall go,

6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ¹⁰your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ¹¹firstborn of your herd and of your flock.

7 And ¹²there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and ¹³you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

8 "You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, ¹⁴everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,

9 for you have not as yet come to ¹⁵the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

10 But when ¹⁶you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, ¹⁷and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,

11 then to ¹⁸the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ¹⁹your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD.

12 And ²⁰you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since ²¹he has no portion or inheritance with you.

13 ²²Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see,

14 but at ²³the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

15 "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, ²⁴according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. ²⁵The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.

16 ²⁶Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

17 You may not eat within your towns ²⁷the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present,

18 but ²⁸you shall eat them before the LORD your God in ²⁹the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And ³⁰you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake.

19 ³¹Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 "When the LORD your God ³²enlarges your territory, ³³as he has promised you, and you say, 'I will eat meat,' because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire.

21 If ³⁴the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, ³⁵then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.

22 Just ³⁶as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. ³⁷The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.

23 ³⁸Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, ³⁹for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

25 You shall not eat it, ⁴⁰that all may go well with you and with your children after you, ⁴¹when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

26 But the ⁴²holy things that are due from you, and ⁴³your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to ⁴⁴the place that the LORD will choose,

27 and ⁴⁵offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat.

28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, ⁴⁶that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

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Deuteronomy 12:1-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 12

In this chapter orders are given to destroy all altars, pillars, groves, and images, made for the worship of idols in the land of Canaan, De 12:1-3 and to bring all sacrifices and holy things unto the place which the Lord should choose for his habitation, and not do as they then did, not being come to their rest, De 12:4-14, flesh for their common food might be killed and eaten in their own houses, provided they did not eat the blood, but poured it out upon the earth, De 12:15-25, tithes, vows, and freewill offerings, were to be eaten in the holy place, De 12:17-19 and burnt offerings to be offered on the altar of the Lord and the blood of them to be poured out upon the altar, De 12:26-28, all which they were carefully to observe, De 12:29, and they are cautioned against idolatry, and inquiring after the manner of it, as practised by the old inhabitants of the land, and introducing their customs into the service of God, De 12:30-32.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 46

1. Deuteronomy 6:1
2. Deuteronomy 4:10
3. Deuteronomy 7:5; Exodus 34:13
4. 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 16:4; 2 Kings 17:10; Jeremiah 3:6
5. See Deuteronomy 16:22
6. See Deuteronomy 16:21
7. [Zephaniah 1:4; Zechariah 13:2]
8. ver. 31
9. Deuteronomy 16:2; Deuteronomy 26:2; 1 Kings 8:29; 2 Chronicles 7:12; [Joshua 18:1]
10. Deuteronomy 14:22, 23; Deuteronomy 15:19, 20
11. Deuteronomy 14:23
12. Deuteronomy 14:23, 26; Deuteronomy 15:20
13. Deuteronomy 14:26; Deuteronomy 16:11, 14, 15; Deuteronomy 26:11; Deuteronomy 27:7; Deuteronomy 28:8; Leviticus 23:40
14. Judges 17:6; Judges 21:25
15. 1 Kings 8:56; Psalms 95:11; [Hebrews 4:8]
16. See Deuteronomy 11:31
17. Deuteronomy 25:19; Joshua 23:1; [2 Samuel 7:1; 1 Kings 5:4]
18. [See ver. 5 above]
19. [See ver. 6 above]
20. [See ver. 7 above]
21. See Numbers 18:20
22. Leviticus 17:3, 4; [1 Kings 12:28, 33]
23. [See ver. 5 above]
24. Deuteronomy 16:17
25. Deuteronomy 14:5; Deuteronomy 15:22
26. See Leviticus 3:17
27. [See ver. 6 above]
28. [See ver. 7 above]
29. [See ver. 5 above]
30. [See ver. 7 above]
31. Deuteronomy 14:27; [2 Chronicles 31:4]
32. Deuteronomy 19:8
33. Deuteronomy 11:24; Deuteronomy 19:8, 9; Genesis 28:14; Exodus 34:24
34. See ver. 5
35. ver. 15
36. Deuteronomy 14:5; Deuteronomy 15:22
37. Deuteronomy 14:5; Deuteronomy 15:22
38. See Leviticus 3:17
39. See Genesis 9:4
40. Deuteronomy 4:40; [Ecclesiastes 8:12; Isaiah 3:10]
41. Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 13:18; Exodus 15:26; 1 Kings 11:38
42. [Numbers 5:9, 10; Numbers 18:19]
43. [1 Samuel 1:21]
44. [See ver. 21 above]
45. Lev. 1:5, 9, 13; Leviticus 17:11
46. [See ver. 25 above]

Footnotes 1

[a]. Or name as its habitation

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.