Deuteronomychapter 12
32 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses spoke this on the plains of Moab as the opening of the laws Israel would live by in the land. His hearers had lived in a moving camp for forty years and were about to become a nation of farms and towns. They would settle among shrines that stood on every hill and under the large trees. This chapter sets the rule for where and how they would worship, and it also settles what a family could eat at home. Listen for the phrase that keeps returning about a place God will choose, and notice that the town is never named.
Context
- Who
- A people about to live among the shrines they are told to pull down
- What
- The first of the statutes, ordering the shrines of Canaan destroyed and gathering Israel's offerings to one place the LORD will choose.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, with the hilltop shrines of Canaan across the Jordan in view.
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date this site keeps, with the date of the one-sanctuary law carried as a contested point in the site's dossier on Deuteronomy.
- Why
- To keep Israel from serving its God in the way the nations served theirs, once the people were settled and spread through the land.
Historical context
The speech is Moses in the first person, and this chapter opens the body of the law. Chapters 5 to 11 charged in general, and chapters 12 to 26 work through the particulars.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The setting is the plain east of the Jordan in the fortieth year, at about 1406 BC on the frame this site keeps.
The worship described belongs to the land across the river. Canaanite shrines stood on high ground, on the hills and under spreading trees, and the books of Kings later use that same description of shrines Israel built.
The occasion is the change from a camp to a country. While the camp moved, everyone did what was right in his own eyes, and Albert Barnes reads verse 8 as saying plainly that the prescribed order could not be kept on the march.
A first hearer knew what stood at a local shrine. An altar of stone, a standing pillar and a wooden pole for the goddess Asherah were the furniture of the places verse 3 orders destroyed.
He knew that meat was rare and that killing an animal was normally a sacrifice. Leviticus 17:3-4 had required an ox, a lamb or a goat killed for the table to be brought to the tabernacle door, so the permission at verse 15 changed his kitchen.
He knew that blood was handled with care across the region, and the rule at verse 23 gave him the reason, that the blood is the life.
Significance
The chapter told a farming people that worship would happen at one place they would have to travel to, and it never said where that place was.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
It also told them their ordinary meals were their own. A household far from the sanctuary could kill and eat at home, and the clean and the unclean could eat together, because the meal was common.
The warning at verse 30 named the danger that later undid the kingdom, which was curiosity about how the nations served their gods.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Two live Jewish practices are grounded in this chapter. The first is the treatment of the divine Name in writing. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:4:1 reads the command against doing as the nations do as a prohibition on blotting out the Name of God from any writing. It forbids pulling a stone from the altar or the forecourt in the same way, and he cites Sifrei Devarim 61:12 and Makkot 22a. He gives a second reading in the same comment, from Rabbi Ishmael, that the verse warns against conduct which would leave the sanctuary of their fathers laid waste. The second is the handling of blood in meat. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:16:1 holds that blood may be eaten in no case, even where the animal is unfit for the altar. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:24:1 extends the ban to the last blood that oozes from a cut vein, citing Keritot 4b. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:20:1 draws a rule of ordinary life from the permission to eat meat, that a person should not set his desire on meat unless he lives in plenty, citing Chullin 84a.
How it is read
The chapter's single sanctuary is read through the stages of Israel's history. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:5:1 identifies the residence to be sought as the Tabernacle at Shiloh, from Sifrei Devarim 62:3. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:8:1 holds that for the fourteen years of conquering and dividing the land the people could offer on local altars. Only vows and free-will offerings were allowed there, and he cites Sifrei Devarim 65:4 and Zevachim 117b. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:11:1 then takes the place of verse 11 as Jerusalem, and reads 2 Samuel 7:1 and 7:2 as the moment the building was proposed. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:14:1 resolves the difference between one of your tribes here and all your tribes at verse 5. David collected money for the threshing floor from every tribe, while the floor itself lay in the territory of Benjamin. Whether this single sanctuary law stands against the earlier altar law is one of the contested points this site carries with its holders in src/components/book/dossier-content/deuteronomy.ts, and this card states no verdict on it. The Rashi entries are from corpus entries marked kept, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, public domain. Sforno on Deuteronomy 12:1:1 and Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 12:12:1 are linked entries whose licence permits no text here, cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis differ over why the text says to be strong in keeping from blood. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:23:1 gives both views. Rabbi Judah held that the wording shows the people had a liking for blood, so the effort had to be urged. Rabbi Simeon ben Azzai held that the verse teaches a general lesson. If a command as easy to keep as this one needed the word be strong, then far more effort is owed to the commands that are hard. Rashi cites Sifrei Devarim 76:1-3. They teach that the command to destroy the objects of idol worship is doubled in the Hebrew. The doubling requires every trace to be uprooted, which Rashi gives on Deuteronomy 12:2:1 from Sifrei Devarim 60:1. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Avodah Zarah 44b:3 at verse 2, Chagigah 4b:2 at verse 5 and Bekhorot 53a:3 at verse 6. Others are Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:11:6 at verse 8, Chullin 33a:12 at verse 16, Devarim Rabbah 4:10 at verse 19 and Chullin 115b:1 at verse 24.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:2:1, 12:4:1, 12:5:1, 12:8:1, 12:11:1, 12:14:1, 12:16:1, 12:20:1, 12:23:1 and 12:24:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 12:1:1, cited by ref alone, no licence reported; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 12:12:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Midrash and Talmud, Avodah Zarah 44b:3, Chagigah 4b:2, Bekhorot 53a:3, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:11:6, Chullin 33a:12 and 115b:1 and Devarim Rabbah 4:10, cited by ref alone; MannaFest, the contested points of Deuteronomy, in src/components/book/dossier-content/deuteronomy.ts, 2026; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/12.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
One place he chooses to put his name
Deuteronomy 12:1-3
Verse 1 opens the body of the covenant, and chapters 12 to 26 work out what chapters 5 to 11 charged in general. The first command is demolition of altars, pillars, Asherah poles and idols. The phrase “on the hills, and under every green tree” becomes the standing picture of Canaanite worship, and 1 Kings 14:23 and 2 Kings 17:10 report Israel building the same shrines.
Deuteronomy 12:1
“Moses now passes on to apply Deut. 12–26 the leading principles of the Decalogue to the ecclesiastical, civil, and social life of the people. Particulars will be noticed which are unique to the Law as given in Deuteronomy; and even in laws repeated from the earlier books various new circumstances and details are introduced. This is only natural. The Sinaitic legislation was nearly 40 years old and had been given under conditions of time, place, and circumstance different and distant from those now present.”
Verse 2 condemns the places themselves, and verse 5 sets one place chosen by the LORD against them. Barnes explains the choice of site: the hills were thought nearer heaven, and the gloom of a grove was meant to overawe the worshipper. The many high places give way to one.
Wipe out their names answers the dwelling for His Name in verse 5. Clarke thinks the names were first carved on the stones and trees and then given to the districts around them. Exodus 23:13 forbids invoking the names of other gods.
Deuteronomy 12:3
“Ye shall overthrow their altars - Where unholy sacrifices have been offered; and break their pillars, probably meaning statues and representations of their gods cut out of stone; and burn their groves, such as those about the temple of Ashtaroth, the Canaanitish Venus, whose impure rites were practiced in different parts of the enclosures or groves round her temples; and ye shall hew down the graven images, probably implying all images carved out of wood; and destroy the names of them, which were no doubt at first graven on the stones, and carved on the trees, and then applied to…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:3
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 12:4-5
Verse 4 makes the demolition a rule of method, since Israel's God is not served the way the nations served theirs. Verse 5 names “the place the LORD your God will choose” and leaves it unnamed until 1 Kings 8:16. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads it as a place already chosen, Gerizim, the root of the question the woman asks Jesus at John 4:20.
Deuteronomy 12:4
“Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:4
“22 Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. 23 Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Gill reports that the Targum of Jonathan has the Word of the LORD your God choose the place. Gill reads the dwelling for His Name as the Shechinah, the divine Majesty, dwelling there. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace it through Shiloh to Jerusalem.
Deuteronomy 12:5
“But unto the place which the Lord your God,.... The Targum of Jonathan is, that the Word of the Lord your God: shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there; to place his tabernacle, set up his worship, take up his residence, and cause the Shechinah, or his divine Majesty, to dwell there, as the next clause explains it; out of what tribe it should be chosen, and where it should be, is not said.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:5
“To put his name there” means to manifest to men His divine presence. The Targumists rightly refer to the Shechinah; but the expression comprehends all the various modes in which God vouchsafed to reveal Himself and His attributes to men. The purpose of the command of the text is to secure the unity, and through unity the purity of the worship of God. That there should be one national center for the religion of the people was obviously essential to the great ends of the whole dispensation.
Deuteronomy 12:5
“It was admirably calculated to prevent the corruption which would otherwise have crept in from their frequenting groves and high hills--to preserve uniformity of worship and keep alive their faith in Him to whom all their sacrifices pointed. The place was successively Mizpeh, Shiloh, and especially Jerusalem.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 12:6-7
The list of what goes up to the chosen place covers nearly everything a household could give, from burnt offerings and tithes to the firstborn of the herds. Verse 7 says they eat there and rejoice, so the sanctuary is a place of meals as well as slaughter. Rejoicing falls at verses 7, 12 and 18, each time with the household named.
Deuteronomy 12:6
“Some have objected that this command cannot possibly have been ever carried out, at all events until in later (lays the territory which owned obedience to it was narrowed to the little kingdom of Judah. But in these and in other precepts Moses doubtless takes much for granted. He is here, as elsewhere, regulating and defining more precisely institutions which had long been in existence, as to many details of which custom superseded the necessity of specific enactment.”
The meal at the sanctuary is tied to what the LORD has blessed the household with, and verse 15 measures ordinary meat by the same blessing. At 16:17 each man brings a gift in proportion to that blessing. The harvest sets the size of the feast.
Deuteronomy 12:7
“And this holy pious joy in God and his goodness, with which we are to rejoice evermore, would be the best preservative against the sin and snare of vain and carnal mirth and a relief against the sorrows of the world. They are commanded to be kind to the Levites.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:7
“An injunction that the feasts which accompanied certain offerings (not specified) were to be also held in the same place.”
Deuteronomy 12:8-9
Moses describes the wilderness years as a time when “everyone does what seems right in his own eyes”, and Judges 17:6 and 21:25 say the same of the years after Joshua. Albert Barnes reads verse 8 to mean the prescribed worship could not be kept while the camp moved, a point he says governs the whole book. Verse 9 gives the reason for change.
Deuteronomy 12:8
“Moses points out that heretofore they had not observed the prescribed order in their worship, because during their migratory life in the wilderness it had been impossible to do so. During their wanderings there were doubtless times when the tabernacle was not set up for days together, and when the daily sacrifice Num 28:3, together with many other ordinances, were necessarily omitted (compare Jos 5:5). This consideration must be carefully borne in mind throughout Deuteronomy.”
Rest comes before the chosen place of verse 11. Solomon marks both at the dedication of the temple, blessing the LORD at 1 Kings 8:56 for giving rest to His people as He promised. Barnes shows why worship waited: a moving camp could not keep the prescribed order.
Deuteronomy 12:10-12
Rest is defined by what it removes, rest “from all the enemies around you”, and only then does the place appear. Verse 12 puts servants and the Levite among those who rejoice. The Levite is named because “he has no portion or inheritance among you”, the arrangement of Numbers 18:20-24, and the chapter returns to him at verses 18 and 19.
Barnes reads a dwelling for His Name as the LORD your God making His presence known at the place He will choose. Solomon prays toward that house at 1 Kings 8:29, the place where God had said His Name would be. There Israel brings everything He commands.
The Levite within your gates lived in the towns, and Numbers 35:7 gives the tribe forty-eight cities with their pasture lands in place of a territory. Clarke notes that he lived by the sanctuary. At 14:29 and 26:12 the third-year tithe feeds him with the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Deuteronomy 12:12
“Those that sacrifice to God are welcome to eat before him, and to feast upon their sacrifices: he sups with us, and we with him, Rev. iii. If we glorify God, we edify ourselves, and cultivate our own minds, through the grace of God, by the increase of our knowledge and faith, the enlivening of devout affections, and the confirming of gracious habits and resolutions: thus is the soul nourished.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 12:13-14
The command is restated as a warning to the individual. Verse 13 rules out “just any place you see”, since a man could pick a hill that suited him and call it holy. Verse 14 answers with “one of your tribal territories” and still declines to say which, and John Gill notes that neither the tribe nor the town is named anywhere in the law.
Deuteronomy 12:13
“Take heed to thyself, that thou offer not thy burnt offerings,.... And so any other, this is put for all the rest: in every place that thou seest; which might take with their fancy, seem pleasant, and so a proper and suitable place to sacrifice in, as on high places, and under green trees; but they were not to indulge their own fancies and imaginations, or follow the customs of others, but keep to the rules prescribed them by the Lord, and to the place fixed by him for his worship.”
Joshua 22 shows how seriously Israel took this verse. The tribes east of the Jordan built a large altar, and the rest of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war on them. Phinehas accepted their oath that it stood as a witness for burnt offerings and sacrifices offered at the altar of the LORD alone.
Deuteronomy 12:14
“But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes,.... Which tribe is not named, nor what place in that tribe; See Gill on Deu 12:5, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings; on the altar of burnt offering there placed: and there shalt thou do all that I command thee; respecting sanctuary service, and particularly those things observed in Deu 12:6.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:14
“The place which the Lord shall choose - To prevent idolatry and bring about a perfect uniformity in the Divine worship, which at that time was essentially necessary; because every rite and ceremony had a determinate meaning, and pointed out the good things which were to come, therefore one place must be established where those rites and ceremonies should be carefully and punctually observed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Eat freely, but pour out the blood
Deuteronomy 12:15-16
Verse 15 opens a real concession, for Leviticus 17:3-4 required that an ox, lamb or goat killed for the table be brought to the tabernacle door. Now a man may eat “within any of your gates”, because the place is far, as verse 21 states, and clean and unclean eat alike since the meal is common. Verse 16 holds back only the blood, poured “on the ground like water”.
Deuteronomy 12:15
“While a stringent injunction is laid down that the old rule (compare Lev 17:3, etc.) must be adhered to as regards animals slain in sacrifice, yet permission is now given to slaughter at home what was necessary for the table. The ceremonial distinctions did not apply in such cases, anymore than to “the roebuck” (or gazelle) “and hart,” animals allowed for food but not for sacrifice.”
Leviticus 17:13 gave the hunter the same rule: pour out the blood and cover it. At 1 Samuel 14:32 to 34 Saul's troops slaughter animals on the ground and eat the meat with the blood. Saul calls it sin against the LORD.
Deuteronomy 12:16
“Only ye shall not eat the blood,.... All manner of blood being forbidden, of fowl or of beasts, whether slain for sacrifice or for common food: ye shall pour it out upon the earth as water; which cannot be gathered up again for use, but is swallowed up in the earth.”
Deuteronomy 12:17-19
The concession does not reach the tithe of grain, new wine and oil, the firstborn, the vows or the freewill offerings, which keep their old destination. Verse 19 makes the Levite a standing duty “as long as you live in your land”, the span verse 1 set on the statutes. Nehemiah 13:10-12 records a season when the portions failed and the Levites went back to their fields.
Verse 18 has the household eat its own tithe in the presence of the LORD, and Gill reads the Levite's share as a seat at that meal. At 14:24 to 26 the tithe of a household far from the place is sold for silver and the meal eaten there. The Levite still eats with them.
Gill gives two readings of neglect, withholding the Levite's tithe or leaving him out of the feast, and he prefers the second. Clarke applies the verse to those who serve God in the ministry, who should have the necessaries of life. Paul makes the same case at 1 Corinthians 9:13 to 14.
Deuteronomy 12:19
“Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite,.... By withholding from him the tithes appointed for his maintenance; or rather by neglecting to take him with him in order to partake of the feast or entertainment before spoken of: as long as thou livest upon the earth; so that it was not one time only, but always; whenever he ate these holy things before the Lord, as long as he lived, he was to be careful he had the Levite with him, for a reason given, Deu 12:12.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:19
“Forsake not the Levite - These had no inheritance, and were to live by the sanctuary: if therefore the offerings were withheld by which the Levites were supported, they of course must perish. Those who have devoted themselves to the service of God in ministering to the salvation of the souls of men, should certainly be furnished at least with all the necessaries of life. Those who withhold this from them sin against their own mercies, and that ordinance of God by which a ministry is established for the salvation of souls.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 12:20-22
Enlarging the border is promised at Exodus 34:24 and Deuteronomy 19:8, and here it sets a wider permission. The man who says “I want to eat meat” may eat it, where Numbers 11:4-33 meets the same craving with quail and a plague. That earlier craving was a complaint against the manna and against God, and this passage attaches no fault to the appetite.
Deuteronomy 12:20
“There is a natural regular appetite, which it is lawful to gratify with temperance and sobriety, not taking too great a pleasure in the gratification, nor being uneasy if it be crossed. The unclean, who might not eat of the holy things, yet might eat of the same sort of flesh when it was only used as common food.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Barnes renders the opening as a statement, that the place will be too far, which treats the distance as certain for much of Israel. As I have commanded you ties home slaughter to the rule already given, with the blood poured out at verse 16. The permission carries its terms.
Deuteronomy 12:21
“If the place ... - Rather, “Because, or since, the place will be too far from thee.” The permission given in Deu 12:15-16 is repeated, and the reason of it assigned.”
The gazelle and the deer are clean animals at 14:5 that a man may eat and never offer on the altar. Barnes makes that the point of the comparison. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that wilderness game never went to the tabernacle.
Deuteronomy 12:22
“Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so shalt thou eat them, &c.--Game when procured in the wilderness had not been required to be brought to the door of the tabernacle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 12:23-25
The blood rule returns with its reason, “because the blood is the life”, the ground Leviticus 17:11 gives for blood on the altar making atonement. Genesis 9:4 laid the same restriction on Noah, so it began before Sinai. Acts 15:20 and 15:29 keep abstaining from blood in the council's letter to Gentile believers, and readers still differ on whether that ruling was permanent or fitted to its moment.
Deuteronomy 12:23
“For the blood is the life - And the life being offered as an atonement, consequently the blood should not be eaten. See the notes on Lev 17:11, where the subject of the vitality of the blood is largely considered.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The command not to eat the blood stands at verses 16, 23, 24 and 25. Henry reports Bishop Patrick's reason: the idolaters ate the blood of their sacrifices to gain communion with their demons. Israel pours it on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 12:24
“Thou shalt not eat it,.... Neither with the flesh, nor separately: thou shall pour it upon the earth as water; as the blood of sacrifices was poured upon the altar, the blood of common flesh was to be poured upon the earth, signifying it was not to be used, and no account to be made of it; See Gill on Deu 12:16.”
Right in the eyes of the LORD answers verse 8, where everyone did what seemed right in his own eyes. The chapter moves the measure of worship from the worshipper's judgment to the LORD's. 1 Kings 15:11 judges King Asa by this phrase.
Deuteronomy 12:25
“Bishop Patrick thinks one reason why they were forbidden thus strictly the eating of blood was to prevent the superstitions of the old idolaters about the blood of their sacrifices, which they thought their demons delighted in, and by eating of which they imagined that they had communion with them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 12:26-28
Holy things and vows go up to the chosen place, where verse 27 puts the blood on the altar or beside it. Within ten verses the same blood is poured on the ground or at the altar, and the altar is the whole difference. Verse 28 closes the section with the book's recurring promise “so that it may always go well with you”.
Deuteronomy 12:26
“Only thy holy things which thou hast,.... Which the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan interpret of the tithe of their holy things, and Aben Ezra of their burnt offerings and peace offerings; they seem to include all in Deu 12:17. and thy vows thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the Lord shall choose; so often referred to, but not named; see Deu 12:5.”
The burnt offering went wholly to the altar, meat and blood together, as Leviticus 1:9 directs. The peace offerings of Leviticus 3 and 7 gave their blood to the altar and their meat to the table. Gill reports that Aben Ezra read verse 26 this way.
Deuteronomy 12:27
“But this signified the obligation we Christians are under to offer up all our spiritual sacrifices to God in the name of Jesus Christ, hoping for acceptance only upon the score of his mediation, 1 Pet. ii. They are commanded to feast upon their hallowed things before the Lord, with holy joy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Verse 28 adds good to the right of verse 25, and 6:18 joins the two words in the same way. The LORD's eyes judge the act, and the welfare of the children follows it. The pair closes the law of the one place.
Deuteronomy 12:28
“For it is you, Master, the heavenly "King of eternity," who gives the sons of men glory and honor and authority over the earth's people. Direct their plans, O Lord, in accord with "what is good and pleasing to you" so that they may administer the authority you have given them with peace, consideration and reverence, and so win your mercy.”
Clement of Rome · written before 99 · LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 61.2patristic
Never ask how they served their gods
Deuteronomy 12:29-31
The danger named is curiosity, a man asking how these nations serve their gods and deciding to copy them, and being “ensnared by their ways” as Exodus 23:33 warns. Verse 31 names the practice that makes their worship abominable, burning sons and daughters in the fire. Kings and Jeremiah 7:31 record Israel doing it in the valley of the son of Hinnom.
Deuteronomy 12:29
“When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee,.... The seven nations of the land of Canaan, Deu 7:1, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; or to inherit them, and thou dost inherit them, by dwelling in their land.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:29
“They must not so much as enquire into the modes and forms of idolatrous worship. What good would it do to them to know those depths of Satan? It is best to be ignorant of that which there is danger of being infected by.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Barnes explains why a man would inquire: each nation was thought to have gods of its own land, and to neglect them was dangerous. 2 Kings 17:26 shows settlers in Samaria asking to learn how to serve the god of the land. Calvin traces idolatry to dissatisfaction with the worship God gave.
Deuteronomy 12:30
“For this is the origin of idolatry, when the genuine simplicity of God's worship is known, that people begin to be dissatisfied with it, and curiously to inquire whether there is anything worthy of belief in the figments of men; for men's minds are soon attracted by the snares of novelty, so as to pollute, with various kinds of leaven, what has been delivered in God's word.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 12:30
“This caution is based upon the notion generally entertained in the ancient pagan world, that each country had its own tutelary deities whom it would be perilous to neglect; compare 1Ki 20:23; 2Ki 17:26. Israel was to shun such superstitions as unworthy of the elect people of God.”
Verse 31 repeats the sentence of verse 4, so the law of the one place stands between two refusals to worship the LORD in the way of the nations. Leviticus 18:21 and 20:2 to 5 had already made it a capital offence to give sons or daughters to Molech. Clarke notes that almost all nations offered human victims.
Deuteronomy 12:31
“Their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire - Almost all the nations in the world agreed in offering human victims to their gods on extraordinary occasions, by which it is evident that none of those nations had any right notion of the Divine nature. How necessary, then, was the volume of revelation, to teach men what that religion is with which God can be well pleased!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The verse repeats 4:2, “do not add to it or subtract from it”, and the Hebrew Bible numbers it 13:1, opening the next chapter. Proverbs 30:6 and Revelation 22:18-19 carry the same formula. Meredith Kline in Treaty of the Great King and Kenneth Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament set such clauses beside second-millennium treaties, which bears on dating the book.
Deuteronomy 12:32
“Thou shalt hate all hypocrisy and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord. Do thou in no wise forsake the commandments of the Lord; but thou shalt keep what thou hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking away therefrom. In the church thou shalt acknowledge thy transgressions, and thou shalt not come near for thy prayer with an evil conscience.”
Didache · written before 100 · The Didache, Chapter 4patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: Law, the first chapter of the statutes that run from 12:1 to 26:19, as 12 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The same sentence at the head and at the close | Verse 4 says Israel is not to worship the LORD in the way the nations served their gods. Verse 31 says it again in the same words, after the demolition, the chosen place and the blood rule have all been given. The warning frames the chapter.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 12, the note on verses 4 and 5, and the note on verses 29 to 31. | Deuteronomy 12:4, Deuteronomy 12:31 |
| The place the LORD will choose | The phrase falls five times in this chapter, at verses 5, 11, 14, 18 and 26, and fifteen times between chapters 12 and 26. It never names the place. The naming happens later, at 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Kings 8:16.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 12, the note on verses 4 and 5, which cites Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament. | Deuteronomy 12:5, Deuteronomy 12:11, Deuteronomy 12:14, Deuteronomy 12:18, Deuteronomy 12:26 |
| Everything a household could bring | Verse 6 lists what goes up to the chosen place, burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, heave offerings, vow offerings, freewill offerings and the firstborn of the herd and the flock. Verse 17 lists the same gifts again as the things the concession does not cover.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 12, the note on verses 6 and 7, and the note on verses 17 to 19. | Deuteronomy 12:6, Deuteronomy 12:17 |
| Rejoicing commanded three times, and the household named each time | Verses 7, 12 and 18 each command rejoicing before the LORD, and each one names the household with the man. The list at verses 12 and 18 runs to sons, daughters, menservants, maidservants and the Levite within the gates.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 12, the note on verses 6 and 7, and the note on verses 10 to 12. | Deuteronomy 12:7, Deuteronomy 12:12, Deuteronomy 12:18 |
| Take heed to yourself, said three times | The warning falls at verses 13, 19 and 30, and each time it guards a different thing. Verse 13 guards the altar, verse 19 guards the Levite and verse 30 guards the mind against curiosity about how the nations served their gods.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 12, the note on verses 13 and 14, which cites John Gill and Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832. | Deuteronomy 12:13, Deuteronomy 12:19, Deuteronomy 12:30 |
The New Testament's use
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 9 gives the reason the arrangement is about to change, that Israel has not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance. Hebrews 3 and 4 take up that word rest and press it further, which the published note on verses 8 and 9 records.
The blood rule of verses 23 to 25 carries the reason with it, that the blood is the life. Leviticus 17:11 says the life of the flesh is in the blood and that the blood is given on the altar to make atonement. Genesis 9:4 laid the same restriction on Noah long before Israel existed. Acts 15:20 and 15:29 keep abstaining from blood in the short list the Jerusalem council sends to Gentile believers.
Readers have differed since over whether that ruling was permanent or fitted to a particular moment. The published note names the difference and states no verdict.
The single sanctuary and the altar law
Whether this chapter's single sanctuary law contradicts the earlier altar law of Exodus 20:24 is one of the contested points the site's dossier carries with its holders, with a door to /featured/mosaic-covenant. The site states no verdict. The position that the two stand together reads Exodus 20:24 as the rule for the camp and this chapter as the rule for the land, which is the reading Albert Barnes supports at verse 8. The position that they differ reads the demand for one place as later than the altar law, and it is one leg of the seventh-century dating the dossier records under W. M. L. de Wette and Moshe Weinfeld.
Where the place was said to be
The Samaritan Pentateuch reads the phrase as a place already chosen and identifies it with Gerizim. The published note on verses 4 and 5 names that as the textual root behind the question the woman puts to Jesus at John 4:20. John Gill notes that neither the tribe nor the town is named anywhere in the law.
The clause that forbids alteration
Verse 32 repeats 4:2 almost word for word, add nothing and take nothing away. Proverbs 30:6 and Revelation 22:18-19 carry the same formula about the words of God. A clause forbidding alteration is a standard feature of second-millennium treaty documents. Meredith Kline in Treaty of the Great King and Kenneth Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament both set that pattern beside the shape of Deuteronomy. It bears on the dating of the book and does not settle it.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Meredith G. Kline and Kenneth A. Kitchen, as the site's dossier records the position, Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963, and Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 2003; The Jewish annual reading cycle, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, portion 47 and This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 12, the note on verses 1 to 3, which reads the chapter as opening the body of the covenant that chapters 5 to 11 charged in general.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.