Deuteronomy 12:5

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3 And ^ayou shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their¹ wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.

4 You shall not ^aworship the Lord your God with such things.

5 “But you shall seek the ^aplace where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His ^bdwelling place; and there you shall go.

6 ^aThere you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^bfirstborn of your herds and flocks.

7 And ^athere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^byou shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—^aevery man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—

9 for as yet you have not come to the ^arest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.

10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you ^arest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,

11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord.

12 And ^ayou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^bLevite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

14 but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

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Deuteronomy 12:6 >>

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. Corruption began as soon as the precepts of the text were relaxed or neglected: Compare the case of Gideon, Judges 8:27; of Micah, Judg. 18; of Jeroboam, I Kings 12:26 ff.

The words "the place which the Lord shall choose to put His Name there" suggest Jerusalem and Solomon' s temple to our minds. But though spoken as they were by a prophet, and interpreted as they are by the Psalms (e. g. Psalms 78:67-69), they have a proper application to the temple, yet they must not be referred exclusively to it. The text does not import that God would always from the first choose one and the same locality "to put His Name there," but that there would always be a locality so chosen by Him; and that there the people must bring their sacrifices, and not offer them at their pleasure or convenience elsewhere. Neither does the text forbid the offering of sacrifices to God at other places than the one chosen by Him "to put His Name there" on proper occasions and by proper authority (compare Deuteronomy 27:5-6; Judges 6:24; Judges 13:16; I Kings 3:4; I Kings 18:31). The text simply prohibits sacrifices at any other locality than that which should be appointed or permitted by God for the purpose.

Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Deuteronomy 12:5:

1 Kings 8:41
2 Chronicles 7:12
Malachi 1:11
John 4:20

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Deuteronomy 12:6 >>

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