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

And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds

The sacrifices were wisely appropriated to that one and public place, partly for the security of the true religion, and for the prevention of idolatry and superstition, which otherwise might more easily have crept in; and partly to signify that their sacrifices were not accepted for their own worth, but by God’ s gracious appointment, and for the sake of God’ s altar, by which they were sanctified, and for the sake of Christ, whom the altar did manifestly represent. Of tithes, See Poole "". Heave-offerings, i.e. your first-fruits, to wit, of the earth, as of corn and wine and oil and other fruits, as plainly appears by comparing this place with 26:2, where these are commanded to be brought thither; and seeing here is an exact and particular enumeration of all such things, and these cannot be put under any of the other branches, these must needs be intended here, the rather because the other kind of first-fruits, to wit, of the herds and flocks, are here expressly mentioned. And these are called here the heave-offerings of their hand, because the offerer was first to take these into his hands, and to heave them before the Lord, (as other places tell us,) and then to give them to the priest, as appears from ,4 26:4. Your free-will offerings; even for your voluntary oblations, which were not due by my prescription, but only by your own choice and voluntary engagement: you may choose what kind of offering you please to vow and offer, but not the place where you shall offer them. The firstlings of your herds and of your flocks; either, 1. The holy firstlings or first-born, as appears by Numbers 18, where they are commanded to be brought to this one place here designed, and to be offered upon God’ s altar, . It is objected by some, that those were given to the priests, , but these were to be eaten by the people here, . But that the next verse doth not say, but only in general, there shall ye eat, to wit, such of the offerings mentioned as they were allowed to eat, but not such as were the priest’ s peculiar, for these they might not eat, nor all there expressed; for it is evident they might not eat any of the burnt-offerings, nor some parts of the other sacrifices, which are here mentioned. Or, 2. The second births, which were the people’ s first-born, or the first which they could eat of, which they were to eat before the Lord by way of acknowledgment of his favour in giving them to them and all their succeeding births. See more on .

Deuteronomy 12:6 And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:Ver. 6. Heave offerings of your hands.] For none might appear empty handed before the Lord.

(6) And thither ye shall bring . . . your tithes—i.e., what the Jews understand as the “second tithe;” on which see Deuteronomy 12:17.

I. First Division of the Laws: on Worship and Religious Institutions—Deuteronomy 12:2 to Deuteronomy 16:17, Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7 Some 16 laws occupying because of their subject the premier place in the Code. 2–28. The Law of the One Altar and its Corollary As we have seen the law of One Sanctuary for Israel was, in the circumstances of that people in the 7th century, an inevitable consequence from the prophetic proclamation of One God for Israel. For the practice of worshipping Him at many shrines, sanctioned by Himself in the earlier period of Israel’s settlement, had, especially as many of the sites chosen were those of the Canaanite worship of local Ba‘alim, tended to break up the people’s belief in His Unity. He became to their minds many Jehovahs (see above on Deuteronomy 6:4); and at the same time their conceptions of Him were degraded by the confusion of His attributes with those of the deities to whose shrines He had succeeded. Therefore as the Unity of Jehovah and His ethical character are the burden of the Miṣ ?wah or Charge introductory to the Code it is appropriate that the first of the laws should be that abolishing the custom of sacrifice at many sanctuaries and limiting His ritual to a single altar. Note, too, how this is immediately followed by a warning against the worship of other gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-31); and that the next laws (Deuteronomy 12:32 to Deuteronomy 13:18) deal with those who entice, or are enticed, to that worship. Nothing could more clearly show how urgently the concentration of the worship of Jehovah was required in the interest of faith in His Unity and in His spiritual nature. How thoroughly such a law contradicts the earlier legislation about altars, as well as the divinely sanctioned practice of sacrifice in Israel after the settlement; and how far it is incompatible with the corresponding laws in P, will appear in the notes. The chapter has some obvious editorial insertions disturbing the connection (Deuteronomy 12:3; Deuteronomy 12:15-16; Deuteronomy 12:32); but there are besides repetitions of the central injunction of the law in the same or similar phraseology and introduced or followed by different reasons for it. A careful analysis shows that these are not due to the discursiveness of one writer, but are statements of the same law from different writers of the same religious school. This conclusion is confirmed by the prevalence in Deuteronomy 12:2-12 of the Pl. and in Deuteronomy 12:13-28 of the Sg. form of address. But even within Deuteronomy 12:2-12 there is a double statement of the central injunction; on the other hand in Deuteronomy 12:13-28 the repetitions are either clearly editorial insertions, or due to the necessity of repeating the central injunction of the law in a practical corollary permitting the non-sacrificial enjoyment of flesh to Israelites, too far from the One Altar to be able regularly to consecrate it there.

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.

6. Thither ye shall bring — To the place appointed by Jehovah and consecrated by his presence they were to bring their gifts, and celebrate sacrificial festivals.