De. 12 5 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 : 6 and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of 7 your herd and of your flock : and there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God 8 hath blessed thee. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man 9 whatsoever is right in his own eyes : for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheri- 10 tance, which the LORD your God giveth thee. But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God causeth you to inherit, and he giveth you rest from all your 11 enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety ; then it shall come to pass that the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, thither shall ye bring all that I command you ; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave 12 offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD : and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menser- vants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates, forasmuch as he hath 13 no portion nor inheritance with you. Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offer- 14 in every place that thou seest : but in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I com- 15 mand thee. Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh within all thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee : 16 the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart. Only ye shall 17 not eat the blood ; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thine oil, or the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, nor 18 the heave offering of thine hand : but thou shalt eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates : and thou shalt 19 rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. Take heed to thy- self that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon thy land. 20 When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul desireth to eat flesh ; thou mayest eat flesh, after all the 21 desire of thy soul. If the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat within thy gates, after all the desire 22 of thy soul. Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat thereof : the un- clean and the clean shall eat thereof alike. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood : for the 23 blood is the life ; and thou shalt not eat the life with the flesh. Thou shalt not eat it ; thou 24 shalt pour it out upon the earth as water. Thou shalt not eat it ; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the eyes of 25 the LORD. Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto 26 the place which the LORD shall choose : and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God : and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured 27 out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the eyes of the LORD thy God. 17 14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein ; and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the 15 nations that are round about me ; thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose : one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee : thou 16 mayest not put a foreigner over thee, which is not thy brother. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses : forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that 17 way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away : neither shall 18 he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which 19 is before the priests the Levites : and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life : that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law

20 and these statutes, to do them : that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left : to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

One Sanctuary Enforcing Unity of Worship.

The ecclesiastical and national unity of Israel was to be maintained even when Israel should be no longer united, as they had hitherto been in the wilderness, but should be spread over extensive districts of country. A particular place, which the Lord would choose for the erection of his sanctuary, was to be adopted by them as the scene of their common worship. This unity of worship, for whose sake the command had gone forth to destroy all altars and pillars, and whatsoever was calculated to recall the idolatry of the former inhabitants, was indispensably necessary unless Israel were sooner or later to sink into the heathenish manners and customs of the aborigines. C. G. B.—The reason for this command enforcing the unity of the worship of God was apparent. In the wilderness, where Israel formed one great camp under definite rules, it was not possible to set up separate places of worship, however much idol-worship might be practised in secret. But after the separation of the two tribes and a half in the land east of Jordan, when the people were now about to be scattered over a wide tract of country, then it was needful to make this commandment stringent. Gerl.

If Deuteronomy has a single prominent feature, it is the emphasis it lays on the place of worship for Israel—that it is to be one, the one which the Lord their God should choose for them. Nearly twenty times within the space of a few chapters this matter is insisted on, without deviation in form or relaxation from its iron firmness of command. “Unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt thou come” (12 : 5). The cultus of God was to be confined to a central shrine. The idolatrous and deadly worship on the “heights” was to be relentlessly rooted out. E. C. B.—In the sixteenth chapter of Deuteronomy the prohibition against observing these great feasts, the three annual epochs in the sacred year of the Jew, at home and in private, is reiterated in a variety of words no less than six times in the first sixteen verses. Espin.

The great Lawgiver speaks no longer in the brief and formal language of a statute, but in that of earnest exhortation and admonition.

Foreseeing the dangers that would arise from their being ensnared into attendance at the idolatrous temples of the Canaanites, he directs his utmost urgency to this source of their most immediate peril, reiterating his cautions upon this point again and again, and especially enjoining it upon them to present all their sacrifices and observe all their feasts at the place which the LORD would choose, after he had given them rest in the land which they were going in to possess. W. H. G.—There is not any one particular precept in all the Law of Moses so largely pressed and inculcated as this, by which they are all tied to bring their sacrifices to that one altar which was set up in the court of the tabernacle, and there to perform all the rituals of their religion ; for as to moral services, then, no doubt, as now, men might pray everywhere, as they did in their synagogues. The command to do this, and the prohibition of the contrary, are here repeated again and again, as we teach children : and yet we are sure that there is in Scripture no vain repetition ; but all this stress is laid upon it (1) Because of the strange proneness there was in the hearts of the people to idolatry and superstition, and the danger of their being seduced by the many temptations which they would be surrounded with. (2) Because of the great use which the observance of this appointment would be of to them, both to prevent the introducing of corrupt customs into their worship, and to preserve among them unity and brotherly love ; that meeting all in one place, they might continue both of one way and of one heart. (3) Because of the significance of this appointment. They must keep to one place, in token of their belief of those two great truths, which we find together (1 Tim. 2 : 5), That there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man. It not only served to keep up the notion of the unity of the Godhead, but was an intimation to them (though they could not steadfastly discern it) of the one only way of approach to God, and communion with him, in and by the Messiah. H.

5. 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 thither 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. Moses himself (ch. 27 : 5, 6) enjoins the erection of a stone altar on Mount Ebal for burnt-offerings to be offered on the day of commination : and we read of sacrifices offered at various places by judges, prophets, kings, and others, and accepted by God. Espin.—The appointment of a central place for national worship, where all the sacrifices were usually to be offered, is one main feature of the history from the pitching of the tabernacle in Shiloh down to the burning of the first temple ; and onward, after the captivity, to the times of the New Testament. The more indefinite promise (Ex. 20 : 24) was not only given before the sanctuary and its altar were built, and before the precept in Lev. 17 : 1-7, but in later times it applied to special and extraordinary sacrifices, as that of Samuel at Ebenezer or Gideon at Ophrah, which were warranted by peculiar circumstances, or by a direct command of God. When God recorded his name in any place, there sacrifice might be offered, while one central place alone for such sacrifices was the general rule. Birks.

To this place the tribes were to come and worship together. Thus the unity of God’s redeemed people in him would be continually before their eyes. Though the times in the year were not many when the people were thus to meet as one nation and commonwealth, yet they were frequent enough to insure their thoughts turning thereto, either by retrospection or anticipation, from one year’s end to another. Here is the germ seed of the doctrine of the unity of God’s Church. Many tribes, one redeemed people. And is it not precisely this principle which is brought out in the New Testament, only in far grander form ? (See Rev. 7 ; Eph. 2 ; John 17 ; Rom. 12). Is not the Christian unity a union of many tribes and tongues in one deliverance, and one Deliverer ? C. C.

6,7. The central altar is to gather round it joyful worshippers. Burnt-offering, sacrifice, heave-offering, etc., were to reach their climax in the eating before the Lord the peace-offering, and in the joy which springs from fellowship. This is the purpose of all worship. If joy be not reached, then the worshippers are living below their privileges. Edgar.

8-11. 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. The whole system was imperfectly acted upon up to the death of Moses, and important parts of it left altogether in abeyance. This consideration must be carefully borne in mind throughout Deuteronomy. It illustrates the necessity for a repetition of very much of the Sinaitic legislation, and suggests the reason why some parts are so urgently reiterated and impressed, while others are left unnoticed. The speaker has in view throughout the state of religion and its observances among his hearers. He warns them in the verses before us that as they were now about to quit their unsettled mode of life, God’s purpose of choosing for himself a place to set his name there would be executed, and the whole of the sacred ritual would consequently become obligatory. The rest and safety of Canaan is significantly laid down (verses 10, 11) as the indispensable condition and basis for an entire fulfilment of the Law : the perfection of righteousness coinciding thus with the cessation of wanderings, dangers, and toils. Espin.

10. It is to be noted that the Law in Deuteronomy appointing the one place for sacrificial worship is not absolute and unconditioned. It is here expressly qualified by the condition of the Lord’s giving them rest from all their enemies round about. Until this was done, the Law was in abeyance ; so that, if circumstances required, other methods than that which it prescribed of observing the primary and absolutely imperative ordinance of sacrifice might be followed. We find, accordingly, that it was only as it was considered that the Lord had given them rest from their enemies that it was deemed fitting to fix upon a certain place to which the people might repair as to the dwelling-place of Jehovah, to present their worship and offerings. Thus, after the occupation of the land by the Israelites, it was not until the land was subdued before them, and the Lord had given them rest round about, that the congregation of the children of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there (Josh. 18 : 1 ; 21 : 44 ; 22 : 4). The rest, however, which was then given to them was not destined to be permanent. Times of unsettlement ensued, and at length the sanctuary at Shiloh was everted and the ark of the covenant carried away by hostile invaders ; nor was it till the time of David that it could be said definitively that the Lord had given rest to his people from all their enemies, as he had promised. Then at length the occasion had arrived when a house might be built for the Lord to dwell in ; and David, recognizing this, determined, seeing “the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies,” to build a house unto the name of the

Lord; and though he was not permitted to carry this into effect, because of the wars in which he had been engaged in the earlier part of his reign, his purpose was approved of by God (2 Sam. 7:1; 1 Kings 8:13). The fact that in the usages of the nation there was this connecting of a time of rest from all enemies with the setting up of a fixed place for the sanctuary, is surely a strong indication that the Law of Deuteronomy was all along known and respected by them; and, at the same time, we may see from this how it was that, pending the arrival of the promised rest, good men were found offering worship and sacrifices elsewhere than at a central sanctuary.

That the law of Deuteronomy respecting the offering of sacrifice only at the place which the Lord should appoint was known and reverenced from the earliest times, is placed beyond doubt, not only by the constant references, in the early historical books, to the “house of the Lord” as the place where worship and sacrifice were to be offered, but especially by what is recorded in Josh. 22. The indignation of the people against their brethren who had erected an altar on the border of Jordan before they crossed it to return to their own possession on the eastern side of that river; the earnestness with which the latter hastened to assure the people that they had erected the altar, not to establish an independent worship, but rather that it might stand as a permanent witness that they still adhered to and claimed to have part in Jehovah as their God; and the solemnity with which they disclaimed any intention to rebel against the Lord by building an altar for burnt-offerings, for meal-offerings, or for sacrifices beside the altar of the Lord that was before the tabernacle—all incontestably show that this Law was known and recognized as imperative at the time of the settling of the people in the promised land, W. L. A.

15. The Israelites are here prohibited from sacrificing anywhere else than at the central sanctuary. But with the prohibition a concession is joined, specifically introduced as a concession, that they may slaughter animals for private use at home. The concession points unequivocally back to the Levitical form of the law (17:1-7), which had prohibited the killing of animals at all, as might have been expected in the wilderness, except at the central sanctuary. E. C. B.

18. The worship of God sanctifies the common meal. The recognition of God and his claims allows us to enjoy all the provision of God with thankfulness and content. Every meal reminds us of God, and leads to fellowship with him. In this state of mind excess of every kind becomes impossible, and the amplest enjoyment is not incompatible with vigorous piety.

28. THE WORSHIP OF GOD WAS FRUITFUL IN BLESSING. The design of God in every particular was solely the good of families, that “it may be well with thee, and with thy children.” We do well to write this with a diamond pen on memory and heart, that God’s claims and man’s advantage are identical D. D.

God was not limited to these established ordinances in his dealings with his people. His grace is broader than the channels through which it ordinarily flows. Special Divine influences were not restricted to the sanctuary even in the days of Moses (Nu. 11:26-29). And no exposition of the Levitical institutions, which places regularity of ritual observance upon a par with the spirit it was designed to express, can make them tally with the history of Israel, the devout breathings of the Psalmists, or the teachings of the prophets. W. H. G.—It is certain that the spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer are not confined to any one place. Our Saviour has made this clear (John 4:21), and the apostle (1 Tim. 2:8), according to the prophecy, that in every place incense should be offered (Mal. 1:11). We have now no temple or altar that sanctifies the gift, nor does the Gospel unity lie in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the spirit. Christ is our Altar, and the true Tabernacle (Heb. 8:2; 13:10); in him God dwells among us, and it is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God and in him only (1 Pet. 2:5). To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is in effect to set up other gods. He is the Centre of unity, in whom all God’s Israel meet. H.