Commentari biblici

Moses at this chapter comes to the particular statues which he had to give in charge to Israel, and he begins with those which relate to the worship of God, and particularly those which explain the second commandment, about which God is in a special manner jealous. I. They must utterly destroy all relics and remains of idolatry, De 12:1-3. II. They must keep close to the tabernacle, De 12:4,5. The former precept was intended to prevent all false worship, the latter to preserve the worship God had instituted. By this latter law, 1. They are commanded to bring all their offerings to the altar of God, and all their holy things to the place which he should choose, De 12:6,7,11,12,14,18,26-28. 2. They are forbidden, in general, to do as they now did in the wilderness (De 12:8-11), and as the Canaanites had done (De 12:29-32), and, in particular, to eat the hallowed things at their own houses (De 12:13,17,18), or to forsake the instituted ministry, De 12:19. 3. They are permitted to eat flesh as common food at their own houses, provided they do not eat the blood, De 12:15,16, and again, De 12:20-26.

All monuments of idolatry in the promised land to be destroyed, Deuteronomy 12:1-3; and God's service to be duly performed, Deuteronomy 12:4-7. The difference between the performance of that service in the wilderness and in the promised land, Deuteronomy 12:8-11. The people are to be happy in all their religious observances, Deuteronomy 12:12. The offerings must be brought to the place which God appoints, and no blood is to be eaten, Deuteronomy 12:13-16. The tithe of corn, wine, oil, etc., to be eaten in the place that God shall choose, Deuteronomy 12:17, Deuteronomy 12:18. The Levite must not be forsaken, Deuteronomy 12:19. All clean beasts may be eaten, but the blood must be poured out before the Lord, and be eaten on no pretense whatever, Deuteronomy 12:20-25. Of vows, burnt-offerings, etc., Deuteronomy 12:26, Deuteronomy 12:27. These precepts are to be carefully obeyed, Deuteronomy 12:28. Cautions against the abominations of the heathen, Deuteronomy 12:29-31. Nothing to be added to or diminished from the word of God, Deuteronomy 12:32.

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, Deuteronomy 12:1 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, Deuteronomy 12:4, 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, Deuteronomy 12:15, tithes, vows, and freewill offerings, were to be eaten in the holy place, Deuteronomy 12:17 and burnt offerings to be offered on the altar of the Lord and the blood of them to be poured out upon the altar, Deuteronomy 12:26, all which they were carefully to observe, Deuteronomy 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, Deuteronomy 12:30.

C. Chs. 12–26. The Statutes and Judgements

The Deuteronomic Code, of which all the rest of the book is the religious and historical introduction and enforcement, consists of some seventy separate laws, connected by and mingled with exhortations and religious formulas in a style similar to that of the introductory discourses. The laws fall into four divisions of unequal size, consisting of smaller groups distinguished by their separate subjects: the whole upon a manifest plan of arrangement which however is not perfectly observed but is broken at several points by the appearance of single laws or small groups of laws out of their proper relation. This will be seen from the following conspectus:—

The Title to the whole Code  Deuteronomy 12:1I.  Laws of Religious Institutions and Worship  Deut 12:2–16:17, 21–17:7

Of the One Altar (in several forms)  Deuteronomy 12:2-28Against Heathen Rites and the Worship of Other Gods  Deut 12:29–13

[with perhaps Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7]

Against Rites for the Dead  Deuteronomy 14:1-2Of Clean and Unclean Beasts, etc.  Deuteronomy 14:3-21Of Tithes  Deuteronomy 14:22-29Of the Remittance or Release  Deuteronomy 15:1-18(1) for Israelite and foreign creditors (Deuteronomy 15:1-11),

(2) for slaves (Deuteronomy 15:12-18)

Of Firstlings  Deuteronomy 15:19-23Of the Three Feasts: Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles  Deuteronomy 16:1-17Against ’Asherim and Maṣṣebôth Deuteronomy 16:21-22Against Blemished Sacrifices  Deuteronomy 17:1Against Worshippers of Other Gods  Deuteronomy 17:2-7For the last three see above Deuteronomy 12:29 to Deuteronomy 13:18.

II.  Laws of Offices of Authority  Deuteronomy 16:18-20, Deuteronomy 17:8-18.

Of Judges and Justice  Deuteronomy 16:18-20Of Judges of Final Appeal  Deuteronomy 17:8-13Of the King  Deuteronomy 17:14-20Of Priests, Levites  Deuteronomy 18:1-8Of Prophets (in contrast to Diviners, Augurs, etc.)  Deuteronomy 18:9-22III.  Laws mainly on Crime, War, Property, the Family  Deuteronomy 18:19-22.

Of Cities of Refuge for the Manslayer  Deuteronomy 19:1-13Against Removing Landmarks  Deuteronomy 19:14Of Witnesses  Deuteronomy 19:15-21Of the Conduct of War, and who are Exempt  Deuteronomy 20:1-20Of Communal Responsibility for a Murder  Deuteronomy 21:1-9Of Marriage with a Female Captive  Deuteronomy 21:10-14Of the Right of the Firstborn  Deuteronomy 21:15-17Of Disobedient Sons  Deuteronomy 21:18-21Of Hanged Malefactors  Deuteronomy 21:22-23Of Humane Duties in various directions:—  Deuteronomy 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 22:6-8A neighbour’s lost property (Deuteronomy 22:1-3) and derelict (Deuteronomy 22:4); sparing the mother-bird (Deuteronomy 22:6-7); protecting roofs with parapets (Deuteronomy 22:8)

Against Various Mixtures:—  Deuteronomy 22:5; Deuteronomy 22:9-11Wearing clothes of the other sex (Deuteronomy 22:5); mixture of seeds (Deuteronomy 22:9), animals (Deuteronomy 22:10), cloths (Deuteronomy 22:11)

Of Tassels on the Garments  Deuteronomy 22:12Of Procedure in Cases of Unchastity:—  Deuteronomy 22:13-301[130]

[130] From this to the end of ch. 23 the verses are numbered one more in the Heb. text, in which Deuteronomy 23:1 is the Eng. Deuteronomy 22:30.

Charges against a bride (Deuteronomy 22:13-21); adulterers discovered in the act (Deuteronomy 22:22); intercourse with a betrothed virgin, with (Deuteronomy 22:23 f.) or without (Deuteronomy 22:25 ff.) her consent; with a virgin not betrothed (Deuteronomy 22:28 f.); with a father’s wife (Deuteronomy 22:30)

Of Right to Enter the Congregation:— Deuteronomy 23:1-8Denied to the mutilated (1), the illegitimate (2), Ammonites and Moabites (Deuteronomy 23:3-6); but granted to third generation of Edomites and Egyptians (Deuteronomy 23:7 f.)

Of Ritual Cleanness in the Camp  Deuteronomy 23:9-14Of Runaway Slaves  Deuteronomy 23:15-16Against Hierodules  Deuteronomy 23:17-18Against Exaction of Interest from Israelites  Deuteronomy 23:19-20Of Vows  Deuteronomy 23:21-23Of Use at Need of Others’ Fruits and Corn  Deuteronomy 23:24-25Of Re-marriage after Divorce  Deuteronomy 24:1-4Of Equity and Humanity in various directions:—  Deuteronomy 24:5 to Deuteronomy 25:4Exemption of newly-married from war-service (Deuteronomy 24:5); against taking in pledge the necessaries of life (Deuteronomy 24:6; Deuteronomy 24:10-13; Deuteronomy 24:17 f.), stealing Israelites for slaves (Deuteronomy 24:7), neglect of leprosy (Deuteronomy 24:8 f.), withholding wages (Deuteronomy 24:14 f.), putting the fathers to death for the children or vice versâ (Deuteronomy 24:16), and inequity to strangers, fatherless, and widows (Deuteronomy 24:17 f.); on leaving for these parts of the harvest (Deuteronomy 24:19-22); against excessive punishment (Deuteronomy 25:1-3), and muzzling the labouring ox (Deuteronomy 25:4)

Of Levirate Marriage  Deuteronomy 25:5-10Of Reckless Assault  Deuteronomy 25:11-12Against Divers Weights and Measures  Deuteronomy 25:13-16On ‘Ămaleḳ  Deuteronomy 25:17-19IV.  Laws of Ritual Procedure with Proper Players  Deuteronomy 26:1-15In Offering First Fruits   Deuteronomy 26:1-11In Distributing Tithes  Deuteronomy 26:12-15Concluding Exhortation  Deuteronomy 26:16-19Within this Code the laws are never called Torôth (applied in the Code only to the oral directions of the priests, Deuteronomy 17:11, Deuteronomy 24:8) but always Huḳḳim and Mishpatim, Statutes and Judgements. If we may distinguish these terms, as on the one hand decrees of religion, worship, and the theocratic constitution, and on the other civil and criminal laws and sentences with their relevant procedures (cp. debarîm and mishpatim, Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 23:33, Driver, p. 202), then to such a distinction the above arrangement roughly conforms. For of its four main divisions I, II and IV are of the former class, but III of the latter.

As in the Decalogue and the law-book of E, Exodus 20:22-23, the laws of religion and worship come first because of their sacred character, but also for the further reason, peculiar to D, that the law of the One Altar with which they open is the practical corollary to D’s fundamental doctrine of the Unity of Israel’s God (see on Deuteronomy 12:2-28). Accordingly this law is immediately followed by laws against heathen rites and seductions to the worship of other gods, Deuteronomy 12:29 to Deuteronomy 13:18, among which the similar laws, Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7, seem originally to have stood. The law of clean and unclean foods, Deuteronomy 14:3-21, based on religious grounds, falls naturally into this group (though it may be a later addition); and the rest of the division, Deuteronomy 14:22 to Deuteronomy 16:17, also deals with religious practices and institutions. The Second place is naturally assigned to offices of various authority in the theocracy, Deuteronomy 16:18-20, Deuteronomy 17:8-18. The Third division, Deuteronomy 17:19-20, enforces the duties of the individuals of the commonwealth in their family, civic, and military relations; and deals with crimes against these social interests and the relevant procedures. In the Fourth, Deut 17:26, more detailed ritual is enjoined with regard to two of the offerings commanded under the first group.

The chief interruptions in the plan of the Code, which is so manifest throughout, are the separation of the religious laws, Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7, Deuteronomy 23:1-8; Deuteronomy 23:17 f. and 26, from Division I to which by their subjects they properly belong. But further in Division III the laws on marriage and married life are separated from each other, two in Deuteronomy 21:10-17, one in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, and one in Deuteronomy 25:5-10; as are those on murder, Deuteronomy 19:1-13, Deuteronomy 21:1-9, and on war and military service, Deuteronomy 20:1-20, Deuteronomy 23:9-14, Deuteronomy 24:5, and the subordinate groups on equity and humanity, Deuteronomy 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 22:6-8, Deuteronomy 24:5 to Deuteronomy 25:4. Even within the smaller groups there are curious interruptions and isolations; that on humanity, Deuteronomy 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 22:6-8, is broken by Deuteronomy 12:5, against wearing the clothes of the other sex, which properly belongs to the sub-group, Deuteronomy 22:9-11, against various mixtures. Altogether the Code transgresses its own prohibition of the confusion of things naturally diverse. ‘Moses sometimes mixes together precepts respecting different things’ (Calvin on Exodus 23:19).

Sometimes this disorder is necessitated by the overlapping or crossing of the subjects of various laws; sometimes, as in the separation of Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7 from Deuteronomy 12:29 to Deuteronomy 13:18, it may be due to the carelessness of a copyist. Other possible causes are the gradual growth of the Code by the addition of laws instituted or adopted later than its original form, and the compilation of the whole Code from separate smaller Codes (as in the case of the Code of E; see Driver’s Exod. 202 ff). Of the former cause ch. 26 may be an illustration. But while gradual additions may have been made from time to time to the Code, the chief impression which the above list makes on the mind is that the whole Code, as it stands, is a compilation from various sources. And this impression is corroborated by the facts that several of the laws appear in more than one form—especially the first and fundamental law of the One Altar, but cp. also the Laws on the Passover and the Priests—and that some of these doublets are distinguished by being couched in different forms of address, Sg. and Pl. Thus the same phenomena as those which betray a plurality of sources in the introductory discourses, 1–11, persist in the Code, 12–26, and prove the composite character of even this the central portion of the Book of Deuteronomy. The proofs will be given in the detailed notes.

The bulk of the laws are based either on those of E and (in fewer cases) of J, or upon the consuetudinary laws of which the Codes of E and J are the other precipitates. But their chief distinction from the Codes of E and J is that the latter have no counterpart to the law of the One Altar in D. On the contrary they imply that Israel may sacrifice to their God at many altars, wheresoever He records His Name (cp. Chapman, Introd. to Pent. 131 ff., and Driver, Exod. 207 f.). The law of the One Altar necessitated many other differences between the Code of D and the earlier legislation; for example in permitting at a distance from the One Altar the slaughter and eating of domestic beasts without ritual; in the laws on Tithes and Firstlings; and most of all in the institution of the Cities of Refuge, for which no equivalent was required in the earlier legislation, since according to this the man who slew his brother accidentally might find asylum at any of the many altars which it sanctions. On the details of the relation of D’s laws to those of H and P see the notes below; here it need only be said that the laws of H and P give proof of belonging to a later stage than D’s in the social and ecclesiastical development of Israel; and that in particular many of their differences from D’s are due to the increased influence of the priesthood, its separation from the general body of the Levites, and its encroachment upon their rights and the rights of the lay worshippers.

The Title to the Code

Like some other titles this is mixed of the Sg. and Pl. forms of address. Sam. confirms the Heb. text. The LXX harmonising gives Pl. throughout.

De 12:1-15.

MONUMENTS OF IDOLATRY TO BE DESTROYED.

1. These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe--Having in the preceding chapter inculcated upon the Israelites the general obligation to fear and love God, Moses here enters into a detail of some special duties they were to practise on their obtaining possession of the promised land.

Moses now passes on to apply Deuteronomy 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. Yet the Sinaitic system, far from being set aside or in any way abrogated, is on the contrary throughout presupposed and assumed. Its existence and authority are taken as the starting-point for what is here prescribed, and an accurate acquaintance with it on the part of the people is taken for granted.

These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do,.... Which are recorded in this and the following chapters; here a new discourse begins, and which perhaps was delivered at another time, and respects things that were to be observed:

in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it; the land of Canaan, often described by this circumlocution, to put them in mind that it was promised to their fathers by their covenant God, was his gift to them, and which they would quickly be in the possession of; and therefore when in it should be careful to observe the statutes and judgments of God constantly:

even all the days that ye live upon the earth; or land, the land of Canaan; for though there were some laws binding upon them, live where they would, there were others peculiar to the land of Canaan, which they were to observe as long as they and their posterity lived there; see 1 Kings 8:40.

They are commanded to destroy all the places of idolatry, Deu 12:1-3; and must worship God in his own place, and after his will, Deu 12:4-15. The eating of blood prohibited, Deu 12:16. Where and how they should eat the tithe, Deu 12:17,18. The Levite not to be forsaken, Deu 12:19. They may eat flesh clean or unclean any where, Deu 12:20-22; but not the blood, Deu 12:23-25. Holy things to be eaten at the altar of the Lord, Deu 12:26-28. They are forbidden to inquire after the heathen worship, Deu 12:29,30; or to worship the true God as they, Deu 12:31; but to keep to the law in their worship, Deu 12:32.

No text from Poole on this verse.