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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:26-32
Startling alternatives. Our life is hourly a choice of alternatives. We can go to the right or to the left. Choice is incessantly demanded, and the issues of our choice are momentous. I. THE REVELATION OF GOD'S WILL MAY…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:26-32
Life's solemn alternative. Moses here sums up his exhortation with the alternative of a blessing or a curse. Obedience secures the blessing; disobedience the curse. He also directs them to go through a solemn service wh…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:28
Other gods, which ye have not known; in contradistinction to Jehovah, the revealed God, made known to them by word and deed. Deuteronomy 11:29, Deuteronomy 11:30 (Cf. Deuteronomy 27:11.) Thou shalt put the blessing; tho…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:1-32
Regulations for Divine worship: specific rules embodying permanent principles. With this twelfth chapter an entirely new set of instructions begins. Up to this point the exhortations have been for the most part moral: n…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:1-32
EXPOSITION ANNOUNCEMENT OF PARTICULAR LAWS. CHAPTERS 12-26. Moses, having in his first address cast a glance at the events which had transpired between Sinai and the plains of Moab, and in his second recapitulated what…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:1
These are the statutes and judgments (cf. Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 6:1). Moses, as the servant of God, had taught Israel statutes and rights, as God had commanded him (Deuteronomy 4:5); and now he recapitulates the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:1-3
The invasion a religious one. The Israelites were instructed to exterminate the Canaanites in consequence of their sins, as we have already seen; but in this passage we have strict injunctions given to destroy the place…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:1-5
Destruction of monuments of idolatry. Israel's entrance into Canaan was the entrance of true knowledge, of pure forms of religion, of cleansed morals. The worship of Jehovah was the very antithesis of that of which thes…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:1-4
The doom of idolatry. The reverse side of blessing is a curse. The abuse of the best things is the worst. In the ratio in which any institution has capacity to benefit, has it capacity to injure. The sun can quicken lif…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:4-6
The heathen placed their altars and offered their worship wherever they thought fit, according to their notions of the deity and his service; but Israel was not to do so unto Jehovah their God: he himself would choose t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:4-14
Centralization in worship. It is quite unnecessary that we should here enter upon the criticism which has been raging upon this important passage, as indicating something post-Mosaic. The directions in Exodus do not nec…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:5-28
Characteristic signs of Jehovah's worship. All the religious institutions of Moses were bulwarks against the idolatry of the period, and were admirably suited to the intellectual and moral condition of the people. The w…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:5-9
Public worship. A necessity of our spiritual life. Prompted by a community of privileges, interests, feelings, hopes, duties, temptations, aspirations; "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:3-7). It is require…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:6-29
The central sanctuary. There are difficulties connected with this law from which conclusions have been drawn adverse to the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy. These arise: 1. From the lack of evidence that the law was in…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:6
To the appointed place all their sacrificial gifts and offerings were to be brought, and there they were to keep their holy feasts. The gifts are classified in groups. 1. Burnt offerings and sacrifices, the two principa…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:7
And there ye shall eat before the Lord. The injunction here and in Deuteronomy 12:17, respecting the eating by the offerer of the firstlings of his flocks and herds, appears to be inconsistent with the injunction in Num…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:8-10
In the wilderness, while leading a nomadic life, no certain place could be appointed to them for the observance of sacred rites; each man did in that matter as suited his own convenience. But after they were settled in…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:11
All your choice vows; i.e. all the vows of your choice, all that ye choose to make; the vow was purely voluntary; it became obligatory only after it was made.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:12
Of their offerings they should make a festive meal for themselves and their household; and of this the Levite who might happen at the time to be resident among them was to partake. Rejoice before the Lord. This phrase o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:13-16
They were to beware of offering sacrifice in any place that might seem to them best; their offerings were to be presented only in that place which God should choose. But this did not imply that they were not to kill and…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:15-19
Private worship not the substitute for public. While the central altar was ordained for the reception of the sacrifices and the place for the love-feasts of God's people, they were also allowed to slay and eat flesh mea…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:17-19
(Cf. Deuteronomy 12:6, Deuteronomy 12:7, Deuteronomy 12:12.) Thou mayest not eat; literally, thou art not able to eat; i.e. there is a legal inability to this. So the verb to be able ( יָכֹל) is frequently used (cf. Gen…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:19
The Levite. The dues of the Levites consisted mainly of the tithes. The value of this legal provision has been frequently exaggerated. The mistake has lain in comparing it with the average of income over the whole natio…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 12:20
When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border. These laws were to continue in force even when God should, according to his promise (Genesis 15:18; Exodus 23:27-31), extend the boundaries of their land.