Deuteronomy 12:25

On the promise for doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, see Deu 6:18. - In Deu 12:26, Deu 12:27, the command to offer all the holy gifts at the place chosen by the Lord is enforced once more, as in Deu 12:6, Deu 12:11, Deu 12:17, Deu 12:18; also to prepare the sacrifices at His altar. קדשׁים, the holy offerings prescribed in the law, as in Num 18:8; see at Lev 21:22. The "votive offerings" are mentioned in connection with these, because vows proceeded from a spontaneous impulse. לך יהיוּ אשׁר, "which are to thee," are binding upon thee. In v. 27, "the flesh and the blood" are in opposition to "thy burnt-offerings:" "thy burnt-offerings, namely the flesh and blood of them," thou shalt prepare at the altar of Jehovah; i.e., the flesh and blood of the burnt-offerings were to be placed upon and against the altar (see at Lev 1:5-9). Of the slain-offerings, i.e., the shelamim, the blood was to be poured out against the altar (Lev 3:2, Lev 3:8, Lev 3:13); "the flesh thou canst eat" (cf. Lev 7:11.). There is no ground for seeking an antithesis in ישּׁפך, as Knobel does, to the זרק in the sacrificial ritual. The indefinite expression may be explained from the retrospective allusion to Deu 12:24 and the purely suggestive character of the whole passage, the thing itself being supposed to be sufficiently known from the previous laws.

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 (Deu 12:1-3). II. They must keep close to the tabernacle (Deu 12:4, Deu 12:5). 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 (Deu 12:6, Deu 12:7, Deu 12:11, Deu 12:12, Deu 12:14, Deu 12:18, Deu 12:26-28). 2. They are forbidden, in general, to do as they now did in the wilderness (Deu 12:8-11), and as the Canaanites had done (Deu 12:29-32), and, in particular, to eat the hallowed things at their own houses (Deu 12:13, Deu 12:17, Deu 12:18), or to forsake the instituted ministry (Deu 12:19). 3. They are permitted to eat flesh as common food at their own houses, provided they do not eat the blood (Deu 12:15, Deu 12:16, and again, Deu 12:20-26).