Albert Barnes Commentary Deuteronomy 12

In Deuteronomy 12–26, Moses now proceeds to apply the leading principles of the Decalogue to the ecclesiastical, civil, and social life of the people. Details unique to the Law as given in Deuteronomy will be noted; 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 from, and distant from, those now present. Yet the Sinaitic system, far from being set aside or in any way abrogated, is, on the contrary, presupposed and assumed throughout. Its existence and authority are taken as the starting-point for what is prescribed here, and an accurate acquaintance with it on the part of the people is taken for granted.

Their groves - Understand this as their idols of wood; and see the note on Deuteronomy 7:5.

That is, “The idolaters set up their altars and images on any high hill, and under every green tree at their pleasure, but you shall not do so; the Lord Himself shall determine the spot for your worship, and there only shall you seek Him.” The religion of the Canaanites was human; its modes of worship were of man’s devising. It fixed its holy places on the hills in the vain thought of being nearer heaven, or in deep groves where the silence and gloom might overawe the worshipper.

But such superstitious practices were not worthy of the true religion. God had revealed Himself to people in it, and manifested among them His immediate presence and power. He would Himself assign the sanctuary and the ritual of His own service.

To put his name there means to manifest to men His divine presence. The Targumists rightly refer to the Shechinah; but the expression comprehends all the various modes in which God was pleased to reveal Himself and His attributes to men.

The purpose of the command of the text is to secure the unity, and through unity the purity of the worship of God. That there should be one national center for the religion of the people was obviously essential to the great ends of the whole dispensation. Corruption began as soon as the precepts of the text were relaxed or neglected: Compare the case of Gideon (Judges 8:27); of Micah (Judges 18:0); of Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26 and following).

The words the place which the Lord shall choose to put His Name there suggest Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple to our minds. But though spoken as they were by a prophet, and interpreted as they are by the Psalms (e.g., Psalms 78:67–69), they have a proper application to the temple, yet they must not be referred exclusively to it. The text does not imply 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 there 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 (Judges 6:24; Judges 13:16; 1 Kings 3:4; 1 Kings 18:31). The text simply prohibits sacrifices at any other locality than that which should be appointed or permitted by God for the purpose.

Some have objected that this command could not possibly have ever been carried out, at least not until later days when the territory subject to it was narrowed to the little kingdom of Judah.

But in these and other precepts, Moses no doubt takes much for granted. He is here, as elsewhere, regulating and defining more precisely institutions that had long been in existence. Regarding many details of these institutions, custom made specific legal enactment unnecessary.

No doubt the people well understood what Maimonides expressly tells us concerning this matter: namely, that when immediate payment could not be made, the debt to God was to be reserved until the next great Feast and then duly discharged.

The crucial point to observe was that no kind of sacrifice was to be offered except at the sacred place designated by God for its acceptance.