John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 12:7

"and there ye shall eat before Jehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee." — Deuteronomy 12:7 (ASV)

And there you shall eat. We see that the sanctuary in which God manifested Himself is called His face.¹⁰⁵ For, although believers are taught that always, wherever they dwell, they walk before God, yet they placed themselves nearer, and in some special manner in His sight, when they approached His sanctuary.

By this way of speaking, God also stimulates the laziness or tardiness of the people, so that it would not be troublesome for them to come to the Ark of the Covenant for the purpose of sacrificing, since this inestimable benefit would compensate for the labor and expense of the journey.

I have elsewhere shown that when people are said to feast before the Lord, sacred feasts are thus distinguished from our daily meals. For this was, as it were, an accessory to the sacrifices: to eat what remained of the victims. In this way, the guests were made partakers of the offering, a custom even pagan nations imitated, though improperly.

Again, God kindly invites them when He says, “you shall rejoice in all that you put your hands to,” for which some translate it, “in everything to which you shall have sent your hand”; literally, it is, “in the sending forth of the land.” There is no ambiguity in the meaning, for it refers to those works that require the motion and application of the hands.

A little below, where I have translated it, “which he has blessed,” (quibus benedixerit), some insert the preposition in, and supply the pronoun you, (i.e., in which he has blessed you; ) but it is quite appropriate to say that God blesses their works, although it may also be understood of their families.

Regarding the command that the tithes should be eaten in the holy place, I do not extend it to tithes in general,¹⁰⁶ for it was unlikely that the food of those who were scattered throughout various cities would be moved to another place, causing them to starve (at home)¹⁰⁷ from hunger. Instead, I understand it to refer to the second tithes, which the Levites separated as a special and unique oblation. For we shall see elsewhere that what was left over became like ordinary produce, as if the Levites ate from the fruits of their own possessions.

¹⁰⁵ לפני, Heb.; ; in conspectu, , Lat; before, before, A.V

¹⁰⁶ “Ne s’estend pas en general a la nourriture des Levites;” does not extend generally to the maintenance of the Levites. — ;” does not extend generally to the maintenance of the Levites. — Fr.

¹⁰⁷ Added from Fr.