Deu 12:20-28 | KD | STEP | These rules were still to remain in force, even when God should extend the borders of the land in accordance with His promise. This extension relates partly to the gradual but complete extermination of the Canaanites ( , comp. with ), and partly to the extension of the territory of the Israelites beyond the limits of Canaan Proper, in accordance with the divine promise in Gen 15:18. The words “as He hath spoken to thee” refer primarily to -33. (On , see ). - In , “ if the place...be too far from thee ,” supplies the reason for the repeal of the law in , which restricted all slaughtering to the place of the sanctuary. The words “ kill...as I have commanded thee ” refer back to Deu 12:15.

‏ Deuteronomy 12:20-28

These rules were still to remain in force, even when God should extend the borders of the land in accordance with His promise. This extension relates partly to the gradual but complete extermination of the Canaanites (Deu 7:22, comp. with Exo 23:27-33), and partly to the extension of the territory of the Israelites beyond the limits of Canaan Proper, in accordance with the divine promise in Gen 15:18. The words “as He hath spoken to thee” refer primarily to Exo 23:27-33. (On Deu 12:20, see Deu 12:15). - In Deu 12:21, “if the place...be too far from thee,” supplies the reason for the repeal of the law in Lev 17:3, which restricted all slaughtering to the place of the sanctuary. The words “kill...as I have commanded thee” refer back to Deu 12:15. Deu 12:22

Only the flesh that was slaughtered was to be eaten as the hart and the roebuck (cf. Deu 12:15), i.e., was not to be made into a sacrifice. יחדּו, together, i.e., the one just the same as the other, as in Isa 10:8, without the clean necessarily eating along with the unclean. Deu 12:23-24

The law relating to the blood, as in Deu 12:16. - “Be strong not to eat the blood,” i.e., stedfastly resist the temptation to eat it. Deu 12:25-27

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. Deu 12:28-30

The closing admonition is a further expansion of Deu 12:25 (see at Deu 11:21). - In Deu 12:29-31, the exhortation goes back to the beginning again, viz., to a warning against the Canaanitish idolatry (cf. Deu 12:2.). When the Lord had cut off the nations of Canaan from before the Israelites, they were to take heed that they did not get into the snare behind them, i.e., into the sin of idolatry, which had plunged the Canaanites into destruction (cf. Deu 7:16, Deu 7:25). The clause “after they be destroyed from before thee” is not mere tautology, but serves to depict the danger of the snare most vividly before their eyes. The second clause, “that thou inquire not after them” (their gods), etc., explains more fully to the Israelites the danger which threatened them. This danger was so far a pressing one, that the whole of the heathen world was animated with the conviction, that to neglect the gods of a land would be sure to bring misfortune (cf. 2Ki 17:26).