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Texts -- Deuteronomy 12:17-32 (NET)

Context
12:17 You will not be allowed to eat in your villages your tithe of grain , new wine , olive oil , the firstborn of your herd and flock , any votive offerings you have vowed , or your freewill and personal offerings . 12:18 Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he chooses . This applies to you , your son , your daughter , your male and female servants , and the Levites in your villages . In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor . 12:19 Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land .
The Sanctity of Blood
12:20 When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say , “I want to eat meat just as I please ,” you may do so as you wish . 12:21 If the place he chooses to locate his name is too far for you, you may slaughter any of your herd and flock he has given you just as I have stipulated ; you may eat them in your villages just as you wish . 12:22 Like you eat the gazelle or ibex , so you may eat these; the ritually impure and pure alike may eat them. 12:23 However , by no means eat the blood , for the blood is life itself – you must not eat the life with the meat ! 12:24 You must not eat it! You must pour it out on the ground like water . 12:25 You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight . 12:26 Only the holy things and votive offerings that belong to you, you must pick up and take to the place the Lord will choose . 12:27 You must offer your burnt offerings , both meat and blood , on the altar of the Lord your God ; the blood of your other sacrifices you must pour out on his altar while you eat the meat . 12:28 Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God .
The Abomination of Pagan Gods
12:29 When the Lord your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land . 12:30 After they have been destroyed from your presence , be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say , “How do these nations serve their gods ? I will do the same .” 12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates , they have done when worshiping their gods . They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods !
Idolatry and False Prophets
12:32 You must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it!

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • The Jews called their first month Abib (v. 2). After the Babylonian captivity they renamed it Nisan (Neh. 2:1; Esth. 3:7). It corresponds to our March-April. Abib means "ear-month"referring to the month when the grain was in ...
  • We move from public regulations in chapter 16 to intimate regulations in chapter 18 with chapter 17 providing the transition. In contrast to the first sixteen chapters, chapter 17 says very little about the role of the priest...
  • Let me share with you a couple of quotations that point out the importance of this book."Deuteronomy is one of the greatest books of the Old Testament. Its significance on the domestic and personal religion of all ages has no...
  • I. Introduction: the covenant setting 1:1-5II. Moses' first major address: a review of God's faithfulness 1:6-4:40A. God's past dealings with Israel 1:6-3:291. God's guidance from Sinai to Kadesh 1:6-462. The march from Kades...
  • This brief section places the events that follow in their geographical and chronological setting. It introduces the occasion for the covenant, the parties involved, and other information necessary to identify the document and...
  • "The passage at hand is without comparison as a discourse on the doctrine of God."56Moses' three rhetorical questions (vv. 32-34) clearly point out the uniqueness of Yahweh."In addition to His self-disclosure in event, in his...
  • ". . . Deuteronomy contains the most comprehensive body of laws in the Pentateuch. It is clearly intended to be consulted for guidance on many aspects of daily life, in sharp contrast with the laws of Leviticus, which are ver...
  • Another writer suggested that chapters 6-26 expand the Decalogue with the intent of addressing the spirit of the law.92He believed the structure of the book supports his contention that the writer chose exemplary cases. Moses...
  • "These clearly are not laws or commandments as such but primarily series of parenetic homilies in which Moses exhorted the people to certain courses of action in light of the upcoming conquest and occupation of Canaan. Within...
  • The section of Deuteronomy dealing with general stipulations of the covenant ends as it began, with an exhortation to covenant loyalty (5:1-5; cf. 4:32-40)."This chapter is to be understood as a re-emphasis of these principle...
  • Moses' homiletical exposition of the law of Israel that follows explains reasons for the covenant laws that arose from the Ten Commandments. This address concludes with directions for celebrating and confirming the covenant (...
  • When Israel entered the land the people were to destroy all the places and objects used in the pagan worship of the Canaanites (vv. 2-4). Pagan peoples generally have felt that worshipping on elevated sites brings them into c...
  • 12:15-19 God reaffirmed His permission that the Israelites could slay and eat clean animals at their homes in the Promised Land (cf. Lev. 17:3-6). Earlier the distinction between slaughtering animals for food and slaughtering...
  • The Israelites were not to investigate the pagan religious practices of the Canaanites with a view to worshipping their gods or following their example in the worship of Yahweh (v. 30; cf. Rom. 16:19; Eph. 5:12). Moses develo...
  • The last verse of chapter 12 in the English Bible is the first verse of chapter 13 in the Hebrew Bible. It introduces what follows.God permitted prophets (people who claimed to have direct revelation from God or to speak for ...
  • Moses had finished what he had to say about provisions for the needy (the Levites, the alien, orphans, widows, the poor, and slaves; 14:22-15:18). Here his thoughts turned back to the subject of the first-born of animals that...
  • The context of this section is significant as usual. Verses 1-8 deal with people who ministered to Yahweh in various ways for the people, and verses 15-22 concern the delivery of God's revelations to His people. Verses 9-14 c...
  • This section concludes the "purely legal material."284The ordinances with which Moses concluded his second address (chs. 5-26) not only specified the Israelites' actions in further respects but also focused their thinking on ...
  • "The presentation of the commandments and the statutes and ordinances that will guide Israel's life in the land is over now. Verse 16 serves as a concluding bracket around chapters 5-26, matching Moses' introduction to the wh...
  • "Moses assigned the priests and elders the duty of regularly republishing the law of the covenant. The effect of this was to associate the priests and elders with Joshua in the responsibility of rule and in the esteem of Isra...
  • Adams, Jay. Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980.Albright, William Foxwell. The Archaeology of Palestine. 1949. Revised ed. Pelican Archaeology seri...
  • Verses 1-33 record Jephthah's success. The rest of his story (11:34-12:7) relates his failure. The writer likewise recorded Gideon's success first (6:1-8:23) and then his failure (8:24-9:57). We shall find a similar pattern w...
  • Should Solomon have married Pharaoh's daughter? In view of 11:1-2 and 2 Chronicles 8:1 there is no way we can say yes. Furthermore Solomon already had a wife when he married Pharaoh's daughter (14:21; cf. Gen. 2:24). Why then...
  • Pekah's seventeenth year (v. 1) was 735 B.C. Ahaz did not follow David's example of godliness (v. 2). Rather he followed the kings of Israel and those of his pagan neighbors and went so far as offering at least one of his son...
  • In this section the writer catalogued Israel's transgressions of God's Word that resulted in her going into captivity. Ironically Israel's last king had sought help from Egypt from which Israel had fled 724 years earlier.They...
  • Josiah began to seek Yahweh when he was 16 years old and began initiating religious reforms when he was 20 (2 Chron. 34:3-7). His reforms were more extensive than those of any of his predecessors. One of them was the repair o...
  • The Ammonites lived north of the Moabites, north of the Arnon River for most of their history, and east of the tribal territories of Gad and Reuben. However, the Ammonites had taken over some Israelite territory in Transjorda...
  • This second dramatization took place while Ezekiel was acting out the first 390 days of the siege of Jerusalem with the brick and the plate (vv. 1-8). Whereas the main drama pictured the siege as a judgment from God, this asp...
  • 16:15 However, Jerusalem became self-centered and unfaithful to the Lord; she forgot Him when she became preoccupied with His blessings (cf. Deut. 6:10-12; 8). She went after every people that passed by rather than remaining ...
  • This final message brings Oholah and Oholibah back together and passes judgment on all Israel. It is a summary oracle for the section that indicts Israel's leaders (chs. 20-23).23:36-37 The Lord called Ezekiel to pass judgmen...
  • The Lord had said that Israel's earlier history was a time when the priests and the people of Israel pleased Him (v. 4). Now He said that those early days were short-lived (cf. Exod. 32:7-9). In contrast to His faithfulness (...
  • 22:12 Jesus Christ repeated His promise to return soon (v. 7, cf. 1:3; 22:20)."Nowhere is a date set, nor was there any definite promise that the consummation would occur within the lifetime of the first century Christians. N...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • Deut. 12:18There were three bloody sacrifices, the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the peace-offering. In all three expiation was the first idea, but in the second of them the act of burning symbolized a further thought...
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