Deuteronomy 12:2

_YE SHALL UTTERLY DESTROY ALL THE PLACES, WHEREIN THE NATIONS WHICH YE SHALL POSSESS SERVED THEIR GODS, UPON THE HIGH MOUNTAINS, AND UPON THE HILLS, AND UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE:_ Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations ... served their gods. This divine command was founded on the tendencies of human nature; because, to remove out of sight everything that had been associated with idolatry, that it might never be spoken of, and no vestige of it remain, was the only effectual way to keep the Israelites from temptations to it. It is observable that Moses does not make any mention of temples, because such buildings were not in existence at that early period. The "places" chosen as the scene of pagan worship were situated either on the summit of a lofty mountain, or on some artificial mound, or in a grove planted with green trees, such as oaks, white poplars, and elms-proba...

1-4 Moses comes to the statutes he had to give in charge to Israel; and begins with such as relate to the worship of God. The Israelites are charged not to bring the rites and usages of idolaters into the worship of God; not under colour of making it better. We cannot serve God and mammon; nor worship the true God and idols; nor depend upon Christ Jesus and upon superstitious or self-righteous confidences....

EXPOSITION ANNOUNCEMENT OF PARTICULAR LAWS. CHAPTERS 12-26. Moses, having in his first address cast a glance at the events which had transpired between Sinai and the plains of Moab, and in his second recapitulated what had happened at Sinai, repeated the Decalogue, and urgently counseled the people to be obedient to the Divine commandment, and steadfast in their adherence to Jehovah as their God and King; proceeds now to set forth certain laws which it specially behooved them to observe. These are for the most part the same as those already recorded in the previous books; but a few are new, and are to be found only here. No special order or plan of exposition is here observed; the speaker uses that freedom of discourse which was fitting in a popular address. One or two historical narratives are interpolated; but the address as a whole is hortatory, and is designed to dir

YE SHALL UTTERLY DESTROY ALL THE PLACES WHEREIN THE NATIONS WHICH YE SHALL POSSESS SERVED THEIR GODS,.... The temples erected for the worship of them by the Canaanites, of which there were many, as appears by the various names of places given them from the temples in them, as Bethshemesh, Bethbaalmeon, Bethpeor, and others: UPON THE HIGH MOUNTAINS AND UPON THE HILLS: which they chose to worship on, being nearer the heavens, and which they thought most acceptable to their gods; and some of them had their names from hence, as Baalpeor, in like manner as Jupiter Olympius was called by the Greeks; see Jeremiah 2:20, AND UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE; which being shady and solitary, and pleasant to the sight, they fancied their gods delighted in, and this notion prevailed among other nations; and there is scarcely any deity but what had some tree or another devot

8. THE PLACE OF WORSHIP CHAPTER 12 _ 1. The overthrow of false worship (Deuteronomy 12:1)_ 2. The true place of worship (Deuteronomy 12:5) 3. Concerning eating and the blood (Deuteronomy 12:15) 4. Warning against the abominations of idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:29) The law, and love as the fulfilment of that law, was the main subject of the words of Moses up to the close of the eleventh chapter. The Chapter s which follow also contain expositions of the different statutes, as well as exhortations to obedience and warnings against departure from Jehovah. How s

THE LAW OF ONE SANCTUARY. The local sanctuaries (originally Canaanite) with everything belonging to them, are to be destroyed, and all sacrifices are to be offered at the place which Yahweh should choose. Yet (Deuteronomy 12:15 f.) animals intended for food alone may be killed and eaten locally. Though the name Jerusalem does not occur in D, it is fairly evident that no other place can be intended by the place which Yahweh. shall choose, etc., though A. Duff holds that the Deut. code originated in the Northern Kingdom before its fall, and that it aimed at making Shechem the one worship centre for both kingdoms (see his _OT Theology_, ii. 24ff.). Jer. and Dt. have so much in common (see Introd.) that one may be used to interpret the other. In Jeremiah 7:4;...

GREEN. Hebrew. _z'anan._ First occurrence....

First Statement of the Law of the One Altar In the Pl. address, with one later insertion, Deuteronomy 12:3, and possibly another Deuteronomy 12:5 _b_; the rest is a unity. It appropriately opens with the command to destroy all the places at which the nations worship, whom Israel is about to dispossess; for it was the use of these sanctuaries for the worship of Jehovah and the consequent confusion of Him with the Canaanite deities that produced the evils from which the only practical escape was by concentrating His worship. The preface to this first form of the law differs from that to the second which is also Pl. Deuteronomy 12:2. _surely destroy_ A form of the vb. used only with Pl. addr

_VER._ 2. _AND UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE_— The use of sacred groves for the celebration of mysteries is of very great antiquity, and, perhaps, of all others, the most universal. At first, there were in these groves neither temples nor altars; they were simple retreats, to which there was no access for the profane, i.e. such as were not devoted to the service of the gods. Afterwards they built chapels and temples in them: in future times they became extremely frequented on holidays; and, after the celebration of the mysteries, public entertainments, accompanied with dancing, were held in them. See Tibullus, lib. 1: Elegy 11: ver. 51. They decked these groves with flowers, chaplets, garlands, and nosegays, and hung them about with donations and offerings, most lavishly, says Abbe Banier, in his Mythol. b. 3: ch. 7 on the _sacred groves._ See also Callimachus's Hymn to Diana, ver. 200 and Span...

LESSON NINE DEUTERONOMY 12:1-28 B. THE LAW (the Statutes and Ordinances) (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 26:19) 1. ONE SANCTUARY (Deuteronomy 12:1-28) These are the statutes and the ordinances which ye shall observe to do in the land which Jehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath given thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2 Ye shall surely destroy all the places wherein the nations that ye shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: 3 and ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces