Synopsis of the Chapter
Up to this point Moses has exhorted the Hebrews to the law of God in general; now he descends to particulars (for this is the duty of a good preacher), and in this chapter he commands that victims, tithes, first-fruits, and vows be offered not on mountains and in groves, but in one place which God shall choose, and that they feast there before the Lord; but he permits meat not sacrificed to God, verse 20, to be eaten in any place, if it is distant from the temple, provided they abstain from blood.
Verse 2: Under Every Leafy Tree ¶
2. THE NATIONS WHOSE (that is, whose land and wealth) YOU ARE ABOUT TO POSSESS.
UNDER EVERY LEAFY TREE. -- For the pagans used to consecrate trees to the gods, especially to Diana, whom they believed to delight in groves. Hence in the histories of the Martyrs we often read that they were led to some tree to worship the gods there; and not infrequently those trees were torn up by the roots at the prayers of the Martyrs.
Verse 3: Destroy Their Names ¶
3. DESTROY THEIR NAMES. -- So it should be read with the Roman and Hebrew editions, not "their" (feminine), as the Plantin edition reads, meaning: So destroy the idols, and their temples, altars, and groves, that not even the memory of the idols may remain in those places; indeed, that their very names may be utterly abolished and buried in eternal oblivion.
Verse 4: You Shall Not Do So to the Lord Your God ¶
4. YOU SHALL NOT DO SO TO THE LORD YOUR GOD -- meaning: Not everywhere -- on mountains, hills, and in groves, as the idolaters do -- but in one place only which the Lord shall choose, shall you sacrifice. Note here: God first chose the place of Shiloh for this; for there the tabernacle and altar were set up, Joshua 18:8, and there it remained throughout the whole time of the Judges, up to Eli, as is clear from Judges, last chapter, verse 9. Then God willed it to be transferred to Nob, 1 Samuel 21:1; then to Gibeon; then finally Solomon transferred it to Jerusalem, to the temple he had built, 2 Chronicles chapter 1, verses 3 and 13.
Verse 5: That He May Set His Name There ¶
5. THAT HE MAY SET HIS NAME THERE -- that the memorial of His name may be especially in that place, and that He may be worshiped there, and He Himself may dwell there, as in His temple.
Verse 6: The First-Fruits of Your Hands ¶
6. THE FIRST-FRUITS OF YOUR HANDS -- the first-fruits of the crops which you have harvested by your hands and labor.
VOWS -- offerings made from a vow.
Verse 7: You Shall Eat before Your God ¶
7. YOU SHALL EAT BEFORE YOUR GOD -- from the peace offerings, or from the oblations which laypeople were permitted to eat. For laypeople could not eat the sin offerings, the votive offerings, or the holocausts, as is clear from Numbers 18:9 and 15.
BEFORE GOD -- that is, in the court, before the tabernacle, which is the seat and house of God.
IN ALL THAT YOU PUT YOUR HANDS TO (that which you have acquired for yourselves by your labor, in these things) YOU SHALL REJOICE -- feasting on them before the Lord.
On Joy in Worship
Note: God willed that the Jews celebrate their feasts and sacrifices with joy, so that they might return to them more willingly and frequently, and so that He might incite them -- and even more so Christians -- to spiritual joy, by which God wills to be worshiped, so that thus in gladness we may enter, as it were, into a perpetual feast with Him, which we shall consummate in heaven. So David, Psalm 26:4, says: "My soul refused to be comforted; I remembered God and was delighted." And Psalm 83:3: "My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God." And St. Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5:16: "Rejoice always." And Philippians 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice." Again, Psalm 67:4: "Let the just feast and exult before God, and delight in gladness." Rejoice not in the world, but in the Lord. "That alone is true and the only joy, which is conceived not from the creature but from the Creator, and which, once you possess it, no one will take from you; compared to which all other pleasure is mourning, all sweetness is pain, all that is sweet is bitter, all that is beautiful is ugly, and finally whatever else might delight is burdensome," says St. Bernard, epistle 114. So Queen Esther, chapter 14:16: "You know (O Lord) that I abhor the sign of my pride and glory which is upon my head; and Your handmaid has never rejoiced (O pure heart!) from the time I was brought here to the present day, except in You, O Lord God."
This joy dilates the heart and spirit, invigorates the soul and body, and obtains all things from God. "Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart," Psalm 36:4. "A joyful heart makes for a flourishing age; a sad spirit dries up the bones," Proverbs 27:22. Again, it overcomes all hardships: "The Apostles went from the presence of the council rejoicing, because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus." And Paul: "Gladly will I glory in my weaknesses." And James: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations."
The means to this joy is suggested by Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 12: "I have learned," he says, "that there is nothing better than to rejoice and to do good in one's life." Do you wish always to be joyful? Do good: a good conscience always rejoices. "The fear of the Lord will delight the heart and give gladness and joy and length of days," Sirach 1:11. Who would not always rejoice in tribulations, reflecting on those words of St. Paul: "The momentary and light burden of our tribulation works for us an eternal weight of glory"?
Verse 8: Each One Doing What Seems Right ¶
8. EACH ONE DOING WHAT SEEMS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES. -- For the Hebrews did not observe these ceremonial precepts in the desert, as I also said above.
Verses 10-11: You Shall Dwell in the Place the Lord Shall Choose
10 and 11. YOU SHALL DWELL IN THE PLACE WHICH THE LORD SHALL CHOOSE -- meaning: Remain securely in the place where the tabernacle is, when three times a year all Israel, according to My commandment, gathers there, not fearing that enemies will invade your borders.
Verse 12: The Levite Who Dwells in Your Cities ¶
12. THE LEVITE WHO DWELLS IN YOUR CITIES. -- "Your cities" -- those which you, O Israel, gave to the Levites: for in those 48 cities given them by the people, the Levites lived separately.
Verse 15: If You Wish to Eat Meat ¶
15. BUT IF YOU WISH TO EAT (namely meat, outside the tabernacle, in your own city), EAT ACCORDING TO THE BLESSING OF YOUR GOD -- that is, eat of those things which God has beneficently and generously given you.
WHETHER IT BE UNCLEAN, THAT IS, BLEMISHED. -- "Blemished," that is, defective (for it is contrasted with "whole"), for instance if it be blind, lame, or maimed: for these are the blemishes of sacrificial victims, as is clear from Leviticus 22:22.
YOU SHALL EAT IT LIKE GAZELLE AND DEER. -- The word "like" is to be referred not to the preceding "may be offered," but to the following "you shall eat"; for the sense is: You shall eat those animals that can be sacrificed to the Lord, such as sheep and cattle, even if they are defective and cannot be sacrificed, just as you would eat gazelle and deer, which likewise cannot be sacrificed: this is clear from the Hebrew.
Verse 18: In All That You Put Your Hand To ¶
18. IN ALL THAT YOU PUT YOUR HAND TO -- that is, in all your goods and possessions.
Verses 20-21: When the Place Is Far Away ¶
20 and 21. WHEN, etc., YOU WISH TO EAT MEAT, etc., BUT THE PLACE WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD HAS CHOSEN FOR HIS NAME TO BE THERE IS FAR AWAY, YOU SHALL KILL FROM YOUR HERDS AND FLOCKS, etc., AND EAT. -- Note: God commanded in Leviticus 3, last verse, and chapter 17:11, that all the blood of slaughtered animals be poured out and offered to Him; and the fat of those animals which could be sacrificed -- namely sheep, cattle, and goats -- even if they were not actually sacrificed but only slaughtered for food, He commanded to be burned and offered by fire, Leviticus 7:25, provided the animal was slaughtered at Jerusalem or not far from the temple. Hence here, not indeed by an express law, but by tacit implication, He suggests that it is fitting for those who live not far from the temple, when they wish to slaughter some such animal -- that is, one that could be sacrificed -- for food, to slaughter it at the entrance of the tabernacle or temple, both so that the blood may be poured out before God and the fat offered to God by fire, after which they may eat the remaining flesh. For although "the place which the Lord has chosen" could be understood as Jerusalem, or the city in which the tabernacle or temple was located, yet more properly it is understood as the temple or tabernacle itself, because it adds, "that His name may be there" -- for this properly pertains to the temple, as I said at verses 5 and 14. Again, although the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by strict law, could absolutely slaughter a sheep or ox at home, provided they poured out the blood for God and sent the fat to the temple to be offered to God by fire, yet it was more fitting and worthy of God that they be slaughtered near the temple, so that they would be considered, as it were, to be slaughtered for God and offered through their first-fruits and noblest parts -- namely through the blood, which was poured out before God in front of the tabernacle, and through the fat, which was offered by fire to God with the other sacrificial victims on the altar of holocausts. From this it consequently appears that these animals were generally slaughtered by the priests, of whom there was accordingly a great multitude, and to whom a portion of the slaughtered animal was given as an honorarium.
But since it would have been too burdensome for those who lived in other cities, especially those remote from the temple, to bring each of their oxen and sheep to be slaughtered to Jerusalem at the temple, and then to bring them back home after slaughter: hence God here dispenses with them and permits them to slaughter those same animals at home, provided they pour out the blood to the Lord on the spot and abstain from eating the fat out of honor for the Lord. So Abulensis, Oleaster, and others.
Learn here, Christian, how you ought to offer all your meals and food to God, and how you ought to bless God both before and after the table.
Lyranus, however, thinks this law speaks only of the firstborn of sheep and cattle, which had to be offered and sacrificed to God in the tabernacle or temple: but if they were far from it, the owners could sell or eat them, provided they brought the price to the temple, as is said in chapter 14, verse 24. But here there is no mention of firstborn, only of meat. Again, those firstborn in chapter 14 are commanded to be sold, and the price to be brought to the temple, so that another animal might be bought there to be sacrificed to God, and then they might feast on it before the Lord: all of which is clearly different from the present case. Finally, the unclean could not eat the firstborn, since they were sacrificed to God, but they could eat this meat, as is clear from the following verse.
Verse 22: Both the Clean and the Unclean Shall Eat Together ¶
22. BOTH THE CLEAN AND THE UNCLEAN SHALL EAT TOGETHER. -- In Hebrew: "together" or "equally," that is, without distinction, they shall eat: because these meats have not been offered to God.
Verse 23: For Their Blood Stands for the Life ¶
23. FOR THEIR BLOOD STANDS FOR THE LIFE. -- The Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint have: "for their blood is the life," that is, their blood is the vehicle of the life, that is, of the vital principle: because by blood life is nourished and preserved, and therefore in place of the animal and its life, I wish blood to be given and poured out to Me: therefore do not eat its life by eating its blood; for the life is owed to Me. See what was said at Leviticus chapter 5, last verse, and chapter 17:11.
Verse 27: On the Altar ¶
27. ON THE ALTAR -- near the altar, at the base of the altar.
YOU SHALL EAT THE FLESH -- that is, if you have offered them as a peace offering.
Verse 32: What I Command You, This Only Shall You Do ¶
32. WHAT I COMMAND YOU, THIS ONLY SHALL YOU DO -- meaning: Do not make, or fashion for yourself in your mind, an idol, as was said above; but in the things and ceremonies of God, do only that which God has commanded either by Himself or through His vicars, namely the priests. See what was said at chapter 4, verse 2.