Deuteronomy 12:2

Deuteronomy 12:2 . Ye shall destroy all the places — Temples, chapels, altars, groves, as appears from other scriptures. Green tree — As the Gentiles consecrated divers trees to their false gods, so they worshipped these under them. Pillars — Upon which their images were set. Names — That is, all the memorials of them, and the very names given to the places from the idols. Not do so — That is, not worship him in several places, mountains, and groves.

(2) Ye shall utterly destroy. —First of all these requirements is the destruction of every vestige of idolatry. In the land of Jehovah there must be no trace of any other god but Him. The non-fulfilment of this command in the early history of Israel has led some to suppose that the command itself belongs to later times. But it must be observed that the destruction of these things is inextricably connected with the conquest of the country in detail. It was part of the work assigned to the several tribes of Israel when the land had been divided by Joshua. His work was to conquer the Canaanitish armies, and give Israel possession of their chief cities. He then assigned the land to the several tribes, to make it their own throughout. Obviously, if every tribe had insisted upon destroying all monuments of idolatry in its own territory, one of two results must have followed: either the remnant of the Canaanitish nations must have been excited to fresh acts of rebellion and hostility, resulting in their extermination, or else they must have yielded themselves entirely to the worship of Jehovah. But Israel disobeyed the order. They did not themselves yield to idolatry in Joshua’s time. The disturbance made respecting the altar Ed (see Joshua 22) is quite sufficient of itself to prove the strictness of the law against strange altars.

But the Canaanites being left undisturbed after they ceased to resist openly, and their objects of worship being left unmolested, there were constant temptations to idolatry, to which Israel yielded. And thus it was not until the times of Heze-kiah and Josiah that these laws were carried out. But this does not prove the law to have come into existence then, any more than the present condition of the human race proves that man was not made in God’s image in Paradise.

Verses 2, 3. - In order to this, Israel was, as soon as the land was possessed, to destroy all the objects and means of idolatrous worship in the land. Upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree (cf. Isaiah 57:7 ; Jeremiah 2:20 ; Jeremiah 3:6 ; Jeremiah 17:2 ; Hosea 4:13 ; 2 Kings 16:4 ; 2 Kings 17:10 ). The heathen had their places of worship on lofty elevations, probably because they imagined they were thus nearer to the object of their worship; and they sought also the shade of woods or thick-foliaged trees ( Ezekiel 6:13 ), under which to perform their rites, as tending to inspire awe, and as in keeping with the mysterious character of their rites. These places of heathen worship in Canaan the Israelites were utterly to destroy, along with the images of their deities and other objects of idolatrous worship. Burn their groves ; their asherahs , idol-pillars of wood (cf. Deuteronomy 7:5 ). Deuteronomy 12:2

All the places; temples, chapels, altars, groves, as appears from other scriptures. The Gentiles used to employ the high mountains for their idolatry; {see Isaiah 57:5,7 Eze 6:13 Hosea 4:13} and as they consecrated divers trees to their false gods, so they worshipped these under them:

Moses now passes on to apply Deuteronomy 12-26 the leading principles of the Decalogue to the ecclesiastical, civil, and social life of the people. Particulars will be noticed which are unique to the Law as given in Deuteronomy; and even in laws repeated from the earlier books various new circumstances and details are introduced. This is only natural. The Sinaitic legislation was nearly 40 years old and had been given under conditions of time, place, and circumstance different and distant from those now present. Yet the Sinaitic system, far from being set aside or in any way abrogated, is on the contrary throughout presupposed and assumed. Its existence and authority are taken as the starting-point for what is here prescribed, and an accurate acquaintance with it on the part of the people is taken for granted.

2. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods—This divine command was founded on the tendencies of human nature; for 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, for such buildings were not in existence at that early period. The "places" chosen as the scene of heathen worship were situated either on the summit of a lofty mountain, or on some artificial mound, or in a grove, planted with particular trees, such as oaks, poplars, and elms (Isa 57:5-7; Ho 4:13). The reason for the selection of such sites was both to secure retirement and to direct the attention upward to heaven; and the "place" was nothing else than a consecrated enclosure, or at most, a canopy or screen from the weather.

2–7. 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. address, Deuteronomy 11:4 , Deuteronomy 12:2-3 . Another form of the same vb. is used both with Sg. and Pl., Deuteronomy 7:24 , Deuteronomy 8:20 , etc. all the places ] The Heb. maḳôm , lit. place of standing up but used in the widest sense of spot or locality , is to be understood throughout this ch. as holy or sacred place (cp. Genesis 12:6 , the maḳôm of Shechem ); like its Ar. form, maḳâm , ‘sacred place,’ whether as the place where one stands up to pray (one of the special senses of the vb. kâm ) or, with the name of a saint attached to it, as the place of his burial which he still haunts, or at which he once stood, e.g. ‘maḳâm ’Ibrahim’ (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arabum , 124). But in this restricted sense the Heb. maḳôm is rather the place of the Deity, His habitation: cp.

Deuteronomy 12:5 , Isaiah 60:13 , place of my sanctuary = place of my feet ; Ezekiel 43:7 , place of my throne, of the soles of my feet, where I dwell , etc.; Acts 6:13 , this holy place , 14, this place . wherein the nations which ye are to dispossess worshipped their gods ] On dispossess see Deuteronomy 9:1 . Worshipped or have worshipped may be a sign of the writer’s own time when the Canaanites were no more; yet it is not incompatible with the standpoint of the speaker. upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree ] A frequent combination in O.T. The part of a hill selected for a shrine was not the top but either one of the lower promontories (so, and not tops , in Hosea 4:13 ; Ezekiel 6:13 ), or a hollow below the summit or between two summits (e.g. the high-place at Gezer discovered by Mr Macalister) within reach of water.