"Ye shall not do so to Jehovah your God," i.e., not build altars and offer sacrifices to Him in any place you choose, but (Deuteronomy 12:5.) shall only keep yourselves (אל דּרשׁ) to the place "which He shall choose out of all the tribes to put His name there for His dwelling." Whereas the heathen seeks and worships his nature-gods, wherever he thinks he can discern in nature any trace of Divinity, the true God has not only revealed His eternal power and Godhead in the works of creation, but His personal being, which unfolds itself to the world in love and holiness, in grace and righteousness, He has made known to man, who was created in His image, in the words and works of salvation; and in these testimonies of His saving presence He has fixed for Himself a name, in which He dwells among His people. This name presents His personality, as comprehended in the word Jehovah, in a visible sign, the tangible pledge of His essential presence. During the journeying of the Israelites this was effected by the pillar of cloud and fire; and after the erection of the tabernacle, by the cloud in the most holy place, above the ark of the covenant, with the cherubim uon it, in which Jehovah had promised to appear to the high priest as the representative of the covenant nation. Through this, the tabernacle, and afterwards Solomon's temple, which took its place, became the dwelling-place of the name of the Lord. But if the knowledge of the true God rested upon direct manifestations of the divine nature, - and the Lord God had for that very reason made Himself known to His people in words and deeds as their God-then as a matter of course the mode of His worship could not be dependent upon any appointment of men, but must be determined exclusively by God Himself. The place of His worship depended upon the choice which God Himself should make, and which would be made known by the fact that He "put His name," i.e., actually manifested His own immediate presence, in one definite spot. By the building of the tabernacle, which the Lord Himself prescribed as the true spot for the revelation of His presence among His people, the place where His name was to dwell among the Israelites was already so far determined, that only the particular town or locality among the tribes of Israel where the tabernacle was to be set up after the conquest of Canaan remained to be decided. At the same time, Moses not only speaks of the Lord choosing the place among all the tribes for the erection of His sanctuary, but also of His choosing the place where He would put His name, that He might dwell there (לשׁכנו from שׁכן, for שׁכנו from שׁכן). For the presence of the Lord was not, and was not intended, to be exclusively confined to the tabernacle (or the temple). As God of the whole earth, wherever it might be necessary, for the preservation and promotion of His kingdom, He could make known His presence, and accept the sacrifices of His people in other places, independently of this sanctuary; and there were times when this was really done. The unity of the worship, therefore, which Moses here enjoined, was not to consist in the fact that the people of Israel brought all their sacrificial offerings to the tabernacle, but in their offering them only in the spot where the Lord made His name (that is to say, His presence) known.

What Moses commanded here, was only an explanation and more emphatic repetition of the divine command in Exodus 20:23-24 (Deuteronomy 12:21 and Deuteronomy 12:22); and to understand "the place which Jehovah would choose" as relating exclusively to Jerusalem or the temple-hill, is a perfectly arbitrary assumption. Shiloh, the place where the tabernacle was set up after the conquest of the land (Joshua 18:1), and where it stood during the whole of the times of the judges, was also chosen by the Lord (cf. Jeremiah 7:12). It was not till after David had set up a tent for the ark of the covenant upon Zion, in the city of Jerusalem, which he had chosen as the capital of his kingdom, and had erected an altar for sacrifice there (2 Samuel 6:17; 1 Chronicles 16:1), that the will of the Lord was made known to him by the prophet Gad, that he should build an altar upon the threshing-floor of Araunah, where the angel of the Lord had appeared to him; and through this command the place was fixed for the future temple (2 Samuel 24:18; 1 Chronicles 21:18). דּרשׁ with אל, to turn in a certain direction, to inquire or to seek. את־שׁמו שׂוּם, "to put His name," i.e., to make known His presence, is still further defined by the following word לשׁכנו, as signifying that His presence was to be of permanent duration. It is true that this word is separated by an athnach from the previous clause; but it certainly cannot be connected with תדרשׁוּ (ye shall seek), not only because of the standing phrase, שׁם שׁמו לשׁכּן ("to cause His name to dwell there," Deuteronomy 12:11; Deuteronomy 14:23; Deuteronomy 16:2, Deuteronomy 16:6, etc.), but also because this connection would give no fitting sense, as the infinitive שׁכן does not mean "a dwelling-place."

Deuteronomy 12:10 Parallel Commentaries

But when

Deuteronomy 3:27 Get you up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward...

Deuteronomy 4:22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but you shall go over, and possess that good land.

Deuteronomy 9:1 Hear, O Israel: You are to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself...

Deuteronomy 11:31 For you shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess it...

Joshua 3:17 And the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of Jordan...

Joshua 4:1,12 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying...

ye dwell

Deuteronomy 33:12,28 And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long...

Leviticus 25:18,19 Why you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety...

1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying...

1 Kings 4:25 And Judah and Israel dwelled safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba...

Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.

Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Jeremiah 23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called...

Jeremiah 32:37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath...

Jeremiah 33:11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say...

Ezekiel 28:26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they shall dwell with confidence...

Ezekiel 34:25,28 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land...

Ezekiel 38:8 After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword...