1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. 2You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 3You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. 4You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. 5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. 6You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. 7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 8You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you. 10But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, 11then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. 12You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
15Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. 16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 18but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. 19Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. 21If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. 22Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. 23Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. 24You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes. 26Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose. 27You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat. 28Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
It may seem strange that King David, who had the godly desire to fulfill God’s prior command (Deut 12:5-7) to build a Temple to the LORD (2 Sam 7:2; 1 Kings 8:17-18; 1 Chr 17:1), and to whom God revealed the plans for its construction (1 Chr 28:19), would be forbidden to build it. However, God expressly forbids David to build the First Temple because he had been a warrior who had “shed so much blood on the earth …” The biblical principle is that “the life is in the blood” (Lev 17:11; cf. Deut 19:6), therefore, the shedding of blood is the taking of life. David’s life was defined by violence and warfare (whether slaying Goliath, fleeing from Saul, or fighting the Philistines). God desired that His Temple was to be a place of peace and so would have to be founded in peace by a man of peace. David had been chosen to rid Israel of its enemies through warfare (2 Sam 7:1, 9), and although these conquests had made possible the peaceful rule that followed, the means (war) was characteristically the opposite of peace. Therefore, David could not be the proper symbol to serve as the builder of a place of peace. Rather, his son Solomon, whose Hebrew name Shlomo means “His peace,” was the one to establish the Temple. So necessary was it to keep before the Nation that God’s house was to be a place of peace that God commanded that the preparation of the stones for its construction be at a quarry located away from the Temple site (1 Kings 6:7). At this distance people there would not be able to hear the sound of the iron implements cutting and tooling the stones, a sound that would remind them of the sound of battle (i.e., of swords clanging against one another) and bring back the painful memories of war. Even though God did not permit David to build the Temple, He did allow him to make the financial and practical preparations for its construction (1 Chr 28:11, 20-21; 29:1-21) and to have the knowledge that his son would complete the task to God’s glory (2 Sam 7:13).