6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock:
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Some have objected that this command cannot possibly have been ever carried out, at all events until in later (lays the territory which owned obedience to it was narrowed to the little kingdom of Judah. But in these and in other precepts Moses doubtless takes much for granted. He is here, as elsewhere, regulating and defining more precisely institutions which had long been in existence, as to many details of which custom superseded the necessity of specific enactment. No doubt the people well understood what Maimonides expressly tells us in reference to the matter, namely, that where immediate payment could not be made, the debt to God was to be reserved until the next great Feast, and then duly discharged. The thing especially to be observed was that no kind of sacrifice was to be offered except at the sacred spot fixed by God for its acceptance.
And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave (d) offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:
(d) Meaning, the first fruits.
And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings,.... For the daily sacrifice, and upon any other account whatsoever; this was before ordered to be brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and now to the place where that should be fixed, Leviticus 17:8.
and your sacrifices: all other distinct from burnt offerings, as sin offerings, trespass offerings, and peace offerings, especially the latter. Jarchi interprets them of peace offerings of debt, such as a man was obliged to bring; but as the distance of some persons from Jerusalem was very great, and it was troublesome and expensive, they might, according to the Jewish writers, bring them the next grand festival, when all the males were obliged to appear there; so says Maimonides (c), all offerings of a man, whether by obligation (such as he was bound to bring) or freewill offerings, he must bring at the first feast that comes; and another of their writers observes (d), that if only one feast has passed, and he has not brought his vow, he transgresses an affirmative precept, Deuteronomy 12:6 the first feast on which thou comest thither, thou must needs bring it; and if three have passed, he transgresses a negative precept, Deuteronomy 23:21.
and your tithes; tithes of beasts, and the second tithes, according to Jarchi:
and heave offerings of your hand; these according to the same writer were the firstfruits, and so it is rendered in the Septuagint version; and thus Maimonides (e) says, the firstfruits are called Trumot, or heave offerings; see Exodus 22:29.
and your vows and your freewill offerings; which were a type of peace offerings, Leviticus 7:16.
and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks; which were sanctified and devoted to the Lord, Exodus 13:2.
(c) Praefat. ad Yad Chazakah. (d) Bartenora in Misn. Roshhashanah, c. 1. sect. 1. & in Misn. Ediot, c. 7. sect. 6. (e) In Misn. Meilah, c. 4. sect. 2.
Thither bring your burnt - offerings - Which were wisely appropriated to that one place, for the security of the true religion, and for the prevention of idolatry and superstition, which might otherwise more easily have crept in: and to signify that their sacrifices were not accepted for their own worth, but by God's gracious, appointment, and for the sake of God's altar, by which they were sanctified, and for the sake of Christ, whom the altar manifestly represented. Your heave - offerings - That is, your first - fruits, of corn, and wine, and oil, and other fruits. And these are called the heave - offerings of their hand, because the offerer was first to take these into his hands, and to heave them before the Lord, and then to give them to the priest. Your free - will - offerings - Even your voluntary oblations, which were not due by my prescription, but only by your own choice: you may chuse what kind of offering you please to offer, but not the place where you shall offer them.
*More commentary available at chapter level.