Deuteronomy 12:14

Summary

Deuteronomy 12:14 states that burnt offerings must be brought only to the place that Yehovah will choose within one of the tribal territories of Israel. There, and only there, the Israelites are to perform all that is being commanded to them.

Key words

• ki 'im (H3588B / H0518B) — a combined restrictive particle, "except/but rather," setting up a contrast with what precedes; it excludes other locations and narrows the action to a single specified place.
• yivChar ("he will choose", H0977) — qal imperfect, marking a future/ongoing action by Yehovah; the choice of place lies with Yehovah, not with the people.
• ta'aLeh ("you will offer up", H5927I) — hiphil imperfect, causative form: the subject causes the offering to go up (the root idea of ascent, tied to 'olah "burnt offering"); second person masculine singular, addressing the community as "you."
• sham ("there", H8033G) — adverb repeated twice (lines 12 and 17), anchoring both the offering and the "doing" to the single chosen location.
• metzaVeh ("commanding", H6680) — piel participle, "the one commanding," expressing ongoing/continuous action; construct form links it directly to the pronominal suffix kha ("you"), yielding "the one commanding you."

What the text says

The verse opens with the compound particle ki 'im (H3588B, H0518B), a construction that functions as a strong restrictive "except" or "but only," contrasting with prohibited alternatives mentioned earlier in the passage. This particle governs the entire sentence: the offerings are excluded from anywhere except ba-maKom ("in the place", H9003+H4725), a term introduced by the relative particle 'asher (H0834A) and further specified by the verb yivChar ("he will choose", H0977). This qal imperfect verb assigns Yehovah (H3068G) as the sole agent of selection, and the imperfect aspect indicates this choice belongs to future or ongoing action rather than something already fixed.

The place is further qualified as being be-'achad shivateikha ("in one of your tribes", H0259+H7626H), both nouns in construct form linking "one" to "of your tribes." The adverb sham ("there", H8033G) appears twice — before ta'aLeh ("you will offer up", H5927I) and before ta'aSeh ("you will do", H6213A) — creating a parallel structure that ties both the burnt offerings and the broader obedience ("all that I am commanding you") to this single location. The verb ta'aLeh is hiphil, a causative stem, distinguishing the act of "causing to go up" (offering) from the plain verbal action.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders H3068G (Yehovah) with the addition ὁ θεός σου ("the LORD your God"), an expansion not present in the Hebrew, which reads only Yehovah. The LXX also adds σήμερον ("today") at the end of the verse, a temporal marker absent from the Hebrew text. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure more closely, rendering Dominus without the added "your God" or "today."