Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 12:29,30
They Are To Beware Of The Gods Of the Nations And Not Be Entrapped By Them (Deuteronomy 12:29).
‘ When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations from before you, in the place where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you, and that you enquire not after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.” '
The initial thoughts of the chapter are now taken up again. When they enter into the land and cut off the nations that are in it and dispossess them, they must remember that it is Yahweh their God Who has done it. They must therefore beware of being ensnared by the gods of those nations. They must not seek to those gods. They must not enquire about them. They must be loyal to Yahweh and reject His enemies. One of the important emphases in all treaties was the requirement of loyalty to the Suzerain and rejection of his enemies.
In those days it was common belief that different lands had different gods, so that if you wanted to prosper in a land you must show concern for the local gods. But God here points out that the gods in mind are not the gods of the land but the gods of ‘the nations'. The land is His land. Thus such ideas are not to be entertained for a moment. They must seek only to Yahweh about Yahweh's land and are to reject and ignore the gods of the nations who at present dwell in it. This is another claim by Yahweh to sovereignty in everything.
This is the negative of which the place chosen by Yahweh in which He would set His name was the positive. They must not be diverted from Him in any way. They must positively love Him with all their being, and they must abjure anything that would interfere with that love.
‘ You shall not do so to Yahweh your God, for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, have they done to their gods, for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.'
This is especially so because of the behaviour of these nations with regard to their gods. They have committed every abomination which Yahweh hates. These included perverted sex, and especially that they burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. This last mainly referred to the worship of the Ammonite god Molech which was clearly also worshipped in parts of Canaan (Jeremiah 32:35). But Jeremiah also connects this practise with the worship of Baal (Jeremiah 19:5), and ‘their gods' would seem to suggest that it was connected with more than one god. Child sacrifice was probably not widely practised in Canaan, but it was certainly practised. It is also attested from documents discovered in Syria. It was, however, here simply seen as the worst of a number of abominations (‘every abomination') that disfigured Canaanite religion. This was why it was justifiable for Yahweh to have them destroyed or driven out. They were constantly defiling the land.
‘ Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.'
Note the change to ‘ye' which connects this verse more with the following chapter (which is a mixture of both), although it does also clearly connect with what precedes. It is a transitional verse.
Compare here Deuteronomy 4:2. Finally Moses again asserts the importance of observing all that he commands them. They were not to add to it or diminish it. They were to accept it and obey it exactly as it came to them, for it was a part of the covenant of Yahweh. Such clauses against altering the covenant were a common feature of treaties, but here there is a deeper significance in that he refers to words that have come from God. Moses will now in chapter 13 deal with different persons who might seek to lead them astray from that word into idolatry.
There are important things that result from these words. Firstly they indicate that Moses expected there to be a clear body of truth preserved which could be referred to, otherwise his point was meaningless. Secondly it counts strongly against this being written by an honest man other than Moses. To write in this way pretending to be Moses and putting divine sanction on the words would be duplicity of an extreme kind, not pious faith. Can we really believe that a book of the moral quality of Deuteronomy arose from such duplicity?