Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose.
To bring offerings only from outside the land of Israel to the Temple as well
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
רַק קָדָשֶׁיךָ אֲשֶׁר יִהְיוּ לְךָ וּנְדָרֶיךָ תִּשָּׂא וּבָאתָ אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יְהוָה
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו להביא כל מה שאנחנו חייבין חטאת ועולה ואשם ושלמים אל בית הבחירה ואע"פ שהם בחוצה לארץ כלומר שנתחייב בהם בחוצה לארץ הנה נצטוינו להביא לבית הבחירה, והוא אמרו רק קדשיך אשר יהיו וגו'. ולשון ספרי קדשיך אינו מדבר אלא בקדשי חוצה לארץ תשא ובאת מלמד שחייב בטפול הבאתו עד שיביאנו לבית הבחירה. ופסקו שם שזהו אמנם מה שיתחייב כל איש מחטאת ועולה ואשם. (ראה אנכי, מעשה הקרבנות פ"י):
That is that He commanded us to bring any sin-offering, burnt-offering, guilt-offering and peace-offerings, which we are obligated, to the [Temple]. And even when, they are outside of the Land - meaning to say, we became obligated for them outside of the Land - we are surely obligated to bring them to the [Temple]. And that is His saying, "But your consecrated things as you may have, etc." (Deuteronomy 12:26). And the language of the Sifrei (Sifrei Devarim 77:1-2) is, "'Your consecrated things' - [...] rather it must be speaking of consecrations outside of the Land. 'Shall you bear and you shall come' - this teaches that he must care for what he brought until he brings it to the Temple." And they decided there that this is actually regarding the sin-offerings, burnt-offerings, guilt-offerings [and peace-offerings] that each person is obligated. (See Parashat Re'eh; Mishneh Torah, Sacrificial Procedure 10.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a command
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Requires a standing Temple
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox As the catalog records it: non binding today (Temple dependent)
- Conservative Not binding
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite Position not stated
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 1.76-78 reinterpreted it treats the half-shekel/Temple tax and firstfruits transported to Jerusalem, reflecting the diaspora resource-obligation theme rather than direct exegesis of Deut 12:26
Josephus
- Antiquities 16.160-173 affirmed it
The New Testament
- Matthew 17:24-27 carried a thematic parallel the didrachma (Temple tax) episode reflects the diaspora-to-Jerusalem resource obligation rooted in Exod 30:13-16, not direct exegesis of Deut 12:26; Jesus pays to avoid offense
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.