Israelem, (nempe,) statuta et judicia, (vel, statutorum et judiciorum.) (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
in order to give sanction to his law, that no one might think that it was a doctrine invented by man. 428 He expresses the same thing still more clearly by saying, that he had committed the law to him on Horeb; for this clause clearly asserts that Moses had faithfully discharged his office of a servant; for he brought nothing but what had been committed to him from above, and he delivered it, as they say, from hand to hand. Many give this version, ``To whom I committed, in the valley of Horeb, statutes and judgements;'' but I approve of the other rendering --- that God makes himself here the author of the law, that all the godly might reverently receive it as coming from him. Horeb is Sinai; but they who describe these places say, that a part of the mountain towards the east is called Horeb, and that the other towards the west is called Sinai; but it is still the same mountain.
By saying To all Israel, or to the whole of Israel, he confirms what I have already said --- that he had committed to them the law: that the Jews might be the more touched, he expressly says, that the law was given to them, and that this was a singular privilege with which God had favored them, according to what is said in Psalm 147:20, ``He has not done so to other nations, nor has he manifested to them his judgements.''
For the nations had not been laid under such obligations as the Jews, to whom God had given his law as a peculiar treasure to his own children. And that no one might claim an exemption, he says, to the whole of Israel; as though he had said, ``Neither the learned nor the unlearned, neither the rulers nor the common people, can have any excuse, except they all with the greatest care attend to the law, yea, all from the least to the greatest.''
What follows may admit of two explanations: for {,}חוקיםchukim, and {,}משפטים meshephethim, may be referred to the verb {,}זכרוzacaru, remember; but as he says
Which I have committed, we may take statutes and judgements as explanatory. As to the subject itself, it signifies but little which view we may adopt. There is no doubt but that God by these terms commends his law for its benefits; as though he had said, ``The law includes what the Jews ought rightly to observe, even statutes and judgements.'' We know that other terms are used in Scripture, such as {,}פקודיםpekudim, precepts; {,}מצותיםmetsutim, commandments; and {,}עדותיםodutim, testimonies; but here the Prophet is content brief to remind the Jews that their ingratitude would be less excusable if they departed from the law of God, for this would be openly to reject statutes and judgements; and this is what I have stated, that they were here taught by the Prophet that the doctrine of the law is profitable, in order that they might attend to it more willingly. 429 It follows ---
Malachi 4:5
5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 428"Observe here," says Henry, "the honorable mention that is made of Moses, the first writer in the Old Testament, by Malachi the last writer." — Ed.
429The first word, "statutes," {,{חקיםmeans, according to Marckius, the moral and the ceremonial laws; and the second, ``judgments,'' ,{}משפטיםthe civil or judicial laws. We may consider ``law'' at the beginning of the verse as a general term, comprehending the whole of what was delivered to Moses; and ``statutes'' and ``judgments'' as explanatory of what it was.
The Septuagint render the first ``precepts --- {προσταγματα}.'' --- Ed.