Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Complete John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
4. Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster.
4. Erit ergo quum transieritis Jordanem, statuetis lapides istos de quibus ego praecipio vobis hodie, et lines eos calce.
8. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
8. Et scribes in lapidibus omnia verba Legis hujus (ad verbum, bene) distincte explicando.
1. And Moses, with the elders. This precept is of the same character as those that have preceded it; for, as God would have His precepts written on the door-posts, and on the borders of their garments, so that they might constantly meet their eyes, so also would He have a monument existing at the very entrance of their land, from which the people might learn that they dwelt in it, in order that they might worship God purely. Wherefore, lest by the people's carelessness the knowledge of the Law should be obscured, or in any way obliterated, God would have its sum inscribed in a conspicuous place. Hence may be gathered the similarity I have adverted to between the private houses of individuals and the whole land. When the precepts were written on the doors, every one was admonished that his house was sacred to God, and the same was the case with the whole land, so that whosoever entered it might know that it was, as it were, the sanctuary of heavenly doctrine, and thus their zeal might be stirred up to the pure worship of God. The object of the plain and distinct writing of the Scripture, referred to in verse 8, was to take away (the excuse of237 ) ignorance.
DEUTERONOMY 31 deuteronomy 31:10-13
10. And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
10. Et praecepit Levitis Moses, dicendo, Septimo quoque anno, tempore anni remissionis, in sollennitate tabernaculorum, Added from the French.