John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Deuteronomy 4:1
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 4
This chapter contains an exhortation to Israel to keep the commands, statutes, and judgments of God, urged from the superior excellency of them to those of all other nations, De 4:1, from the manner in which they were delivered, out of the midst of fire, by a voice of words, but no similitude seen, De 4:9, and particularly the Israelites are cautioned against idolatry, from the consideration of the goodness of God to them, in bringing them out of Egypt, De 4:16, and the rather Moses is urgent upon them to be diligent in their obedience to the laws of God, because he should quickly be removed from them, De 4:21, and should they be disobedient to them, it would provoke the Lord to destroy them, or to carry them captive into other lands, De 4:25 though even then, if they repented and sought the Lord, and became obedient, he would be merciful to them, and not forsake them, De 4:29 and they are put in mind again of the amazing things God had done for them, in speaking to them out of fire, and they alive; in bringing them out of another nation, and driving out other nations to make room for them; all which he improves, as so many arguments to move them to obedience to the divine commands, De 4:32 and then notice is taken of the three cities of refuge, separated on this side Jordan, De 4:41, and the chapter is concluded with observing, that this is the law, and these the testimonies, Moses declared and repeated to the children of Israel in the country of Sihon and Og, who were delivered into their hands, and their lands possessed by them, which laid them under fresh obligations to yield obedience to God, De 4:44.
Ver. 1. Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments,.... The laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which they are exhorted to attend to and obey, in consideration of the great and good things the Lord had done for them, ever since they came from Horeb, where they were given them; such as providing for them, and feeding them in the wilderness, preserving them from every hurtful thing, and delivering their enemies into their hands, the two kings of the Amorites, which they are put in mind of in the preceding chapters; hence this begins with "therefore hearken"; for nothing is a greater incentive to obedience than the kindness and goodness of God:
which I teach you for to do that ye may live; the law was taught by Moses, but the Gospel of grace and truth by Jesus Christ; and it was taught by him, as well as it was to be hearkened to by them, in order to yield obedience to it; for not bare hearing, but doing the law, is the principal thing of any avail; and which was to be done, that they might live; not a spiritual and eternal life, which are not by the works of the law, but are had only from Christ, through his grace and righteousness; but a corporeal life, and a comfortable enjoyment of the blessings of it, and particularly that that might be continued to them:
and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you; the land of Canaan, which the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had promised to give to their posterity, and which they were to hold by their obedience to his laws.
Deuteronomy 4:2
Ver. 2. Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, nether shall you diminish ought from it,.... Neither make new laws of their own, and join them to the law of God, and set them upon a level with it, or prefer them before it; as the Scribes and Pharisees did in Christ's time, who by their traditions made the word of God of none effect, as do the Papists also by their unwritten traditions; nor abrogate nor detract from the law of God, nor make void any part of it: or else the sense is, neither do that which is forbidden, nor neglect that which is commanded; neither be guilty of sins of omission nor commission, nor in any way break the law of God, and teach men so to do by word or by example; not a jot or tittle is either to be put to it, or taken from it, Pr 30:5
that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you; in his name; or which he delivered unto them as his commandments, and which were to be kept just as they were delivered, without adding to them, or taking from them.
Deuteronomy 4:3
Ver. 3. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor,.... Because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshipping that idol, being drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication; which led them to the other sin, and both highly provoking to God. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,
"what the Word of the Lord has done to the worshippers of the idol Peor;''
for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you; 24,000 persons died on that account; which being a recent thing, fresh in memory, and what they were eyewitnesses of, was a caution to them to avoid the same sins, as it is to us on whom the ends of the world are come, Nu 23:9.
Deuteronomy 4:4
Ver. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God,.... To the worship of the Lord your God, as the Targum of Jonathan; attended the service of the sanctuary, were observant of the laws of God, and walked in his statutes and judgments; did not apostatize from him by idolatry or otherwise, but kept close unto him, and followed him fully:
are alive everyone of you this day; which is very remarkable, that in such a vast number of people not one should die in such a space of time, it being several months since that affair happened; and besides, in that time there was a war with the Midianites, and yet not one person died in that war, nor as it seems by this account by any disease or disaster whatever; see Nu 31:49.
Deuteronomy 4:5
Ver. 5. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me,.... He had faithfully delivered them, without adding them, or diminishing from them, and had diligently instructed the Israelites in them, had taken pains to lead them into a thorough knowledge and understanding them:
that ye should do so in the land whither ye go possess it; do in like manner as the commandments the Lord direct to; or that which is right {e}; proper and fitting to be done, by doing which they continue in the land they were about to possess, therefore when in it were to be careful to them; some of them could not be done till they came into it, and all were to be done in it.
{e} Nk "rectum".
Deuteronomy 4:6
Ver. 6. Keep therefore and do them,..... Observe them, take notice of what is expressed by them, and perform them, both as to matter and manner, as they require:
for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations; that is, their wisdom and understanding would appear to other nations by their observance of the commands of God:
which hear all these statutes; which they had a report, got knowledge of by some of the philosophers who travelled into those parts, and by the translation of the Bible into the Greek language:
and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people; that had such a body of laws, in which they were instructed, and according to which they were governed, and in which they walked; that were so agreeable to reason, truth, justice, and equity; insomuch that so far as they became known they were admired and copied after, both by Greeks and Romans; and hence it was that the oracle {f} declared, that only the Chaldeans and Hebrews were a wise people; the Hebrews came from Chaldea, as Abraham the father of them.
{f} Apud Porphyr. in Euseb Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 10. p. 413.
Deuteronomy 4:7
Ver. 7 For what nation is there so great,.... Not so much for their number, for they were the fewest of all people; nor for the largeness of their territories, for the land they were going to possess was but a small country; nor for their wealth and riches, and warlike exploits, though they were not contemptible in either; but for their happy constitution in church and state, being directed and governed in both by laws which came immediately from God himself; for their knowledge of divine things, and for spiritual blessings and privileges they were favoured with, of which a special instance is given:
who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is, in all things that we call upon him for? God was nigh unto them in respect of relation, being their covenant God and Father, and they his sons and daughters, to whom the adoption belonged; and with respect to place and presence, his tabernacle being in the midst of them, the seat of his Shechinah, or divine Majesty, being in the most holy place, between the cherubim over the mercy seat; and he going before them in the pillar of cloud by day, and in the pillar of fire by night, and who might be applied unto at all times for whatsoever they stood in need of; and who was always near unto them, to give them advice and counsel, help and assistance; to hear their prayers, and communicate unto them things temporal and spiritual they stood in need of: and so the Lord is nigh to all that call upon him in faith, with fervency, and in sincerity and truth; and herein the glory and greatness of a people, as of Israel, lies, in being nearly related to God, a people near unto him, both as to union and communion; and in having a communication of good things from him. God is both a God at hand and afar off, Jer 23:23.
Deuteronomy 4:8
Ver. 8. And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous,.... Founded in justice and equity, and so agreeable to right reason, and so well calculated and adapted to lead persons in the ways of righteousness and truth, and keep them from doing any injury to each other's persons and properties, and to maintain good order, peace, and concord among them:
as all this law which I set before you this day? which he then repeated, afresh declared, explained and instructed them in; for otherwise it had been delivered to them near forty years ago. Now there was not any nation then in being, nor any since, to be compared with the nation of the Jews, for the wise and wholesome laws given unto them; no, not the more cultivated and civilized nations, as the Grecians and Romans, who had the advantage of such wise lawgivers as they were accounted, as Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, and others; and indeed the best laws that they had seem to be borrowed from the Jews.
Deuteronomy 4:9
Ver. 9. Only take heed to thyself,.... To walk according to this law, and not swerve from it:
and keep thy soul diligently; from the transgressions and breaches of it:
lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen; either the statutes and judgments set before them, and the circumstances of the delivery of them; or the punishment inflicted on the breakers of them; or the favours bestowed on those that observed them:
and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; out of thy mind and memory, and have no place in thy affections, through a neglect and disuse of them:
but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; their children and grandchildren, that they may be trained up in them in their youth, and so not depart from them when grown up, and in years; see De 6:7.
Deuteronomy 4:10
Ver. 10. Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord in Horeb,.... Above all things Moses would have them take care not to forget the day the law was given from Mount Sinai, which was so awful and solemn, when they saw the fire, the smoke, the lightning, and heard the thunder and the sound of the trumpet; all which were very shocking and terrifying: and though the men of this generation were but young then, being under twenty years of age, yet many of them were old enough to observe these things, and which one would think should never wear out of their minds:
when the Lord said unto me, gather me the people together; not the elders of the people only, but the whole body of the people, as he did, and brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai, Ex 19:17,
and I will make them hear my words; the ten commands which were spoken by the Lord himself aloud, with an articulate voice, in the hearing of all the people; and was such a terrible voice of words, that they that heard it entreated it might be spoken to them no more, Heb 12:19
that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth; to reverence him the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; to fear to offend him by breaking his laws, so holy, just, and good, and delivered in such an awful and solemn manner:
and that they may teach their children; the words they had heard, teach them obedience to them, and to be careful not to act contrary to them; since that would bring down judgments upon them, and deprive them of the favour they enjoyed, of which they had seen instances.
Deuteronomy 4:11
Ver. 11. And ye came near and stood under the mountain,.... At the foot of it, in the lower part of the mountain, as the Targum of Jonathan, and agrees with Ex 19:17
and the mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven; the flame and smoke went up into the middle of the air: with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness; which thick darkness was occasioned partly by the smoke, which went up like the smoke of a furnace, and partly by the thick clouds, which were on the mount, and covered the face of the heavens, which were black and tempestuous with them; the Septuagint renders it a "tempest", Ex 19:18, which denotes the obscurity of the law, and the terrors it works in the minds of men.
Deuteronomy 4:12
Ver. 12. And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire,.... For the Lord descended on Mount Sinai in a cloud, in fire, and was in the thick darkness, from whence he delivered out the ten commands:
ye heard the voice of the words; distinctly and plainly, not only the sound of them, but the words themselves, and so as to understand what was meant by them;
but saw no similitude; not any likeness of the person speaking, by which they could form any idea of him in their minds, which was purposely done to prevent idolatry:
only ye heard a voice; that was all.
Deuteronomy 4:13
Ver. 13. And he declared unto you his covenant,.... So the law was called, because it contained, on the part of God, things which he would have done or avoided, to which were annexed promises of long life and happiness in the land he gave them; and they, on their part, agreed to hearken to it, and obey it, Ex 24:3,
which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; which see at large in Ex 20:1, and in this book afterwards repeated, De 5:6,
and he wrote them upon two tables of stone; to denote the durableness of them; the Targum of Jonathan says on tables of sapphire; but it is most likely that they were written on tables of marble, since there were great quantities of it in Mount Sinai; See Gill on "Ex 31:18".
Deuteronomy 4:14
Ver. 14. And the Lord commanded me at that time,.... When the ten commandments were delivered on Mount Sinai, and Moses was ordered to come up to God in the mount:
to teach you statutes and judgments; laws ceremonial and judicial, besides the ten commands given them:
that ye may do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it; the land of Canaan, which was on the other side of Jordan, and over which they must go in order to possess it; and when they came there, they were to hold the possession of it by attending to those laws which forbad the sins for which the old inhabitants of it were expelled out of it; and besides these, there were also several laws, both ceremonial and judicial, which were to be peculiarly observed in the land, as well as others they were obliged to do while without it.
Deuteronomy 4:15
Ver. 15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves,.... As to keep all the laws given them, so particularly to avoid idolatry:
for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; and therefore, as they had nothing that directed and led them, so they had nothing that could be a temptation to them, to make any form or likeness, and worship it.
Deuteronomy 4:16
Ver. 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves,.... And not themselves only, but the word and worship of God, by idolatry, than which nothing is more corrupting and defiling, nor more abominable to God:
and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure; a graven image, in the likeness of any figure, an idea of which they had formed in their minds;
the likeness of male or female; of a man or a woman; so some of the Heathen deities were in the likeness of men, as Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, Apollo, &c. and others in the likeness of women, as Juno, Diana, Venus, &c. Some think Osiris and Isis, Egyptian deities, the one male, the other female, are respected; but it is not certain that these were worshipped by them so early.
Deuteronomy 4:17
Ver. 17. The likeness of any beast that is on the earth,.... As there are scarce any but the likeness of them has been made and worshipped, or the creatures themselves, as the ox by the Egyptians, the sheep by the Thebans, the goat by the Mendesians, and others by different people:
the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air; as the hawk, and the bird called Ibis, and another by the name of Cneph by the Egyptians, and the eagle by others.
Deuteronomy 4:18
Ver. 18. The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,.... As serpents by many; and indeed that creature is introduced into almost all the idolatries of the Heathens, which seems to take its rise from the serpent Satan made use of to deceive our first parents:
the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; as the crocodile and hippopotamus, or river horse, by the Egyptians; and Dagon and Derceto, supposed to be figures in the form of a fish, among the Phoenicians.
Deuteronomy 4:19
Ver. 19. And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven,.... The starry heaven, which to do in itself is not sinful; and may be lawfully and commendably done, to raise admiration at the wonderful works of God in them, and lead to adore the author of them: but if not guarded against may be ensnaring:
and when thou seest the sun and the moon, and the stars, [even] all the host of heaven; those bright luminaries, so glorious to behold, and so useful and beneficial to the earth, and the inhabitants of it:
shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them; should have an impulse on their minds and their hearts, be inclined and drawn to the worship of them, partly by considering their splendour, glory, and usefulness, and partly by the example of others; for the worshipping of these seems to be and is the first kind of idolatry men gave into, at least it was very ancient; see Job 31:26,
which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven; the sun and the moon by their constant revolutions visit all the parts of the world, and stars are fixed in both hemispheres, so that all nations of the earth receive the benefit and advantage of all these heavenly bodies; but were never designed to be the objects of their worship, as might be learnt from their being divided to them, sometimes one part of the earth enjoying them, and then another, and not present with them all at one and the same time, which, if deities, would have been necessary; see Ps 19:6.
Deuteronomy 4:20
Ver. 20. But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace,.... The allusion is to the trying and melting of metals, and fleeing them from dross, by putting them into furnaces strongly heated, some of which are of earth, others of iron; the word, as the Jewish writers {g} observe, signifies such an one in which gold and silver and other things are melted; see Ps 12:6 even "out of Egypt"; which is here compared to an iron furnace, because of the cruelty with which the Israelites were used in it, the hardships they were put under, and the misery and bondage they were kept in; but out of all the Lord brought them, as he does all his people sooner or later out of their afflictions, sometimes called the furnace of affliction, Isa 48:10 where their graces are tried, and they are purged, purified, and refined from their dross and tin. This the Lord did to Israel, he brought them out of their distressed state and condition:
to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day: to be the Lord's inheritance, as they now were, De 32:9 as well as they were quickly to inherit the land of Canaan, for which they were brought out of the land of Egypt; and indeed they were already, even that day, entered on their inheritance, the kingdom of the Amorites being delivered into their hands.
{g} Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Celim. c. 8. sect. 9. & Jarchi in loc.
Deuteronomy 4:21
Ver. 21. Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes,.... See De 3:26:
and sware that I should not go over Jordan; this circumstance of swearing is nowhere else expressed:
and that I should not go in unto that good land; the land of Canaan; he might see it, as he did from Pisgah, but not enter into it:
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; to them and to their children after them.
Deuteronomy 4:22
Ver. 22. But I must die in this land,.... The land of Moab, in a mountain in it he died, and in a valley there he was buried, De 32:50,
I must not go over Jordan; this he repeats, as lying near his heart; he had earnestly solicited to go over, but was denied it:
but ye shall go over, and possess that good land; this he firmly believed and assures them of, relying on the promise and faithfulness of God.
Deuteronomy 4:23
Ver. 23. Take heed unto yourselves,.... Since he should not be long with them, to advise, instruct, and caution them:
lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you; what that required of them, and what was promised unto them on the performance of it, and what they must expect should they break it, and particularly be so forgetful of it, and the first articles in it, as follows:
and make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee; a graven image in the likeness of men or women, of any beast on the earth, or fowl in heaven, or fish in the sea.
Deuteronomy 4:24
Ver. 24. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire,.... To his enemies; his wrath is like fire to burn up and destroy all that oppose him and break his commands, and especially idolaters; whose sin of all others is the most provoking to him, since it strikes at his being, his honour and glory; wherefore it follows,
even a jealous God; who is jealous of his honour in matters of worship, and will not suffer his glory to be given to another, nor his praise to graven images, without resenting it or punishing for it.
Deuteronomy 4:25
Ver. 25. When thou shall beget children, and children's children,.... Children and grandchildren, and several ages and generations have passed:
and shalt have remained long in the land; many years and even ages, or have grown old {h} in it: now they were in their infancy, and as such they were about to enter into it; during the times of the judges, they were in their childhood, or youth; in the times of David and Solomon, they were in their manhood; after that, in their decline; and in the times of Jeconiah and his brethren in their old age, when for their sins they were carried captive:
and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything; See Gill on "De 25:16".
and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger; that sin of idolatry, that God provoking sin, is chiefly intended.
{h} Mtnvwn "inveteraveritis", Montanus: "veteres facti fueritis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "senueritis", Vatablus.
Deuteronomy 4:26
Ver. 26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,.... Should they be guilty of such a sin, since they were so strongly and publicly cautioned against it; and even the heaven and the earth were called upon as witnesses of the law being set before them, which so expressly forbids it, De 30:19
that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it; though they were now about to go over Jordan and inherit the land of Canaan, yet they would not enjoy it long, but be taken and carried captive out of it; as the ten tribes were by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and both for their idolatry and other crimes.
Deuteronomy 4:27
Ver. 27. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations,.... As they were by both captivities; the ten tribes were dispersed among the cities of the Medes, and the two tribes throughout the empire of Babylon:
and ye shall be left few in number among the Heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you; or be "men of number" {i}, so few that they might be easily numbered; which intimates that it should be other wise with them than when in Egypt; there they were multiplied and increased the more they were afflicted, but in these captivities they should be greatly diminished.
{i} rpom ytm "viri numeri", Montanus, Drusius.
Deuteronomy 4:28
Ver. 28. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone,.... Idols made by men, cut out of wood and stone; these they should be enticed into the service of, or compelled to serve; which was still more brutish and stupid than to worship the sun, moon, and stars, which were not the works of men's hand, but the glorious works of the eternal God. But since in their captivities they were not subject to idolatry, but were cured of it thereby, another sense of the words is given by some, as by Onkelos and Jonathan, who paraphrase the words of serving the people, that serve idols; but what follows confirms the first sense:
which neither see, nor hear, nor taste, nor smell; senseless things, which have none of the senses of seeing, hearing, and smelling, nor the faculty of eating, which they need not to support life, of which they are destitute; and therefore it must be monstrous stupidity to worship such lifeless, senseless, objects; see Ps 115:4.
Deuteronomy 4:29
Ver. 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God,.... By prayer and supplication, acknowledging and confessing sin, and desiring that God would be gracious and forgive it, and bring them out of their miserable condition; even if out of those depths of affliction and distress, and though scattered about in the world, and in the uttermost parts of it:
thou shalt find him; to be a God hearing and answering prayer, gracious and merciful, ready to help and deliver:
if they seek him with all their heart and with all their soul; sincerely and affectionately.
Deuteronomy 4:30
Ver. 30. When thou art in tribulation,.... In a strange land, in the power of a foreign enemy, and used ill:
and all these things are come upon thee; captivity, thraldom, hard labour, and want of the necessaries of life:
[even] in the latter days: in their present captivity for the rejection of the Messiah:
if thou turn to the Lord thy God; as the Jews will when they are converted and brought to a sense of their sin, and of their need of Christ, and seek to him as their Saviour, as they will do in the latter day, Ho 3:5
and shall be obedient unto his voice; not of the law only, but of the Gospel also, proclaiming peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by him whom they have pierced.
Deuteronomy 4:31
Ver. 31. For the Lord thy God is a merciful God,.... In Christ, in whom he has proclaimed his name as such, of which Moses had a comfortable view, Ex 34:6 and therefore could attest it from his own knowledge and experience:
he will not forsake thee; though in a strange country, but bring them from thence into their own land again, and favour them with his gracious presence in his house and ordinances:
neither destroy thee; from being a people; and in a very wonderful manner are they preserved among the nations of the earth to this day:
nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them; that a Saviour should come and turn away ungodliness from them, and take away their sins; see Ro 11:26.
Deuteronomy 4:32
Ver. 32. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee,.... Inquire into and consult the annals of former times, of ages past:
since the day that God created man upon the earth; trace them quite up to the creation of the world, and men in it:
and [ask] from the one side of heaven to the other; traverse the whole globe, and examine the records of every nation in it in both hemispheres:
whether there hath been any such [thing] as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? whether they can give any account of anything seen, heard, or done like what follows; suggesting that they cannot furnish out an instance to be mentioned with it.
Deuteronomy 4:33
Ver. 33. Did [ever] people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire,.... None ever heard the voice of God as they did, much less speaking such words as they heard, and still less out of the midst of fire, which was their case, De 4:12
as thou hast heard, and live? which was stranger still, when they might have expected they should, and doubtless feared they would be, as it was wonderful they were not, consumed by it.
Deuteronomy 4:34
Ver. 34. Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation,.... As he now had done, namely, the nation of Israel out of the nation of the Egyptians; this he not only had assayed to do, but had actually done it; whereas no such instance like it could be produced, and especially as done in the manner this was:
by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war; the word "temptations" may be considered as a general word, as Aben Ezra thinks, and may signify the temptations by signs, &c. or the various essays and trials, ways, means, and methods taken by the Lord to bring about the event; by "signs" may be meant those which were required of Moses, and done by him before the people of Israel, and before Pharaoh, as proofs of his mission from the Lord, Ex 4:1 and by "wonders", the ten plagues of Egypt, which were done by a supernatural and miraculous operation, and were amazing things; see Ps 78:11; and by "war", either the slaying of the firstborn, with the destruction of the judges and gods of Egypt, as Aben Ezra; or the Lord's fighting for Israel at the Red sea, as Jarchi; he saved them and destroyed the Egyptians, and showed himself to be a man of war, Ex 14:14
and by a mighty hand and stretched out arm; phrases frequently used when this affair is spoken of, and are expressive of the mighty power of God in the above instances, and in the issue of them, bringing Israel out of Egypt; though Aben Ezra interprets it of the pillar of fire and cloud in which the Lord went before them:
and by great terrors; which the same writer interprets of the drowning of Pharaoh and his host in the sea, and dividing it for Israel; but may be understood not only of the terrors which possessed him and his people then, but at other times, especially at the time of the thunder and lightning, and when they sat in thick darkness, and particularly when all their firstborn were slain; see De 26:8,
according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes; among the men of Egypt, as the above writer, Pharaoh and his courtiers: the above things were done as before them for their terror, so before Israel for their encouragement.
Deuteronomy 4:35
Ver. 35. Unto thee it was showed,.... What the Lord did in Egypt:
that thou mightest know that the Lord he [is] God, [there is] none else besides him; that he is the one only living and true God, and there is no other: this phrase is often used by the Prophet Isaiah, to express the same great article of faith.
Deuteronomy 4:36
Ver. 36. Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee,.... Thunder is the voice of God, and by which he instructs men in the greatness of his power, Job 26:14, &c. unless his voice in giving the law, which was for the instruction of Israel, is meant; for that was heard on earth, on Mount Sinai, to which the following refers:
and upon earth he showed thee his great fire; on Mount Sinai, which burned with it:
and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire; the ten commands, and therefore may well be called, a fiery law; see De 4:12.
Deuteronomy 4:37
Ver. 37. And because he loved thy fathers,.... Not their immediate fathers, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and entered not into the good land because of their unbelief, but their more remote fathers or ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had some singular testimonies of the love of God to them, Abraham is called their friend of God, and Isaac was the son of promise in whom the seed was called; and Jacob is particularly said to be loved by God, when Esau was hated:
therefore he chose their seed after them; not to eternal life and salvation, but to the enjoyment of external blessings and privileges, to be called by his name, and to set up his name and worship among them, and to be a special people to him above all people on the earth, as to outward favours, both civil and ecclesiastical:
and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt; which was done not only in the sight of the Egyptians openly, they not daring to hinder them, as the wonders wrought to oblige them to let them go out, done in the sight of the Israelites as before observed, but in the sight of God, he going before them in the pillar of cloud and fire, smiling upon them the Israelites, and looking with a frown upon the host of the Egyptians, and conducting the people by the angel of his presence.
Deuteronomy 4:38
Ver. 38. To drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art,.... The seven nations of the land of Canaan, which were more in number and mightier in power and strength than they, and particularly the Amorites, who were already driven out and dispossessed of their country, even the kingdoms and nations of Sihon and Og:
to bring thee in to give thee their land for an inheritance, as [it is] this day; referring, as Aben Ezra observes, to the inheritance of the land of the two kings of the Amorites, which the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, were put into the possession of already.
Deuteronomy 4:39
Ver. 39. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart,.... Own and acknowledge it now with thy mouth, and lay it up and consider it in thine heart hereafter, as a truth of the greatest importance to be professed and held fast, and to be thought of and meditated upon continually, and never to be forgotten:
that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; that he has made both, and is the possessor and Lord of them, and does what he pleases with them; that the one is his throne, his dwelling place, and the other his footstool; and that the inhabitants of both are his creatures, and under his authority and command, and he can dispose of them as he pleases:
[there is] none else; no God in heaven or in earth beside him.
Deuteronomy 4:40
Ver. 40. Thou shall keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments,.... All his laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, partly being under obligation to him for all the great and good things done by him for them before enumerated, and partly and chiefly because he is the Lord God in heaven and in earth, and has a right to command and ought to be obeyed:
which I command thee this day; in the name of the Lord, and which he repeated, opened, and explained, and charged them afresh to observe; otherwise they were such that had been given long ago:
that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee; that they and theirs might enjoy temporal mercies, and continue in the land of Canaan, and partake of all the blessings in it, as follows, and of the sanctuary of the Lord, and the privileges of it:
and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for ever; that is, that they and theirs might live long in the land of Canaan, which the Lord gave for an inheritance for ever, provided they kept his law, and were obedient to his commands; see De 6:25, and though they have had several interruptions by their captivities, and especially by their present very long one, yet when they shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, they shall have their land restored to them again, and shall never more be dispossessed of it.
Deuteronomy 4:41
Ver. 41. Then Moses severed three cities,.... To be cities of refuge, according to the command of God, Nu 35:14 this he did when he had conquered the two kingdoms of the Amorites, that God had given them for an inheritance to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, De 4:38 though Jarchi says, and so other Jewish writers, that persons were not received into them until the three cities appointed in the land of Canaan were separated for the like use;
See Gill on "Nu 35:14" and these were,
on this side Jordan, toward the rising sun; on that side of the river on which the plains of Moab lay, and the kingdoms of the Amorites, and to the east of Jordan: so Jarchi remarks,
"on that side which is on the east of Jordan;''
see Jos 20:8.
Deuteronomy 4:42
Ver. 42. That the slayer might flee thither,.... For refuge; the slayer of a man, but not any slayer, but
which should kill his neighbour unawares; by accident to him, without any design and intention to kill him; ignorantly, as the Septuagint version; and so Onkelos:
and hated him not in times past; it having never appeared that there had been a quarrel between them, and that the slayer had shown any enmity to the man slain any time before the fact, or bore a grudge against him, or spite unto him:
and that, fleeing unto one of these cities, he might live; in peace and safety unto his own death, or unto the death of the high priest, when he was released from his confinement to the city of his refuge, and might return to his tribe, house, family, and possessions.
Deuteronomy 4:43
Ver. 43. [Namely], Bezer in the wilderness,.... In Jos 20:8, it is added "upon the plain"; this perhaps was the wilderness of Moab, in the plains of it, the same with Bozrah, see Jer 48:24 and in the Apocrypha:
"Hereupon Judas and his host turned suddenly by the way of the wilderness unto Bosora; and when he had won the city, he slew all the males with the edge of the sword, and took all their spoils, and burned the city with fire,'' (1 Maccabees 5:28)
it was in the
plain country of the Reubenites, or lay in that part of the country which was allotted to them, and which they gave to the Levites, 1Ch 6:78,
and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites; it lay in that part of Mount Gilead, and among the cities of it, which fell to the share of the tribe of Gad, and was by them given to the Levites, 1Ch 6:80, this city is frequently in Scripture called Ramothgilead; see 1Ki 4:13
and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites, or "Gaulon", as the Septuagint, and from hence the country round about was called Gaulanitis; all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, was given to the half tribe of Manasseh, and out of it this city was given by them to the Levites, 1Ch 6:71, and appointed a city of refuge: now as these cities were typical of Christ, there may be something observed in the names of them as agreeing with him. "Bezer" signifies "a fortified place"; Christ is the fortress, mountain, and place of defence for his people, and strong hold to which the prisoners of hope turn, the strong tower whither the righteous run and are safe. "Ramoth" signifies "exaltations"; which may point both at the exaltation of Christ in human nature at the right hand of God, and the exaltation of his people by him, who are raised by him from a low estate to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory, and by whom he is exalted in his person, office, and grace. "Golan" signifies "revealed" or" manifested": so Christ has been manifest in the flesh, and is revealed to sinners, when they are called by his grace; to whom they flee for refuge, and lay hold on him, the hope set before them.
Deuteronomy 4:44
Ver. 44. And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. Not the law concerning the cities of refuge, but the law of the ten commands repeated in the following chapter; so Jarchi remarks,
"this which he should set in order after this section;''
as he does in the next chapter, where he repeats in order the ten precepts, and makes observations on the manner of the delivery of them, and urges obedience to them.
Deuteronomy 4:45
Ver. 45. These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments,.... The laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, delivered in the following chapters; which are renewed, repeated, and explained: which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt; in the third month after they came from thence these laws were delivered to him at Mount Sinai, and he declared them to them; and now afresh, near forty years after, repeated them to them in the plains of Moab.
Deuteronomy 4:46
Ver. 46. On this side Jordan, in the valley, over against Bethpeor,.... Where the Israelites abode some time; see De 3:29,
in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon; which was now conquered, and in the hands of the Israelites:
whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they came out of Egypt; not as soon as, or quickly after they came from thence; for it was but a few months ago since this conquest was made, whereas it was near forty years since they came out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 4:47
Ver. 47. And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan,.... Seized upon them, and took them as their own, and divided them for an inheritance among two of their tribes and half another:
two kings of the Amorites; which is more than once observed, that it might be taken notice of that these were of the nations of the Canaanites Israel were to root out, and possess their land:
which were on this side Jordan, toward the sun rising; which lands and kingdoms lay to the east of Jordan, on that side of it on which were the plains of Moab, where Moses and Israel now were.
Deuteronomy 4:48
Ver. 48. From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon,.... A city of Moab, which was situated on the bank of the river Arnon, that was on the border of Moab, De 2:36,
even unto Mount Sion, which [is] Hermon; the meaning is, that the lands of these two kings conquered by Israel reached from the city Aroer on the river Arnon to Mount Hermon, the one being the southern, the other the northern boundary of them. Here Hermon has another name Sion, and is to be carefully distinguished from Mount Zion near Jerusalem; it lying in a different country, and being written with a different letter in the Hebrew language. In the Septuagint version it is called Seon, and by the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem the mount of snow;
See Gill on "De 3:9".
Deuteronomy 4:49
Ver. 49. And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward,.... The plains of Moab, on that side of Jordan to the east:
even unto the sea of the plain; the sea of Sodom, the salt sea:
under the springs of Pisgah; that rose from Mount Pisgah, the same with Ashdothpisgah, De 3:17.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Deuteronomy 5:1
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 5
In this chapter Moses, after a short preface, De 5:1, repeats the law of the decalogue, or ten commands, with some little variation, De 5:6, and then reminds the Israelites of the terrible manner in which it was delivered to them, De 5:22 which put them upon making a request that Moses might be a mediator between God and them, and hear what the Lord had to say, and report it to them; to which they promised obedience, De 5:24 and which being agreeable to the Lord was granted, De 5:28, and this laid them under a greater obligation to observe the commands of God, and keep them, De 5:32.
Ver. 1. And Moses called all Israel,.... The heads of the various tribes, and elders of the people, as he had on occasion been used to do; unless it can be thought that at different times he repeated the following laws to separate parties and bodies of them, until they had all heard them:
and said unto them, hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day; the laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which he was about to repeat, and afresh declare unto them, being what they had all a concern in, and under obligation to regard.
Deuteronomy 5:2
Ver. 2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Which is Sinai, as Aben Ezra observes; it being the same mountain, only it had two tops, which bore these different names; for certain it is that the decalogue after repeated was given at Sinai, and had the nature and form of a covenant; see Ex 24:7.
Deuteronomy 5:3
Ver. 3. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers,.... That is, not with them only, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Abendana remark; for certain it is that this covenant was made, or law was given, to the immediate fathers of this present generation of Israelites, whose carcasses had fallen in the wilderness; unless this is to be understood of their more remote ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom the covenant of grace was made, or afresh made manifest, especially with the former; when the law, the covenant here spoken of, was not delivered until four hundred and thirty years after, Ga 3:16,
but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day; many of them were then present at the giving of the law, and though under twenty years of age, could remember it, and the circumstances of it; and besides, they were the same people to whom it was given, though not consisting wholly of the same individuals.
Deuteronomy 5:4
Ver. 4. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount,.... Meaning, not in that free, friendly, and familiar manner, in which he sometimes talked with Moses, of whom this phrase is used, Ex 33:11, but publicly, audibly, clearly, and distinctly, or without the interposition of another; he did not speak to them by Moses, but to them themselves; he talked to them without a middle person between them, as Aben Ezra expresses it: without making use of one to relate to them what he said; but he talked to them directly, personally:
out of the midst of the fire; in which he descended, and with which the mountain was burning all the time he was speaking; which made it very awful and terrible, and pointed at the terrors of the legal dispensation.
Deuteronomy 5:5
Ver. 5. I stood between the Lord and you at that time,.... Between the Word of the Lord and you, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; that is, about that time, not at the exact precise time the ten commandments were delivered, for these were spoken immediately to the people; but when the ceremonial law was given, which was ordained by angels, in the hand of a mediator, Ga 3:19, and which was at the request of the people as follows, terrified by the appearance of the fire out of which the moral law was delivered:
to show you the word of the Lord; not the decalogue, that they heard with their own ears, but the other laws which were afterwards given, that were of the ceremonial and judicial kind:
for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount; lest they should be consumed by it: and indeed bounds were set about the mount, and they were charged not to break through:
saying; this word is in connection with the preceding verse, the Lord's talking out of the midst of the fire, when he said what follows.
Deuteronomy 5:6
Ver. 6-11. I am the Lord thy God,.... This is the preface to the ten commandments, and is the same with that in Ex 20:2,
See Gill on "Ex 20:2", and those commands are here delivered in the same order, and pretty near in the same words, with a little variation, and a few additions; which I shall only observe, and refer to
Ex 20:1 for the sense of the various laws.
Deuteronomy 5:7
Ver. 7. See Gill on "De 5:6".
Deuteronomy 5:8
Ver. 8. See Gill on "De 5:6".
Deuteronomy 5:9
Ver. 9. See Gill on "De 5:6".
Deuteronomy 5:10
Ver. 10. See Gill on "De 5:6".
Deuteronomy 5:11
Ver. 11. See Gill on "De 5:6".
Deuteronomy 5:12
Ver. 12,13. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it,.... Or observe it, by setting it apart as a time of natural rest, and for the performance of holy and religious exercises; see Ex 20:8, where the phrase is a little varied, "remember the sabbath day to keep it holy"; it having been instituted before:
as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; not at Sinai only, for the same might then have been observed of all the rest of the commands, but before the giving of the law, at the first of the manna; see Ex 16:23.
Deuteronomy 5:13
Ver. 13. See Gill on "De 5:12".
Deuteronomy 5:14
Ver. 14. Nor thine ox, nor thine ass,.... In Ex 20:10, it is only in general said,
nor thy cattle: here by way of illustration and explanation the ox and the ass are particularly mentioned; the one being used in ploughing ground, and treading out the corn, and the other in carrying burdens; and it is added,
nor any of thy cattle; as their camels, or whatever else they were wont to use in any kind of service; they were none of them to do any kind of work on the sabbath day. The following clause also is not used before, which expresses the end of this institution:
that thy manservant and thy maidservant may have rest as well as thee; which if the cattle had not rest, they could not have, being obliged to attend them at the plough or elsewhere; and this respects not only hired, but bond servants and maidens.
Deuteronomy 5:15
Ver. 15. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt,.... Even a bondservant; for Egypt was an house of bondage, and there the Israelites were made to serve in hard bondage; of which they are reminded, that their hearts might be touched with it, and inclined to show pity to persons in somewhat similar circumstances; calling to mind how sweet a little rest would have been unto them when in Egypt:
and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; signifying that their deliverance from their state of bondage was not owing to themselves, nor to any creature, but to the mercy and kindness of God, and to his almighty power; and therefore they were under the greatest obligations to observe any command and institution of his he should think fit to make; and particularly this of the sabbath, which was made on that account, as follows:
wherefore the Lord thy God commandeth thee to keep the sabbath day; in commemoration of their rest from Egyptian bondage.
Deuteronomy 5:16
Ver. 16. Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee,.... And is the first commandment with promise, as the apostle observes, Eph 6:2 with a promise of long life and happiness in the land of Canaan, as follows:
that thy days may be prolonged; see Ex 20:12 here it is added,
and that it may go well with thee; and which the apostle also has in the place referred to:
in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; the land of Canaan; which the same apostle explains to a greater latitude,
that thou mayest live long on the earth; applying it to Christians under the Gospel dispensation, whether Jews or Gentiles.
Deuteronomy 5:17
Ver. 17-20. Thou shalt not kill,.... The following commands begin with the copulative "and", different from the manner in which they are expressed, Ex 20:17 which joins these together, and them with the preceding ones; hence the law is by some said to be one copulative, and may serve to illustrate a passage in Jas 2:10.
Deuteronomy 5:18
Ver. 18. See Gill on "De 5:17".
Deuteronomy 5:19
Ver. 19. See Gill on "De 5:17".
Deuteronomy 5:20
Ver. 20. See Gill on "De 5:17".
Deuteronomy 5:21
Ver. 21. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife,.... Here a neighbour's wife is put before his house, different from Ex 20:17 and "his field" is added, which with what follows take in everything that is a man's property; and which is not to be desired or coveted in an unlawful manner by another, and much less should any means be made use of to deprive him of it; but "lust" is the thing intended and prohibited, be it after what it may, which is another man's: see Mt 5:28, of a man's field, see Isa 5:8.
Deuteronomy 5:22
Ver. 22. These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount,.... The above ten words or commands, which were spoken so audibly and loudly by the Lord himself on Mount Sinai, that the whole congregation of the people of Israel heard them:
out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness; in which the Lord was; see De 4:11,
with a great voice, and he added no more; ceased speaking; after he had delivered the ten commands, he said no more at that time. The Targum of Jonathan is,
"with a great voice which ceased not.''
It ceased not until all were delivered, and then it did; it was a continued voice, yet clear and distinct:
and he wrote them in
two tables of stone; marble stone, as the Targum of Jonathan; which is much more likely than what the paraphrase has on De 4:13, this is an emblem of the duration of the law:
and delivered them unto me; to Moses, and by him to be delivered to the people, who though they had heard them would be apt to forget them; and therefore they were written, that they might read them, and meditate on them, and be careful to keep them.
Deuteronomy 5:23
Ver. 23. And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness,.... The thick darkness, where God was, and with which the mountain was covered, Ex 20:21
for the mountain did burn with fire; which is a reason both why the Lord spoke out of the midst of the fire, the mountain on which he descended burning with it and also for his speaking out of the midst of darkness, because not only a thick cloud covered the mountain, but it was altogether on a smoke, which ascended as the smoke of a furnace, Ex 19:16
that ye come near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes and your elders; or wise men, as the Targum of Jonathan; by which it appears, that not only the common people were frightened at what they heard and saw on Mount Sinai, but those of the first rank and eminence among them, who were the most famous for their authority and wisdom.
Deuteronomy 5:24
Ver. 24. And ye said, behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness,.... In descending on Mount Sinai in the manner he did, and giving the law from thence with such solemnity; for there was a glory in the ministration of it, as the apostle argues 2Co 3:7, it being delivered with so much majesty, and such a glorious apparatus attending it; see De 33:2. Aben Ezra interprets this of the appearance of fire in which the Lord was, "and his greatness", of the thunders and lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet:
and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; the ten words, as the same interpreter rightly notes, which were vocally and audibly expressed out of the fire:
we have seen this day, that God doth talk with man, and he liveth; they had proof of it in themselves; God had been talking with them out of the fire, and yet it did not reach and consume them, but they were still alive.
Deuteronomy 5:25
Ver. 25. Now therefore why should we die?.... Since we are now alive, and have so wonderfully escaped the danger we were exposed unto, let us be careful that we are not liable to it again:
for this great fire will consume us: if it continues, and we are exposed to it; perhaps some of them might remember the fire that burnt in the uttermost parts of the camp at Taberah, and the destruction of Korah and the two hundred and fifty men with him by fire, Nu 11:1,
if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die; for it was such a voice of words they could not endure as to the matter of them, and therefore entreated the word might not be spoken to them any more; it being the killing letter, and the ministration of condemnation and death; and the manner in which it was delivered was so terrible, that they concluded they could not live, but must die if they heard it again; and imagined that if the fire continued, the flames of it would spread and reach them, and they would not be able to escape them.
Deuteronomy 5:26
Ver. 26. For who [is there] of all flesh,.... What man was there in any age, that was ever heard of or can be named:
that hath heard the voice of the living God; who lives in and of himself, and is the author and giver of life to all his creatures, whereby he is distinguished from and is opposed unto the lifeless deities of the Gentiles; and which makes him and his voice heard the more awful and tremendous, and especially as
speaking out of the midst of the fire: which was the present case:
as we [have], and lived? of this there never was the like instance; for though some had seen God and lived, as Jacob did, and therefore called the name of the place where he saw him Penuel, Ge 32:30, and Moses had heard the voice of the angel of the Lord out of a bush, which seemed to be burning, and was not consumed, Ex 3:2, yet none ever heard the voice of the Lord out of real fire, and particularly expressing such words as he did, but the Israelites. Zoroastres, the founder of the Magi among the Persians, and of their religion, seems to have had respect to this, and to have applied falsely this to himself, which belonged to Moses and the people of Israel; for it is said {k},
"one reason the Persians have fire in so much veneration is, because they say that Zoroastres, being caught up to heaven, did not see God, but heard him speaking with him out of the midst of fire.''
{k} Hyde Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. c. 8. p. 160.
Deuteronomy 5:27
Ver. 27. Go thou near,.... To the mount, and to God on it:
and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; for they supposed, by the continuance of the Lord on the mount, and the fire burning on it, that he had more to say, which they were not averse to hear; but desired it might be not immediately delivered to them, but by the means of Moses; the sound of the words, and the sight of the fire, being so terrible to them:
and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee: they did not doubt, knowing the faithfulness of Moses, his declaring all unto them that should be told him by the Lord; and they were desirous that he should, they did not want to have anything withheld from them, only they could not bear to see and hear things immediately from the Lord:
and we will hear it and do it; hearken to it, and receive it, as the word of God, and not man, and yield a ready and cheerful obedience, even to everything that should be required; see Ex 20:19.
Deuteronomy 5:28
Ver. 28. And the Lord heard the voice of your word, when ye spake unto me,.... Not only in a general way, as he hears and knows all that is spoken by men; for there is not a word on the tongue, formed upon it, and uttered by it, but what is altogether known to him; but in a special and particular manner observed, took notice of, approved, and was well pleased with what these people said:
and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee; not only heard the sound of them, but took notice of the sense and meaning of them, and listened to them with pleasure and delight:
they have well said all that they have spoken; expressing such an awe and reverence of the divine Majesty, desiring to have a mediator between God and them, and purposing and promising to hearken to and obey whatsoever he should command by him.
Deuteronomy 5:29
Ver. 29. O that there were such an heart in them,.... Not that there is properly speaking such volitions and wishes in God; but, as Aben Ezra observes, the Scripture speaks after the language of the children of men; and may be considered as upbraiding them with want of such an heart, and with weakness to do what they had promised; and, at most, as approving of those things they spoke of as grateful to him, and profitable to them: the words may be rendered, "who will give {l} that they had such an heart"; not to me, but to them, as Aben Ezra notes; they cannot give it to themselves, nor can any creature give it to them; none but God can, and therefore they ought to have prayed to him to give them an heart to hearken and do; agreeably to which is the Arabic version,
"it is to be wished by them, that such an heart would continue with them;''
which they by their language signified was in them: that they would fear me; which is not naturally in the heart of man, is a gift of God, a part of the covenant of grace, is implanted in regeneration, and is no inconsiderable branch of it; it is opposed to pride, and is consistent with faith and joy, and is increased by views of the grace and goodness of God, and is a distinguishing character of a good man:
and keep all my commandments always; not only one, but all, and not only at some certain times, but continually; and which are to be kept in faith from a principle of love, with a view to the glory of God, and in the strength of Christ; and to this the fear of God is necessary, for where there is no fear of God, there is no regard to his commandments; but where there is a reverential fear of God, there are faith, hope, love, and every other grace; yea, the Spirit, the author of all, who is in the saints, to enable them to walk in the statutes of the Lord, and to keep his judgments and do them; and such keep the commandments of God, not from a slavish fear, but from a sense of divine goodness:
that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever; for the fear of God, and the keeping of his commandments, issue in the good of men, in their own good, their inward peace, and spiritual welfare; in the good of others, their neighbours, servants, and children, by way of example and instruction; and even in the public peace and prosperity of a nation in which they dwell: not that these things are meritorious of eternal life, but are what are approved of by the Lord, and are grateful to him; which is the chief view in the expression of the text.
{l} Nty ym "quis det", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius; "quis dabit", Piscator.
Deuteronomy 5:30
Ver. 30. Go say to them, get you into your tents again. Which they had left, being brought by Moses, at the direction of God, to the foot of Mount Sinai, to receive the law from his mouth; this being done, they are ordered to return to their tents again, to their families, wives, and children.
Deuteronomy 5:31
Ver. 31. But as for thee, stand thou here by me,.... On the mount by him whither he was called up; Moses was not permitted to go to his tent when the children of Israel were, but was ordered to wait upon the Lord to receive instructions from him, which he was to communicate to the people, being a kind of a mediator between God and them, as they requested, and which was granted them:
and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments: all laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which belong to them as men, as in a church state, and members of a body politic:
which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them; for all doctrine is in order to practice, without which all instructions, and theoretical notions, signify little: and these they were more especially to do, and some of them peculiarly,
in the land which I give them to possess it: the land of Canaan, and which laid on them no small obligation to do the commandments of God; since of his free favour and good will, and as a pure gift of his, he had bestowed upon them a land flowing with milk and honey, into which he was just now about to bring them; as nothing can more strongly engage souls to a cheerful obedience to the service of God, whether in private or in public, than the consideration of the great and good things which God of his rich grace bestows upon them, and has promised to them, and prepared for them, and will quickly put them into the possession of; and upon such an account Moses presses the observance of the commands of God in the following verses.
Deuteronomy 5:32
Ver. 32. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God doth command you,.... Observe every precept, as to matter and manner, which the Lord has commanded, and that under a sense of the great obligations laid on them by him, in giving them freely so good a land to possess:
you shall not turn to the right hand or to the left; but walk in the way of the commandments of God, and not depart from them at all, but follow the Lord in his own ways fully. The phrase is expressive of a strict and close attention to the word of God, without deviating from it in the least; for every sin, which is a transgression of some command of God or another, is a going out of the way that directs unto; see Isa 30:21.
Deuteronomy 5:33
Ver. 33. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you,.... None are to be avoided or departed from on any consideration whatever; see Ps 119:6 an instance of this we have in Zacharias and Elizabeth, Lu 1:6 that ye may live; corporeally, comfortably, in all the outward enjoyments of life needful for them, particularly in the possession of the land of Canaan, and the benefits of it; for these promises of life upon obedience seem to reach no further, unless as types and emblems of what is enjoyed through the obedience and righteousness of Christ, as the following phrases show:
and [that] it [may] be well with you, and [that] ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess; the land of Canaan; though the Jewish writers {m} carry it further, even to heaven and eternal happiness; and so may we in the sense before given.
{m} Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 27. p. 418.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Deuteronomy 6:1
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 6
In this chapter Moses proceeds on in his exhortations to the people of Israel, to attend to the commandments of God, that it might be well with them, De 6:1, and begins with a principal and fundamental article of religion, which deserved their first and chief regard, the unity of God, and the love of him, De 6:4, which they were carefully to instinct their children in, and ever to be mindful of themselves, De 6:6, and when they were come into the land of Canaan, and into a plentiful enjoyment of all good things in it, they are exhorted to be careful not to forget the Lord, their kind benefactor; but to fear him, serve him, and not go after other gods, since he is jealous of his honour and worship, De 6:10 and not to tempt him, as they had done, but diligently keep, his commandments, that it might be well with them in that land, De 6:16, and when their children inquired the reason and meaning of such testimonies, statutes, and judgments, that were enjoined them, they were to give them the history of their case in Egypt, their deliverance from thence, the wonders that were wrought for them, and the introduction of them into the good land of Canaan; and to let them know that these commands were some of them in commemoration of these blessings; and by these they were laid under obligation to regard them all, and the rather, since they were not only for the glory of God, but for their own good, De 6:20.
Ver. 1. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,.... Not the ten commandments repeated in the preceding chapter, but all others, whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial, afterwards declared; for what Moses now did was only to give a repetition and fresh declaration of such laws as he had before received, and delivered to the people; and so the Targum of Jonathan thus paraphrases this clause,
"this is a declaration of the commandments, statutes, and judgments:''
which the Lord your God commanded to teach you; that is, which he commanded him, Moses, to teach them, though not fully expressed, as may be learned from De 4:1
that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it; this is often observed, to imprint upon their minds a sense of their duty, even of obedience to the laws of God, which they were carefully and diligently to perform in the land of Canaan they were going into, and by which they were to hold their possession of it.
Deuteronomy 6:2
Ver. 2. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God,.... Being taught to know the greatness of his being, and the nature of his mind and will, and the manner of his worship; and not with a slavish fear, but with a filial one, a reverential affection for God; being instructed in their duty, as of children, to their God and Father; see De 5:29
to keep all his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee; not in his own name, but in the name, and by the authority of God, whose minister and messenger he was; and all, having the stamp of divine authority on them, were to be observed and kept, and not one to be neglected or departed from:
thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; a man and his children, and grandchildren; he was to take care that they kept all the commandments of the Lord as long as he lived, and had any concern with them:
and that thy days may be prolonged; long life being reckoned a very great outward mercy; a long enjoyment of, and continuance in the land of Canaan, is chiefly designed, which is usually expressed when this is observed; see De 4:26.
Deuteronomy 6:3
Ver. 3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it,.... Or them, the commandments given them:
that it may be well with thee; in body and estate:
and that ye may increase mightily; not only in wealth and riches, but chiefly in numbers:
as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee; a promise of increase of numbers was frequently made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; as that their seed should be as the stars of heaven, and as the dust of the earth, and the sand on the sea shore, innumerable; see
Ge 15:5 and this especially
in the land that floweth with milk and honey; a very common periphrasis of the land of Canaan, because of the plenty of good things in it; see Ex 3:8.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Ver. 4. Hear, O Israel,.... These are the words of Moses, stirring up the people to an attention to what he was about to say of this great and momentous article, the unity of God, to prevent their going into polytheism and idolatry. From one of the words here used, the Jews call this section Kiriathshema, which they oblige themselves to read twice a day, morning and evening {n}; the last letter of the first word in this verse, "Shema", meaning "hear", and the last letter of the last word in it, "Echad", meaning "one", are greater than ordinary; which seems designed to excite the attention to what is contained in this passage:
the Lord our God is one Lord; the doctrine of which is, that the Lord, who was the covenant God and Father of his people Israel, is but one Jehovah; he is Jehovah, the Being of beings, a self-existent Being, eternal and immutable; and he is but one in nature and essence; this appears from the perfection of his nature, his eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence, infinity, goodness, self-sufficiency, and perfection; for there can be but one eternal, one omnipotent, one omnipresent, one infinite, one that is originally and of himself good; one self, and all sufficient, and perfect Being; and which also may be concluded from his being the first cause of all things, which can be but one; and from his relations to his creatures, as their King, ruler, governor, and lawgiver. And for this purpose these words are cited in Mr 12:29 but then they no ways contradict the doctrine of a trinity of persons in the unity of the divine essence, the Father, Word, and Holy Spirit, which three are one; the one God, the one Jehovah, as here expressed; see 1Jo 5:7 and so the ancient Jews understood this passage. In an ancient book of theirs it is said {o} Jehovah, Elohenu, Jehovah (i.e. Jehovah, our God, Jehovah); these are the three degrees with respect to this sublime mystery; "in the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth"; and again {p}, Jehovah, Elohenu, Jehovah, they are one; the three forms (modes or things) which are one; and elsewhere {q} it is observed, there are two, and one is joined to them, and they are three; and when the three are one, he says to (or of) them, these are the two names which Israel heard, Jehovah, Jehovah, and Elohenu (our God) is joined unto them; and it is the seal of the ring of truth, and when they are joined they are one in one unity; which is illustrated by the three names the soul of man is called by, the soul, spirit, and breath; and elsewhere they say {r} the holy blessed God, and his Shechinah, are called one; see Joh 10:30.
{n} Mist. Beracot, c. 1. sect. 1, 2. {o} Zohar in Gen. fol. 1, 3. {p} Ib. in Exod. fol. 18. 3, 4. {q} Ib. in Numb. fol. 67. 3. {r} Tikkune Zohar, Correct. 47. fol. 86. 2.
Deuteronomy 6:5
Ver. 5. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God,.... Which is the first and chief commandment in the law, the sum and substance of the first table of it; and includes in it, or at least has connected with it, knowledge of God, esteem of him, delight in him, faith and trust in him, fear and worship of him, and obedience to him, which when right springs from it. God is to be loved because of the perfections of his nature, and the works of his hand, of nature, providence, and grace; and because of the relations he stands in to men, and especially to his own people; and because of his peculiar love to them; and, indeed, he is to be loved by all men for his care of them, and blessings of goodness bestowed on them; the manner in which this is to be done follows:
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might; with a superlative love, above all creatures whatever; with the whole of the affections of the heart, with great fervency and ardour of spirit, in the sincerity of the soul, and with all the strength of grace a man has, with such love that is as strong as death. Jarchi interprets loving God with all the heart, that is, with thy heart not divided about God, a heart not divided between God and the creature; "all thy might" he interprets of mammon or substance; and, indeed, that is one way in which men may show their love to God, by laying out their substance in his service, and for the support of his cause and interest in the world. Aben Ezra by "the heart" understands knowledge, and by the "soul" the spirit of man that is in his body, and by might perfect love in the heart.
Deuteronomy 6:6
Ver. 6. And these words, which I command thee this day,.... To hearken to, observe, and take notice of, that God is one, and is to be loved in the strongest manner that possibly can be:
shall be in thine heart; on the table of the heart, as the Targum of Jonathan; see 2Co 3:3, be cordially received, have a place in the affections of the heart, and be retained in mind and memory.
Deuteronomy 6:7
Ver. 7. And thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children,.... Care and diligence are to be used, and pains taken, to instruct children, as soon as they are capable, in the knowledge of God, and of his commandments; that they are to love him, fear him, serve, and worship him; this is to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Eph 6:4, it may be rendered "thou shalt whet or sharpen them" {s}, the words or commandments; it is expressive of diligence and industry in teaching, by frequent repetition of things, by inculcating them continually into their minds, endeavouring to imprint them there, that they may be sharp, ready, and expert in them:
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house; at the time of meals, or at leisure hours, or even when employed in any business in the house which will admit of it; every opportunity should be taken to instil the knowledge of divine things into their tender minds:
and when thou walkest by the way; in a journey, and any of his children with him; or for diversion, in the garden, field, or vineyard; occasion may be taken on sight of any of the works of creation to lead into a discourse concerning God, his nature, perfections, and works, and the obligations his creatures lie under to love, fear, and serve him: and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up; at the time of going to bed, and rising from it; which, as they are seasons of prayer to God, may be improved in instruction of children.
{s} Mtnnvw "et acues ea", Vatablus, Piscator.
Deuteronomy 6:8
Ver. 8. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,.... As a man ties anything to his hand for a token, that he may remember somewhat he is desirous of; though the Jews understand this literally, of binding a scroll of parchment, with this section and others written in it, upon their left hand, as the Targum of Jonathan here interprets the hand:
and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes; and which the same Targum interprets of the Tephilim, or phylacteries, which the Jews wear upon their foreheads, and on their arms, and so Jarchi; of which
See Gill on "Mt 23:5".
Deuteronomy 6:9
Ver. 9. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and on thy gates. To put them in mind of them when they went out and came in, that they might be careful to observe them; this the Jews take literally also, and write in a scroll of parchment this section with some passages; and, as the Targum of Jonathan here, fix them in three places, over against the bed chamber, upon the posts of the house, and on the gate at the right hand of it; and this is what they call the Mezuzah; and the account given of it is this. In a parchment prepared for the purpose, they write the words in De 6:4 and then roll up the parchment, and write on it "Shaddai"; and put it either into a cane (or reed), or else into a like hollow piece of wood, and so fasten it to the wall on the posts of the door at the right hand of entrance; and thus, as often as they go in and out, they make it a part of their devotion to touch this parchment, and kiss it {t}.
{t} Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. c. 31. p. 582, &c. Leo Modena's History of the Rites and Customs of the Jews, par. 1. c. 2. p. 5, 6.
Deuteronomy 6:10
Ver. 10. And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land,.... The land of Canaan, on the borders of which they now were, and were just going into:
which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee; of his own free favour and good will, without any merit and desert of theirs, and in which would be found
great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not; large and capacious, delightfully situated, well built, and strongly fortified, without any pains or expense of theirs; all ready for them to take possession of, and dwell in; and so should no longer reside in tents or booths, as they had for forty years past, but in spacious and noble cities.
Deuteronomy 6:11
Ver. 11. And houses full of all good things which thou filledst not,.... Not only full of good, convenient, and rich household furniture, but of the fruits of the earth, of corn, and wine, and oil, and also, perhaps, of gold and silver:
and wells digged which thou diggedst not; which in those hot and dry countries were in much esteem, and of great worth; see Ge 26:18,
vineyards and olive trees which thou plantedst not; which Canaan abounded with much more than Egypt, where there were but few vines and olive trees, though of both these there were more where the Israelites lived than elsewhere; See Gill on "Ge 47:11" and these therefore might be such as they had seen in Egypt, in that part of it in which they dwelt, Goshen, which was in the Heracleotic nome, and that Strabo {u} says only produced perfect olives, and fruit bearing trees, but the rest of Egypt wanted oil; and this home is the same which the Arabs now call the province of Fium, of which Leo Africanus {w} says, it produces a large quantity of olives; so that this might be observed for the encouragement of the Israelites:
when thou shalt have eaten and be full; having such plenty of good things the land would furnish them with.
{u} Geograph. l. 17. p. 556. {w} Descriptio Africae, l. 8. p. 722.
Deuteronomy 6:12
Ver. 12. Then beware lest thou forget the Lord,.... To love, fear, and worship him, and keep his commands; creature enjoyments being apt to get possession of the heart, and the affections of it; Pr 30:9
which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; into a land abounding with all the above good things, and therefore under the highest obligations to remember the Lord and his kindnesses, and to serve and glorify him: Ex 20:2.
Deuteronomy 6:13
Ver. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him,.... Serve him through fear; not through slavish fear, a fear of hell and damnation; but through filial fear, a reverential affection for that God that had brought them out of a state of bondage into great and glorious liberty, out of Egypt into Canaan's land, out of a place of misery into a land of plenty; and therefore should fear the Lord and his goodness, and from such a fear of him serve him, in every part of worship, public and private, enjoined; this passage Christ refers to Mt 4:10
and shalt swear by his name; when they made a covenant with any, or were called to bear a testimony for the decision of any controversy which could not be otherwise finished; or whenever they took an oath on any account, which should never be taken rashly or on any trivial account, and much less falsely; it should be taken not in the name of any idol, or of any other but the true and living God; the Targum of Jonathan is,
"in the name of the Word of the Lord, in truth ye shall swear.''
Deuteronomy 6:14
Ver. 14. Ye shall not go after other gods,.... To serve and worship them, and swear by them; and which indeed are no gods, only nominal and fictitious ones; idols which are nothing in the world, and ought to have no veneration and adoration given them; to go after them is to worship them, and this is to depart from the true God, and go a whoring after false deities:
of the gods of the people which are round about you; the gods of the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, and Egyptians; all of which had their peculiar deities.
Deuteronomy 6:15
Ver. 15. For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you,.... He was near to them, in the midst of them, his tabernacle being placed between their camps; and was a God jealous of his honour and glory in matters of worship, and would resent any affront given him in that way:
lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee; there being nothing more apt to stir up his wrath than idolatry:
and destroy thee from off the face of the earth; suffer them to be carried captive out of their own land, and to be scattered among the nations of the world, and be utterly destroyed.
Deuteronomy 6:16
Ver. 16. Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God,.... By striving with him or against him, by murmuring at or complaining of his providential dealings with them, or by requiring a sign of him, or miracles to be done by him; this is another passage used by Christ to repel the temptations of Satan, Mt 4:7,
as tempted him in Massah; a place so called from the Israelites tempting the Lord there, Ex 17:7, the Targum of Jonathan adds, with ten temptations; see Nu 14:21.
Deuteronomy 6:17
Ver. 17. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God,.... Not only the ten commands, but all others:
and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee; those of a judicial and ceremonial kind.
Deuteronomy 6:18
Ver. 18. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord,.... And what is such appears from the declaration of his mind and will in the commandments he has given, and obeying which is therefore doing what is right and good; for his commandment is holy, just, and good, being agreeable both to his nature and will, Ro 7:12 that it may be well with thee; as it is with those that fear God, and keep his commandments:
and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers; to give to them and to their posterity, even the land of Canaan; but if they did not what was right and good in the sight of God, they might expect to be kept out of it, as their immediate parents were, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 6:19
Ver. 19. To cast out all thine enemies from before thee,.... This the Lord promised, and as it seems with an oath, that he would do for them; drive out their enemies, and make way for the settlement of them in their country:
as the Lord hath spoken; see Ge 15:18.
Deuteronomy 6:20
Ver. 20. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come,.... Or "tomorrow" {x}; that is, in later times, as Jarchi interprets it; any time after this, and particularly after they were come into the land of Canaan, when the several laws, statutes, and ordinances appointed, would take place and be obeyed:
what [mean] the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? what is the reason of the various rites, customs, and usages, the observance of which is directed to, such as the feasts of passover, pentecost, tabernacles, sacrifices, and other duties of religion?
{x} rxm "cras", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus.
Deuteronomy 6:21
Ver. 21 Then shall thou say unto thy son,.... In order to lead him into the spring and original of them, and to acquaint him with the goodness of God, which laid them under obligation to observe them:
we were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; were brought into bondage and slavery to Pharaoh king of Egypt, into whose country their ancestors came, and where they resided many years, and at length were reduced to the utmost servitude and misery:
and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; by the exertion of his mighty power, which the Egyptians and their king could not withstand, as a token of his care and kindness to us; by the ties of which we are bound in gratitude to observe his commands. The Targum of Jonathan is,
"the Word of the Lord brought us, &c.''
and it was Christ the Son of God that was from first to last concerned in that affair, even from the appearance to Moses in the bush to Israel's coming out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 6:22
Ver. 22. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore,.... Meaning the ten plagues, which were signs of the power of God, marvellous works, great, above the power of nature, and very sore or "evil" {y}; very distressing to the Egyptians; for they came and lay heavy
upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes; upon the king, his courtiers, and the whole land, and which were done publicly in the sight of the people of Israel, as well as the Egyptians; and there were some then living, though at that time when wrought under twenty years, who saw with their own eyes what were done to them, and could never forget them. Here also the Targum of Jonathan has it,
"and the Word of the Lord sent signs, &c''
{y} Myerw "et pessima", V. L. Junius & Tremellius; "et noxia", Tigurine version; "et mala", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator.
Deuteronomy 6:23
Ver. 23. And he brought us out from thence,.... By means of those miraculous plagues, even out of a state of bondage and misery: and in order
that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers; to bring them into the land of Canaan, give it to them, and put them in the possession of it; and so fulfil his promise and his oath made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 6:24
Ver. 24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes,.... Some of which were designed on purpose to commemorate the wonderful deliverance out of Egypt, as particularly the passover; and all of them they were obliged in gratitude to obey, in consideration of such great favours bestowed upon them:
to fear the Lord our God, for our good always: as it is always for the good of men, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, to fear the Lord; for there is no want to them that fear him, nor will the Lord withhold good things from them; see Ps 34:9,
that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day; in bodily health and strength, and in the enjoyment of the good land, and all the blessings and benefits of it.
Deuteronomy 6:25
Ver. 25. And it shall be our righteousness,.... Or a mercy, benefit, and blessing to us; or this shall be reckoned our righteousness, and that by which we shall be justified:
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us; in order to have such a justifying righteousness, a man must keep all the commandments of God, not one excepted; and that perfectly, without the least breach of them in thought, word, or deed; and that before the Lord, in his sight, not as it may appear to a man himself, or to others, but as it appears to God, who sees the heart, and weighs all actions; and a man must keep them in the manner the Lord has commanded, even with all his heart, soul, and strength, as in De 6:5 and this is not possible for a sinful man to do; and therefore righteousness cannot be by the law. Only Christ could thus keep all the commandments of God, and his obedience is our righteousness; and he only is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes, and to him we must seek for it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Deuteronomy 7:1
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 7
In this chapter the Israelites are exhorted to destroy the seven nations of the land of Canaan, when they entered into it, and to make no alliances with them of any kind, nor suffer any remains of idolatry to continue, De 7:1 to observe which, and other commands of God, they are urged from the consideration of their being freely chosen of God above all other people, and of their being redeemed out of the house of bondage, and of the Lord's being a covenant keeping God to them, De 7:6 and it is promised them, for their further encouragement to keep the commands of God, that they should have an increase of all temporal good things, and no evils and calamities should come upon them, De 6:12, and, lest they should be disheartened at the numbers and might of their enemies, they are put in mind of what God had done for them in Egypt, and of what he had promised to do for them now, De 7:17 and they are assured that the nations should be cast out before them by little and little, until they were utterly destroyed, De 7:21 and the chapter is concluded with an exhortation to destroy their images, and not admit anything of that sort to be brought into their houses, De 7:25.
Ver. 1. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it,.... The land of Canaan they were just now going into to take possession of; their introduction into which is here, as in many other places, ascribed not to themselves, or their leaders, but to the Lord as their covenant God:
and hath cast out many nations before thee; even all that were in it, the seven following:
the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites; the Canaanites were a particular nation in the land of Canaan, which had their name from Canaan himself; the rest were called from different sons of his; see Ge 10:15, the country of the Gergesenes, the same with the Girgashites, continued its name unto the times of Christ, Mt 8:28,
seven nations greater and mightier than thou; more in number, and more robust in body, some being of a gigantic stature; there were ten of these nations in Abraham's time, three of them were since sunk or swallowed up among the rest, the Kenites, and Kenizires, and the Rephaim; for instead of the Kadmonites the Hivites are here put, which seem to be the same.
Deuteronomy 7:2
Ver. 2. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee,.... Into their hands:
thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; men, women, and children; which was ordered not merely to make way and room for the people of Israel to inherit their land, but as a punishment for capital crimes they had been guilty of, such as idolatry, incest, murder, &c. wherefore though they were reprieved for a while for Israel's sake, till their time was come to possess the land, they were at length righteously punished; which observed, abates the seeming severity exercised upon them:
thou shalt make no covenant with them; to dwell in their cities and houses, and enjoy their lands and estates, on any condition whatever; and though they did make a league with the Gibeonites, that was obtained by fraud, they pretending not to be of the land of Canaan, but to come from a very distant country:
nor show mercy unto them; by sparing their lives, bestowing any favours upon them, or giving them any help and assistance when in distress: the Jews extend this to all other Heathen nations besides these seven; wherefore, if an Israelite, as Maimonides {z} says, should see a Gentile perishing, or plunged into a river, he may not take him out, nor administer medicine to a sick person. Hence Juvenal {a} the poet upbraids them with their unkindness and incivility; and says that Moses delivered it as a Jewish law, in a secret volume of his, perhaps referring to this book of Deuteronomy, that the Jews might not direct a poor traveller in his way unless he was one of their religion, nor one athirst to a fountain of water; and which led Tacitus {b}, the Heathen historian, to make this remark upon them, that they entertained an hostile hatred against all other people.
{z} Hilchot Abodath Cochabim, c. 10. sect. 1, 2. {a} "Non monstrare vias", &c. Satyr 14. {b} Hist l. 5. c. 5.
Deuteronomy 7:3
Ver. 3. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them,.... Unless they became proselytes, as Rahab, who was married by Salmon, and so those of other nations, as Ruth the Moabitess, and so any captive taken in war; otherwise it was not lawful, bad consequences have followed upon it, which it is the design of this law to prevent; that is, being snared and drawn aside into idolatry, which was the case of Solomon:
thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son; for, according to the Targum of Jonathan, whosoever marries with them, it is as if he married with their idols: and this law, according to the Jewish writers {c}, is binding with respect to other nations besides the seven; and whosoever marries any Heathen, of whatsoever nation, is to be beaten.
{c} Maimon. Hilchot lssure Biah, c. 12. sect. 1.
Deuteronomy 7:4
Ver. 4. For they will turn away thy son from following me,.... From the pure worship of God, his word, statutes, and ordinances:
that they may serve other gods; worship their idols; that is, the daughters of Heathens, married to the sons of Israelites, would entice them from the worship of the true God to idolatry; so the Targum of Jonathan; as Solomon's wives drew him aside: or "he will turn away thy son" {d}; meaning, as Jarchi observes, that the son of an Heathen, that marries the daughter of an Israelite, will turn away the son born of her to idolatry, called here the grandfather's son; though Aben Ezra says this respects the son mentioned in the preceding verse, that is, the son married to an Heathen woman, and not to a son born in such marriage:
so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly; by some immediate judgment striking dead at once; there being nothing more provoking to God than idolatry, that being directly contrary to his being, nature, perfections, honour, and glory, of which he is jealous.
{d} ryoy "faciet recedere": Pagninus, Montanus; so Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, Tigurine version, Vatablus, V. L. all in the singular number.
Deuteronomy 7:5
Ver. 5. But thus shall ye deal with them,.... The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:
ye shall destroy their altars; on which they sacrificed to their idols:
and break down their images; of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them:
and cut down their groves; sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; so Maimonides {e} says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the hrva, or "grove", spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used: though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, 2Ki 21:7,
and burn their graven images with fire; distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, Nu 33:52.
{e} Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.
Deuteronomy 7:6
Ver. 6. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God,.... Not sanctified in a spiritual sense, or having principles of grace and holiness in them, from whence holy actions sprang, at least not all of them; but they were separated from all other people in the world to the pure worship and service of God in an external manner, and therefore were to avoid all idolatry, and every appearance of it:
the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth; for special service and worship, and to enjoy special privileges and benefits, civil and religious; though they were not chosen to special grace here, and eternal glory hereafter; at least not all of them, only a remnant, according to the election of grace; yet they were typical of the chosen people of God in a special sense; who are chosen out of the world to be a peculiar people, to be holy here and happy hereafter; to enjoy communion with God in this life and that to come, as well as to serve and glorify him now and for evermore.
Deuteronomy 7:7
Ver. 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you,.... He had done both, and the one as the effect and evidence of the other; he loved them, and therefore he chose them; but neither of them,
because ye were more in number than any people; not for the quantity of them, nor even for the quality of them:
for ye were the fewest of all people; fewer than the Egyptians, from whence they came, and than the Canaanites they were going to drive out and inherit their land, De 7:1. Those whom God has loved with an everlasting love, and as a fruit of it has chosen them in Christ before the world began to grace and glory, holiness and happiness, are but a small number, a little flock; though many are called, few are chosen; nor are they better than others, being by nature children of wrath even as others, and as to their outward circumstances the poor of this world.
Deuteronomy 7:8
Ver. 8. But because the Lord loved you,.... With an unmerited love; he loved them, because he loved them; that is, because he would love them; his love was not owing to any goodness in them, or done by them, or any love in them to him, but to his own good will and pleasure:
and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers; the promise he had made, confirmed by an oath:
hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand; out of the land of Egypt:
and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen; where they were bondmen to the Egyptians:
from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; who detained them, and refused to let them go.
Deuteronomy 7:9
Ver. 9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God,.... The only true and living God, and not the idols of the Gentiles, who are false and lifeless ones, and therefore not the proper objects of adoration:
the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy; as appeared by fulfilling the promise made to their fathers, in bringing them out of Egypt, and now them to the borders of the land of Canaan given them for an inheritance:
with them that love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations; see Ex 20:6 which are not the causes or conditions of his covenant and mercy, nor of his keeping them, but descriptive of the persons that enjoy the benefit thereof.
Deuteronomy 7:10
Ver. 10. And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them,.... Openly, publicly, and at once, they not being able to make any resistance. Onkelos interprets it in their lifetime, and so Jarchi which agrees with the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem: "or to his face"; {f} the face of God; that is, he will punish them that hate him to his face, who are audacious, bold, impudent sinners; sinners before the Lord, as the men of Sodom were, Ge 13:13,
he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face; not defer the execution of his judgment and vengeance, which may seem to slumber and linger, but will quickly and openly bring it upon the sinner; this also the Chaldee paraphrases explain as before.
{f} wynp la "in faciem ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Fagius; so Ainsworth.
Deuteronomy 7:11
Ver. 11. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments,.... The laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, urged thereunto both by promises and threatenings, in hopes of reward, and through fear of punishment:
which I command thee this day, to do them; in the name of the Lord, and by his authority; by virtue of which he made a new declaration of them to put them in mind of them in order to observe them.
Deuteronomy 7:12
Ver. 12. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them,.... Attentively listen to the declaration made of them, and be careful to observe them:
that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers; to bring them into the land of Canaan, and continue them in it; yea, to send the Messiah to them, and bring him the salvation of Israel out of Zion; see Lu 1:68.
Deuteronomy 7:13
Ver. 13. And he will love thee,.... As he has done, and rest in his love, and give further instances and proofs of it:
and bless thee, and multiply thee; that is bless thee with a multiplication of offspring, which was what was often promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that their seed should be as the stars of heaven, the dust of the earth, and the sand of the sea:
he will also bless the fruit of thy womb; not only give strength to conceive, but carry on the pregnancy, preserve the foetus, and prevent miscarrying:
and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil; which were the principal produce of it:
the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep: their larger and lesser cattle, oxen and sheep: in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee; the land of Canaan, given in promise, and that established by an oath.
Deuteronomy 7:14
Ver. 14. Thou shalt be blessed above all people,.... Even with temporal blessings, besides those of a religious kind; they having the oracles of God, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, Ro 3:1,
there shall not be male or female barren among you; which to be was reckoned a reproach, and the contrary a blessing, Lu 1:25
Ps 128:3
or among your cattle; the Targum of Jonathan is, nor thy beasts barren of wool, and milk, and lambs.
Deuteronomy 7:15
Ver. 15. And will take away from thee all sickness,.... Bodily sickness and diseases, prevent the coming of them, or remove them when come:
and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt which thou knowest upon thee; meaning either the plagues that were inflicted upon them to oblige them to let the Israelites go, of which they had perfect knowledge; or else some noxious and nauseous diseases, which were common among, and peculiar to, the Egyptians, particularly what is called the botch of Egypt; see Ex 15:26, likewise the leprosy;
See Gill on "Le 13:2",
See Gill on "De 28:27".
but will lay them upon all them that hate thee; with which God sometimes punishes his and his people's enemies; see Jud 5:9.
Deuteronomy 7:16
Ver. 16. And thou shall consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee,.... All the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, which the Lord should deliver into their hands; them they were not to spare, but utterly destroy men, women, and children:
thine eye shall have no pity upon them; See Gill on "De 7:2",
neither shall thou serve their gods, for that will be a snare unto thee; which will bring into utter ruin and destruction; see
Ex 23:33.
Deuteronomy 7:17
Ver. 17. If thou shall say in thine heart,.... Should have secret thoughts arise in the heart, misgivings of heart, fears and doubts there, which, though not outwardly expressed, might be inwardly retained:
these nations are more than I; seven to one, and perhaps anyone of them as powerful as Israel:
how can I dispossess them? of the land they inherit, and take possession of it.
Deuteronomy 7:18
Ver. 18. Thou shalt not be afraid of them,.... Neither on account of their number, nor their strength:
but shall well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; a people more numerous and potent than the Canaanites, among whom the Lord wrought such wonderful things by his power, which obliged them to let Israel go; and his power was now the same, he could do as great things to the Canaanites as he had to the Egyptians; and as he had delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians, he could as easily deliver the Canaanites into their hands, and put them into the possession of their country.
Deuteronomy 7:19
Ver. 19. The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders,.... The miracles wrought in Egypt; see De 4:34
and the mighty hand, and stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out; that is, out of Egypt, which was an instance and proof of his almighty power:
so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid; not perform the same miraculous operations among them, but exert the same power in the destruction of them, and in dispossessing them of their land, as in destroying the Egyptians, and delivering Israel from among them.
Deuteronomy 7:20
Ver. 20. Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them,.... Not a single one, but several of them, and which may be understood of creatures so called, which resemble wasps, only twice as large, an insect very bold and venomous; see Ex 23:28. Aben Ezra interprets it of the leprosy:
until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed; such of the Canaanites who escaped the sword of the Israelites, and hid themselves in holes and caverns of the earth; these the hornets would find out and sting them to death, until they were all destroyed. Thus God can make use of small creatures, even insects, to destroy nations the most populous and mighty.
Deuteronomy 7:21
Ver. 21. Thou shall not be affrighted at them,.... At their numbers, nor at their gigantic stature:
for the Lord thy God is among you: in the tabernacle, in the holy of holies, which was in the midst of them, and besides would give proof of his powerful presence among them, in protecting them, and destroying their enemies;
a mighty God and terrible; mighty to save his people, and terrible to others.
Deuteronomy 7:22
Ver. 22. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little,.... Which is observed for their encouragement, who seeing that all were not destroyed at once, might fear the work would never be thoroughly accomplished; see Ex 23:30,
thou mayest not consume them at once; though it was in the power of their hands to do it, there being some wise reasons for sparing them awhile, at least for not cutting them off all at once, and one follows:
lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee; through so many places being waste without inhabitants, and there being none to destroy these creatures; and who therefore in course would become more numerous, and so more troublesome and distressing to the Israelites. The Targum of Jonathan adds, by way of explanation,
"when they shall come to devour their carcasses,''
the carcasses of the slain Canaanites; who, if destroyed at once, would be so many, that they would lie unburied, which would invite the beasts of the field to come out of their lurking places to feed upon them, and which might lead them on to mischief among the Israelites.
Deuteronomy 7:23
Ver. 23. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee,.... Gradually, by little and little, until at length they should all come into their hands: and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed; even all of them.
Deuteronomy 7:24
Ver. 24. And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand,.... Who were very numerous, for though there were but seven nations, there were more kings, even one and thirty, Jos 12:9,
thou shall destroy their name from under heaven; not only destroy the name of the reigning kings, so as that they should not be remembered and made mention of any more, but put an end to the name and race of kings among them, so that they should never have any more, as they never had:
there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them; the nations and their kings.
Deuteronomy 7:25
Ver. 25. The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire,.... Which is repeated from De 7:5, that it might be the more observed and strictly performed, and which unless done, they could not expect the utter destruction of their enemies, who were left in the land to try and prove them with respect to this very thing:
thou shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them: the raiment of gold or silver with which they were bedecked, or the plates of gold and silver with which they were covered, or any ornament about them, as chains and the like, that were of either of these metals; see
Eze 16:16,
nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; nor take it into their possession, or bring it into their houses, as in the next verse, lest they should be under a temptation to worship it, or keep it as a superstitious relic:
for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God; not only the idol itself, being put in the place of God, and so derogatory to his honour and glory, but the gold and silver on it, being devoted to a superstitious and idolatrous use; and even the taking of it, and appropriating it to a man's own use, was an abomination, and resented by the Lord as such.
Deuteronomy 7:26
Ver. 26. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy house,.... An idol, so the Targum of Jonathan, the abominations of idols and their utensils, or what is ministered to them, with anything that appertains to them, or is used in the service of them, as well as the gold and silver upon them; this care was taken as much as possible to prevent idolatry, and all appearance of it, and to show what might lead on and be a temptation to it:
lest thou be a cursed thing like it; as an idol is, and so is everyone that worships it; for what more exposes to the curse of God than idolatry, a breach of the first table of the law? and therefore subjects a man to the curse of it; nay, the bringing of an idol into a man's house brings a curse into it, and makes him liable thereunto; for if the curse enters into the house of the thief or perjurer, much more into the house of a man guilty of idolatry in any degree of it; see Zec 5:3 but thou shalt utterly detest it; the Targum of Jonathan adds, as the pollution of an abominable thing:
and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing; devoted to destruction; and to have anything to do with it is the way to entail a curse, and bring to everlasting ruin and destruction; see Re 21:8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Deuteronomy 8:1
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 8
In this chapter Moses repeats the exhortation to observe the commands of God, and urges the Israelites to it, from the consideration of the great and good things God had done for them in the wilderness, and even in those instances which were chastisements, and were of an humbling nature, De 8:1, and on the consideration of the blessings of the good land they were going to possess, De 8:7 for which blessings they are exhorted to be thankful, and are cautioned against pride of heart through them, and forgetfulness of God, and of his goodness to them while in the wilderness, and when brought into the land of Canaan, which they were to ascribe to his power and goodness, and not their own, De 8:10, and the chapter is concluded with a warning against idolatry, lest they perish through it as the nations before them, De 8:19.
Ver. 1. All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do,.... It is repeated over and over again, to impress it on their minds, and to show the importance and necessity of it, how greatly it was expected from them, and how much it was incumbent on them:
that ye may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers; for their temporal life, and the mercies and comforts of it, the multiplication of their offspring, and of their substance, their entrance into the land of Canaan, possession of it, and continuance in it, all depended on their obedience to the commands of God; see De 19:20.
Deuteronomy 8:2
Ver. 2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,.... For this was now the fortieth year of their coming out of Egypt into the wilderness, into which they quickly came after their departure from thence, and had been in one wilderness or another ever since, in which God went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, and directed their way; and now they are called upon to remember all the occurrences in the way, what favours and mercies had been bestowed upon them, what provisions had been made for them, what enemies they had been delivered from or overcome, as well as what afflictions and chastisements had attended them: and so the people of God should call to mind how they were brought to see their wilderness state and condition by nature; how they were brought out of it, and stopped in their career of sin, and turned from their evil ways, and led to Christ; what gracious promises have been made to them; what light has been afforded them; what communion they have had with God; what pleasure in his ordinances; what food they have been fed with; what temptations have befallen them, and how delivered out of them; and what afflictions have been laid upon them, and how supported under them, and freed from them:
to humble thee; under the mighty hand of God, to bring down the pride of their hearts and hide it from them; to lay them low in their own eyes, and clothe them with humility, that the Lord alone might be exalted: and
to prove thee; whether they would be obedient to his laws, or how they would behave towards him both in prosperity and adversity, and to try their graces, their faith and patience, fear and love:
to know what was in thine heart; that is, to make it known to themselves and others; for God knew all that was in it, the wickedness of it, the unbelief, rebellion, and frowardness of it, and needed not any ways and means to get into the knowledge of it; see 2Ch 32:31,
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no; which they had in such a solemn manner promised to do; De 5:27.
Deuteronomy 8:3
Ver. 3. And he humbled thee,.... Or afflicted thee with want of bread:
and suffered thee to hunger; that there might be an opportunity of showing his mercy, and exerting his power:
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; a sort of food they had never seen before, and when they saw it, knew not what it was, but asked, what is it? Ex 16:15. Thus the Lord humbles his people by his Spirit and grace, and brings them to see themselves to be in want, and creates in them desires after spiritual food, and feeds them with Christ the hidden manna, whose person, office, and grace, they were before ignorant of:
that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only; which is the stay and staff of life, and which strengthens man's heart, and is the main support of it, being the ordinary and usual food man lives upon, and is put for all the rest:
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live: not so much by the food he eats as by the blessing of God upon it, and who can make one sort of food as effectual for such a purpose as another; for every creature of God is good being received with thankfulness, and sanctified by the word and prayer; and particularly he could and did make such light food as manna was to answer all the purposes of solid bread for the space of forty years in the wilderness; the Targum of Jonathan is,
"but by all which is created by the Word of the Lord is the life of man;''
which seems to agree with 1Ti 4:3,4 for the meaning is not that the Israelites in the wilderness, and when come into the land of Canaan, should not live by corporeal food only, but by obedience to the commands of God, by means of which they should continue under his protection, which was indeed their case; nor that man does not live in his body only by bread, but in his soul also by the word of God, and the doctrines of it, which is certainly true; spiritual men live a spiritual life on Christ, the Word of God, and bread of life, and on the Gospel and the truths of it, the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus, and are nourished up with the words of faith and sound doctrine, by means of which their spiritual life is supported and maintained; but this is not what is here intended.
Deuteronomy 8:4
Ver. 4. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, &c] They wanted not clothes all the forty years they were in the wilderness; which some account for by the rising generation being supplied with the clothes of those that died in the wilderness, and with the spoils they took from Amalek, Ex 17:1 and others, as Aben Ezra observes, remark that they brought much clothes with them out of Egypt, which no doubt they did; see Ex 12:35 and he adds, as worthy of notice, that the manna they lived upon did not produce sweat, which is prejudicial to clothes; but be it so, that they were sufficiently provided with clothes, it must be miraculous that these clothes they wore should not wax old. This, in a spiritual sense, may denote the righteousness of Christ, which is often compared to raiment, the property of which is, that it never waxes old, wears out, or decays; it is an everlasting righteousness, and will never be abolished, but will answer for the saints in a time to come; see Isa 51:6 neither did thy foot swell these forty years; or puff up like paste, as Jarchi explains it, which is often the case in long journeys; the Septuagint version is, "did not become callous"; a callousness or hardness is frequently produced by travelling; in
De 29:5 it is explained of the shoes on their feet not waxing old; so Ben Melech, and the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and the Syriac and Arabic versions here, "thy feet were not naked", were not without shoes; these were no more wore out by travel than their clothes upon their backs, and this was equally as miraculous: the Gibeonites, pretending to come from a far country, and to have travelled much and long, put on old garments and old shoes, to make it probable and plausible, Jos 9:5. This may be an emblem of the perseverance of the saints in faith and holiness: shoes upon the feet denote a Gospel conversation, which is very beautiful, So 7:1 the feet of saints being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; which, as shoes to the feet, guides and directs the Christian walk, strengthens and makes fit for walking, keeps tight and preserves from slipping and falling, and protects from what is harmful, accompanied by the power and grace of God.
Deuteronomy 8:5
Ver. 5. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart,.... Frequently think of, and meditate upon, revolve in their thoughts, well weigh in their minds, and take into thorough and deliberate consideration in their hearts; it being a matter of great moment and importance to them for their peace and comfort and the glory of God, namely, what follows:
that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee; that they stood in the same relation to God as a son to a father, and therefore happy and honourable; that all their afflictions came from God, were appointed, sent, directed, and overruled by him for his own glory and their good; that these were the chastenings and corrections of a father, and were not done in wrath, but in love, and therefore should be patiently endured; and it became them to consider well from what hand they came, and in what manner, and for what ends and purposes, how they ought to behave under them, and what they should do, as follows.
Deuteronomy 8:6
Ver. 6. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God,.... Not only because they are the commands of God, and of a covenant God and Father, which are reasons sufficient for the observance of them; but because the Lord had dealt so bountifully with them, in providing food and raiment for them in the wilderness, which always continued with them; and because, when he afflicted them, it was a fatherly chastisement, with great tenderness and compassion, and for their good; all which laid them under obligations to keep the commands of God, whatsoever he had enjoined them, whether of the moral, ceremonial, or judicial kind:
to walk in his ways, and to fear him; to walk in the ways he directed, to be under an awe of his majesty, a fear of offending him, and a reverential affection for him, such as children have to a father.
Deuteronomy 8:7
Ver. 7. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land,.... The land of Canaan, abounding with good things after enumerated, a land flowing with milk and honey, having in it plenty of everything both for convenience and delight; which is another reason why they were under obligations to serve the Lord, to walk in his ways and keep his commandments:
a land of brooks of water; rivers and torrents, such as Jordan, Jabbok, Kishon, Kidron, Cherith, and others:
of fountains; as Siloam, Gihon, Etam, the baths of Tiberias, and others:
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; deep waters, caverns, wells, and lakes, which had their rise from such places, of which there were many. With this agrees the account of it by our countrymen, Mr. Sandys {g}, as it was in the beginning of the last century; that it was adorned with beautiful mountains and luxurious valleys, the rocks producing excellent waters, and no part empty of delight or profit.
{g} Travels, l. 3. p. 110.
Deuteronomy 8:8
Ver. 8. A land of wheat and barley,.... There were two harvests in it, one a barley harvest, which began at the passover, and the other a wheat harvest, which began at Pentecost: instances of the great plenty of these might be observed in the vast quantities consumed in the times of Solomon, in his household, and in the yearly distribution he made to Hiram, 1Ki 4:22, yea, there was such plenty of wheat in this land, that it not only supplied the inhabitants of it, but even furnished other countries with it; with this the merchants of Israel and Judah traded at the market of Tyre, Eze 27:17. According to the Jewish writers, the best fine wheat flour was at Mechumas and Mezonichah, and the next to them was Chephraim, or Ephraim, in the valley {h}:
and vines; with which this land abounded everywhere; the places most noted were Lebanon, Eshcol, Engedi, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Sarepta; according to the above writers {i}, Cerotim and Hatolim were the first for wine, and the second to them were Beth Rimah and Beth Laban in the mountain, and Caphat Sigmah in the valley; the wine of Sharon is also highly commended by them {k}
and fig trees and pomegranates: according to Josephus {l}, the country of Gennesaret furnished with the best grapes and figs for ten months without intermission, and the rest of fruits throughout the whole year. Figs and pomegranates, the spies brought with them when they returned from searching the land, as well as grapes, are a specimen of the fruits of it, Nu 13:23
a land of oil olive; the mount of Olives was famous for olive trees, and had its name from thence; the whole land abounded with them, and though oil was so much in common use with the Jews, they supplied their neighbours with it: see 1Ki 5:11. It was usual also, as we are told, for the ten tribes to send oil into Egypt {m}; according to the Jewish doctors, Tekoah was the first place for oil, and the second, Ragab, beyond Jordan {n}; very probably the same with Argob, De 3:4.
and honey; besides the great quantities of honey produced by bees in this country, there was much of another sort that dropped from trees, called wild honey, the food of John the Baptist in the wilderness, Mt 3:4. Pliny {o} speaks of a sort of honey which he calls "eloeomeli", or oil honey, which is said to flow from the olive trees in Syria; but this honey here is generally thought by the Jewish writers to be an honey which was made of the fruit of palm trees, frequent in this country, and especially about Jericho; of which Josephus {p} says, that the palm trees about Jericho, the fatter of them (i.e. of the fruit of them) being pressed, emit a large quantity of honey, scarce exceeded by any; and Maimonides {q} says, that the honey spoken of in the law, particularly in this place, is honey of palm trees, so Ben Melech; and it was not unusual for people of other nations to make honey of the fruit of them. Herodotus {r} reports, that the Babylonians made honey out of palm trees; so the Arabs call honey of palm trees "dibs, dibis, dipso" {s}, the same with the word here used; agreeably to which both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the words,
"out of whose palm trees honey is made.''
{h} Misn. Menachot, c. 8. sect. 1. {i} lbid. sect. 6. {k} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 77. 1. {l} De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 9. sect. 8. {m} Echa Rabbati, fol. 59. 3. {n} Misn. Menachot, c. 8. sect. 3. {o} Nat. Hist. l. 23. c. 4. Tikkune Zohar, correct. 16. fol. 27. 1. {p} De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 3. {q} In Misn. Menachot, c. 5. sect. 1. so Bartenora in Misn. Biccurim, c. 1. sect. 3. {r} Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 193. {s} See Shaw's Travels, p. 143.
Deuteronomy 8:9
Ver. 9. A land wherein thou shall eat bread without scarceness,.... That is, should have plenty of all sorts of provisions, which bread is often put for:
thou shall not lack anything in it; for necessity and convenience, and for delight and pleasure:
a land whose stones are iron; in which were iron mines:
and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass; both which are taken out of the earth and the stones of it, Job 28:2 and were to be found in the land of Canaan, and particularly in the tribe of Asher, as seems from De 33:25 and more particularly at Sidon and Sarepta, which were in that tribe; the latter of which seems to have its name from the melting of metals there, and the former is said in Homer {t} to abound with brass.
{t} ek men sidwnov polucalkou. Homer. Odyss. 15. l. 424.
Deuteronomy 8:10
Ver. 10. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God,.... For as the Lord would furnish them with plenty of food, they might eat of it liberally, provided they did not indulge to intemperance, as everyone may whom God has blessed with a fulness of good things; and this shows that we are to return thanks to God for a plentiful meal, as well as to ask a blessing on it:
for the good land which he hath given thee; which supplied them with such plenty, that they enjoyed full meals every day.
Deuteronomy 8:11
Ver. 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God,.... The Father of mercies and fountain of goodness, the author and donor of every good and perfect gift. Plenty is apt to induce a forgetfulness of God, when on the contrary one would think it should keep him in continual remembrance, and engage to daily thankfulness to him:
in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day; gave a repetition of, and in the name of God afresh enjoined them, even laws moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which, when not observed, God is forgotten.
Deuteronomy 8:12
Ver. 12. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full,.... Not only once and again, but continually, day after day, being indulged with great plenty:
and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt [therein]; who for forty years had only dwelt in tents, moving from place to place in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 8:13
Ver. 13. And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply,.... Having good pasture for them in so fruitful a land:
and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied; by trading with other nations:
and all that thou hast is multiplied; children, servants, and substance.
Deuteronomy 8:14
Ver. 14. Then thine heart be lifted up,.... As the heart is apt to be when riches increase; hence the advice in 1Ti 6:17
and thou forget the Lord thy God; from whom all good things come, and who can take them away when he pleases, and therefore should be ever kept in mind, for ever looked to and trusted in for the continuance of them; yet such is the evil heart of man, and such the stupefying nature of riches, that they bring on forgetfulness of the author of them, lead off from dependence on him and obedience to him; in order to prevent which, an enumeration is given of wonderful instances of divine goodness to Israel, as follows:
which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; into a land abounding with all the above good things, and therefore it must be the highest ingratitude to forget such a God, and disobey his commands.
Deuteronomy 8:15
Ver. 15. Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness,.... The wilderness of Paran, which was great and large, reaching from Sinai to Kadesh, eleven days' journey, and terrible to the sight, nothing being to be seen but dry rocks and barren mountains; see De 1:19, and especially for what follows: wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions; fiery serpents, such as bit the Israelites, of which see Nu 21:6 and scorpions, a kind of serpents, venomous and mischievous, which have stings in their tails they are continually thrusting out and striking with, as Pliny says {u}; and have their name from their great sting; for Aristotle {w} says, this alone of insects has a large sting:
and drought where there was no water; a dry and barren place where no water was to be had; see Ps 63:1 or it may be rather another kind of serpents may be meant, which is called "dipsas"; and so the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, and Samaritan versions render it; the biting of which produces such a thirst as proves mortal, and which must be intolerable in a wilderness where no water is; and from whence it has its name, which signifies thirsty, as does the Hebrew word here used:
who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; which was done both at Horeb and Kadesh, Ex 17:6 and was very extraordinary; by striking flint, fire is ordinarily produced, and not water. Dr. Shaw observes {x}, that it may be more properly named, with other sorts of graphite marble here to be met with, "the rock of amethyst", from their reddish or purple colour and complexion.
{u} Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 25. {w} Hist. Animal. l. 4. c. 7. {x} Travels, p. 317, 442.
Deuteronomy 8:16
Ver. 16. Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna,.... Even all the forty years they were in it, Ex 16:35 which thy fathers knew not; when they first saw it, Ex 16:15
that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee; they were kept humble, being dependent on God for their daily bread, having nothing in the wilderness to support themselves with; and this tried them, whether they would trust in God for their daily supply, and be thankful for it, or not:
to do thee good at thy latter end; that by living on such light bread, and this only and continually, his goodness might appear the greater, and be the sweeter to them, when they came into a land abounding with all good things; which is not to be understood of the latter end and last days of their commonwealth, as our version, with the Septuagint, Samaritan, Arabic versions, and others, and the Targum of Onkelos; but of time following nearer, and the phrase should be rendered "hereafter" {y}; which better agrees with the promise of a divine blessing; though, come when it would, it was the more acceptable for the trial; as heaven will be the sweeter to the saints, through the afflictions, hardships, straits, and difficulties, which attend them here.
{y} Ktyrxab "tandem", Tigurine version, Vatablus, Piscator; "posthac", Noldius, p. 180. No. 807.
Deuteronomy 8:17
Ver. 17. And thou say in thine heart,.... These words are in connection with the former part of the De 8:14:
and thou forget the Lord thy God; the author and giver of all the good things enjoyed, and think within themselves, though they might not express it in words at length:
my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth; so ascribing that to themselves, their labour, and diligence, which ought to be ascribed to the bounty and blessing of God; see Ho 12:8.
Deuteronomy 8:18
Ver. 18. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God,.... That he was the author of their beings, the God of their lives and mercies; what great and good things he had done for them in Egypt, and in the wilderness; and particularly in putting them into the possession of such a fruitful country, abounding with all that heart could wish for:
for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth; for though men may have seeming opportunities for getting wealth, may have capacities for the management of business for the acquisition of it, and may not be wanting in diligence and industry, yet may not attain it; it is the blessing of God that makes rich, and to that it should be imputed whenever it is enjoyed; see Ps 127:2
that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers,
as [it is] this day; that he would give the land of Canaan to their seed, and make them a rich and flourishing people, as they would be and were when possessed of the land, which is supposed throughout this discourse.
Deuteronomy 8:19
Ver. 19. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God,.... Either the mercies they received from him, not acknowledging they came from him, but ascribing them to themselves; or their duty to him, to whom they were so greatly obliged: and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them; which would be to forget him indeed, forsaking his worship, and giving homage and adoration to idols, which is what is intended by these expressions:
I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish; by one judgment and calamity or another, as the sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity; there being nothing more provoking to God than idolatry, which so much detracts from his honour and glory: and which besides, in such a people, so highly favoured of God, it argued the basest ingratitude.
Deuteronomy 8:20
Ver. 20. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish,.... Be cut off by the sword, or cast out as they were, the same sins, particularly idolatry, being committed by them. This is to be understood of the seven nations of the land of Canaan, which the Lord would be gradually destroying when Israel came into the possession of their land; and they might righteously expect the same treatment, should they be guilty of the same sins:
because ye would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God; expressed in his law, especially in the two first precepts of it, which require the worship of one God, and forbid the worshipping of idols; or to the Word of the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan, Christ, the essential Word, in whom the name of the Lord was, and whose voice Israel was to obey, Ex 23:20.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.