_Covenant renewed, and confirmed with an oath, ver. 12. (Menochius) --- Horeb. Thus the speech of Moses is concluded, (Calmet) and consequently this verse should be at the end of the last chapter, as it is placed in the celebrated editions of Michaelis and Houbigant. The latter observes that, beside... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seen. Many who were present had seen the plagues of Egypt, and what the Israelites themselves had suffered in the wilderness. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Hath not given you, &c. Through your own fault, and because you resisted his grace. (Challoner) --- If they had not been guilty, Moses would never have made them this reproach. "But he shews that they could not understand or obey without God's assistance,....and yet if....it be wanting, si adjutoriu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bread, &c., as your ordinary food, (Menochius) though they might have both bread and wine on some occasions; as when they adored the calf, &c. (St. Augustine, q. 51.) See chap. viii. 4. (Calmet) --- Your God, providing a miraculous food for you. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Understand. Hebrew, "succeed in all your undertakings." (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Doctors. Hebrew Shoterim. Septuagint Grammateisagogeis, (Calmet) "officers, heralds," &c. Chap. i. 15., and xix. 18., they are translated magistros, "masters of magistrates." (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Besides, ( exceptis,) which may signify all were present; or rather that the strangers of Egypt, &c., who were employed in servile offices, were alone excluded, as having no part in the covenant made with the Israelites. (Calmet) --- St. Jerome seems to have rendered min, præter, in the latter sens... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pass; alluding to the custom of people who pass between the victims, when they engage in a solemn covenant, as Abraham did, Genesis xv. 10. --- Oath. Septuagint, "imprecations," specified in the preceding Chapter s, ver. 14. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Absent. Hebrew, "with him that standeth here this day before the Lord, and with him that is not here with us this day." If all were present, (ver. 11,) the absent must here denote the posterity of the Israelites yet unborn. (Haydock) --- God made the covenant with Abraham and with his seed, before... [ Continue Reading ]
_Idols. Hebrew, "you have seen their abominations and their filth, (or idols,) wood," &c. Septuagint, "their abominations and their idols."_... [ Continue Reading ]
Bitterness; an Israelite, who cherishes now in his heart any idol, (Haydock) and who may draw God's judgments upon the people, (Calmet) or induce them to follow his wicked example. (Haydock) --- Let all watch over their children, lest they fall off. Chaldean, "Let there be none among you now whose h... [ Continue Reading ]
The drunken, &c.: absumat ebria sitientem. It is a proverbial expression, which may either be understood as spoken by the sinner, blessing, that is, flattering himself in his sins with the imagination of peace, and so great an abundance as may satisfy, and as it were, consume all thirst and want, or... [ Continue Reading ]
_Enkindled, ( fumet.) Literally, "smoke." (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "the anger (literally, nose)....smoke." The Greeks and Romans adopt similar expressions, to denote the wrath and eagerness with which a person is actuated. "Fierce anger always sits upon his nose." (Theocrit.) So Persius says, Disce, se... [ Continue Reading ]
_Of salt. This salt was of a bituminous or sulphureous nature, which would burn like oil, and was sometimes used in lamps. (Herodotus, ii. 62; Pliny, [Natural History?] ii. 104.) It dried up the moisture of the earth, and rendered it barren. For which reason, it was scattered upon such places as wer... [ Continue Reading ]
_Knew not, as their gods. (Menochius) --- Indeed the gods of the heathens, were for the most part more recent than the days of Abraham, or of Moses, and only newly come up; (chap. xxxii. 17,) which was a sufficient proof that they were not gods. (Haydock) --- Assigned. It seems, as if God had in a m... [ Continue Reading ]
Secret things, &c. As much as to say, secret things belong to, and are known to God alone: our business must be to observe what he has revealed and manifested to us, and to direct our lives accordingly. (Challoner) --- The nations full of surprise, at the miseries, which were inflicted upon the Jews... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XXIX.... [ Continue Reading ]