Deuteronomy 4:1
_And judgments, regarding religion and civil affairs. (Calmet) --- Live a happy life. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_And judgments, regarding religion and civil affairs. (Calmet) --- Live a happy life. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Add any thing repugnant to the spirit of my law. No interpretation of this kind can be admitted. But this does not condemn well authorized traditions, and laws enacted by lawful superiors. The Jews always boast of their close adherence to the letter of the law, but they often forget the spirit of it... [ Continue Reading ]
_Among you, when the guilty Israelites and the Madianites were slain, Numbers xxv., and xxxi._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Day. Not but that many of these had fallen into sin; but they had not abandoned the Lord to worship any idol. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is a proof of your wisdom, &c., if you observe these commands. Your conduct will excite the admiration of all. (Menochius) --- Solomon often inculcates the same truths, Proverbs i. 7., and Ecclesiasticus i. 34. Even profane writers applauded the laws and fidelity of the Jews. See Josephus, Jew... [ Continue Reading ]
_Gods. Supposing they deserved that title, which of them has the power to shew their votaries such favours as the true God hath shewn to us? The idols are nothing but devils, which seek to destroy. (Calmet) --- But God had manifested his power and love to the Hebrews in the most astonishing manner.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eyes. Most of these laws had been already promulgated, so that the people could set a just value upon them. But Moses undertakes to place the in a more beautiful point of view, as it were altogether, and accompanied with some fresh regulations. How imperfect are all the codes of the ancient lawgive... [ Continue Reading ]
_Words. Hebrew also, "things." (Haydock) --- Both sacred and profane authors use the term of seeing, to denote any of the senses, ver. 12. Eschylus (in Prometh.) says, "you shall neither see the form nor the voice of mortals."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_At all. Hebrew, "but saw no similitude, only a voice." See Exodus xx. 18._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Stone. Josephus (Antiquities iii. 4, 6,) says, that each table contained five precepts, two and a half being inscribed on one side. The Jews now suppose that four appeared on one table, and six on the other. But each table probably contained an entire copy of the law. (Calmet) --- It hence appears,... [ Continue Reading ]
Carefully. Hebrew, "Be therefore particularly attentive, as much as you love your own soul." (Vatable) By keeping my commandments you can alone obtain salvation, ver. 9. (Menochius) --- Similitude of any living creature, such as were the objects of adoration among the pagans. Some represented their... [ Continue Reading ]
_Service. How then could the nations give way to such stupidity, but because they had forgotten the design of God in creating the heavenly bodies, which Moses therefore takes care to inculcate? (Genesis i. 14.) Hebrew and Septuagint, "which God has divided unto all," &c.; whence some have falsely su... [ Continue Reading ]
_Furnace. This expression gives us some idea of the cruelties to which the Hebrews had been exposed, 3 Kings viii. 41. Iron and other metals were melted in furnaces: Hebrew cur, Ezechiel xxii. 20. In the countries of the East, workmen have them in the middle of their shops, and sit round them to wor... [ Continue Reading ]
_Words. The murmurs of the people occasioned the diffidence of Moses, and he often reminds them of it, that they may reflect how severely God will punish them, if they transgress, since he spares not his greatest favourites. (Calmet) --- Even venial faults must be punished. (Worthington)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Made. Hebrew, "and make to thyself a sculpture, the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God commanded thee." He ordered them to abstain from idolatry. (Du Hamel)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fire. God often appeared in the midst of fire. All the land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, Sophonias i. 18., and iii. 8. (Calmet) --- By these expressions, we are exhorted not to do any thing which would excite the indignation of our true lover, nor ever be unfaithful to him. (Haydo... [ Continue Reading ]
And earth, or all their rational inhabitants. (St. Jerome and St. Basil in Isa. i. 2.) Moses conjures the Israelites, by all that is most sacred, to continue faithful. He speaks with the greatest earnestness, as he does again, chap. xxxii. 1. (Calmet) --- He makes use of a sort of oath, by the creat... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nations. This prediction we see verified at the present day. They are despised by all. No one of their numerous masters embraces their religion. No one of their numerous masters embraces their religion. They are so few, as to hardly possess a single town. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER IV. There. Hebrew, "thence" from the place of captivity, or returning from the love of idols to the services of the true God. --- Soul. Hebrew, "with all thy soul. (Ver. 30) In thy tribulation after," &c. (Calmet) --- God often sends chastisements as the most effectual means of salvation, t... [ Continue Reading ]
Voice, after the captivity of Babylon, or rather at the end of the world. The nation at large has not embraced the worship of idols since the former period. But it will not be perfectly converted until the fulness of the Gentiles....come in.---And so all Israel....be saved, Romans xi. 25. (Calmet) -... [ Continue Reading ]
_Heaven. To our senses the sky seems to rest upon the horizon. So Jesus says, Then he....shall gather....his elect....from the uttermost part of earth, to the uttermost part of heaven, Matthew xxiv. 31. Vatable translates, "from the east to the west." In no age or place did God ever declare his will... [ Continue Reading ]
_And lived. It was generally supposed that those who had seen a vision of God, or of his angel, would instantly die. See Genesis xvi. 13. (Haydock) (Chap. v. 24.)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Temptations. The Chaldean and Arabic understand this of the prodigies which God wrought in favour of his people; though they may also denote the trials to which the Patriarchs and the Hebrews had been exposed, that their virtue might shine more brightly. Many indeed lost courage under these trials,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Day. They had already conquered the mighty kingdoms of Sehon and of Og. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Other. The power of the true and only God is not confined to the sea, or to the land, &c., (Calmet) as the pagans believed that of their various idols was. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then, &c. This piece of history seems to be placed out of its natural order, by another hand. (Calmet) --- Yet if we attend to the method of Moses, in his other works, we shall not hastily conclude that it is an interpolation. He frequently repeats what has already been specified. He had received a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Before. The Rabbins say, when two people had refused to speak to one another for three days, it was a sufficient indication of their enmity. (Selden, Jur. iv. 2.)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wilderness, or plains of Moab, at the mouth of the Jordan. It is sometimes called Besor, and is very different from Bozra of Idumea, (Isaias lxiii. 1,) a very famous city, known to profane authors by the name of Bostra. --- Ramoth, one of the strongest towns of Galaad, 15 miles west of Philadelphia... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sion begins here with s, being the northern boundary of the tribe of Manasses, east of the Jordan; whereas the famous Sion, on which the temple was built, is written with ts, and lay on the west side of the Jordan, (Haydock) in the tribe of Juda, chap. iii. 8. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wilderness, which Moses commonly calls the salt sea, (on account of the asphalte with which it abounds,) or the sea of Araba, as it lies at the extremity of the plains of Moab, which are sometimes called Araboth, "deserts," because they were more fit for pasturage than for ploughing. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]