The discourse returns to the theme of Deuteronomy 6:10 ff., Israel's temptations in the promised land. He is to make no contract, nor show friendliness, nor intermarry with its peoples lest he be drawn to idolatry (1 4), but is to destroy their altars and other religious symbols (5). For Israel is h... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall bring thee into_, etc.] See on Deuteronomy 6:10. _shall cast out_, etc.] _strip_, or _clear, off_; Deuteronomy 7:22; 2 Kings 16:6: the only applications of this verb to the extirpation of human beings; in Deuteronomy 19:5 intrans. of the slipping of an axe-head from the heft, Deuteronomy 28:4... [ Continue Reading ]
_deliver them up before_ See on Deuteronomy 1:8. _thou shall utterly destroy them put to the ban, herem_. See on Deuteronomy 2:34. _make no covenant with them_ no treaty or alliance; so in JE, Exodus 23:32; Exodus 34:12; cp. Jos 9:6, 1 Samuel 11:1 ff. (instances of such).... [ Continue Reading ]
_neither … make marriages with them_ In the narratives in Genesis and Judges marriages are regarded as best when between members of the same family or tribe (Genesis 28:2; Genesis 28:8 f.) and as unfortunate when the wives are foreign (Genesis 26:34 f., Genesis 27:46; Judges 14:3). But no law agains... [ Continue Reading ]
_turn away thy son from following me_ Expressed differently in Exodus 34:16 _b_but to the same effect, that the influence of the foreign wife on her Israelite husband will be to lead him into idolatry. _From after me_(lit.): as the speaker is Moses, the _me_has been taken to be due to abbreviation o... [ Continue Reading ]
The change to the Pl., together with the fact that the _v_. does not direct the destruction of the persons of the heathen (which would have been relevant to the preceding), but only of their altars, etc., marks this verse as a quotation or later insertion. Deuteronomy 7:6 follows on 4. So Steuern.,... [ Continue Reading ]
_an holy people unto_ JEHOVAH _thy God_ So Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 14:21; Deuteronomy 26:19; Deuteronomy 28:9; cp. Exodus 19:6 (J prob. expanded): _an holy nation_. As elsewhere in Deut., _holy_is here used in the formal sense of separated unto, or reserved for, Jehovah, and includes an ethica... [ Continue Reading ]
The reasons for the previous commands to destroy the peoples of the land, and to abstain from traffic with them, leading as this would to participation in their worship of other gods. Israel are for Jehovah alone: to this end He loved, chose, and redeemed them. This is one of the many cases in Deut.... [ Continue Reading ]
_set his love upon you_ The radical meaning of the verb is to fix or bind, and it is used of a man's falling in love with a woman, Deuteronomy 21:11; Genesis 34:8; cp. the Eng. use for this of -attachment" (also of a passion for building, 1 Kings 9:19). Of Jehovah's love for Israel only here and Deu... [ Continue Reading ]
Change to the Pl. address. Because of this and because the choice of Israel by Jehovah is not mentioned in other Pl. passages, and also because these verses are not necessary to the connection, they are probably a later editorial insertion or at least a quotation.... [ Continue Reading ]
_loveth you_ With Israel's love to God (see on Deuteronomy 6:5) God's love to Israel is equally characteristic of D and not found elsewhere in Hexateuch; first expressed and very fully in Hosea 1-3 and Hosea 11:1-4. In Deut. of God's love to the fathers of the nation, Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 1... [ Continue Reading ]
_Know therefore_ A frequent formula in D in Sg. and Pl. Deuteronomy 4:39 (+ _and lay it to thine heart_), Deuteronomy 8:5 (A.V. _and thou shalt consider in thine heart_), Deuteronomy 9:3; Deuteronomy 9:6 (A.V. _understand therefore_), Deuteronomy 11:2 (_and know ye_); cp. Deuteronomy 29:4 Pl. (_a he... [ Continue Reading ]
A free paraphrase of the Second Commandment.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to their face_ i.e. in their own persons; inserted lest the sinner might flatter himself that the punishment of his sin would be deferred to a later generation (Deuteronomy 7:11). _he will not be slack_ Rather, _he will not delay_(it).... [ Continue Reading ]
_the commandment, and the statutes, and the judgements_ See on Deuteronomy 6:1. Sam. again omits _and_before _statutes_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall come to pass_ Cp. Deuteronomy 6:10. _because_ better than A.V. _if_; Heb. means _in consequence of_, or _as a reward for_. _ye hearken … and do them_ Another Pl. clause and superfluous. The next clause resuming the Sg. follows suitably Deuteronomy 7:11. JEHOVAH _thy God shall keep w... [ Continue Reading ]
_love … bless … and multiply thee_ Cp. Genesis 22:17 (E?), Genesis 26:24 (J), _bless_and _multiply_; note the characteristic addition _love_by D. The blessings which follow are material; similarly but varied in Deuteronomy 28:4; Deuteronomy 28:11; Deuteronomy 28:18; Deuteronomy 28:51; Deuteronomy 30... [ Continue Reading ]
_not … barren_ Exodus 23:26 (edit.); cp. above on Deuteronomy 7:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_take away … all sickness_ Exodus 23:25 (edit.). _evil diseases of Egypt_ In Exodus 15:26 (edit.) the _sicknesses_(another word) refers to the special plagues brought on the Egyptians by Jehovah for Israel's sake. Here the reference is rather to the natural ailments of men of which in antiquity Egy... [ Continue Reading ]
_consume_ Lit. _eat up_, a common figure, JE, Numbers 22:4. _shall deliver_ See on Deuteronomy 7:2. The rest of the _v_. Steuern. takes as an addition, because the theme of Deuteronomy 7:12-16 is what Jehovah does; and this, a warning for Israel, breaks the course of the thought. But this is to im... [ Continue Reading ]
_say in thine heart say to thyself_, or _think_, or _imagine_; but with the force of _really think_, Deuteronomy 9:4; Deuteronomy 18:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
_afraid of them_ So simply, Deuteronomy 20:1; for the longer characteristic phrases see on Deuteronomy 1:21. _what_ JEHOVAH _thy God did_ Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 6:21 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
_temptations … signs … wonders_ See on Deuteronomy 4:34. _which thine eyes saw_ Deuteronomy 4:9. _mighty hand, and … stretched out arm_ See on Deuteronomy 4:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALSO THE HORNETS WILL JEHOVAH … SEND, etc.] E twice, Exodus 23:28; Joshua 24:12. -By _also_D indicates that he will have the _hornets_understood not as the only weapon of God, but as an example of His weapons; by the rest of the verse he makes it sufficiently clear that he takes _hornets_in the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not be affrighted_ This, combined with the verb _be afraid_(Deuteronomy 7:18), is found in Pl. passages. _in the midst of thee_ Deuteronomy 6:15. _great God and … terrible_ Cp. Deuteronomy 10:17; Deuteronomy 28:58, the same epithets of the wilderness Deuteronomy 1:19; Deuteronomy 8:15,... [ Continue Reading ]
_cast out_ See on Deuteronomy 7:1. _little and little_ So, with the same reason attached, E, Exodus 23:29-30, on which see the note. This is a good instance of D's redaction, and more fluent expression, of earlier statements. That D should repeat the fact is strange. Though in harmony with and expla... [ Continue Reading ]
_deliver them up_ See on Deuteronomy 7:2. _discomfit_ an onomatopoetic word implying the confusion, turmoil, and panic of defeat, especially under Divine judgement.... [ Continue Reading ]
_make their name to perish_, etc.] Cp _blot out_, Deuteronomy 9:14; Deuteronomy 25:19; Deuteronomy 29:20. _stand before thee_ Lit. _keep himself standing to thy face_, hold his post in face of thee: only here, Deuteronomy 9:2 Sg., Deuteronomy 11:25 Pl., in this sense.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The graven images … burn with fire_ Deuteronomy 7:5. Curiously in the Pl., as there is an otherwise Sg. context (the text is confirmed by Sam. and LXX). Steuern marks the verse as secondary, but unnecessarily; the isolated Pl. may be due to a scribe whose eye or ear was impressed with Deuteronomy 7... [ Continue Reading ]
_a devoted thing ḥerem_, see on Deuteronomy 2:34; cp. Deuteronomy 13:17 (18). Persons using or touching anything that was _ḥerem_or under the ban, themselves became _ḥerem_, cp. Joshua 6:18; Joshua 7:12. _utterly detest … utterly abhor_ The latter verb is that of the noun _tô-ebah, abomination_, see... [ Continue Reading ]