INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 29 This chapter begins with an intimation of another covenant the Lord was about to make with the people of Israel, Deuteronomy 29:1; and, to prepare their minds to an attention to it, various things which the Lord had done for them are recited, Deuteronomy 29:2; the per... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE [ARE] THE WORDS OF THE COVENANT,.... Not what go before, but follow after, in the next Chapter s, to the end of the book; in which are various promises of grace, and promises of good things, both with respect to Jews and Gentiles, intermixed with other things: WHICH THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES T... [ Continue Reading ]
MOSES CALLED UNTO ALL ISRAEL,.... He had been speaking before to the heads of them, and delivered at different times what is before recorded; but now he summoned the whole body of the people together, a solemn covenant being to be made between God and them; or such things being to be made known unto... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GREAT TEMPTATIONS WHICH THINE EYES HAVE SEEN,.... Or trials, the ten plagues which tried the Egyptians, whether they would let Israel go; and tried the Israelites, whether they would believe in the Lord, and trust in his almighty power to deliver them: THE SIGNS AND THOSE GREAT MIRACLES: as the... [ Continue Reading ]
YET THE LORD HATH NOT GIVEN YOU AN HEART TO PERCEIVE,.... They had some of them seen the above miracles with their bodily eyes, but had not discerned with the eyes of their understanding the power of God displayed in them, the goodness of God to them on whose behalf they were wrought, in order to ob... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I HAVE LED YOU FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS,.... From the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day, which though not quite complete, is given as a round number. Eupolemus d, an Heathen writer, confirms this date of the ministry of Moses among the Israelites; he says, Moses performed the... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE NOT EATEN BREAD,.... Bread made of corn, common bread, of their own preparing, made by the labour of their own hands; but manna, the food of angelS, the bread of heaven: NEITHER HAVE YOU DRANK WINE, NOR STRONG DRINK; only water out of the rock, at least chiefly, and for constancy; though it... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN YE CAME UNTO THIS PLACE,.... The borders of Moab, the wilderness before it, to which joined the plains they were now in; see Numbers 21:13; SIHON KING OF HESHBON, AND OG KING OF BASHAN, CAME OUT AGAINST US UNTO BATTLE; not together, but one after the other, and that very quickly; as soon... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WE TOOK THEIR LAND,.... Which belonged to the two kings, the lands of Jazer, Gilead, and Bashan, fine countries for pasturage: AND GAVE IT FOR AN INHERITANCES UNTO THE REUBENITES, AND TO THE GADITES, AND TO THE HALF TRIBE OF MANASSEH; who requested it, and to whom it was granted on certain cond... [ Continue Reading ]
KEEP THEREFORE THE WORDS OF THIS COVENANT, AND DO THEM,.... To do which they were laid under great obligations, through the goodness of God to them, in giving them victory over the two kings, and delivering their countries into their hands, as well as by all the favours bestowed on them in the wilde... [ Continue Reading ]
YE STAND THIS DAY ALL OF YOU BEFORE THE LORD YOUR GOD,.... Being gathered together at the door of the tabernacle, at the summons of Moses. Aben Ezra interprets it round about the ark, which was the symbol of the divine Presence: YOUR CAPTAINS OF YOUR TRIBES; the heads and rulers of them: YOUR ELDE... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR LITTLE ONES, YOUR WIVES,.... Who are scarce ever mentioned in any special law or solemn transaction: AND THY STRANGER THAT [IS] IN THY CAMP; not only the proselyte of righteousness, who embraced the Jewish religion entirely, but the proselyte of the gate, who was admitted to dwell among them,... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THOU SHOULDEST ENTER INTO COVENANT WITH THE LORD THY GOD,.... That is, they were all to appear and stand in this order before the Lord, that they might solemnly avouch him to be their God, and hear him declaring them to be his people, and the many promises and prophecies of good things he shoul... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT BE MAY ESTABLISH THEE THIS DAY FOR A PEOPLE UNTO HIMSELF, AND [THAT] HE MAY BE UNTO THEE A GOD,.... Which contains the sum and substance of the covenant; see Jeremiah 32:38; AS HE HATH SAID UNTO THEE, AND AS HE HAD SWORN UNTO THY FATHERS, TO ABRAHAM, TO ISAAC, AND TO JACOB; Deuteronomy 26:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER WITH YOU ONLY DO I MAKE THIS COVENANT AND THIS OATH. That is, Moses; for he was ordered to make this covenant with them in the name of the Lord; what promises of good things, or declarations of his mind and will, God would make, Moses was to deliver to them; and what was required of them he... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WITH [HIM] THAT STANDETH HERE WITH US THIS DAY BEFORE THE LORD OUR GOD,.... Who are before specified according to their dignity, age, sex, and station of life; or rather, "but [as] with him that standeth", c. AND SO WITH [HIM] THAT [IS] NOT HERE WITH US THIS DAY detained at home by illness and... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR YE KNOW HOW WE HAVE DWELT IN THE LAND OF EGYPT,.... How long they and their fathers had dwelt there, the number of years they had been in the land, as the Targum of Jonathan, which was upwards of two hundred years; and being a country the inhabitants of which were much given to idolatry, they ha... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YE HAVE SEEN THEIR ABOMINATIONS AND THEIR IDOLS,.... Or, "their abominations, even their idols"; for the same are meant by both: it is common in Scripture to call the idols of the Gentiles abominations, without any other explanation of them; see 1 Kings 11:5; because they are abominable to God,... [ Continue Reading ]
LEST THERE SHOULD BE AMONG YOU MAN OR WOMAN, OR FAMILY, OR TRIBE,.... These words stand in connection with Deuteronomy 29:15, with Deuteronomy 29:16 being in a parenthesis, as may be observed, and show the design of this solemn appearance of the people, and their entering afresh into covenant; whic... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT COMETH TO PASS, WHEN HE HEARETH THE WORDS OF THIS CURSE,.... That is, the man before compared to a root bearing bitter herbs, when he should hear the curses pronounced by the law against such persons as himself: THAT HE BLESS HIMSELF IN HIS HEART; inwardly pronounce himself blessed, thinking... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE LORD WILL NOT SPARE HIM,.... Have no mercy upon him, nor forgive him, being an hardhearted, impenitent, stubborn, and obstinate sinner, as well as guilty of the grossest and most provoking sin, as idolatry is: BUT THEN THE ANGER OF THE LORD, AND HIS JEALOUSY, SHALL SMOKE AGAINST THAT MAN;... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SHALL SEPARATE HIM UNTO EVIL OUT OF ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL,.... Unto the evil of punishment, devote and consign him to it, and make him a visible and distinguished mark of his displeasure and vengeance. So some men are righteously separated from others, and preordained unto condemnati... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT THE GENERATION TO COME OF YOUR CHILDREN THAT SHALL RISE UP AFTER YOU,.... Not the next generation, but in future times, in ages to come, at a great distance, even after the destruction of Judea by the Romans; to which Deuteronomy 29:23 seems to refer: AND THE STRANGER THAT SHALL COME FROM A... [ Continue Reading ]
[AND THAT] THE WHOLE LAND THEREOF [IS] BRIMSTONE AND SALT, [AND] BURNING,.... That is, is become exceeding barren, as all such land is where there are sulphureous mines, or salt pits, or burning mountains; not that this would be, or has been the case of the land of Judea in a strict literal sense;... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN ALL NATIONS SHALL SAY,.... For the destruction of this land, and the people of it, would be, as it has been, so very great and awful, and so very remarkable and surprising, that the fame of it would be heard among all the nations of the world, as it has been; who, upon hearing the sad report of... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN MEN SHALL SAY,.... The answer that will be returned to the above questions will be this BECAUSE THEY HAVE FORSAKEN THE COVENANT OF THE LORD GOD OF THEIR FATHERS: breakers of covenants with men are always reckoned among the worst of men, see Romans 1:31; and especially breakers of covenant with... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY WENT AND SERVED OTHER GODS, AND WORSHIPPED THEM,.... As did all Israel, in the times of Solomon, and the ten tribes under Jeroboam, and other succeeding kings of Israel; and the two tribes in the times of Ahaz, and especially of Manasseh, when they worshipped all the host of heaven; see 1 K... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS KINDLED AGAINST THIS LAND,.... For this their idolatry and base ingratitude: TO BRING UPON IT ALL THE CURSES THAT ARE WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK; in this book of Deuteronomy, and particularly Deuteronomy 28:16; see Daniel 9:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD ROOTED THEM OUT OF THE LAND,.... Which was true both at the Babylonish captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, and at their present one by the Romans; and especially the latter, by whom they have been so rooted out, as that they have not been able to return to it these 1700 years, nor to have any... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SECRET [THINGS BELONG] UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD,.... Respecting the people of Israel, and the providential dealings of God with them, and especially the final rejection of them; with respect to which, the apostle's exclamation agrees with this, Romans 11:33; and though the Lord had revealed many th... [ Continue Reading ]