INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 31 Moses being old, and knowing he should quickly die, and must not go over Jordan with the people of Israel, acquaints them with it, and encourages them and Joshua to go over notwithstanding, and not be afraid of their enemies, since the Lord would go with them, and del... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES WENT AND SPAKE THESE WORDS UNTO ALL ISRAEL. The following words, even to the whole body of the people summoned together on this occasion. It seems that after Moses had made the covenant with them he was directed to, he dismissed the people to their tents, and went to his own, and now retur... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, I [AM] AN HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS OLD THIS DAY,.... Whether the meaning is, that that day precisely was his birthday, is a question; it may be the sense is only this, that he was now arrived to such an age; though Jarchi takes it in the first sense, to which are objected his... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD THY GOD, HE WILL GO OVER BEFORE THEE,.... This he said to encourage the people of Israel; that though he should die, and not go over with them, their ever living and true God, the great Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, he would go before them, and fight their battles for them; so that they had n... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SHALL DO UNTO THEM AS HE DID UNTO SIHON, AND TO OG, KINGS OF THE AMORITES,.... Deliver them up into their hands; see the history of this in Numbers 21:10; AND UNTO THE LAND OF THEM WHOM HE DESTROYED; put them into the possession of the land of Canaan, as they were now in possession of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SHALL GIVE THEM UP BEFORE YOUR FACE,.... To ruin and destruction; the Targum of Jonathan is, "the Word of the Lord shall deliver them up:'' THAT YE MAY DO UNTO THEM ACCORDING TO ALL THE COMMANDMENTS WHICH I HAVE COMMANDED YOU; that is, utterly destroy them, make no covenant with them,... [ Continue Reading ]
BE STRONG AND OF A GOOD COURAGE,.... The Septuagint version is, "play the men, and be strong;'' be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, trusting and relying on him that goes before you; and so take heart, and be of good courage, and act the manly part; the apostle seems to refer to t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES CALLED UNTO JOSHUA,.... Who might be at some distance from him, with the tribe to which he belonged. The Targum of Jonathan adds, "out of the midst of the people:'' AND SAID UNTO HIM, IN THE SIGHT OF ALL ISRAEL; now assembled together, and what follows was said in their hearing, to make... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD, HE [IT IS] THAT DOTH GO BEFORE THEE,.... The Word of the Lord, his Shechinah, according to the above Targum, and so in the next clause; the same that brought Israel out of Egypt, had gone before them in the wilderness, and now would go before Joshua and them into the land of Canaan: H... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES WROTE THIS LAW,.... The book of Deuteronomy, or the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, which he had now finished, and which all of them together are sometimes called the law, Galatians 4:21; AND DELIVERED IT UNTO THE PRIESTS, THE SONS OF LEVI; who were the teachers of the law, as Aben E... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES COMMANDED THEM,.... The priests and the elders, to whom the law was delivered: SAYING; as follows: AT THE END OF [EVERY] SEVEN YEARS; every seventh year was a year of rest to the land, and of remission of debts to poor debtors: at the close of this year or going out of it, according to t... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN ALL ISRAEL IS COME TO APPEAR BEFORE THE LORD THY GOD,.... As all the males were obliged to do three times in the year, and one of those times was the feast of tabernacles, and so a proper season for the reading of the law; see Exodus 23:14; IN THE PLACE WHICH THE LORD SHALL CHOOSE; the city of... [ Continue Reading ]
GATHER THE PEOPLE TOGETHER, MEN, AND WOMEN, AND CHILDREN,.... At the three grand festivals in other years, only males were obliged to appear; women might if they would, but they were not bound to it; but at this time all of every age and sex were to be summoned and assembled together; and it is said... [ Continue Reading ]
AND [THAT] THEIR CHILDREN, WHICH HAVE NOT KNOWN [ANYTHING],.... Of God and of his law and of their duty to God, to their parents, and the rest of their fellow creatures: MAY HEAR, AND LEARN TO FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD; hear the law of God, learn the meaning of it, and so be brought up in the fear, nu... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... Either at the same time, or quickly after; rather, perhaps, the same day: BEHOLD, THY DAYS APPROACH THAT THOU MUST DIE; which does not necessarily imply that he had some days to live, though but few; but that the time of his death drew nigh, his last moments were a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD APPEARED IN THE TABERNACLE IN A PILLAR OF CLOUD,.... As he was wont to do, see Exodus 33:9; in which cloud there was a lustre, a brightness, a glory visible, which showed that he was there: AND THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD STOOD OVER THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE; it seems to have appeared fir... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... Out of the pillar of cloud: BEHOLD, THOU SHALT SLEEP WITH THY FATHERS; a phrase expressive of death, frequently used both of good and bad men, which serves to render death easy and familiar, and less formidable; and to assure and lead into an expectation of an awak... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN MY ANGER SHALL BE KINDLED AGAINST THEM IN THAT DAY,.... As the anger of a man is against his wife who has treacherously departed from him: and jealousy, which is the rage of such a man, is very cruel; and much more the wrath and anger of a jealous God, who is a consuming fire: AND I WILL FORSA... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SURELY HIDE MY FACE IN THAT DAY,.... Which is repeated for the certainty of it, and that it might be taken notice of; that he was the spring and source of all their good things, their sun and their shield, who being withdrawn from them, they would be deprived of every thing that was good, and... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW, THEREFORE, WRITE YE THIS SONG FOR YOU,.... Which was now dictated by the Lord, and given to Moses and Joshua to write, which is recorded in Deuteronomy 32:1: AND TEACH IT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; teach them by it, instructing them in the meaning of it: thus it was usual in ancient times to writ... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHEN I SHALL HAVE BROUGHT THEM INTO THE LAND WHICH I SWARE UNTO THEIR FATHERS,.... To give it to them, and put them into the possession of it, even the land of Canaan, often thus described, and as it is by the following character: THAT FLOWETH WITH MILK AND HONEY; aboundeth with all good things... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, WHEN MANY EVILS AND TROUBLES ARE BEFALLEN THEM,.... As did in the times of the judges, in the Babylonish captivity, and do now in their present exile: THAT THIS SONG SHALL TESTIFY AGAINST THEM AS A WITNESS; which so clearly points at their sins, with all their aggravated... [ Continue Reading ]
MOSES THEREFORE WROTE THIS SONG THE SAME DAY,.... The same day it was dictated to him by divine inspiration; he wrote it, as Josephus says d, "in hexameter verse, which he left in the holy Bible or book (the Pentateuch), containing (as he adds) a prophecy of things future, according to which all th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE GAVE JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN A CHARGE,.... It may be a question who gave this charge, the Lord or Moses; according to the connection of the words with the preceding, it seems to be the latter; for the immediate antecedent to the relative he is Moses, and so the Septuagint interpreters understan... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN MOSES HAD MADE AN END OF WRITING THE WORDS OF THIS LAW IN A BOOK,.... In this book of Deuteronomy, and which concluded the Pentateuch: UNTIL THEY WERE FINISHED; all the words of the law, and the whole five books of Moses, excepting some few verses, Deuteronomy 34:1, which... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT MOSES COMMANDED THE LEVITES,.... These were not the common Levites, but the priests who were also Levites, to whom the law was given, Deuteronomy 31:9; and none but they might touch the ark, or go so near it as, they are bid to do, to put the law on the side of it; so Aben Ezra; it follows, WH... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE THIS BOOK OF THE LAW,.... Not Deuteronomy only, but the whole Pentateuch: AND PUT IT IN THE SIDE OF THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD YOUR GOD; not in the ark, for there were nothing there but the two tables of stone with the ten commands on them, 1 Kings 8:9; but on one side of it; the Targ... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I KNOW THY REBELLION AND THY STIFF NECK,.... How rebellious they were against the Lord and his laws, and how unwilling they were to admit the yoke of his commandments to be put upon them, and submit to it; this he had an experience of for forty years past: BEHOLD, WHILE I AM YET ALIVE WITH YOU... [ Continue Reading ]
GATHER UNTO ME ALL THE ELDERS OF YOUR TRIBES, AND YOUR OFFICERS,.... The heads of the tribes, the princes, and all other inferior magistrates: THAT I MAY SPEAK THESE WORDS IN THEIR EARS; not the words of the law, but of the song which he was ordered to write, and is recorded in the following chapte... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I KNOW THAT AFTER MY DEATH,.... Which was just at hand, some time after that, not immediately; this he knew by a spirit of prophecy, namely, what follows: YE WILL UTTERLY CORRUPT [YOURSELVES]; their ways, works, and manners, and so themselves; corrupt the worship of God by making idols, and ser... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES SPAKE IN THE EARS OF ALL THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL,.... Not in the hearing of the whole body of the people, and every individual thereof; no man could be able to speak to such a numerous congregation, as that they should hear him; but in the hearing of their heads and representatives, the... [ Continue Reading ]