Deuteronomy 4:19

And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven,.... The starry heaven, which to do in itself is not sinful; and may be lawfully and commendably done, to raise admiration at the wonderful works of God

Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image.

Driven to worship them, i.e. strongly inclined, and in a manner constrained, partly by the glory of these heavenly bodies, which may seem to be made for higher purposes than to enlighten this lump of earth; partly from that natural propension which is in men to idolatry. Or, shouldest be driven or thrust, to wit, out of the way of the Lord, or be seduced, or led aside, as silly sheep easily are, and worship them. Or, shouldest be cast down, or throw down thyself and worship them, i.e. worship them by falling down before them. Unto all nations, which are not gods, but creatures, made not for the worship, but for the use of men, yea, of the meanest and most barbarous people under heaven, and therefore cannot without great absurdity be worshipped, especially by you who are so much advanced above other nations in wisdom and knowledge, and in this, that you are my peculiar people.

Deuteronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, [even] all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.Ver. 19. All the host of heaven.] Called the queen of heaven. Should be driven.] Or, Drawn by the enticement of the devil, who is ειδωλοχαρης, saith Synisius, a great imagemonger; or by the seduction of others, or of thine own evil heart; for nemo sibi de suo palpet: quisque sibi Satan est, saith a father. Which the Lord thy God hath divided.] And shall we fight against God, as Jehu did against Jehoram, with his own servants, nay, with those things which he hath given us for common servants to us all?

(19) The sun, and the moon, and the stars.—The purest worship of antiquity—that which we find among the Persians—hardly escaped this snare. Which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations.—The heavenly bodies could never be regarded as special protectors of any one nation. But Jehovah was pledged to be the God of Israel. This appears to be the argument of Deu 4:19-20.

Verse 19. When thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars] The worship of the heavenly bodies was the oldest species of idolatry. Those who had not the knowledge of the true God were led to consider the sun, moon, planets, and stars, as not only self-existing, but the authors of all the blessings possessed by mankind. The knowledge of a rational system of astronomy served to destroy this superstition; and very little of it remains now in the world, except among a few Christian and Mohammedan astrologers; those miserable sinners who endeavour, as much as possible, to revive the old idolatry, while vainly professing to believe in the true God! Nor is it to be doubted that God will proceed with them as he has done of old with the worshippers of the host of heaven. Sound philosophy is next in importance to sound divinity; and next to the study of the work of grace is that of the operations of God in nature; for these visible things make known his eternal power and Godhead.

19. lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven] Change to Sg., confirmed by Sam. and LXX. and when thou seest the sun, etc.] Deuteronomy 17:3 : sun, moon or any of the host of heaven. Unlike the warnings against idolatry this one is not found in JE or P. The host of heaven was the dominant influence in Babylonian religion, and though there are traces of astral worship from the earliest times in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem (cp. Bit-Ninib in the Tell-el-Amarna Letters, Beth-shemesh, etc.), it first became an active danger to Israel, when under Ahaz Assyrian example began to tempt the people of Jehovah, and in the last days of N. Israel, 2 Kings 17:16, and in Judah under Manasseh, 2 Kings 21:3; 2 Kings 21:5; 2 Kings 23:4-5; 2 Kings 23:11, Assyria imposed on her tributaries the forms of Babyl. culture. Cp. the pre-exilic prophets Zephaniah 1:5; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 8:2; Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 44:17; Ezekiel 8:16. These show that the worship was both national, in the temple, and domestic. On the temptations in Jerusalem to the worship of the heavenly host see Jerusalem, ii. 186 f. The natural seductiveness of the worship is well indicated by the successive verbs used here. thou be drawn away] Rather reflexive, let thyself be drawn, Deuteronomy 30:4; Deuteronomy 30:17; cp. the active form, Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 13:10; Deuteronomy 13:13 [Heb. 6, 11, 14]. worship them, and serve them,] Rather, bow down to them and worship them. Cp. Deuteronomy 5:9, Deuteronomy 8:19, Deuteronomy 11:16, Deuteronomy 17:3, Deuteronomy 29:26 (25), Deuteronomy 30:17, and the addition to E, Exodus 20:5. which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all the peoples] Distributed, or allotted. An interesting attempt by the writer to reconcile his great truth that Jehovah is God alone with the fact that the other nations worship other gods (cp. Deuteronomy 29:26). This is part of His supreme Providence. Some find also in the words the feeling that such cults preserved the Gentiles from utter ignorance of God, and cite Clem. Alex. (Strom. vi. 14, 110 f.): the stars have been assigned to them, ἵναμὴτέλεονἄθεοιγενόμενοιτελέωςκαὶδιαφάρωσιν, and as a guide to God Himself, ὁδὸςγὰραὕτηδοθεῖσατοῖςἔθνεσινἀνακῦψαιπρὸςθεόν. The coincidence of the change of address to the Sg. with the change of subject leads some to take the verse as an intrusion by a later hand. But it may be a later addition by the author of the context himself on consideration of Deu 17:3, and as this is in the Sg. form it would account for his change to the Sg. here. But note the parallel under the whole heaven with Deuteronomy 2:25. In any case there is no need to take the passage as post-exilic; the danger it would avert was, as the passages cited show, especially strong before the exile.

Divided - i. e., “whose light God has distributed to the nations for their use and benefit, and which therefore being creatures ministering to man’s convenience must not be worshipped as man’s lords.”

19. The Lord… hath divided — The view held by many of this passage is that God permitted the nations to choose the heavenly bodies as objects of worship — as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and