Deuteronomy 29

Chap. XXIX. Ver. 1—29. Another review of the Lord’s dealings with Israel, with farther exhortations to obedience.— The Lord being about to confirm his covenant with the new generation, before their entrance on Canaan, warns them solemnly against trifling or hypocrisy; for, in proportion as their blessings were accumulated, the abuse of those mercies would bring upon them accumulated judgments, both as a nation and as individuals; for in both respects are we to consider them. The covenant renewed, was substantially the same as that made with their fathers at Horeb; a national covenant, founded on temporal promises. (See exposition of (Deuteronomy 5)) At the same time it must be recollected, that nations are composed of families, and families of individuals; personal piety must therefore be considered as the soul of national religion.

Thus at the era of the Reformation we must by no means suppose the whole, or even the majority of the English nation, consisted of pious individuals; but through the circulation of the Scriptures, and the preaching of the Reformers and their agents, with the blessing of God, there was such a number of true Christians as gave a cast of seriousness and devotion to that generation of Protestants, which seldom has been equalled since. Thus our Lord teaches us that true believers are “the salt of the earth;” ((Matthew 5:13).) and a happy mixture of them in any generation gives it, as it were, the relish of piety and devotion, and at the same time preserves the bulk of the people from degenerating to open profaneness and irreligion, as otherwise might be expected.

Rebellious as the former generation were, we are far from supposing that there were among them no true children of Abraham and of God. On the contrary, in the matter of Baalpeor, after all that had been slain, 1,000 men and his host, and by the plague which followed, there were still upwards of 600,000 men, which shows, that though the insurgents were

Notes on the verses

Ver. 62. Ye shall be left few in number.—To say nothing of the slaughter in former captivities and wars, Josephus calculates that 1,100,000 perished by the invasion of the Romans. Ver. 63. Plucked from off the land.—Titus carried away 90,000; Adrian soon after slew 500,000, and the senate joined with him in a decree, that no Jew should ever come within Judea, on pain of death. Ver. 64. Gods, even wood and stone.—Such were the gods of the Greeks and Romans; and they were also, on pain of death, more recently required to worship the images of saints, in Spain and Portugal. Ver. 68. The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again.—When Titus took Jerusalem many of the young were sent to the public works in Egypt; and great numbers were sold almost for nought.

See (Psalms 44:13).—And no man shall buy.—Adrian sold them in a fair, like horses; and they were proffered in such multitudes, that sometimes there were no buyers. See Bishop Newton on the Prophecies. Chapr. XXIX. Ver. 1. These are the words, &c.—In some copies of the Hebrew Bible, this verse is added to the preceding chapter. So Dr. Boothroyd. Ver. 3. The great temptations, &c.—See note on ch. vii. 19. Ver. 5. Your clothes are not waxen old.—See note on ch. viii. 4. Ver. 6. Ye have not eaten bread.—They lived chiefly on manna in the wilderness, and they had no opportunity to cultivate the