Deuteronomy 4

Chap. IV. Ver 1—24. Dehortations against corrupting the word of God, and against idolatry.—The word of God may be corrupted either in the record or in the interpretation. The former, when any doctrines or precepts are delivered which are not from God; or obliterated, which were really given by him. The Jews were notoriously guilty of the former, when they added what they called the oral law to that which Moses delivered. The oral law is said to contain those verbal and generally mystical interpretations, which the Almighty communicated orally, (that is, by word of mouth,) to Moses, to Aaron and his sons, &c. and which were handed down to their posterity, till they were entered in the Talmud.

Now these traditions often contradict or supersede the text; therefore our Lord charges the Pharisees of his day with making void the law of God through their traditions; ((Matthew 15:3-6).) but he never charges them with corrupting the sacred text. Being divided into different sects, as Pharisees, Sadducees, &c. they could not do this, one keeping watch upon the other; nor need they, since they could turn the Scriptures as they please by their traditions. The Roman Catholics have been guilty of the same fault; and it cannot be denied that they have also, in their translations and catechisms, attempted to suppress, in whole or in part, the second commandment, as we shall have farther occasion to remark.

The following paragraph acquaints us with a most interesting and awful fact. We read in the 25th chapter of Numbers that all the men that were joined to Baal-peor were ordered to be slain; but as many of them probably absconded or concealed themselves, the Lord sent a pestilence, which destroyed them also, according as Moses warned their brethren “‘Be sure your sin will find you out:’—“f The Lord thy God is a consuming fire!” The privileges which Israel enjoyed under the Mosaic dispensation are thus enumerated: “What nation is there so great, who hath a God so nigh unto them?? or who hath ‘statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law?” Their adherence to these, therefore, would be a mark of wisdom and prudence; and might lead the nations around, when they heard them, to say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people?”

Among all the doctrines of the Jewish religion, the first, and most prominent, is the unity of God: and the second, the spirituality of his worship, without regard to any medium of devotion, natural or artificial, both which were universal in the worship of the heathen. They regarded the heavenly bodies as the objects of their worship, and animals of almost every species, as emblems of those orbs; and, in a secondary view, as either objects or instruments of their devotion. This was a most seducing and destructive system. It was seducing, in that it led them to terminate their worship in those heavenly luminaries, which were designed to lead their minds to the great Creator of them all: and when they had chosen these objects of adoration, their worship itself became degraded, carnal, and, of course, licentious.

It is only the direction of our worship to a Being of infinite grandeur and perfection, that can preserve it from puerility and grossness— from folly and wickedness. We Ver. 25—49. Moses warns Israel against disobedience, and especially against idolatry, which would be sure to bring upon them swift destruction; and yet, even in this case, holds out encouragement to hope, that sincere repentance would never be in vain; “for the Lord thy God (says he) is a merciful God;—he will not forget the covenant of thy fathers.” Those who seek God in their affliction, however deep, if they be in earnest, will not seek in vain. When afflictions find them, as the Hebrew phrase is, they may find the Lord in their afflictions. Prone as we are to forget his mercies, he will not forget his covenant.

Two things the venerable prophet particularly insists upon as extraordinary and unprecedented—their redemption from Egypt, and the revelation made to them at Sinai; and in both cases we Christians have the advantage. Their redemption was from Egypt, ours is from hell; they had a code of most excellent laws revealed to them, but the Gospel is revealed to us: or if it be said, the Gospel was preached to them also, still we have the advantage; for it was preached to them only in types, to us it is declared openly. They saw the glory through a glass darkly; we behold it as with open face! Rat: on the west it is limited by the territory of Feik, and on the north-west. Farther, Moses argues, as we should do, from what God has done, to what he will do.

He who brought Israel out of Egypt, and delivered them from the mighty Pharaoh, will surely drive out the petty usurpers of the promised land, and give them their long covenanted inheritance. “Know therefore, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else!”

Notes on the verses

Chap. IV. Ver. 2. Ye shall not add, — nor diminish.—That our Scriptures are not corrupted, see the Introduction to this work. As to the errors of printers and transcribers, the Editor of this Bible, in comparing different editions of our authorized translation, has found many slight variations in spelling, in pointing, and especially in the italics, but none of any consequence to the interpretation.

Ver. 19. Divided.—That is, assigned, or granted for their benefit, as natural agents; but not that they should pervert the heavenly bodies into objects of idolatrous veneration.

Ver. 26. Call heaven, &c.—[A most solemn method of adjuration, in use among all nations in the world. So Virgil represents Aeneas as calling the sun, earth, fountains, rivers, and the gods beneath the deep, or in the golden sky, to hear and attest his vow.

God and man being called upon to bear testimony to the truth of what was spoken, that if there was any flaw or sin— Such appeals to God show at once the origin and use of oaths.]—Bagster.

Ver. 43. Bezer.—(Bezer is the same as Bozra, formerly a royal city of Edom. See note on (Genesis 36:33).—Ramoth.—Ramoth was a celebrated city in the mountains of Gilead, placed by Eusebius fifteen miles east from Philadelphia or Ammon, and by Jerome in the neighbourhood of Jabbok, and consequently north of Philadelphia.—Golan.—This city gave name to the district of Gaulonitis, now called Djolan, which comprises the plain to the south of Djedour or Itwrea, and to the west of Haouran: its southern frontier is the Nahar Aweired, by which it is separated from the district

of Erbad, and the Sheriatel Mandhour, which separates it from the district of El Kefaby Djebel Heish, or mount Hermon.—Burckhardt’s Travels.—Bagster.

Ver. 44. This is the law.—[This is evidently an introduction to the discourse of the subsequent chapters. Moses having practically improved some particulars in the history of Israel, proceeded to repeat and enforce the laws which he had before delivered, with additions and explanations, beginning with the ten commandments.]—Bagster.

Ver. 46. Beth-peor.—(Beth-peor was a city which was situated, according to Eusebius, opposite Jericho, and six miles above Livias. (See Relandi Palestina.) As the name signifies “the house of Peor,” it is gave that there was a temple to Peor situated in this place, full in view of the people, while