Deuteronomy 29

Chap. XXIX. ver. 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart &c.] That is, God hath thought fit, for your sins and provocations, to leave you to your own stupidity and blindness of heart. God had done great things for them: “in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, &c. But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit,” Is. lxiii. 9, 10. And that they were utterly inexcusable appears from the great and miraculous provision which God had made for them. Bp. Kidder. They had not so considered and laid to heart God’s wonderful works, as to have a lasting sense of them bestowed upon them by God. He gives us an understanding heart, but we must first consider what He hath done for us, as the Apostle instructs us, 2 Tim. ii. 7. And He gives us, what we do not receive; and so in effect it is not given. Thus He saith Himself, that He purged Israel; but they would not be purged, Ezek. xxiv. 13. Bp. Patrick. The faculties and advantages, God had given them, were lost upon them, as Vol. I.

— that we may do all the words of this law.] Here the knowledge of God’s revealed will is represented as of the greatest use and importance, but it is represented as an active knowledge, influencing the behaviour. “Those things which are revealed belong unto us.” As how? He says not, that we may know, but “that we may do all the words of this law.” Our Saviour, though He was the greatest encourager and most assiduous teacher of useful knowledge, yet always discouraged and disappointed inquiries of mere curiosity. When He was asked, at what time his second coming should be, and the kingdom should be restored to Israel, and how long one of His disciples should live; when these and other questions of the like nature were put to Him, His answer was, “It is not for you to know these things. What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” But when He was asked, “What shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?” He gave a direct answer. The knowledge of our duty then is knowledge in the truest and most excellent sense: and it is a practical knowledge, and consists in action more than in speculation. It may be obtained by every one who seeks it; we have all of us natural abilities to acquire it in such a degree as is necessary for us; we were made for this end and purpose; and besides our inward powers we have the revealed will and assistance of God. Dr. Jortin. Chap. XXX. ver. 1. And it shall come to pass, &c.] Here the restoration of the Jews to their own country is plainly predicted, at the destined end of their captivity. But it should seem that their conversion to Christ is to be the preliminary condition of their acceptance with God; for so long as their nation continues in a state of rebellion against Christ, they are not fit to be redeemed. And in conformity with Moses, our Lord declared to the unbelieving Jews, “Behold, your house” of the Lord “is left unto you desolate: for I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say,” with hearty repentance and true faith, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” Matt. xxiii. 38, 39. Dr. Hales. Amidst multiplied instances of oppression, misery, and contempt, the Jews have resolutely continued through seventeen hundred years a separate and distinct people. Their God hath not cast them away, nor abhorred them, “to destroy them utterly,” Lev. xxvi. 44; their great and wonderful plagues, which were to be “of long continuance,” still remain, Deut. xxviii. 59; the curses are yet upon them, which, in the strong language of Scripture, were to be “for a sign and for a wonder,” upon them and their seed for ever, Deut. xxviii. 46, 59. Not mingled and lost among the kingdoms, over which they have been scattered, they retain the means, upon their returning obedience, of beholding “their captivity turned,” and of being “gathered from the nations,” and restored to “the land of their fathers.” No cause, but the Divine interposition, can satisfactorily explain this extraordinary condition of a whole people. Their continuance in such a situation is unexampled, and we may even venture to pronounce it miraculous. Richards.

Deuteronomy 29:5

5. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land] The promised restoration of the Jewish nation was, in many instances, fulfilled at and after the return from Babylon, as may be seen in the book of Ezra, ch. i. 1, 4; Zech. viii; Hag. ii. 18, 19; Hos. i. 10; and elsewhere. But there are in this and in several other prophecies concerning this matter such magnificent descriptions, as appear to be by no means sufficiently accomplished in any restoration yet past; and therefore they are to be interpreted of a more complete one, still to come, after the conversion of that people to the Christian religion by faith in their own Messiah. Pyle.

Deuteronomy 29:6

6. Ye have not eaten bread, &c.] Their ordinary food was the heavenly manna, and their drink the water from the rock: so that they were constantly supported by a miraculous supply from God, who took care of them, and thereby laid them under a greater obligation to be devoted to His service. Bp. Patrick.

7. — circumcise thine heart.] This is to be understood of that spiritual circumcision, whereby the filthy inclination of the mind to evil is removed. The Chaldee expresses it by removing the folly of the heart: and the Greek, by cleansing it, Col. ii. 11; Rom. ii. 29. Bp. Kidder. By the singular blessings bestowed upon them at their return from the Babylonish captivity, God designed to take away the stubborn refractoriness of their spirits, called “hardness of heart,” chap. xxix. 19; and to cut off all their wicked inclinations to idolatry and superstition, which had been their ruin: this is called “humbling their uncircumcised heart,” Lev. xxvi. 41. But though God circumcised their hearts, yet they might remain uncircumcised, as appears from ch. xxix. 3, 4. See the note there. And therefore He calls upon them to circumcise their hearts themselves, ch. x. 16, by laying to heart His benefits, and following the motions of His grace and Holy Spirit, which thereby He put into their hearts: and their neglect of this, and re-

Deuteronomy 29:7

7.—will put all these curses upon thine enemies.] We have examples of this in Nebuchadnezzar, in Belshazzar, and in Antiochus Epiphanes, who were the three most remarkable oppressors of the Jewish nation. Pyle. Jacob in his prophecy figuratively foretold the retaliation of Divine vengeance upon the persecutors of the Jews, Gen. xlix. 11: Balsam concisely foretold it in his last prophecy, Numb. xxiv. 24: and Moses more plainly in this passage: but it was reserved for the ensuing ode to describe these judgments in all their terrours. See chap. xxxii. 36, and following verses. Dr. Hales.

Deuteronomy 29:11

11.—this commandment which I command thee &c.] Those moral commands of the love of God, and of your neighbour, and of sobriety with respect to yourselves, which are, even now, the main and substantial points of your law, and which God intends hereafter to improve and make the only conditions of your salvation, under the more perfect dispensation of Jesus Christ, your Messiah, are things no way difficult and burdensome. Pyle. They are not “hidden,” that is, abstruse and hard to be understood; nor “far off,” that is, out of thy reach, so that thou canst pretend, thou canst not attain to them. They are not “in heaven,” that is, locked up there as a secret, but revealed from thence: nor “beyond the sea,” that is, at such a distance as will expose men to great danger to arrive at them. But they are “very nigh” thee indeed, as that which thou ownest with “thy mouth,” and dost with “thy mind” assent to. Bp. Kidder. The word was brought “very nigh unto them,” even to their very doors, by Moses the servant of God, who now delivered to them the Divine will; as the Son of God to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

Deuteronomy 29:14

14.—that thou mayest do it.] The duties of life are so obvious and familiar, and so agreeable to the nature of all reasonable minds, that God can no sooner enjoin them, but we must needs apprehend and approve them, and have nothing to do but honestly and sincerely to perform them. Pyle. To co-operate with outward means of instruction, God hath placed a faithful witness and monitor of His truths in every breast; and therefore the want of outward helps can never justify transgressors. What Moses said in God’s name to the Jews is true in its relation to all men: “The commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off; but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” And what Isaiah said of Christianity, holds in proportion of natural conscience, “An highway shall be there; and it shall be called The way of Holiness; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,” Is. xxxv. 8. Before CHRIST 1451.

Deuteronomy 29:18

18. — a root that beareth gall and wormwood:] That is, an evil principle, called “an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God,” Heb. iii. 12. Such a principle will corrupt and poison the mind, and produce the curses denounced, which will be very bitter. Compare Acts viii. 23; Heb. xii. 15. Bp. Kidder.

Gall is an animal secretion, and therefore not properly attributed to a vegetable, a root: yet, as some vegetables afford a juice as bitter as gall, that juice may with pro-

Deuteronomy 29:19

19. — to add drunkenness to thirst.] That is, to abound in all manner of wickedness; “to add sin to sin,” Is. xxx. 1, “and drink it up like water,” Job xxxiv. 7: which course of wickedness only begets a greater inclination to do wickedly still; as drunkenness does not slake, but increase thirst. Bp. Kidder.

Deuteronomy 29:21

21. — the Lord shall separate him unto evil] Whereas such a sinner may think to escape in a crowd, and flatter himself that the blessings promised to God’s people, among whom he lives, shall be his portion, he shall be singled out, and rendered a monument of God’s displeasure. Bp. Kidder.

Deuteronomy 29:23

23. — land thereof is brimstone, and salt.] See the note on Jer. xvii. 6.

— that it is not sown, &c.] The wickedness of the Jews was the more provoking, because they had such an example of God’s vengeance, as the lake of Sodom, continually before their eyes, and yet persevered in their evil ways, till they brought the like judgment on all Judes. This was more exactly fulfilled in the last destruction of the Jews by the Romans, than in their first by the Babylonians. For the whole land was laid waste, and deserted by its inhabitants, and made a den of thieves; being brought to desolation by repeated returns of war; more especially in the time of Adrian, when Julius Severus made such a devastation, that the whole country was turned in a manner into a wilderness. Bp. Patrick.

Deuteronomy 29:25

25. — Because they have forsaken &c.] The Hebrew Prophets rarely dwelt upon great political events, which

the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Deuteronomy 29:29

29. The secret things belong unto the Lord &c.] This seems to be an answer to an inquiry, which the people of Israel might naturally have made, in consequence of the foregoing severe threatenings. Shall we ever be so wicked, they might have said to Moses, after all the corrections we have undergone, and all the mercies which we have received, and all the miracles which we have seen, as to provoke God to destroy us? Shall our posterity become so profligate, as to bring down upon themselves such terrible punishments, such unexampled calamities, as thou hast described? To a question of this kind the words of the text appear a proper reply: “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” Such events are hidden in the dark recesses of futurity, and it concerns not you to know them. It is enough for you to know this: that both you and your posterity, if you do well, shall be rewarded, and, if you do ill, shall be punished. The promises and threatenings of God are conditional, and it is in your power to deserve the one or the other: the execution of them depends upon your own behaviour, and your behaviour upon your own choice. The passage then contains in it this doctrine, that there are things, which a man ought to know, namely, the truths which God hath revealed, and the duties which He requires; and that there are things,

Before CHRIST 1461. 4) Kings 9. 6. Jer. 22. 8. Or, who had not given to them any portion. divided. Mercy promised to the penitent. Before CHRIST 1451. which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. # CHAP. XXX.