Deuteronomy 7

Deuteronomy 7:3

3. — man doth not live by bread only, &c.] That is, man is not sustained only by the food which he eats; but whatever God appoints for that and, however unlikely it be, sustains him, as was seen in the manna. It is the blessing of God that renders our food the support of our life. Bp. Kidder. The creatures, appointed for food, are sanctified by the word of God; when, together with the creatures, He giveth His blessing to accompany them: by His powerful word commanding them, and by that command enabling them, to sustain us. Such is the meaning of this passage, alleged by our flavour against the tempter, Matth. iv. 4: For what is bread to nourish us, without His word? Unless He say the word, and command the bread to do it, there is no more strength in bread than in stones. The power and nutritious virtue, which bread possesses, it derives from His decree; because the word is already gone out of His mouth, that “bread should strengthen man’s heart,” Ps. civ. 15. As in the first creation, when the creatures were originally produced, had their beings given them, and natural powers and faculties bestowed upon them, this was all done by the word of God’s powerful decree; (“He spake the word, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created,” Ps. xxxiii. 9; clxviii. 5;) so in all their subsequent operations, when they do at any time exercise those natural faculties, and perform those offices for which they were created, all this is still done by the same powerful word and decree of God; “He upholdeth all things by the word of His power,” Heb. i. 3. Bp. Sanderson.

4. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, ⁵ Some interpreters, and particularly the Jewish rabbies, understand by these words, that the raiment of the Israelites, during their abode in the wilderness for forty years, never decayed by using, and never was torn by accident: and that the very clothes, which they had when they were children, grew like their skin along with their bodies, and fitted them when they were men. Others explain it thus: The good providence of God took care that the Israelites in the wilderness never wanted raiment. They were supplied partly by the flocks and the materials which they brought out of Egypt, and partly by the Arabs, Ishmaelites, and neighbouring people: so that they had change of apparel, when they stood in need of it, and were not obliged to go barefoot, regged,

garment for his own private use, when it had been “accursed” by God’s express command, Josh. vi. 18, and therefore was stoned to death. Bp. Patrick.

We do not at this day understand or think much concerning the sin of idolatry. It hath in a manner ceased from among us. Whereas in the age of the world, and among those people, when and to whom these commandments were delivered, false worship, or the worship of false gods, was the sin, which lay at the root and foundation of every other. The worship of the one true God, in opposition to the vain and false and wicked religions which had then obtained amongst mankind, was the grand point to be inculcated. It was the contest then carried on: and the then world, as well as future ages, were deeply interested in it. History testifies, experience testifies, that there cannot be true morality, or true virtue, where there is false religion, false worship, false gods: for which reason we find, that this great article (for such it then was) was not only made the subject of a command, but placed at the head of all the rest. Nay more; from the whole strain and tenour of the Old Testament there is good reason to believe, that to maintain in the world the knowledge and worship of the one true God, holy, just, and good, in contradistinction to the idolatrous worship which prevailed, was the great and principal scheme and end of the Jewish polity and most singular constitution. As the Jewish nation therefore was to be the depository of, and the means of preserving in the world, the knowledge and worship of the one true God, when it was lost and darkened in other countries, it became of the last importance to the execution of this purpose, that this nation should be warned and deterred by every moral means from sliding themselves into those practices, those errors, and that crime, against which it was the very design of their institution, that they should strive and contend. Archdeacon Paley.

Chap. VIII. ver. 2. And thou shalt remember &c.] As if he had said, Recollect the wisdom and advantage of God’s dispensations towards your nation, through the long course of their forty years’ travels. The streights of a barren wilderness, the want of common necessities for life, supplied by the timely and miraculous hand of Heaven; what were they but a plain lesson, that to God we owe all our blessings, and where His providence interposes, nothing can be wanting to us? Pyle.

— to know what was in thine heart,] God knew

Deuteronomy 7:15

15.—the evil diseases of Egypt.] The Egyptians seem to have been liable to many distempers, some of which were epidemical; as we find them to be at this day. In the time of Moses we read of a particular distemper, called “the botch of Egypt,” chap. xxviii. 27, and the diseases of the country are mentioned in more places than one of Scripture, chap. xxviii. 60, &c. Bryant.

Deuteronomy 7:22

22.—lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.] It is supposed in the Old Testament, that if Judea should be thinly peopled, the wild beasts would so multiply as to render it dangerous to the inhabitants. The country is now not very populous; and accordingly wild beasts are so numerous there as to be terrifying to strangers. Haynes says, “The country about Cana of Galilee swarms with wild beasts, such as tigers, leopards, jackals, &c. whose cries and howling, I doubt not, would strike the boldest traveller, who had not been frequently in the like situation, with the deepest sense of horreur.” Harmer.

Deuteronomy 7:24

24.—and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven.] The depraved state of morals of the Canaanites is too notorious to require any proof. They were a wicked people in the time of Abraham; and they, even then, were devoted by God to destruction: but “their iniquity was not then full.” In the time of Moses they were idolaters; sacrificers of their own infants; devourers of human flesh; addicted to unnatural lust; immersed in the filthiness of all manner of vice. It was agreeable to God’s moral justice to exterminate so wicked a people. He made the Israelites the executors of His vengeance; and, in doing this, He gave such an evident and terrible proof of His abomination of vice, as could not fail to strike the surrounding nations with astonishment and terror, and to impress on the minds of the Israelites what they were to expect, if they followed

will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 7:25

25.—it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.] Whatsoever had been employed in idolatrons worship, was so detestable to the Divine Majesty, that He would not have it converted to any ordinary use, but utterly destroyed. And therefore Moses commanded them, not to bring any of the silver and gold, which had belonged to idols, which he calls “an abomination,” into their houses, to be employed for any private use whatsoever. If a man did, he became “an accursed thing,” that is, was devoted to destruction, as the thing itself was. This appeared afterwards in the example of Achan, Josh. vii, who took a wedge of gold and a Babylonish

VOL. I.