Deuteronomy 4

4 are alive. This circumstance (not mentioned in Numb. xiv., xxvi.) was well adapted to deter the people from idolatry; but it could have had no force unless they personally knew it to be a fact.

9. Teach them thy sons. “Deut. lays stress on the duty of training children” (Peake). Cp. vi. 7, 20; xi. 19, etc.

16 similitude. In vers. 16-19 we have an exact description of the two principal forms of false worship—1, the worship of idols, the vulgar superstition of Egypt (vers. 16-18); and, 2, the worship of the heavenly bodies, the more plausible, but equally dangerous, device of the Chaldeans and Persians (ver. 19). These two kinds of idolatry were already united; and, in after ages, they were both established in the kingdom of Israel by Jeroboam’s golden calf and Ahab’s worship of Baal, which brought upon the nation the plagues here threatened (vers. 26-28).

19 hath divided. i.e., apportioned for their use.

20 the iron furnace. A striking emblem of severe affliction.

a people of inheritance. Hence the Israelites were called a “purchased or acquired people”—a title applied in a higher sense to Christians, as being the partakers of a far greater and more glorious salvation (1 Pet. ii. 9, etc.).

34 temptations. “Trials” or “tests”; i.e., the great events in Egypt and the Red Sea, by which their faith was tested.

37 in His sight. “With His presence” (R.V.).

40 for ever. Heb., “all the days”; i.e., as long as ever it shall last. A promise conditioned by obedience.

43. Bezer. The exact situation of Bezer and Golan is not known. Ramoth-Gilead is supposed to be the place now called Es-Salt.

44. And this is the law, etc. After a short introduction (iv. 44-49), the next section of this book (v.-xxvi.) begins with a repetition of the laws given at Sinai, reciting, with slight verbal changes, the Ten Commandments, as forming the basis of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel (v. 1-21). Moses then urges the people afresh to observe diligently all the Divine commands, as summed up in love to God (vi. 1-9); warns them against forgetting their Heavenly Benefactor, as they had formerly done (10-19); and enjoins them to instruct their children in His claims and laws (20-25).