set up his Tabernacle with Men and dwell with them and they shall be his People and he will be their God XX Revel 3. which I mention because this part of the Prophecy reaches unto the last times and is not yet all fulfilled Thus this famous Song concludes which as the Jews reckon consists of Seventy Verses each of which contains two distinct and entire Sentences and as they fancy are a Compendium of the whole Law of Moses Nay some of them such are the idle Conceits of this Nation think this Hymn is so perfect a Prophecy that it contains in it the Names of all the Men in the World which they undertake to find and by that Versicle where it is to tell what Fortune he whose Name they seek shall have in the World Thus instead of observing seriously what Moses foretold would certainly befal themselves their Superstition and hardness of heart have led them to vain Conjectures concerning other Men. See Jo. Wagenseil upon Sota p. 164 c. where he saith a Jew undertook to show him his Name in this Song which fell out in a Verse that signified Prosperity to him And since him Martinus Mauritius in his Book de Sortitione Hebraeorum Cap. XVI Sect. 3 4 5. Ver. 44. And Moses came and spake all the words of Verse 44 this Song in the ears of the people The very same that is said before he spake this Song XXXI 30. and is now repeated at the Conclusion of it to express his Fidelity in his Office to the very last He and Hoshea the Son of Nun. Who was now his Assistant in this Work as he was designed to be his Successor after his death He is commonly called Joshua but Oshea was his Name at the first XIII Numb 8. Ver. 45. And Moses made an end of speaking all Verse 45 these words to all Israel When he had made an end of speaking them then he added what follows Ver. 46. And he said unto them set your hearts unto Verse 46 all the words which I testifie among you this day Apply your Minds to press upon your selves the observation of all these things For this Expression is a little more than letting them be in their heart VI. 6. or laying them up in their heart XI 18. For they were so to retain the remembrance of them as to attend unto them and consider them Which ye shall command your Children to observe to do This necessary duty of instructing their Children is often pressed IV. 10. VI. 7. XI 19. because without this care their Religion would soon be lost but by this means might be preserved and propagated to all Generations All the words of this Law Which they might be certain was delivered by God to Moses there being as many Witnesses of God's Presence with him as there were Men in their Nation But he had seen so many instances of their unbelief that he uses all the ways manners and forms as Pellicanus observes that he could think of to urge them to obedience By delivering them Tables of their Laws written by God himself by Books by Pillars by Blessings Cursings Obtestations Threatnings long Exhortations Songs Phylacteries and other Ceremonies c. which he continued to do as long as he had breath and was able to speak that they and their Posterity might be happy Verse 47 Ver. 47. For it is not a vain thing for you You shall not imploy your diligence in this matter unprofitably The Jews upon these words have founded a Maxim which Maimonides often mentions That every Precept hath its end and use which though they do not appear to us are grounded upon strong Causes and Reasons More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXVI and L. The design for instance of many Ceremonial Laws cannot now be fully discerned because they were instituted directly contrary to the idolatrous Rites of the Zabij which are long since utterly abolished and but imperfectly recorded in those ancient Authors that speak of them Because it is your life The means to make you an happy People Here are two benefits saith R. Isaac which are promised by the observation of this Law a Spiritual and a Corporal The Spiritual in these words and the Corporal in the next ye shall prolong your days c. And he puts the Spiritual first though among all Corporal Blessings this of long Life be the chief Chissuk Emuna P. I. Cap. XVIII And through this thing By teaching your Children to observe to do all that is commanded in this Law You shall prolong your days in the Land whither you go over Jordan to possess it Have the great Blessing of a long Life in all manner of Happiness which your Posterity shall enjoy for many Generations in the Land of Canaan By which it appears that nothing else but Contempt of this Law could have ejected them out of this Country Ver. 48. And the LORD spake unto Moses that self Verse 48 same day Immediately after he had ended the foregoing Song and given them this Admonition at the Conclusion of it Vre 49. Get thee up into this Mountains Abarim Verse 49 Which he had pointed him unto before and told him what he doth now XXVII Numb 12. Vnto Mount Nebo Abarim was a ridge of Hills whereof Nebo was one See there upon XXVII Numb 2. Which is in the Land of Moab that is over against Jericho This is a more particular Description of the Site of this Mountain than he gave before in the Book of Numbers Behold the Land of Canaan which I give unto the Children of Israel for a possession Which he might easily do from the highest part of the Mountain called Pisgah III Deut. 27. Ver. 50. And die in the Mount whither thou goest up Verse 50 After he had taken a view of the Land every way And be gathered unto thy People To Abraham Isaac and Jacob. This signifies saith R. Isaac that he should be associated and joyned to the Souls of the just who are called his People For the People of Moses were not buried in Mount Abarim and therefore he doth not speak of gathering his Body to their Bodies but of his Soul to their Souls Chissuk Emuna P. I. Cap. XI Chapter XXXIII As Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered unto his People See Numb 24 28. XXXIII 38. Ver. 51. Because ye trespassed against me among the Verse 51 Children of Israel c. Rebelled against his Commandment as he speaks XXVII Numb 14. Because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the Children of Israel XX Numb 12. XXVII 14. Ver. 52. Yet thou shalt see the Land before thee He had earnestly begg'd of God that he might go over Verse 52 Jordan but he denied him that favour I Deut. 37. III. 25 27. yet he was pleased to mitigate his punishment by letting him enjoy a sight of that good Country into which he might not enter But thou shalt not go thither unto the Land which I give the Children
and Dizabah There was a place called Hazeroth where they had encamped a long time ago XI Numb 35. XXXIII 17. but it was in another Wilderness far from this place as appears by the account Moses gives of their Removals from that place to this where they now lay XXXIII Numb 17 48 49. And therefore I take this and the other three places here mentioned to have been frontier Towns in the Country of Moab which lay upon the borders of this Plain The last of which Dizabah is translated by the LXX and the Vulgar as if it signified a place where there were Mines of Gold Onkelos and the Hierusalem Targum who take Suph to signifie the Red Sea and Paran for the Wilderness through which they had come many years ago c. are forced to add several words to make out the sense of this Verse in this manner These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan c. reproving them because they sinned in the Desert and provoked God in the Plain over against the Red Sea and murmured in Paran about Manna and at Hazeroth for Flesh c. And so they proceed to mention other Sins committed in other places but not in these here named which they force from their natural sense to comply with this Conceit Verse 2 Ver. 2. There are eleven days journey from Horeb c. Or eleven days we were a coming from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-Barnea Which cannot be understood of the whole time they spent between these two places but only of the time they spent in travelling For they stayed a Month at Kibroth-Hattaavah and a Week more at Hazeroth XI Numb 21. XII 15 16. before they came to Kadesh-Barnea This he represents to them to make them sensible they had been kept in the Wilderness so many years as had passed since they came out of Egypt not because it was a long way to Canaan but for the reason mentioned in the XIVth of Numbers For from Horeb whither he order'd them to go when they came out of Egypt they came in eleven days and took no long Journeys to the borders of the Land of Canaan where Kadesh-Barnea lay So Maimonides the way was plain and known between Horeb whither God brought them on purpose to serve him and Kadesh which was the beginning of an habitable Country according to what he saith XX Numb 16. See More Nevochim P. III. Cap. L. See XIII Numb 26. By the way of Mount Seir. The Country of the Edomites Chapt. II. v. 12. Vnto Kadesh-Barnea How they were ordered to come hither and what they did here he relates v. 6 19. and so proceeds to give an account of several remarkable things which befell them unto the time when he wrote these things which he sets down in the next Verse Ver. 3. And it came to pass in the fortieth year Verse 3 After they came out of Egypt In the eleventh month on the first day of the month In the first Month of this fortieth Year they came into the Wilderness of Zin unto another Kadesh XX Numb 1. From whence they removed to Mount Hor where Aaron died on the first Day of the fifth Month of this Year See there v. 28. Where it appears v. 29. they mourned for him thirty days that is till the beginning of the sixth Month. In which they fought with King Arad XXI Numb and from Mount Hor travelled from place to place as we read there and XXXIII Numb till they came to these Plains of Moab In which Journeys and in the rest of the Transactions mentioned in the latter end of the Book of Numbers they spent the other five Months of this Year as I have observed in their proper places And now began the eleventh Month when Moses being to leave the World before the end of this Year spake all that follows in this Book And this Speech which he begins v. 6. and continues to the fortieth Verse of the fourth Chapter the great Primate of Ireland thinks he made to the People on the twentieth of February and on the Sabbath-day as the Reader may find in his Annals That Moses spake unto the Children of Israel according unto all that the LORD had given him in Commandment unto them Made a Rehearsal of all that at several times he had received from the LORD and delivered unto them Ver. 4. After he had slain Sihon the King of the Amorites Verse 4 which dwelt at Heshbon About five Months ago for it was after Aaron's death which was the first Day of the fifth Month XXXIII Numb 38. and they mourned for him all that Month. See XXI Numb 21 c. And Og the King of Bashan which dwelt at Astaroth This was a City in the Country of Bashan XIII Josh 31. and a City it was of very great Antiquity as appears from XIV Gen. 5. See there From whence some think the famous Goddess Astarte had her Name being here worshipped But whether that Goddess took her Name from this City or the City from the Goddess is not certain as Mr. Selden observes in his Syntagma II. de Diis Syris cap. 2. But that the Heathen Deities were wont to have their Names from the Groves Mountains Cities and Caves where they were worshipped is as certain as it is uncertain from whence Astarte or Astoreth as the Scripture Name is was so called In Edrei His Royal Palace was at Astaroth as Sihon's was at Heshbon but he was slain in Edrei XXI Numb 33. Verse 5 Ver. 5. On this side Jordan in the Land of Moab In the Plains of Moab before they passed over Jordan See v. 1. Began Moses to declare this Law saying To call to remembrance that which any one had forgotten and to explain that which any one did not understand So Maimonides expounds these words in Seder Zeraim In the end of the fortieth Year in the beginning of the Month Shebat Moses called the People together saying The time of my Death draws near if any one therefore hath forgot any thing that I have delivered let him come and receive it or if any thing seem dubious let him come that I may explain it And so they say in Siphri If any one have forgotten any Constitution let him come and hear it the second time if he need to have any thing unfolded let him come and hear the Explication of it For which he quotes this Verse and says that Moses spent all his time in this from the beginning of the Month Shebat to the seventh day of Adar And what he now said was likely to be the more regarded because these were in a manner his dying words for he lived but till the seventh day of the next Month and seems to have composed this Book as a Compendium of his whole Law for the familiar use of the Children of Israel from whence it is called Deuteronomy i. e. a second Law See Huetius in his Demonstr Evang.
which is called going a whoring from him as hath been often noted notwithstanding all the Means he had prescribed to prevent it And therefore he adds one more which was the learning them the following Song notwithstanding which he foresaw that after the death of Joshua and the Elders who survived him they would forsake him and worship other gods See CVI Psal 36 38. After the gods of the strangers of the land This is an unusual Phrase signifying no more than what he calls in other places strange gods Though some think it imports peculiarly the gods of the Canaanites who were the former Inhabitants but being expelled became Strangers of the Land And thus Onkelos seems to have understood it who translates it After the Idols of the People of the Land Which was an high aggravation of their sin that they should worship such gods as had not been able to protect their Servants Whither they go to be among them This seems to countenance the foregoing Exposition And God charges them in future Ages with this as a very great guilt that they worshipped the gods of the Amorites in whose Land they dwelt VI Judges 10. And will forsake me For he lookt upon himself as forsaken that is not worshipped if they worshipped any other god with him XX Exod. 3. And break my Covenant which I have made with them This being the principal thing in the Covenant as I have often observed that they should worship him alone XX Exod. 22 23. XXIII 32 33. V Deut. 3 4 c. VI. 3 4 c. Verse 17 Ver. 17. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day So we read it was upon their very first Apostasy to Idolatry II Judges 14. and continued so in all Ages as we read frequently in that and the following Books See there v. 20. and III. 8 c. And I will forsake them Go no longer before them against their Enemies but deliver them up into their hands v. 8. And will hide my face from them Withdraw my favour and protection So that they were devoured as it follows by their Enemies and wild Beasts and many evils and troubles beset them or as the Hebrew phrase signifies came upon them on a sudden The Prophet Ezekiel expresses this in these words My face will I turn from them VII 22. The effect of which was the Divine Presence departed out of the Sanctury and he left it as he there speaks to be polluted and defiled by Robbers And so it here follows So that they will say on that day are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us For whithersoever they went out the hand of the LORD was against them for evil as we read II Judges 15. Which was so remarkable a change that it could not but at last make them reflect upon the Cause of it as we find it did and moved them to cry unto the LORD for help III. 9 15. IV. 3 c. Ver. 18. And I will surely hide my face from them c. He repeats it again because they were a People dull of hearing Or the former words may relate to their first Captivity and these to the last as they Verse 18 call it wherein they now are For they themselves take notice that these words have been fulfilled by the many Calamities which have befaln them since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans This appears from Schebet Jehuda where Solomon Virgoe quotes this very Verse to prove that their present Sufferings proceed not from Nature but from an angry God more powerful than Nature as he speaks Sect. XIII Ver. 19. Now therefore write ye This shows these Verse 19 words were directed both to Moses and to Joshua who was to take care after Moses his death to see this Command observed This song for you Which follows in the XXXIIth Chapter And teach it the Children of Israel Make them get it by heart as we now speak Put it in their mouths That they might sing it and thereby preserve it in their memory For it hath been always thought the most profitable way of instructing People and communicating things to Posterity by putting them into Verse and especially Children and young People are best taught in this way And the greater moment any thing is of the more carefully it ought to be preserved which Plato himself thought could be done by no better means than this And therefore having spoken of the Songs which he would have composed for the use of the People he would have it enacted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all Men and Children whether bond or free male or female should be bound through the whole City to sing such Songs and never cease so to do c. See Eusebius Lib. XII Praepar Evang. Cap. XXXII And Plato himself Lib. II. de Legibus where he gives a great many Cautions about this Matter and concludes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 657. this must be the work of a God or some God-like Man As if he had been acquainted with what Moses the Man of God or rather God himself here ordained that every one should have this Song in their mouths as a means to preserve them in the Worship of God alone However this justifies the admirable discipline of the Hebrews in those ancient times who were taught by such Hymns as the wisest Men among the Heathen in future times thought the best way of Instruction For which reason as Aristotle reports in his Problems Sect. XIX Probl. 28. People anciently sung their Laws as the Agathyrsi he saith continued to do in his days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might not be forgotten Particularly the Laws of Charondas as Athenaeus informs us out of Hermippus were wont to be sung at Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over a Glass of Wine And were therefore written in some sort of Verse or tunable Measure as our incomparable Dr. Bentley hath made it probable in his late Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris p. 373. Tully also to add no more tells us that Cato in his Book de Originibus reports That it was the Custom among the old Romans to have the Vertues and Praises of famous Men sung to a Pipe at their Feasts Which he thinks they learnt from the ancient Pythagoroeans in Italy who were wont carminibus praecepta quaedam occultiùs tradere to deliver in Verses certain Precepts which were the greatest Secrets in their Philosophy and composed the Minds of the Scholars to Tranquillity by Songs and Instruments of Musick See upon XXI Numb 30. concerning this way of Instruction That this song may be a witness for me against the Children of Israel Testifying that they were sufficiently warned and could not complain that they were not taught their duty and told their danger and reproving also their ingratitude and putting them in mind how ill they requited their God v. 21. Ver. 20. For when I have brought them unto the
A COMMENTARY UPON THE Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY BY The Right Reverend Father in GOD SYMON Lord Bishop of ELY LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard 1700. A COMMENTARY UPON DEUTERONOMY Chapter I. THE Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. THIS Book had the Name of DEUTERONOMY given it by the Greeks from the principal Scope and Design of it which was to repeat unto the Israelites before he left them the chief Laws of God which had been given them that they who were not then born when they were first delivered or were uncapable to understand them or had not sufficiently regarded them might be instructed in them and awakned to attend to them See v. 1. 5. In order to this he premises a short Narrative of what had befaln them since they came from Mount Sinai unto this time in the three first Chapters And then in the fourth urges them by a most pathetical Exhortation to the observance of those Laws which he had taught them especially the Ten Commandments with which he begins the fifth Chapter Where he makes a solemn Rehearsal of the Covenant God made with them in Horeb and what immediately followed upon the delivery of the Law by God himself from Mount Sinai And then having earnestly pressed the observation of the first Commandment in the former part of the sixth Chapter and in the latter part of it and in several Chapters that follow to the end of the eleventh reminded them of a great many things which God had done for them and given them several Cautions lest they let them slip out of their Minds and used many Arguments from several Topicks as we call them to move them to be obedient to all the other Commandments he proceeds in the twelfth Chapter and so forward to the twenty eighth to remember them of a great many other Laws besides the Ten Commandments which he had delivered to them Some of which he explains others he inforces with further Reasons and in several places adds new Laws for the greater Security of the whole particularly he orders the writing of God's Law upon Stones when they came into the Land of Canaan Chapter XXVII And then pronounces those Promises which God had made to the Obedient and his Threatnings to the Disobedient more largely and with greater force then he had done in the XXVIth of Leviticus After which he again remembers them of several wonderful Works of God for them Chapter XXIX and renews the Covenant between God and them using several Arguments to perswade them to a dutiful observance of God's Law Which he commands Chapter XXXI to be read to all the People in the conclusion of every Seventh Year that none might pretend ignorance of it And then concludes all with a most admirable Song which he orders every one to learn and with a Blessing upon the Twelve Tribes All this was done in the two last Months of the last Year of Moses his life But not all at once as plainly appears by several parts of the Book in which he writes what he delivered to them at several times Which is the reason of the Repetition of the very same thing over and over again that he might make it sink into their Minds by being often inculcated Some have been so foolish as to make this an Objection against this Book being composed by Moses But it shows their great ignorance all wise Men having ever judged it necessary to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same things concerning the same things that they might be thoroughly understood and fixed in the memory of their Auditors and setled in their Hearts and Affections Particularly Epictetus as David Chytraeus long ago observed delivered this as a profitable Rule in all Studies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This must be known as a certain Truth that it is not easie for a Man to attain the solid knowledge of any thing unless he both read and hear the same things every day and also set himself to the practice of them This Course Moses took with the Children of Israel spending every day it is likely of the latter end of his life in calling to their mind again and again what he had taught them and the reason they had to do accordingly Verse 1. THese be the words This Book contains the words Verse 1 Which Moses spake unto all Israel All the People could not hear what he said but he ordered the Elders and Heads of the several Tribes to communicate to the whole Congregation what he delivered to them in the Audience of many of the People who were assembled with them Thus these words are commonly understood But considering the great weight of what is here said I rather think that Moses himself at several times spake what here follows in the Ears of the People See V. 1. On this side Jordan The Vulgar Latin having translated the Hebrew words beeber on the other side Jordan it hath furnished some ill disposed Minds with an Argument that Moses was not the Author of this Book For he that wrote plainly shows that he was in Canaan when he wrote it But a very little consideration would have prevented this frivolous Objection there being nothing more certain than that the Hebrew words signifie indifferently either one side or the other and may be literally translated in the passage over Jordan or as they were about to pass over it as Huetius observes and proves by plain Examples that the Hebrews have no other word to express their mind when they would say either on this side or beyond See Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. Cap. XIV To which another learned Writer since him Hermannus Witsius Lib. I. Miscel Sacr. Cap. XIV hath added several other places which evidently show that beeber is a word that indifferently belongs to either side of any place See 1 Sam. XIV 40. and must be determined by the Matter in hand to which it is to be applied And here undoubtedly it is to be rendered on this side Jordan See III. 8. In the Wilderness in the Plain In the Plain of Moab where they had remained a long while as appears from the foregoing Book XXII Numb 1. XXVI 3 63. XXXI 12. XXXIII 48 49. XXXV 1. XXXVI 13. Over against the Red Sea There is no word in the Hebrew Text for Sea and therefore the Marginal Translation is to be preferred which is over against Suph which was a place in the Country of Moab See XXI Numb 14. over against which they now lay encamped but were so far distant from the Red Sea that there can be no respect to it here Between Paran He doth not mean the Wilderness of Paran frequently mentioned in the foregoing Book for that was as remote from hence as the Red Sea but some place in the Country of Moab as Zuph was and the rest of the places which here follow And Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth
said unto their Fathers upon this occasion which he doth not mention in the Book of NUMBERS where we read only of his falling down before God that he might awaken this Generation to a greater confidence in God and a dread of his Judgment Dread not nor be afraid of them Do not consider so much how strong they are as how powerful the LORD your God is who hath promised you this good Land Verse 30 Ver. 30. The LORD your God which goeth before you In a glorious Pillar of Cloud and Fire He shall fight for you As he had done hitherto XIV Exod. 14. XVII 8 c. According to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes Why should you think he is less able to bring you into Canaan than he was to redeem you from Egypt where you were oppressed by very powerful Enemies Verse 31 Ver. 31. And in the Wilderness Ever since they came from thence through the Wilderness of the Red-Sea XIII Exod. 18. and the Wilderness of Sin XVI Exod. 1. and the Wilderness of Sinai XIX Exod. 1 2. and then through that terrible Wilderness of Paran See above v. 19. Where thou hast seen how the LORD thy God bare thee as a Man doth bear his Son The long Experience they had had of his tender care over them which was as indulgent as that of a kind Father towards his only Son when he is a Child whom he carries in his Arms should have made them confident of his gracious Providence for the future In all the way that ye went until ye came to this place He made provision for them in the most desolate places bringing them Water out of a Rock sending Bread down to them from Heaven defending them from wild Beasts and from their fiercer Enemies c. Ver. 32. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Verse 32 LORD your God He could not prevail with them to trust God and go up as he commanded in his Power and Might to possess the Land Nor could all that Caleb and Joshua said at all move them XIV Numb 7 8 9. Ver. 33. Who went in the way before you Never Verse 33 failed constantly to direct and guide you in your Journeys XIII Exod. 22. To search you out a place to pitch your Tents in But always markt out your Encampments where they should be X Numb 17. In fire by night to shew you by what way you should go and in a cloud by day That they might be able to travel by Night as well as by Day which was most convenient in Summer time when the Sun was very scorching in a Wilderness where there was no shelter XIII Exod. 21. X Numb 16 21. Ver. 34. And the LORD heard the voice of your words They not only distrusted God v 32. but murmured against their Leaders and against God in Verse 34 a mutinous manner consulting to return into Egypt XIV Numb 1 2 3 4. And moreover spake of stoning Caleb and Joshua for their good Advice v. 10. And was wroth and sware saying Which so provoked the Divine Majesty that he irrevocably determined what follows confirming it with an Oath XIV Numb 21. Verse 35 Ver. 35. Surely there shall not one of these Men of this evil Generation see that good Land c. See XIV Numb 21 28 29. Verse 36 Ver. 36. Save Caleb the Son of Jephunneh And Joshua the Son of Nun. See XIV 24 30. and see below v. 38. He shall see it and to him will I give the Land that he hath trodden upon c. This was as exactly fulfilled as their disinheriting was XIV Josh 9 12. Where the particular Portion of Land is mentioned which God promised to him and which Joshua gave him in the Mountain where the Anakims dwelt For such was the wonderful Faith and Courage of Caleb that he doubted not to dispossess those whom the rest of the Israelites dreaded as invincible Verse 37 Ver. 37. Also the LORD was angry with me Not at that time but afterwards when they came into the Wilderness of Zin to another Kadesh XX Numb 1 12. For your sakes By occasion of their fresh discontents and mutinous upbraidings of him XX Numb 2 3 4. which provoked him so that he spake unadvisedly with his Lips as the Psalmist observes CVI Psal 31 32. This was an high aggravation of their guilt that they not only undid themselves but brought great Displeasure upon their worthy Leader and Governour whom they wearied with their Tumults and Rebellions Or the meaning may be which doth not much differ from the account now given that they murmuring in a tumultuous manner when they saw the Water did not flow out of the Rock at the first stroke he himself also was put into such a Commotion that he began to doubt and say God would do nothing for such a rebellious People though he had declared he would If this be true he soon recovered himself and smote the Rock again in confidence God would be as good as his word But God was so angry at the words he had spoken that he so far punished him for them as to deny him entrance into Canaan Saying Thou shalt not go in thither Which threatning is renewed a little before his death XXVII Numb 13 14. and he could not get repealed by any Entreaties as we read in this Book III. 26. Ver. 38. But Joshua the Son of Nun which standeth Verse 38 before thee i. e. Waits upon thee He shall go in thither So God promised when he as well as Caleb indeavoured to put Courage into the People to go and possess the Land XIV Numb 6 7 c. 30. Incourage him for he shall cause Israel to inherit it Not only go thither and have his Portion there but be the Captain of Israel and conquer the Land for them and divide it among them This intimates as if Joshua was afraid he might be excluded as well as his Master being extreamly troubled it is likely that he was not suffered to reap the Fruit of his long Labours Therefore God bids Moses incourage his hope and command him to take heart as we speak for undoubtedly he should do more than go into Canaan Which may be the reason why his Name is not put into the Exception v. 35 36. together with Calebs but they are mentioned separately because there was something to be said peculiar to each of them Verse 39 Ver. 39. Moreover your little ones whom ye said should be a prey See XIV Numb 31. Which in that day had no knowledge of good and evil And consequently did not provoke God by their Disobedience They shall go in thither c. Their innocence moved pity towards them though Children in some cases were cut off for their Fathers sins Verse 40 Ver. 40. But as for you turn you From the Land of Canaan to which they were not permitted to go And take your journey into the Wilderness And get you back again
from Kadesh-Barnea In all which time he gives us no account what passed either in the foregoing Book or in this but only sets down the places of their abode as I observed in the XXXIIIth of NVMBERS Ver. 3. Ye have compassed this Mountain long enough Verse 3 i. e. The mountainous Country of Edom mentioned v. 1. Turn ye northward From Ezion-gaber which was in the South towards the North that is directly towards the Land of Canaan Ver. 4. And command thou the People saying Ye Verse 4 are to pass through the Coast of your Brethren the Children of Esau which dwell in Seir. For they went from Ezion-gaber to Kadesh XX Numb 1. and from thence to Mount Hor v. 22. which was in the edge of the Land of Edom XXXIII Numb 37. and from thence they travelled to compass the Land of Edom XXI 4. i. e. the Eastern quarter of it So that though they did not pass through the Coast of Edom as we translate it yet they passed by it and very near unto it as the Particle beth frequently signifies XXXVII Gen. 13. V Josh 13. 1 Sam. XXIX 1. Though they may be truly said to pass through their Coast if thereby we understand their Border or the Confines of their Country And they shall be afraid of you Lest wanting a Settlement the Israelites should seize upon their Country Accordingly we find they raised all the force they could make to oppose them XX Numb 20. Take ye good heed to your selves therefore Let not that encourage you to assault them Verse 5 Ver. 5. Meddle not with them Make not the least attempt upon them For I will not give you of their Land no not so much as a foot breadth i. e. Not the smallest Portion Because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession So Joshua saith expresly XXIV Josh 4. wherein he made good the Blessing of Isaac XXVII Gen. 39. Verse 6 Ver. 6. Ye shall buy meat of them for money that ye may eat c. If you have a mind to any Provision that their Country affords you shall not take it but purchase it as they did their very Water v. 29. which was a scarce thing in those dry Countries And so the Israelites offered to do when they treated with them about a passage through their Country XX Numb 19. Verse 7 Ver. 7. For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand Or though the LORD hath blessed thee c. That is though there is no need of it God having abundantly provided you with all things necessary But if we follow our translation the sense is plain You have wherewith to buy of them what you need or desire therefore do not take it away by force He knoweth thy walking through this great Wilderness Hath directed and prospered thee as the word knoweth signifies in many places I Psal 6. XXXI 7. in thy Travels through a dangerous Wilderness These forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee thou hast lacked nothing He had mercifully provided for them so constantly that he let them want nothing necessary for their support This was the Sum of the Argument why they should not molest the Edomites nor take any thing by stealth from them because they were in no need and God hath given that Country to the Children of Esau as he intended to give Canaan to the Israelites Their being in the Wilderness forty Years is mentioned also VIII 2. XXIX 5. besides other places of Scripture For from the fifteenth day of the first Month in which their Fathers came out of Egypt XXXIII Numb 5. to the tenth day of the same Month in which they went over Jordan into Canaan IV Josh 19. there were but five days wanting of compleat forty Years I cannot but here note also that this is one of those places wherein Onkelos mentions the MEMRA i. e. WORD of Jehovah which can signifie nothing but a Divine Person For thus he tranlates these words The WORD of the LORD thy God hath been thy helper thou hast not wanted any thing Ver. 8. And when we passed by from our Brethren the Verse 8 Children of Esau which dwelt in Seir through the way of the plain i. e. Through the Wilderness of Zin From Elath and from Ezion-gaber Two places upon the Red-Sea the last of which Ezion-gaber signifies as much as the Spine or Back-bone of a Man So called because there were great ragged Rocks in that Port as Bochart observes like those at Dyracchium in Macedonia which had its Name also from thence Lib. I. Canaan Cap. XLIV We turned After they were denied passage through their Country and had gone through those Stations mentioned XXXIII Numb 41 42 c. And passed by the Wilderness of Moab See XXI Numb 11. Going by the East side of their Country XI Judg. 18. Verse 9 Ver. 9. And the LORD said unto me Distress not the Moabites neither contend with them in battle He would not have them force their way through his Country because the King of Moab refused them a passage as the King of Edom had done XI Judg. 17. For their Country now was but small since Sihon King of the Amorites had taken from them all the best of it which lay between Arnon and Jabbok of which the Israelites had possessed themselves by the conquest of Sihon So that they had only that Portion remaining which lay upon the Dead-Sea which David in after times subdued For I will not give thee of their Land for a possession No more than of Edom v. 5. Because I have given Ar. It is likely the Capital City gave Name to the whole Country about it At least Ar which was the chief City of Moab XXI Numb 15 28. is put here for all the Land of Moab as Mount Seir for all the Land of Edom v. 1. Vnto the Children of Lot for a possession Though the Moabites were now a wicked People yet for their pious Ancestors sake from whom they were descended God would not have them dispossessed Verse 10 Ver. 10. And the Emims dwelt there in time past c. A terrible People as the very Name imports both for their number and for their strength being of a large size like Anakims See XIV Gen. 5. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Which also were accounted Giants as the Anakims c. Which seems to have been their name or else Rephaim but to distinguish them from others of that name in Canaan the Moabites called them Emims Ver. 12. The Horims also dwelt in Seir before-time They were the ancient Inhabitants of Mount Seir as the Emims were of the Country of Moab XIV Gen. 6. XXXVI 20. Verse 12 But the Children of Esau succeeded them Planted themselves in that Mountain When they had destroyed them from before them and dwelt in their Land When the Children of Esau expelled the Horites or the Children of Lot the Emmims is no where recorded nor who were their Leaders in
these Expeditions But they seem to be here remembred as an Encouragement to the Israelites to hope that they might drive out the Inhabitants of Canaan who were not stronger than these as they had already driven the Amorites out of the Country of Sihon as it here follows As Israel did unto the Land of his possession which the LORD gave unto them Some have argued from hence that this Book was not written by Moses but by some body else after they had got possession of the Land of Canaan But it is manifest this may relate to what they had done already in dispossessing Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan of their Country which it is expresly said Moses had given for a possession to the Tribe of Reuben and Gad and the half Tribe of Manasseh and that by God's direction XXXII Numb 33. XXXIV 14 15. and in this Book XXIX 8. This hath been observed by many particularly by Huetius in his Demonstratio Evangelica Propos IV. Cap. XIV N. XV. Ver. 13. Now rise up said I and get you over the Verse 13 Brook Zered c. Which elsewhere we translate the Valley of Zered See XXI Numb 12. Ver. 14. And the space in which we came from Kadesh-Barnea Verse 14 until we came over the Brook Zered was thirty eight years For it is evident by the story in Numbers that they came to Kadesh-Barnea about the fourth Month of the second Year after they came out of Egypt See upon XII Numb 16. And if we suppose that they removed from hence in the seventh or eighth Month of that Year it is certain that they could not come to this Brook till the seventh or eighth Month of the fortieth Year For Aaron died at Mount Hor on the first day of the fifth Month of this Year and we must allow two or three Months time for all that followed between that and this viz. the conquest of King Arad and of Sihon and Og c. Vntil all the Generation of the Men of War So they were called who were above twenty years old I Numb 3. Were wasted out from among the People Utterly consumed so that not one of them was left XXVI Numb 64 65. As the LORD sware unto them See XIV Numb 28 29. Verse 15 Ver. 15. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them to destroy them from among the Host Some of them it is likely died a Natural death but many of them might in the course of Nature have lived longer if God had not several ways cut them off before their time Vntil they were consumed By one Plague or other which God sent among them So that a great deal of their time in the thirty eight Years before mentioned were spent it is likely in burying and mourning for their dead Verse 16 17. Ver. 16 17. So it came to pass when all the Men of War were consumed and dead from among the People that the LORD spake unto me saying This was spoken it is probable just as they passed over the Brook Zered or in their next Station at Dibon-Gad XXXIII Numb 45. Ver. 18. Thou art to pass through Ar the Coast of Verse 18 Moab this day Or rather to pass by the Border of Moab for they were not permitted to come into their Country v. 9. See upon v. 4. Ver. 19. And when thou comest nigh over against the Verse 19 Children of Ammon As they did after the conquest of Sihon King of the Amorites whose Country bordered upon the Ammonites XXI Numb 13 24. Distress them not neither meddle with them The same command with that about the Edomites and Moabites v. 5 9. For I will not give thee of the Land of the Children of Ammon any possession As he had said before of the Land of Moab v. 9. Because I have given it unto the Children of Lot for a possession To the Descendants of his youngest Son as he had done the Country of Moab to the Children of the eldest Ver. 20. And that also was accounted a Land of Giants Verse 20 c. Was called the Country of Giants or Rephaim for People so called inhabited it And the Ammonites called them Zamzummims Changed their Names it is probable from Zuzims See XIV Gen. 5. as they were called before into Zamzummims But why they were called either by the one Name or the other it is but conjectured Some conceive they were called Zuzims from their swiftness or nimble running which in Warriours was a quality always highly valued and Zamzummims from their abominable Wickedness or their craft and cunning in doing Mischief Ver. 21. A people great and many and tall as the Anakims The same description which he gave of the Emims v. 10. Verse 21 But the LORD destroyed them before them i. e. Before the Ammonites who expelled them out of their Country and it 's like cut off the most of them And they succeeded them and dwelt in their Land This is so often repeated to possess the Minds of the Israelites with a sense of God's Providence which rules every where displacing one People and setling another in their stead and fixing their Bounds also which they shall not pass without his leave Verse 22 Ver. 22. As he did to the Children of Esau which dwelt in Seir when he destroyed the Horites from before them c. He repeats this which he had said before v. 12. because it was a fresher Instance of God's disposal of Countries unto what People he pleases and nearly touched the Israelites because they were their Brethren Verse 23 Ver. 23. And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim even unto Azzah Unto which he adds an instance which seems to be elder than any of the former concerning a People called Avims who inhabited some part of the Land of Canaan whither they were going For though we do not read of Hazerim in any other place yet Azzah i. e. Gaza was in the Country of the Philistims who expelled these Avims And David Chytraeus thinks that Hazerim was a Town afterward in the Tribe of Judah called Haza-gaddah XV Josh 27. The Caphtorim which came out of Caphtor That is some People of Cappadocia who were near of Kin to the Philistims See X Gen. 14. Destroyed them and dwelt in their stead Concerning which see in the place above-named Unto which I shall only add That the Avims being expelled out of Canaan by the Caphtorims went it is very probable over Euphrates and settled there till the King of Assyria brought some of them back again to plant the Country of Samaria 2 Kings XVII 31. where we translate this word Avites See Bochart in his Phaleg Lib. IV. Cap. XXXVI Ver. 24. Rise ye up take your Journey and pass over Verse 24 the River Arnon See XXI Numb 13 14. Behold I have given into thy hand Sihon King of Heshbon and his Land c. You your selves shall do to him what your Brethren the Children of Esau did to the
Horites and the Moabites to the Emims and the Children of Ammon to the Zamzummims and the Caphtorims to the Avims By which their Fiaith might still be more confirmed that the People of Canaan though never so mighty should not be able to stand before them Ver. 25. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee Verse 25 and the fear of thee upon the Nations that are under the whole Heaven Especially upon the Canaanites wno were struck no doubt with Terror by this Conquest as they had been by all that befell the Egyptians II Josh 10 11. Who shall hear the report of thee This explains what he means by the hyperbolical expression before going the Nations under the whole Heaven that is as many as shall hear of these things And shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee As Women in travel are Ver. 26. And I sent Messengers out of the Wilderness Verse 26 of Kedemoth There is a City of this Name mentioned by Joshua XIII 18. from whence this Wilderness had its denomination Some take it to be the same with that called Jeshimon XXI Numb 20. Vnto Sihon King of Heshbon with words of peace A friendly Message desiring there might be no quarrel between him and the Israelites who desired nothing but the common Offices of Humanity Verse 27 Ver. 27. Let me pass through thy Land Which was the direct way to the Fords of Jordan I will go along by the high way Not turning into the Fields or Vineyards as it is expressed XXI Numb 22. In the Hebrew the word is doubled bederech bederech by the way by the way which seems to be a vehement affirmation to assure them they would not stir out of the High-way I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left Not step aside out of the common Rode called the King's High-way which was free for all People Verse 28 Ver. 28. Thou shalt sell me meat for money that I may eat c. They offered to pay for whatsoever they wanted which is included in Meat and Drink Only I will pass through on my feet Barely have a passage through his Country Verse 29 Ver. 29. As the Children of Esau which dwell in Seir and the Moabites which dwell in Ar did unto me He doth not mean that they granted Israel a passage through their Country but that they did not deny to sell them Meat and Drink for their Money as they passed by their Coasts Vntil I pass over Jordan unto the Land which the LORD our God giveth us This was said to move Sihon to consent to their desire by letting him understand they intended nothing against his Country being secure of a Settlement in the Land of Canaan unto which they prayed him to let them pass quietly Ver. 30. But Sihon King of Heshbon would not let us Verse 30 pass by him Refused to agree to this reasonable demand For the LORD thy God hardned his spirit and made his heart obstinate c. Gave him over to his own inflexible Humour which was set upon violent Courses from which God did not divert him because he intended to destroy him but rather ordered things so that his Mind should be inraged and disturbed and so unable to consider things prudently and discern what belonged to his peace which is the utmost that can be meant by hardning his Spirit and making his heart obstinate Which as it is a sin cannot be ascribed unto God but as it is a punishment might justly be inflicted by him upon Sihon for his former sins Ver. 31. And the LORD said unto me behold I Verse 31 have begun to give Sihon and his Land This was said when Moses saw him coming out to battle against them as it follows in the next Verse at which time he is said to begin to give them his Country because he had absolutely resolved it and it 's probable so confounded his Forces that they were as good as already conquered Before thee Into their Power that they might go into it at their pleasure Begin to possess that thou mayest inherit his Land In the same sense he bids Moses begin to possess i. e. prepare to take possession of it See III. 2. Ver. 32. Then Sihon came out against us he and all Verse 32 his people to fight at Jahaz See XXI Numb 23. Ver. 33. And the LORD our God delivered him before us and we smote him and his Sons and all his People They won the Field and killed him his Verse 33 Sons and all that came out to fight with them And R. Solomon saith his Sons were like himself very great Men. Verse 34 Ver. 34. And we took all his Cities at that time After this Victory they took his whole Country as is related XXI Numb 24 25. and the Cities belonging to it are mentioned XXXII 34 35 c. And utterly destroyed the Men and the Women and the little Ones of every City we left none to remain They being part of those wicked People the Amorites whom God had condemned to utter destruction For the Amorites came out of Canaan and took this Country from the Moabites and the Children of Ammon Verse 35 Ver. 35. Only the Cattle we took for a prey unto our selves c. They had the Divine Warrant for this no doubt as they had for the Extirpation of the People Verse 36 Ver. 36. From Aroer which is by the brink of the River Arnon This River divided Moab from the Kingdom of Sihon XXI Numb 13 24. upon which the City of Aroer stood which was now in the possession of Sihon though belonging formerly to the Moabites And from this City that is by the River This some take to be the City Ar XXI Numb 15. But I think these words should rather be translated even the City in the River meaning Aroer still as a remarkable place being incompassed with the River XII Josh 2. For Ar I think was never in the possession of the Amorites being the capital City of Moab Even unto Gilead Chapter III. For half of Gilead belonged to the Country of Sihon XII Josh 2. and given to the Tribe of Gad XV Josh 2. And the other half belonged to the Kingdom of Og as we read in the same place XII Josh 5. and was given to the half Tribe of Manasseh XIII Josh 31. Ver. 37. Only unto the Land of the Children of Ammon Verse 37 thou camest not That is into no part of their Country which was then in their possession but all that the Amorites had taken from them was given to the Gadites XIII Josh 25. Nor unto any place in the River Jabbok To no place beyond that River which was the Border of the Children of Ammon XXI Numb 24. XII Josh 2. Nor into the Cities of the Mountains Much less into the mountainous parts of the Country of the Amorites Nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbad us The words in the Hebrew are And all whatsoever the
them on the Ground and needed not to be told by Moses how tall he was And therefore they conclude this was written by some body else in after times As if Moses did not write for the benefit of those that came after as well as for the present Generation Who that they might be satisfied what a vast Man Og was he left it upon record how large his Bedstead was and where it might be seen whereby they might judge of his Stature Besides there were in the present Generation great numbers of Children old Men Women and Servants who could not go to see Og lye at length upon the Field but by this means were instructed from what a terrible Enemy God had delivered them They that question the truth of this Relation may read if they be able what the learned Huetius hath at large discoursed concerning Men of a portentous bigness in all Countries in his Quaestiones Alnetanae Lib. II. Cap. XII N. III. of which no Man can doubt who is not resolved to disbelieve all the World In his Demonstratio Evangelica also he observes that Homer makes Tityon when he was dead to have lain stretcht out upon not nine Cubits but nine Acres of Ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Hyperbole may excuse the Jewish Rabbins when they say that Og was nine Cubits long when he lay in his Cradle See Propos IV. Cap. VIII N. IV. Verse 12 Ver. 12. And this Land which we possessed at that time from Aroer which is by the River Arnon See II. 36. And half mount Gilead and the Cities thereof gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites See XXXII Numb 34 35 c. but especially XIII Josh 15 c. where he distinctly relates what Portion of this Country was given to the Reubenites and v. 23 24 c. what was given to the Gadites And it appears that none of Gilead belonged to the Reubenites but the Gadites had one half of it as the Manassites had the other Ver. 13. And the rest of Gilead Which was not Verse 13 given to the Gadites And all Bashan being the Kingdom of Og. That is all that was taken from Og of which he was King Gave I unto the half Tribe of Manasseh all the Region of Argob with all Bashan It is repeated again lest any one should think that Argob which was a distinct Province in that Kingdom was not given to them by this Grant See v. 4. Which was called the Land of Giants Where the Rephaims formerly inhabited of whom Og was the last See XIV Gen. 5. compared with XV. 20. XIII Josh 12. Ver. 14. Jair the Son of Manasseh took all the Country Verse 14 of Argob This is one reason why he gave this Country to them See XXXII Numb 41. Vnto the Coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi We had no mention of these places before which were in the Northern part of this Country as appears from XII Josh 4 5. XIII 11. But the People of these places they could not expel XIII Josh 13. And called them after his own Name XXXII Numb 4. Vnto this day From hence likewise Cavils are raised against Moses being the Author of this Book when the most that can be concluded from hence is that upon the revising of these Books by Ezra he put in these few words to certifie the Reader that still they retained this Name as some body no doubt added the History of Moses his death at the end of this Book This the greatest Defenders of the Authority of these Books as written by Moses himself make no scruple to allow particularly Huetius and since him Hermannus Witzius in his Miscellanea Sacra Lib. I. Cap. XIV Sect. 47. But there is no necessity to yield so much for Moses might say this himself though it was not long before he wrote this Book For so the holy Writers do sometimes mention places which had their Name but newly given them from a particular Fact that Posterity might know the Original of it See I Acts 19. Verse 15 Ver. 15. And I gave Gilead All that was not possessed by the Gadites Vnto Machir To the Posterity of Machir XXXII Numb 40. Verse 16 Ver. 16. And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites Here is a more exact Description of that part of the Country which was given to the other two Tribes I gave from Gilead Half of which as I observed was given to the Gadites v. 12. Even unto the River Arnon Which was the Bounds of the Country toward Moab See II. 36. Half the Valley The same word in the Hebrew Language signifies both a Valley and a Brook or River and being translated in the foregoing words the River it should be so here likewise half the River That is to the middle of the River Arnon by which the Bounds of their Country is most exactly set And thus not only the LXX and the Vulgar but Onkelos also translates it the middle of the Torrent yea we our selves also in the XIIth of Josh 2. where there are the same words which in the Hebrew run thus Vnto the River Arnon the midst of the River where the City of Aroar stood incompassed by the River as I observed in the foregoing Chapter v. 36. And the border Something is understood viz. went as the Phrase is XV Josh 6 7 c. or reached or some such word Or the meaning must be the Country bordering upon that River Even unto the River Jabbok which is the border of the Children of Ammon This River was the other Boundary of the Country Ver. 17. The Plain also and Jordan The flat Verse 17 Country toward the River Jordan which was the Western Bounds of this Country of Sihon as the River Arnon was the Southern and the River Jabbok the Northern the Country of the Children of Ammon being on the East And the Coast thereof from Cinnereth The word thereof is not in the Hebrew therefore these words may be better rendred the Coast from Cinnereth Called the Sea of Cinnereth XII Josh 3. XIII 27. it lying upon a Country and a City called by that Name XI Josh 2. XIX 35. Which gave the Name to this Sea called in the New Tastament the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Genesareth and at last the Sea of Tiberias in honour of the Emperour Tiberius See upon XXXIV Numb 11. Even unto the Sea of the Plain even the Salt-Sea The Dead-Sea as it is called in other places which before the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah had been a most pleasant Plain Vnder Ashdoth Pisgah The Name of a City in this Country XIII Josh 20. Eastward Which lay East of the Salt-Sea and Jordan which was the Western Bounds as I said of this Country Verse 18 Ver. 18. And I commanded you at that time That is he gave this Charge to the two Tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half Tribe of Manasseh before mentioned The LORD your God hath given you this Land to possess
it c. According to their own desire but on condition they should help their Brethren to conquer the Land of Canaan See XXXII Numb 20 21 22. Verse 19 Ver. 19. But your Wives and your little Ones and your Cattle for I know you have much Cattle shall abide in your Cities which I have given you See XXXII Numb 16 24 26. Verse 20 Ver. 20. Vntil the LORD have given rest unto your Brethren as well as unto you c. Brought them to a Settlement in the Land of Canaan and given them a peaceable possession of it After which we read that Joshua dismissed these Tribes and sent them to their Wives and Children XXII Josh 4. Verse 21 Ver. 21. And I commanded Joshua at that time About that time when by God's order he appointed Joshua to be his Successor and took him to be his Associate in the Government XXVII Numb 18 c. Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two Kings So shall the LORD do unto all the Kingdoms whither thou passest This seems to be the Preface to the Charge which by God's Command he gave to Joshua at that time XXVII Numb 19 23. Ver. 22. Ye shall not fear them for the LORD your Verse 22 God fighteth for you This is part of the Charge it self which he had heard him give all the People eight and thirty years ago I. 21 29 30. Ver. 23. And I besought the LORD at that time Verse 23 saying Being told by God at the same time XXVII Numb 12 13. that he should shortly dye and only see the Land of Canaan but not enter into it Moses made his humble Supplication to God that he would not execute the Sentence which he had denounced against him For the word besought signifies Supplication to one that is offended Ver. 24. O LORD God thou hast begun to shew Verse 24 thy Servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand In subduing the two Kings of the Amorites For what God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can do according to thy works and according to thy might He speaks according to the Language of those times when Men worshipped many Gods of several sorts None of which he acknowledges were able to bring to pass such things as the LORD had done Ver. 25. I pray thee let me go over and see the good Verse 25 Land that is beyond Jordan To see is here to enjoy it as the rest of the Israelites were to do For God bad him go up into a Mountain and behold it but threatned he should not enter into it Which Threatning he might well think was reversible as others had been against the People of Israel upon his Prayer for them though they had more highly offended the Divine Majesty than he had done For though he doubted at the first especially when he saw no Water come out of the Rock at the first stroke yet he presently recovered himself and smote it the second time believing God would relieve them That goodly Mountain Most think that he desired to go so far into it as to see the place where God intended to settle his Divine Presence which proved to be Mount Moriah But nothing was known of this a long time after unless we suppose it was revealed unto him that where Abraham offered Isaac there the LORD would dwell It seems to me that he means that goodly Country full of noble Mountains for thus the word Mountain is often used particularly XIII Numb 29. where the Spies say the Amorites dwell in the Mountain i. e. in that mountainous part of Canaan And Lebanon He desired to go through the whole Country as far as Lebanon which was the most Northerly part of it famous for goodly Cedars as the Mountain before spoken of was in the South of Canaan Verse 26 Ver. 26. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes See I. 37. And would not hear me Refused to grant my Petition And the LORD said unto me Let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter This suggests that Moses renewed his Petition after the first denial and more earnestly begg'd this Favour of God which he could not obtain but was enjoyned silence This argues great displeasure and is mentioned by him as an Admonition to the Israelites Chapter IV. to be fearful to offend the Divine Majesty Ver. 27. Get thee up to the top of Pisgah See what I have noted upon XXVII Numb 12. Verse 27 And lift up thine eyes Westward and Northward c. Take a full view of the Country in all the Quarters of it which might be seen from the top of this Mountain which was called Nebo See XXXIV 1 2 3. Ver. 28. But charge Joshua and incourage and Verse 28 strengthen him c. Bid him not doubt that I will bring my People thither under his Conduct though I deny thee entrance into it Ver. 29. So we abode in the Valley over against Verse 29 Beth-peor It is likely that there was a Temple built to Baal-Peor which fronted this Valley for so Beth signifies an House or Temple of Peor Which gave the Name to a City wherein it stood which was part of the Inheritance of the Reubenites XIII Josh 20. In this Valley Moses was buried XXXIV 6. where he made this most excellent Exhortation to all the People CHAP. IV. Verse 1. NOW therefore hearken O Israel Having Verse 1 commemorated several Benefits which God had bestowed upon them since their coming out of Egypt and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai with several severe Punishments which he had inflicted on them for their Disobedience to it Moses proceeds now to exhort them earnestly to the observance of it Vnto the Statutes These seem to be such Laws as concerned the Worship of God And the Judgments And then these were such as concerned their Dealings one with another Which two words comprehend all that is signified by Testimonies and Precepts also in other places Which I teach you for to do them Which he was about to set before them and press upon their Practice That ye may live and go in and possess the Land which the LORD God of your Fathers giveth you Not perish as their Fore-fathers had done in their Rebellion but be happy and enjoy what God had promised and was ready now to bestow upon them Verse 2 Ver. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish from it This is thought by some to signifie that they should not make the least alteration in the Laws he had given them about the Rites of Divine Worship and Abstinence from several Meats and such like things which were distinctive Marks whereby they were separated from other Nations to be a peculiar People to him Thus Chiskuni interprets these words Thou shalt not add fear upon the fear of the blessed God That is any other Worship to the Divine Worship prescribed by these
can tell why yet Diodorus Siculus acknowledges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the God from whom Moses pretended to have his Laws i. e. JEHOVAH Ver. 7. For what Nation is there so great who hath Verse 7 God so nigh unto them as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for Both Onkelos and the Paraphrase of Jonathan and likewise the Hierusalem Targum are very significant upon this place What People is there who have a God that approaches to them so as the LORD our God doth to us At whatsoever Hour we cry unto him he answers us It is the manner of other People to carry their Gods upon their Shoulders to shew that they are near to them when alas they are afar off and cannot hear them But the LORD our God sits on his Throne on high and hears our Prayers whatsoever time we call upon him c. To which may be added that they had a Symbol of God's Presence continually among them in the Holy Place where he dwelt with them and Moses whensoever he pleased consulted him in all difficult Affairs as their High-Priest might do with the Vrim and Thummim in all times to come Ver. 8. And what Nation is there so great that hath Verse 8 Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this Day The true Greatness of a Nation it appears by this and the foregoing Verse consists in the sincere Worship of God and in the upright Administration of Justice Both which were so provided for by the Divine Laws among the Jews that no Nation could compare with them or was really so great as they were For though their Country was but small and they were often oppressed by several cruel Enemies who desired their Extirpation yet they recovered themselves and kept their Laws in their worst Condition when commonly they best observed them Insomuch that as a very learned Person of our own Church long ago observed After so many Changes and Alterations as there were in their State from better to worse and back again after so many Victories got by them over others and so many Captivities of their Persons and Desolations of their Country as others had wrought they continued still one and the same People governed by the same Laws under several great and potent Monarchies The successive Rise and Fall of Three of which they were preserved to behold and in their declining State able to stand out a great while against the Fourth the mightiest that ever was on Earth and that when this Monarchy was in its full strength This is a plain Demonstration of the Truth of these Words of Moses That no Nation was so great as they See Dr. Jackson's First Book upon the Creed Chap. XXI Maimonides observes That the word Zaddikim which we translate righteous signifies as much as equal and proportionate Such saith he were all these Laws of God in which there was no excess by the prescription of long Pilgrimages or severe Fastings nor any defect which might open the Window to any Vice or make them careless in the Practice of Vertue More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XXXIX Verse 9 Ver. 9. Only take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thou hast seen c. Their only danger was lest they should grow careless and unmindful of all the wonderful Things that God had done for them Which he therefore exhorts them to think of frequently and to keep in Memory and lay to Heart so that they might preserve the Sence of them as long as they lived and likewise teach all Posterity to be mindful of them Ver. 10. Especially the Day that thou stoodest before Verse 10 the LORD thy God in Horeb. But above all that memorable Day when the LORD delivered his Law to them from Mount Sinai at which the oldest of them were present and had seen and heard what he said and how it was delivered When the LORD said unto me Gather me the People together Unto the foot of Mount Sinai where they stood at such a distance from it as God prescribed XIX Exod. 10 11 12 13. And I will make them hear my Words XIX Exod. 9 c. XX Exod. 1 c. That they may learn to fear me all the Days that they shall live upon the Earth c. For those Words which they heard were pronounced in so terrible a manner as to make them dread to offend his Majesty and to instruct their Children to stand in awe of him Ver. 11. And ye came near and stood under the Verse 11 Mountain XIX Exod. 17. And the Mountain burnt with Fire XIX Exod. 16 18. Into the midst of Heaven Into the middle of the Air which is frequently called Heaven in Scripture as the Fouls of Heaven are the Fouls of the Air But whether the Fire flamed up precisely into the very midst of the lower Region of the Air or only a great height is not material either way the Expression is proper enough Ver. 12. And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the Fire XIX Exod 20. XX. 1 22. Ye heard the Voice of the Words XX Exod. 19. Verse 12 But saw no Similitude Tho' sometimes the Divine Majesty seems to have appeared in a visible Shape VII Dan. 9 10. yet when he came to give them his Law he would not appear in the Figure of a Man or any other thing that might seem to represent him to their outward Senses or their Imagination For it had been dangerous then to manifest himself under any Resemblance when he forbad them to make any Resemblance of him They would have thought he forbad them to make any other Resemblance but that wherein he shewed himself to them in which they would have concluded it was lawful to represent him Only ye heard a Voice From hence some of the Jews would gather that the People only heard the Sound of God's Words when he spake the Ten Commandments but not the Distinction of the Sound so as to understand the Sense of what he said Thus Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. 2. Cap. XXXIII Which is manifestly false as appears from Ver. 10. and 13. and XX Exod. 22. For therefore the Day wherein he spake to them in Horeb was so remarkable as never to be forgotten because he made them hear his Words so that they might learn to fear him c. For tho' he did not appear in the likeness of any thing to them yet he vouchsafed to speak to them plainly in their own Language that they might be instructed in their Duty both which was to keep them from Idolatry He did not let them see any Shape that they might not make any Image of him to worship it or him by it after the manner of the Heathens but he let them hear his Voice that they might not go and worship any other Gods which the Heathens pretended spake to them Ver.
your God which he made with you and make you a graven Image c. For this Verse 23 was the principal thing in the Covenant that they should worship him alone Which is the reason it is so often repeated and was immediately after the delivery of the Law from Mount Sinai mentioned alone as if it was the only thing he had said unto them XX Exod. 22 23. Ye have seen that I have talked with you from Heaven Ye shall not make with me Gods of Silver neither shall ye make unto you Gods of Gold Ver. 24. For the LORD thy God is a consuming Verse 24 Fire So he appeared upon the Mount when he delivered his Laws from thence in flaming Fire XXIV Exod. 17. The learned Huetius thinks that from these Words of Moses the ancient Persians took up the Worship of Fire at first only as a Resemblance of God or a Symbol of him as Maximus Tyrius saith Dissert XVIII but afterwards as God himself Demonstr Evangel p. 94. Even a jealous God Who cannot endure any Rival in your Affection See XX Exod. 5. These were two awakening Arguments to keep them from Idolatry that God cannot endure it and will be very terrible in his punishment of it Ver. 25. When thou shalt beget Children and Childrens Verse 25 Children and shalt have remained long in the Land When they were very much multiplied and had been long settled in the possession of the Land of Canaan And shall corrupt your selves By the Worship of other Gods And make a graven Image or the likeness of any thing Which he had strictly prohibited and solemnly caution'd them to beware of v. 23. And shalt do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God to provoke him to Anger By imitating the idolatrous Customs of other Nations Verse 26 Ver. 26. I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this Day A solemn kind of Asseveration that as surely as the Heaven and the Earth shall endure they should utterly perish That ye shall soon utterly perish from off this Land whereunto ye go c. As soon as the Measure of your Iniquity is filled up ye shall speedily be destroyed without Remedy Which the Hebrews refer to the Captivity by Salmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar after they had been almost Eight hundred Years in this Country and so might be said to have remained long in the Land Verse 27 Ver. 27. And the LORD shall scatter you among the Nations See XXVI Levit. 33. And ye shall be left few in number among the Heathen c. XXVI Levit. 22. Verse 28 Ver. 28. And there ye shall serve Gods the work of Mens Hands Wood and Stone c. The Idols of the Heathen To the Worship of which he threatens to abandon them as a punishment for their Apostasie from God And the Heathen sometime compelled them to worship their Gods as we read in the Third of Daniel Which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell This is a Description of the most stupid Idolatry to which they should be delivered if they fell from God See XXI Numb 29. Ver. 29. But if from thence than shalt seek the LORD thy God When they were scattered among the Heathen v. 27. Thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy Heart Verse 29 and all thy Soul If they then repented sincerely and became unfeigned Worshippers of the LORD their God alone he promises them forgiveness Ver. 30. When thou art in tribulation and all these Verse 30 things are come upon thee In great distress by the execution of the foregoing Threatnings Even in the latter Days In future Times or in their most declining State The Jews themselves apply this to the present State wherein they now are and have been many Years as appears by the ancient Nitzacon set forth lately by Wagenseil p. 254. where he saith the whole Nation must repent before God send Deliverance unto them If thou turn to the LORD thy God and shalt be obedient to his Voice The great end of punishment was to convert them and make them more observant of God's Commands Ver. 31. For the LORD thy God is a merciful God Verse 31 See XXXIV Exod. 6 7. XIV Numb 17 18. He will not forsake thee neither destroy thee c. He promises not to cast them off nor destroy them utterly tho' they were utterly thrown out of their Land v. 26. but restore them to his Favour according to the Covenant made with their Fathers and confirmed by an Oath XVII Gen. 19. XXII 16 17. See XXVI Levit. 44 45. Ver. 32. For ask now of the Days that are past which Verse 32 were before thee since the day that God created Man upon the Earth c. Turn over the Annals of the whole World from one end of it to the other ever since it was made and search whether thou canst find any thing like to that which God hath done for you Which R. Isaac thus glosses in his Munimen Fidei lately set forth by Wagenseil p. 103. From the Creation of the World till their going out of Egypt there were passed Two thousand four hundred and forty eight Years and yet in all that long Tract of Time there never were seen or heard in any part of the World such prodigious Miracles as were wrought to bring them out of Egypt and afterward in leading them through the Red Sea raining Manna on them and the appearance of the Divine Majesty at Mount Sinai c. Verse 33 Ver. 33. Did ever People hear the Voice of God speaking out of the midst of Fire as thou hast heard and live Here was a double or rather tripple Prodigy never heard of before that God should speak to them audibly and distinctly so long as to inform them in their Duty towards himself and one another and this out of the midst of devouring Flames and without the least hurt to any one of them XX Exod. 18. XX. 18. XXIV 17. Verse 34 Ver. 34. Or hath God assayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation Another Wonder never before heard of that God by two Men alone Moses and Aaron should demand the Delivery of a Nation under the Power of another Nation far greater and stronger than themselves and effect it also by no other Means but such as here follow By Temptations This word may be thought to signifie the grievous Trials of the Israelites whose Miseries were increased after the first Attempt for their Deliverance which seemed to them a strange way of proceeding V Exod. 19 22 23. But by Temptations may in this place be in general meant Miracles as the Hebrews understand it and the Chaldee word Tenessin signifies This and the two following words being of the very same import with the three words in the New Testament which we often meet withal and seem to be taken from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With Miracles Wonders and Signs II Act. 22. 2 Corinth XII II Hebr.
the Verse 43 plain Country of the Reubenites and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites and Goshen in Bashan of the Manassites Thus they are set down also in the Book of Joshua XX. 8. XXI 27 36 38. Ver. 44. And this is the Law which Moses set before Verse 44 the Children of Israel Now follows the Law which after the forementioned assignation of the Cities of Refuge Moses set before all the People and pressed them to the observance of it Ver. 45. These are the Testimonies and the Statutes Verse 45 and the Judgments As the next Chapter contains the Law that is the Ten Commandments which Moses set before them So in several following Chapters after new earnest Exhortations to Obedience he represents to them the rest of God's Will comprehended under these three words Testimonies Statutes and Judgments Some of which belong to the Divine Service others to their Civil Government and the rest to Ceremonial Observations for the better security and preservation of both the former Which Moses spake unto the Children of Israel after they came forth out of Egypt Which he had formerly delivered to them after they were come out of the Egyptian Bondage in the XXI XXII XXIII Chapters of Exodus and in the following Books Verse 46 Ver. 46. On this side Jordan c. In this and the two following Verses he again mentions the place and the time when and where he set before them the Law and the Testimonies Statutes and Judgments recorded in the following part of this Book Which he repeats that all Posterity might observe these Discourses were made a little before he died In the Valley over against Beth-peor III. Vlt. In the Land of Sihon King of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon II. 24 31 c. Whom Moses and the Children of Israel smote after they were come forth out of Egypt In the fortieth Year after their departure thence As appears from XXI Numb 24. XXXIII 38. Verse 47 Ver. 47. And they possessed his Land and the Land of Og King of Bashan c. See XXI Numb 33 c. Verse 48 Ver. 48. From Aroer which is by the Bank of the River Arnon even unto Mount Sion which is Hermon The Mount here called Sion is not that which was so famous in After-times when David made it the Royal Seat for that was on the other side Jordan and is written with different Letters in the Hebrew But in all probability is a Contraction of Sirion which is the Name by which the Sidonians called Hermon For the Bounds of this Country are so described III. 8 9 12. to extend from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon which is called Sirion Chapter V. Ver. 49. And all the Plain on this side Jordan Eastward even unto the Sea of the Plain See III. 17. Verse 49 Vnder the Springs of Pisgah The same place there called Ashdod-Pisgah Which is exactly described after the same manner by Benjamin Tudelensis in his Itinerary set forth by L'Empereur p. 51. Where he saith that Jordan is called at Tiberias the Sea of Genesareth and coming from thence with a great force falls at the foot of this Hill into the Sea of Sodom which is called the Salt Sea CHAP. V. Verse 1. AND Moses called all Israel and said unto Verse 1 them That is summoned all the Elders and Heads of their Tribes who were to communicate what he said to the rest Thus it is commonly expounded But that which he saith XXIX 10 11. seems to direct us to another Interpretation that he himself went from Tribe to Tribe and repeated these Ten Words as they are called placing himself in several parts of their Camp that every one might hear what he said And this was sometime after he had in like manner exhorted them to Obedience in the foregoing Preface See IV. 41. Hear O Israel the Statutes and Judgments which I speak in your Ears this day Mind what I now say unto you That ye may learn them and keep and do them That ye may not be ignorant of such important Truths nor negligent in the Practice of them which is the End of Knowledge Verse 2 Ver. 2. The LORD our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb. See XXIV Exod. 3 5 6 7 8. Verse 3 Ver. 3. The LORD made not this Covenant with our Fathers Viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob With whom he covenanted to give their Posterity the Land of Canaan but did not make to them this discovery of his Will which was the matter of the Covenant at Horeb. But with us even us who are all here alive this day A great part of those who were then at Horeb were now alive viz. all under twenty Years old And if they had been all dead Moses might have said He made it with us because they were still the same People tho' the particular Persons were dead with whom the Covenant was made not only for themselves but for their Posterity Verse 4 Ver. 4. The LORD talked with you Face to Face in the Mount c. Openly clearly and distinctly or by himself without the Mediation of Moses but in no visible shape for that is expresly denied in the foregoing Chapter IV. 12 15. Verse 5 Ver. 5. I stood between the LORD and you at that time to shew you the Word of the LORD As a Mediator whom God employed to prepare them to meet him XIX Exod. 10 11 c. and to prescribe them the Bounds at what distance they should keep v. 12. and to bring them forth to meet with him v. 17. and to charge them to keep within their Bounds v. 21. And on the other side to represent their Desires unto God after he had spoken to them XX Exod. 19. So that he was truly a Mediator between God and them and stood also in a middle place at the foot of the Mount while they stood further off For ye were afraid by reason of the Fire XX Exod 18. And went not up into the Mount XIX Exod. 17. XX. 21. Ver. 6. I am the LORD thy God which brought Verse 6 thee out of the Land of Egypt from the House of Bondage This Preface to the Ten Commandments is explained XX Exod. 2. Ver. 7. Thou shalt have none other Gods before me Verse 7 See XX Exod. 3. It is wisely observed by Grotius Lib. 2. de Jure Belli Pacis Cap. XX. Sect. XLV That true Religion was ever built upon these Four Principles First That there is a God and that he is but One. Secondly That God is nothing of those things that we see with our Eyes but something more sublime than them all Thirdly That he takes Care of Humane Affairs and judges them most justly Fourthly That he is the Maker of all things whatsoever Which Principles are explained in these first four Precepts of the Decalogue the Unity of the Godhead being delivered in the first place Ver. 8 9 10. Thou shalt not make thee any graven Verse 8 9 10. Image
XXIV 3. And he wrote them in two Tables of Stone and delivered them unto me That is the Ten Commandments and no more XXIV Exod. 12. XXXI 18. XXXIV 1 28. Lest what they heard with their Ears should quickly slide out of their Minds he took care to have it engraven with his own Hands in these Tables Verse 23 Ver. 23. And it came to pass when ye heard the Voice out of the midst of the Darkness for the Mountain did burn with Fire that ye came near unto me even all the Heads of the Tribes and Elders After they had recovered out of the Fright wherein they were at the Conclusion of these Words When the Thunderings Lightnings and Noise of the Trumpet was so terrible that they removed and stood afar off XX Exod. 18. Verse 24 Ver. 24. And ye said Behold the LORD our God hath shewed us his Glory and his Greatness and we have heard his Voice out of the midst of the Fire Here Moses relates more largely what he said in short XX Exod. 19. We have seen this day that God doth talk with Man and he liveth This looks like a thankful Acknowledgment of the great Goodness of God in vouchsafing them such a Favour as never any Men had before and which they could not expect again And accordingly Moses makes use of it as an Argument to be very observant of God's Commands XX Exod. 22 23. Verse 25 Ver. 25. Now therefore why should we die For this great Fire will consume us For if we hear the Voice of the LORD our God any more then we shall die It is an ungrounded Conceit of Maimonides in the place above-mentioned that when they had heard the first Words they fell into a Swoon and did not recover themselves till all the rest was spoken which made them conclude that they should really die and never come to themselves again as we speak if they should hear him speak to them any more The plain meaning is that mortal Men could not endure to hear him speak in that manner For the Voice was so loud and accompanied with such Flashes of Fire and such Claps of Thunder as made them conclude if it had continued longer they should have expired Ver. 26. For who is there of all Flesh i. e. Of all Verse 26 Men who are weak and frail as the word Flesh denotes That hath heard the Voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of Fire as we have and lived There is no Instance of such a thing as this which made them afraid of hearing him speak in this manner any more For they did not mind God's End and Intention in this which Moses suggests to them in the XX Exod. 20. but in a confusion of Thoughts imagined that tho' they had escaped once the Flames out of which he spake might devour them if they came near them again Ver. 27. Go thou near and hear all that the LORD Verse 27 our God will say and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it See XX Exod. 19. This shews their Opinion of Moses that he could be able not only to endure that without disorder which made them ready to die but go into the very midst of the Darkness out of which those Flames came Ver. 28. And the LORD heard the Voice of your Verse 28 Words when ye spake unto me and the LORD said unto me I have heard the Voice of the Words of this People c. As Moses here reports more largely what they said to him than he did in Exodus so he likewise gives a larger Account what God bad him say to them in answer to their desire They have well said all that they have spoken It very much becomes them out of a sence of their meanness and unworthiness and of the inconceivable Majesty of God to desire he would speak to them by a Mediator Verse 29 Ver. 29. O that there were such an Heart in them that they would fear me and keep my Commandments always The words are wonderful emphatical in the Hebrew Who will give that there may be such an Heart in them Which is an Expression of the most earnest desire but withal signifies that if what he had done for them would not move them to fear and obey him it was impossible to perswade them to it Not but that he could miraculously work upon them and change their Hearts saith Maimonides if he pleased as he miraculously changed the Nature of other things but if this were God's Will to deal with them after this fashion there would have been no need to send a Prophet to them or to publish Laws full of Precepts and Promises Rewards and Punishments by which saith he God wrought upon their Heart and not by his absolute Omnipotence More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXXII That it might be well with them and with their Children for ever For God desired nothing more than this which they themselves promised v. 27. which moved him to vouchsafe such a special Priviledge to them as first to speak to them himself and at their desire consent to speak to them by his Prophet Verse 30 Ver. 30. Go say to them get you into your Tents again All this shews that Moses was a Mediator between God and them and between them and God Ver. 31. But as for thee stand thou here by me He invites Moses unto the nearest approaches unto his Majesty and the most familiar converse with him Verse 31 XX Exod. 21. XXIV 2 18. For this was the highest degree of Prophecy as Maimonides calls it in his More Nevochim P. III. Cap. LI. And in his Preface to that Book he saith This is the greatest degree of Illumination of a Prophet concerning whom it is said Stand thou here with me And again The Skin of his Face shone Which he supposes signified that his Mind was always full of light whereas other Prophets were sometime in darkness and saw nothing And I will speak unto thee all the Commandments and the Statutes and the Judgments which thou shalt teach them According to their own desire v. 27. See VI. 1. And that they may do them in the Land which I give them to possess it According to their Promise in the same v. 27. Ver. 32. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD Verse 32 your God hath commanded you Being obliged by such singular Benefits as no other Nation ever had the like v 24 25 26. and having engaged themselves so solemnly to be obedient v. 27. Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left This is a Phrase often used to signifie a strict observance of God's Laws neither superstitiously adding to them nor profanely laying aside any of them XVII 20. XXVIII 14. 1 Josh 7. Ver. 33. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD Verse 33 your God hath commanded you That is observe all his Laws
Evil but he serves God truly because he is the Truth and the chiefest Good that he may be admitted to Communion with him And a Man ought to love him with the most vehement and intense Affection so that he languish with love to him just as a Man that is in love with one he desires to make his Wife Wheresoever he is at home or abroad when he eats and drinks when he lies down and rises up he thinks of her To which Solomon compares the Love of the Spouse who saith I am sick of Love 2 Cant. 5. To this purpose Baal Chasidim mentioned by Wagenseil upon Sota Cap. V. p. 611. By the Heart may be here meant the Will which is the Original of all that a Man doth as the Jews speak whether Good or Evil By the Soul the Affections to which St. Mark adds the Mind i. e. the Understanding or Rational Faculty and by Might or Strength is meant the Power of the Body for Action which four all together make up the whole Man And the word ALL added to each of these doth not exclude all other things from any share in our Thoughts and Affections but only from an equal Interest in them The Love of God ought to be superiour and direct all our other Motions to serve him as Maimonides expresses it in his Preface to Pirke Avoth Ver. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children In the Hebrew the words are as our Margin observes shall whet or sharpen them signifying Verse 7 as some think that they should endeavour to make them pierce their Hearts But De Dieu rather thinks it signifies Beat them into them as things are hammered on an Anvil with repeated Strokes Which the famous Bochartus doth not so well approve who observes that the word Sanan which in Arabick signifies in the first place to sharpen or whet signifies also Exquisitè docere c. to teach exquisitely so that he who is taught be made thereby more acute and perspicacious Which is the intention he thinks of the Hebrew word here L. 2. Canaan Cap. XVII However it be expounded it imports the Diligence they should use as we translate it to instil this Principle into their Children's Minds that there is but One God and to work in them a fear and love of his Divine Majesty For to that which goes before v. 4 5 6. these words have a particular respect By which it appears that Moses thought his Law was so plain that every Father might be able to instruct his Sons in it and every Mother her Daughters And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up As much as to say they should take all occasions to inculcate this great thing at home and abroad Night and Day never ceasing their most earnest Endeavours to perswade their Children not to worship any other God nor to fail to worship the LORD their God with sincere Affection The Jews have made from hence one of their affirmative Precepts That twice a Day at least they should recite these words Hear O Israel c. which is a very dilute Sence of this Precept Wherein Moses requires not meerly their saying these words in which there might be a great deal of Superstition but taking all opportunities to imprint them upon the Minds and Hearts of their Children Verse 8 Ver. 8. And thou shalt bind them for a Sign upon thine Hand and they shall be as Frontlets between thine Eyes Just thus he commands them to preserve the Memory of their Deliverance out of the Land of Egypt almost in the same words See XIII Exod. 9 16. where this is sufficiently explained And it appears to be a Proverbial Speech from XLIX Isa 16. There are some learned Men indeed who take these words literally notwithstanding St. Hierom hath delivered his Opinion to the contrary that there is no Command for Phylacteries which are grounded upon these words particularly Jos Scaliger in his Elench Trihaeres Nic. Serarii Cap. 7. 8. Where he thinks God gave this Command to the Israelites to prevent their following the Rites of other Nations who armed themselves against Dangers with superstitious Amulets in their Foreheads which the Egyptians he thinks called Totaphot But since neither here nor in Exodus there are any such words as thou shalt make thee Frontlets but Moses only saith the things he is speaking of shall be for Frontlets between their Eyes I take it not to be meant literally Tho' it 's likely they intended well who so understood it For our blessed Saviour doth not seem to reprove the Jews for wearing Phylacteries but for their Ostentation in making them broader than ordinary Ver. 9. And thou shalt write them upon the Posts of thy House and on thy Gates This looks more like a literal Command than the former and it might Verse 9 have been very useful to them when they went in and out of their House to read these words Hear O Israel the LORD thy God is one LORD c. But the Jews are too scrupulous about the Words they should write and upon what part of the Posts and Gates they were to put them c. as Mr. Selden observes Lib. III. De Synedr Cap. XIII N. 2. Tho' after all it may be this was not intended but only that they should never let this Principle slip out of their Mind but think of it when they went out and came in as well as when they were in their Houses and by the Way when they rose up and when they lay down Yet it must be observed that other Nations used to write their Laws upon their Gates as Huetius notes in his Demonstratio Evangelica p. 58. which it 's likely they did in imitation of the Jews who to this Day have written in a Parchment these Words from v. 4. to the end of this Verse with that other passage Chap. XI from v. 13. to v. 20. which they roll up and writing on it the Name of Shaddai put it into a piece of Cane or other hollow Wood and fasten it to the Doors of their Houses and of each particular Room in them and as often as they go in and out they make it a part of their Devotion to touch this Parchment and kiss it As Leo Modena tells us in his History of the Jews P. 1. Cap. 2. Ver. 10. And it shall be when the LORD thy God Verse 10 shall have brought thee into the Land which he sware c. Of this he speaks with the greatest assurance there being no doubt to be made that God would immediately give them possession of the good Land promised to them The only danger was lest they should be thrown out of it for their Disobedience Great and goodly Cities which thou buildedst not For they did not lay all waste as they did Jericho for which there was a particular Reason but dwelt in them
after they had destroyed the Inhabitants Verse 11 Ver. 11. And Houses full of all good things which thou filledst not c. In this and what follows in the rest of the Verse he sets forth the great Bounty of God to them who intended to enrich them with all manner of Good Things without any Labour of their own to purchase them Verse 12 Ver. 12. Then beware lest thou forget the LORD which brought thee forth out of the Land of Egypt c. In Prosperity we are too prone to forget our Benefactors Verse 13 Ver. 13. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God and serve him Preserve an awful Sence of him in thy Mind and be constant in his Worship and Service which was never more necessary than when they enjoyed so many Blessings from him And shalt swear by his Name When there was any need for it As in making Covenants with their Neighbours or in bearing their Testimony before a Judge they were to swear only by the Name of God not by any Idol nor by the Heaven or the Earth or any thing therein for they can bear Witness to nothing See XXIII Joshua 7 8. Nor was it lawful as Maimonides observes in his Treatise called Shebuoth to joyn any other thing with the Name of God But it was all one whether a Man sware by the proper Name of God or by any of his Attributes as by the Name of him who is merciful or gracious or long-suffering c. for this is a perfect Oath See Selden L. 2. De Synedr Cap. XI N. 2. And see N. 7. concerning other Oaths Ver. 14. Ye shall not go after other Gods of the Gods of the People which are round about you This shews Verse 14 that his Intention in this Chapter is to press upon them the Observation of the First Commandment which our Saviour justly calls the Great Commandment Ver. 15. For the LORD thy God is a jealous God Verse 15 See XX Exod. 5. XXXIV Exod. 14. Among you In the Hebrew In the midst of you to observe all you do tho' never so secretly Lest the Anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the Earth For this was the most provoking of all other Sins And therefore we never read either in the Law or in the Prophets the word Charon i. e. Fury or Aph Anger or Caas Indignation or Kinah Jealousie ascribed unto God but when mention is made of Idolatry So Maimonides observes More Nevoch P. I. Cap. XXXVI Ver. 16. Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God as Verse 16 ye tempted him in Massah Never distrust God's good Providence nor murmur against him in any distress For that was the Temptation at Massah XVII Exod. 2 7. Ver. 17. You shall diligently keep the Commandments Verse 17 of the LORD your God and his Testimonies and his Statutes which he hath commanded thee As if he had said I cannot too oft press this upon you nor can you use too great care in this matter Ver. 18. And thou shalt do that which is right and Verse 18 good in the sight of the LORD that it may be well with thee As they loved themselves he charges them not to follow their own Desires which is called doing that which is good in their own Eyes but govern themselves by his Holy Will And that thou mayest go in and possess the good Land Or rather After thou hast gone in and possessed the good Land which the LORD sware unto thy Fathers For there was no doubt of their going in but only of their behaviour there after they were made so happy v. 10 11 12. Verse 19 Ver. 19. To cast out all thine Enemies from before thee as the LORD hath spoken He seems particularly to charge them to drive out the People of Canaan as God had commanded XXXIII Numb 32. For otherwise they would tempt them to forget this great Principle of their Religion that the God of Israel was the only God and intice them to serve their Idols v. 14. Verse 20 Ver. 20. And when thy Son asketh thee in time to come saying What mean the Testimonies and the Statutes and the Judgments which the LORD our God hath commanded you Abarbinel thinks that their Posterity in future Ages might observe three sorts of Precepts in the Law viz. Testimonies which in Hebrew are called Eduth which were such Constitutions as bare witness of some great thing God had done for them and preserved the Memory thereof such was the Passover And then Secondly There were Chukkim Statutes which are such Precepts the Reason of which is unknown And Thirdly Mischpatim Judgments which are such whose Reason is evident Now they might desire to know the Reason why such several Laws were given And he thinks Moses teaches them to give a distinct Answer to their Children about each of these Ver. 21. Then thou shalt say unto thy Son we were Pharaohs Bondmen in Egypt and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty Hand As if he had said Tell them the Reason why he gave us the first Verse 21 sort of Precepts particularly that about the Passover was because we were Slaves and God brought us into a State of Liberty which he would have always thankfully remembred by the observation of that Feast which testified what God wrought for us by his own Power alone The like may be said of the other two great Festivals which were to preserve the Memory of such-like Benefits Ver. 22. And the LORD shewed Signs and Wonders Verse 22 great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and all his Houshold c. Particularly slew all their First-born and spared those of the Israelites The Memory of which he ordered to be preserved by giving their First-born unto him XIII Exod. Ver. 23. And he brought us out from thence that he Verse 23 might bring us in to give us the Land which he sware to our Fathers This is the Reason Abarbinel fancies of giving them the Judgments before-mentioned God brought us out saith he to place us in this good Land and settle us here under a Government of our own Now Civil Society cannot be preserved without just Judgments and therefore that we might live in good Order God gave us these Political Laws Ver. 24. And the LORD commanded us to do all Verse 24 these Statutes to fear the LORD our God As for the third sort which are Statutes give your Children this Answer That tho' we do not know the Reason of them yet the benefit of them is manifest for they lead us to the Fear of God And nothing is so much for our Good as that both for the eternal Good of our Souls and for the long Life of our Bodies So he interprets the last Words of this Verse And so doth Maimonides For our Good always that he may preserve us alive as it is at this Day The first Words in the Hebrew are That it may be well
and stony places have the least swelling in them Or as some translate it grow callous There are those that refer this last Clause not to their Feet but to their Shoes according to what we read XXIX 5. Ver. 5. Thou shalt also consider in thine Heart Often reflect and ponder Verse 5 That as a Man chastneth his Son so the LORD thy God chastneth thee All the Afflictions which God had sent upon them he would have them think were not for their undoing but for their amendment and correcting what was amiss in them and therefore ought to be thankfully acknowledged as well as his Benefits Ver. 6. Therefore thou shalt keep the Commandments Verse 6 of the LORD thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him Howsoever therefore he dealt with them it ought to have led them to Obedience In the repetition of this so often Moses doth but practice his own Lesson which he had taught them VI. 7. That they should teach these Words diligently to their Children c. Ver. 7. For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a Verse 7 good Land Therefore there was the greater need they should enter into it with the pious Resolution before-mentioned to fear God and walk in his ways Otherwise they would be in great danger to be corrupted by such plenty and variety of all good things as this Land afforded A Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of Valleys and Hills The Hebrew word Tehom which we translate deep and in the plural Number Depths signifies sometimes those great Caverns of Water that are within the Ground which were made by the plentiful Rains which God sent upon this Country while they were obedient to him Which both made it fruitful tho' now barren and abounding also with Water for their Cattle LXXVIII Psal 15. XXXI Ezek. 4. But it is here commonly interpreted Lakes or Wells of Water Verse 8 Ver. 8. A Land of Wheat and Barley and Vines and Fig-trees and Pomegranates Plentifully stored with all things necessary for the support and pleasure of Life A Land of Oyl-Olive and Honey The same word Debas which signifies Honey signifies also Dates And so de Dieu thinks it most reasonable to translate it here being joyned with four other sorts of Fruits And so Kimchi saith the ancient Jews expounded it in this place and in 2 Chron. XXXI 5. where it is said That Israel brought in abundance the first Fruits of Corn Wine Oyl and Honey or Dates as we there translate it in the Margin Verse 9 Ver. 9. A Land wherein thou shalt eat Bread without scarceness Be in no want of any sort of Provision which is comprehended under the Name of Bread Thou shall not lack any thing in it No other Conveniences of Life A Land whose Stones are Iron and out of whose Hills thou mayst dig Brass Where there are useful Minerals as plentiful as Stones are in other places These are the rather mentioned because there were no such Mines in Egypt where they had long dwelt and were stored with plenty of other things XI Numb 5. Verse 10 Ver. 10. When thou hast eaten and art full After a liberal Meal Then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good Land which he hath given thee Give solemn Thanks to God not only for that present Repast but for the plentiful Provision he had made for them of all good things in the Land he had bestowed on them From this place the Jews have made it a general Rule or as they call it an affirmative Precept That every one bless God at their Meals That is as I said give him Thanks for his Benefits For he blesses us when he bestows good things upon us and we bless him when we thankfully acknowledge his Goodness therein Which is a natural Duty which we owe to the Fountain and Original of all Good Ver. 11. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy Verse 11 God in not keeping his Commandments and his Judgments and his Statutes which I command thee this day He would have their Thanksgiving for his Benefits leave such a sence of God upon their Minds as should make them careful to yield him an entire Obedience Ver. 12. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full Verse 12 and hast built goodly Houses and dwelt therein Feasted in stately Houses wherein they enjoyed their Ease Ver. 13. And when thy Herds and thy Flocks are multiplied Verse 13 and thy Silver and thy Gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied The sence of these two Verses is when they had great abundance of all good things within Doors and without Ver. 14. Then thine Heart be lifted up Which is Verse 14 an usual Effect of great Riches as Euripides observes in that known Saying of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wealth breeds Pride Scorn and Contempt of others This Moses Kotzensis thought so great a Sin that he puts it among the Negative Precepts and pretends he was warned in a Dream so to do tho' Maimonides and others had omitted it And when he awaked he was confirmed in it by reading a place in the Gemara upon Sota Cap. I. which saith Wheresoever we find these Words in Scripture Take heed lest there is a Prohibition as there is v. 11. and here to take heed of Pride For whosoever is proud he shall be brought low as the Gemara there adds which are in a manner the Words of our blessed Saviour XVIII St. Luke 14. And thou forget the LORD thy God This is another common effect of large Possessions which make the Owners of them fall into Sloth and Luxury and such Forgetfulness of the Donor of all good Things that they trust in uncertain Riches as the Apostle speaks and not in the living God imagining now they can never want not because God is so good but because they have such store of good Things laid up for many Years Which brought thee forth out of the Land of Egypt and from the House of Bondage No wonder if they forgot all his former Benefits when they were unthankful for the present Verse 15 Ver. 15. Who led thee through that great and terrible Wilderness See I. 19. Wherein were fiery Serpents See XXI Numb 6. And Scorpions These are commonly joyned with Serpents in Scripture even in the New Testament X Luke 19. XI 12 13. being found in the same places especially in this Desert of Arabia And Drought The Hebrew word Tsimmaon signifies a dry place as we translate it CVII Psal 33. XXXV Isa 7. And that best agrees with what here follows Where there was no Water Who brought thee forth Water out of a Rock of Flint From which one would have sooner expected Fire than Water XX Numb 11. Who fed thee in the Wilderness with Manna which thy Fathers knew not v. 3. The great Salmasius in a Treatise on purpose about Manna hath said a great deal to prove that the Manna which God sent
that this Nation is thy People And see v. 15 16. CHAP. X. Verse 1 Verse 1. AT that time the LORD said unto me Hew the two Tables of Stone like unto the first and come up unto me into the Mount After his Anger was something appeased he ordered Moses to come up to him where he had been before and bring with him two Tables of Stone like those he had broke that God might renew his Covenant with them But there was this difference as I observed XXXIV Exod. 1. that God himself made the former Tables but he bad Moses make these which signifies some Abatement of his Favour And make thee an Ark of Wood. This Command was given at his first going up into the Mount XXV Exod. 10. and perhaps was renewed again now upon the occasion of making these new Tables which were to be put into it Ver. 2. And I will write on the Tables the words that were in the first Tables which thou brakest So we read he told him XXXIV Exod. 1. And thou shalt put them in the Ark. As soon as it Verse 2 was made to receive them Ver. 3. And I made an Ark of Shittim-wood This Verse 3 looks as if he made an Ark before he made the Tables that when he brought them down it might be ready to receive them And it hath given some ground to the Jewish Doctors to say that there were two Arks one made by Moses wherein he put the Tables of Stone that were broken and those that were renewed until the others was made by Bezaleel For we read expresly that Bezaleel made the Ark XXXVII Exod. 1. and here it is said that Moses made it So that they conclude there were two made and this made by Moses they fancy was the Ark that went before them in their Marches and Battles which the other never did by God's order but only when they entred into Canaan III Josh for when of their own selves they carried it forth in the days of Eli God was angry with them and delivered it into the Enemies hand 1 Sam. IV. 3 4 11. But Aben-Ezra Nachmanides and Abarbinel have confuted this by strong Reasons to the contrary as may be seen in Buxtorf's Histor Arcoe p. 35 36 c. And as to this place they are of Opinion that Moses speaks of the Ark made afterwards by Bezaleel which Moses is said to have made because he commanded him to make it Just as Solomon is said to have built the Temple because he caused it to be built Or if it be granted that Moses made an Ark before he went the second time into the Mount which this Verse seems to Countenance it will not follow that there were two Arks in use among the Israelites for this Ark now made was of meer Wood not overlaid with Gold and designed only as a Chest wherein to keep the Tables handsomely till the Ark could be made by Bezaleel and then the Tables were translated into that and this Chest of Moses laid aside And hewed two Tables of Stone like unto the first and went up into the Mount c. See XXXIV Exod 4. Verse 4 Ver. 4. And he wrote on the Tables according to the first writing the Ten Commandments XXXIV Exod. 28. Which the LORD commanded you in the Mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the Assembly When the whole Congregation was gathered together at the foot of the Mount See IX 10. And the LORD gave them unto me To carry down to the People Verse 5 Ver. 5. And I turned my self From the Divine Presence where he had been supplicating for Mercy and had received from thence the Tables of the Covenant And came down from the Mount At the end of Forty Days and Nights XXXIV Exod. 28 29. And put the Tables in the Ark which I had made Which he commanded to be made by Bezaleel XXXVII Exod. 1. and put into the Tabernacle as soon as it was built with these Tables in it XL Exod. 20 21. And there they be as the LORD commanded me Though Moses mention his making the Ark before his hewing the Tables and going up into the Mount v. 3. yet these words seem to determine that he speaks of the Ark made by Bezaleel according to his directions For now that they were going over Jordan the Tables were in the Ark which he is said here to have made Which was certainly the Ark of the Covenant not that Chest which some suppose Moses to have made to keep the Tables in till the other could be sitted for their Reception Ver. 6. And the Children of Israel took their journey Verse 6 from Beeroth of the Children of Jaakan to Mosera Not immediately but after they had passed through several other places and made some stay in them For they went from Bene-Jaakan to Gudgodah or Hor-hagidgad and so to Jotbath and the rest of the Mansions mentioned XXXIII Numb 32 33 c. until they came to Mount Hor. There Aaron died and there he was buried At Mosera or the top of Mount Hor which was another part of the same Mountain as Horeb was of Sinai And Eleazar his Son ministred in the Priests Office in his stead The greatest difficulty is to give an account how this comes in here and what connexion this and the following Verse have with what went before All the satisfaction that I can give to it is this that Moses having told them that he put the Tables of the Testimony or Covenant into the Ark as a Token God was reconciled to them and that there they still were as the LORD commanded he puts them out of all doubt of it by telling them that though Aaron who had the special Care of the Holy Place and all things in it committed to him was dead yet Eleazar his Son was still alive who could testifie those Holy Things remained as when Moses first placed them there he being Consecrated to the Priests Office instead of Aaron and in this very Mount XX Numb 25 26 c. which is the occasion of mentioning this Station here when most of the rest are omitted Verse 7 Ver. 7. And from thence Not from Mosera but from Bene-jaakan as appears from XXXIII Numb 32. where a full Account is given of their Removals which are but just touched here They journeyed to Gudgodah Called in the Book of Numbers by the Name of Hor-hagidgad And none will think it strange that there is such variation in the proper Names of Places and of Men in Profane Writers as well as the Scriptures who considers as Conradus Pellicanus here notes how differently the Names of Places are pronounced now from what they were in former Ages and how much one Nation differs from another when they speak of them and what Alterations are made from the first Founders of Nations and Cities by those that conquer them and change all Names to their own Glory See how Names were changed among the Israelites in
a low flat Country like that of Egypt but full of Hills which could not be made fruitful but by Rain from Heaven which seldom fell in Egypt but the Israelites might expect in due season if they were obedient to God Who by this means after they had ploughed their Ground and sowed their Corn made it spring up plentifully without any further Labour or Care of theirs Such a Country also was more pleasant and healthy than that of Egypt whose Ground next to Nile being overflowed more or less every Year by the rising of Nile to the fall of it which was from the Solstice to the Aequinox or as some say an hundred Days See Salmasius upon Solinus p. 427 c. 436 c. they could not walk abroad into their Fields and many times there followed after the Water was gone off great Sicknesses and Diseases by the smell of the Silt which it had left behind Ver. 12. A Land which the LORD thy God careth Verse 12 for Takes care that it want not Water by sending Showers of Rain plentifully from Heaven in their proper Season The Eyes of the LORD thy God That is the Providence of God whose Majesty dwelt in the Sanctuary Are always upon it To see what is wanting and to supply it From the beginning of the Year even unto the end of the Year At all Seasons to give them both the first and latter Rain as he speaks v. 14. and such Weather as might both produce and kindly ripen the Fruits of the Earth This he mentions as an Argument to Obedience in which if they failed he plainly tells them the Land should not yield her Fruit v. 17. For this Country was not so Fertile of it self as by the peculiar Blessing of God upon it whilst they kept his Laws Verse 13 Ver. 13. And it shall come to pass if ye will hearken diligently unto my Commandments which I command you this day To hearken diligently here signifies to consider them seriously and lay them to heart To love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul He repeats this so often because it is the Great Commandment as our Saviour speaks and because nothing is more natural than to love our Benefactors God especially our greatest Benefactor who gave us our being with all our Heart and with all our Soul See X. 12. And being the first and great Commandment it draws along with it Obedience to all the rest and is in effect the whole Duty of Man to God For constant Experience shows us that whosoever gets the firm hold of this Affection governs a Man as he pleaseth .. Ver. 14. That I will give you the Rain of your Land as much as is sufficient for such an hilly Country In his due season At the proper times which Verse 14 here follow The first Rain Before the sowing of their Seed to prepare the Ground and after it was sown that it might take root in the Earth and spring up And the latter Rain When the Corn was grown up towards earing time and after it was eared to make the Ears full and plump This appears from IV Amos 7. where he speaks of with-holding the Rain from them while there were yet three Months to the Harvest Which is meant of this latter Rain whereby their Corn was brought forward when it was but in the Blade to earing and so on to Harvest That thou mayest gather in thy Corn and thy Wine and thine Oil. Till the Corn and all the Fruits of the Earth be brought to maturity Ver. 15. And I will send Grass in thy Fields for Verse 15 thy Cattle To make them fat or to give plenty of Milk That thou mayest eat and be full Eat Flesh if they pleased as well as the Fruits of the Earth in great Plenty Ver. 16. Take heed to your selves that your heart be Verse 16 not deceived By the specious Colours that other Nations put upon their Idolatry as the Antiquity of it Vniversal Consent c. there being no part of the World at that time as Maimonides observes where all were not accustomed to worship Images c. whereby the Israelites were in danger to be seduced into an Imitation of their Neighbours And ye turn aside and serve other Gods and worship them By this it is evident that Moses is still pressing them to Care in observing the first and second Commandment Verse 17 Ver. 17. And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you For their being deceived into Idolatry by false Reasonings which perswaded them what they did was lawful did not excuse them before God Who expected they should have used greater Caution and governed themselves by his plain and express Commands And he shut up the Heavens that there be no Rain The contrary to this is called opening his good Treasure XXVIII Deut. 12. signifying that they lived upon the Royal Bounty of the King of Heaven which their Sins would hinder from flowing to them That the Land yield not her Fruit and lest ye perish quickly from off the good Land which the LORD giveth you To with-hold Rain from them was a sore Judgment which quickly brought a Famine which was very grievous to those who used to live so plentifully And it was frequently attended with various Diseases whereby they were wasted and consumed Verse 18 Ver. 18. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul See VI. 6. And bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes Always in sight as the Rule whereby they should order their steps lest they trod amiss This is one of the Portions of Scripture from v. 13. to the end of v. 21. which the Jews write in their Tephilim as they call them which they use when they say their Prayers which they fancy are thereby made more acceptable unto God This Conceit began not long before our Saviour's time in the School of Hillel and Schammai and took such Root in the Minds of the most Religious that it hath grown to a great Superstition ever since See upon Chap. VI. v. 8 9. Which is another Portion of Scripture that they wrote in these Parchments though at the first St. Hierom saith upon XXIII Matth. 5. they wrote only the Ten Commandments Ver. 19. And ye shall teach them your Children Verse 19 This is repeated very often IV. 10. VI. 7. And out of this place and V. 1. the Jews have framed this as one of their affirmative Precepts That they ought themselves to learn the Law of God and to teach it unto others And this they do so diligently that as soon as their Children are capable to understand any thing they make them carefully read the Holy Books and instruct them so that before they can be called Youths they are acquainted with the whole Law of God In which we must confess they shame a great many Christians who scarce understand
so much of our Religion when they are Men and Women as the Jews do of theirs when they are meer Children From the Hebrew word limmathtem in this Verse ye shall teach them the Jews have framed a Conceit that their Talmud hath its Name signifying teaching and instruction as R. Jechiel saith in his Disputation with Nicolaus pag. 9. Speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way c. Taking all occasions to inculcate these Precepts upon them See VI. 7. and upon their Daughters as well as their Sons though the Jewish Doctors commonly fancy there is no command to instruct their Daughters in the Law See Mischna Sota Cap. III. Sect. IV. with Wagenseil's Annotations and the Gamara there p. 471 501. Verse 20 Ver. 20. And thou shalt write them upon the Door-posts of thy House and upon thy Gates See VI. 9. By this means God's Word being so rooted in the hearts of the Parents to use the words of Dr. Jackson as to bring forth this good Fruit in their Practice the Seed of it might be sown in the tender Hearts of their Children and be propagated from one Generation to another Verse 21 Ver. 21. That your days may be multiplied and the days of your Children in the Land which the LORD sware unto your Fathers to give them Nothing is wont to move Men more than Love to themselves and Love to their Children whom they Love next to themselves As the days of Heaven upon the Earth As long as this World shall last Which the Psalmist speaking of David expresses in this manner His Seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the days of Heaven LXXXIX Psal 29. Which doth not signifie absolutely for ever but a long time For thus Baruch says the Jews in Babylon were commanded to pray for the Life of Nebuchadnezzar and the Life of Baltasar his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their days might be as the days of Heaven upon Earth Which is the very Phrase of Moses here in this place importing a very long Life And such Hyperbolical Expressions every one knows are used by the Heathen particularly by Virgil. Aeneid 1. Convexa polus dum sidera pascet Ver. 22. For if ye shall diligently keep all these Commandments Verse 22 c. To love the LORD your God This is still made the Condition of all their Happiness See v. 13. X. 20. To walk in all his ways In observance of his Laws which was the Fruit of true love to him And to cleave unto him So as to serve no other God but to persevere in the Worship of the LORD their God alone The Jews make this one of the DCXIII Precepts of the Law as they count them distinct by it self but they interpret it foolishly of sticking to the CABALA of their wise Men whereby they fancy themselves united unto God Ver. 23. Then will the LORD drive out all these Verse 23 Nations from before you As he had often promised VII 23. XXIII Exod. 27. And ye shall possess Nations greater and mightier than your selves VII 1. Ver. 24. Every place wherein the soles of your feet Verse 24 shall tread shall be yours That is every place of the promised Land as it is explained in the next words From the Wilderness Viz. of Sin which was on the South of Canaan And Lebanon Which was its Bounds on the North. From the River the River Euphrates Which was the Eastern Limits when in the days of Solomon their Empire reached hither according to the Promise unto Abraham in XV Gen. 18. Even unto the uttermost Sea shall your Coast be Which is now called the Mediterranean or the Midland Sea which bounded it on the West See XXXIV Numb 6. where it is called the Great Sea and in that Chapter the Bounds of their Country round about are described Verse 25 Ver. 25. There shall no Man be able to stand before you See VII 24. For the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the Land that ye shall tread upon as he hath said unto you For God had promised to terrifie the Inhabitants of Canaan and take away their Courage XXIII Exod. 27. And accordingly the Spies whom Joshua sent brought him an account of the great Consternation wherein the whole Country was when they were about to enter into it II Josh 9 24. Verse 26 Ver. 26. Behold I set before you this day a Blessing and a Curse That is he proposed them to their choice Verse 27 Ver. 27. A Blessing if you obey the Commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day Which he more largely explains XXVIII 2 3 4 c. Verse 28 Ver. 28. And a Curse if ye will not obey the Commandment of the LORD your God Which is also more particularly laid before them XXVIII 15 16 17 c. The whole Historical Part of the Old Testament witnesses the Truth of this that God blessed or cursed them according as they observed or broke his Laws And if the People of Israel had diligently marked considered and laid to heart that their Happiness or Misery were always correspondent to their good and bad Behaviour towards God it would have confirmed their Belief of their Law as much as if they had seen all the Miracles done before their Fore-fathers and supplied the want or the rarity of them in after Ages Nay this would have done more than all the Miracles did which were forgotten in a short time whereas their own daily Experience of the happy Fruits of Obedience and the Mischief of Disobedience would have sealed these Truths unto their Conscience But turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which ye have not known It was not every sin that turned God's favour from them but their Idolatry and Apostacy from him against which he principally warns them throughout all these Chapters IV. 3 4 15 16 23. V. 32. VI. 4 14. VII 4 5 25. VIII 19. IX 12. X. 20. Ver. 29. And it shall come to pass when the Lord thy Verse 26 God hath brought thee into the Land whither thou goest to possess it that thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal To quicken them unto a strict care in their Obedience Blessings and Cursings were to be pronounced with great Solemnity at their first entrance into the Land of Canaan as is more fully ordered XXVII 11 12 c. and performed by Joshua VIII 33 34 35. And Moses seems to enjoyn them the like Solemnity every Seventh Year XXXI 10 11 12 13. Ver. 30. Are they not on the other side Jordan Verse 30 With respect to the place where Moses now was the Mountains he mentions were on the other side of Jordan in the Land of Canaan In which they had no sooner got footing but Joshua took care to execute this Command that their
more Reverence for them than to Accuse them of any Crime whatsoever As if a greater regard was to be had to them than to God himself The true Reason is because there was no need to name them for if their Piety to God was to overcome their Love to all those Relations before-mentioned it could not be supposed that Respect to Parents was to come into competition with it Intice thee secretly In the foregoing Verses he speaks of an open Seducer and here of a secret one There of one that came with Authority and here of one of the ordinary People Saying Let us go and serve other gods The Jews think this is meant of one who invited others to Idolatry but did not press them with Reasons as in the former Case Which is not likely for all Men pretend some Reason or other for such a great Alteration as that to a new Religion Which thou hast not known thou nor thy Fathers This aggravates the Crime to entice them to forsake God who was known to have done such Wonders for their Fathers and was so good to them and go to serve gods with whom they had no Acquaintance Ver. 7. Namely of the gods of the People which are round about you nigh unto thee or far off from thee Wheresoever they were for several Nations had several Verse 7 gods whether in the neighbouring Countries or in remote Parts it made no difference at all if they were strange gods From one end of the Earth even unto the other end of the Earth The Enticer might possibly suggest the Universality of the Worship to which he invited him as an Argument to embrace it Verse 8 Ver. 8. Thou shalt not consent unto him As many words as there are in this Verse the Jews think there are so many Precepts The first of which is this Not to be led by Affection and kindness to yield unto his Motion So they interpret these words Thou shalt not love him Nor hearken unto him I do not see how this differs from the former but they interpret it That they ought to hate him as well as his Motion So Maimonides in his Book of the Worship of the Planets Cap. V. Sect. 6 7. Neither shall thine eye pity him This they fancy signifies that if he were in danger of death they should not help him but let him perish Neither shalt thou spare When he was brought before the Judge they were not to intercede for him nor say any thing in his favour nor assist him to defend himself Neither shalt thou conceal him Dissemble any thing that might make against him And no doubt God intended by all these words to signifie that he ought to be lookt upon as his greatest Enemy upon whom therefore they were to have no Mercy but to prosecute him unto death as guilty of the highest Treason against the Divine Majesty Ver. 9. But thou shalt surely kill him Not privately as he inticed others but by a Legal Process against him in a Court of Judgment And that not Verse 9 the highest but in the Court of XXIII who might proceed against him as Mr. Selden observes Lib. III. de Synedr Cap. VI. The only difficulty was how to prove him Guilty who inticed another secretly as the Text saith and not before Witnesses To which the Jews answer That he who was inticed was to dispose some Persons as secretly near to the place of their next meeting who might hear all he said and testifie it in Court Thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death He was to be stoned to Death and the Accuser was to throw the first Stone at him together with the Witnesses XVII 7. For it would have weakned the Credit of his Accusation if he had not been the foremost in the Execution See XVII 7. And afterwards the hand of all the People Who were to assist in the Execution of this Sentence The first words of this Verse which we translate Thou shalt surely kill him the Vulgar Latin translates Thou shalt forthwith kill him And so the Jews understand the Hebrew Phrase Killing thou shalt kill him i. e. immediately have him before the Court of Judgment As the LXX understood it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 informing thou shalt inform against him that is without delay And accordingly the Jews add that after he was Condemned he was immediately also put to death Whereas in other Crimes the Execution was respited after the Sentence was pronounced for a Day and a Night that the Man might have time to clear his Innocence if he were able by any new Proofs Such Severity was but needful among a People prone to Idolatry and incompassed on all sides with idolatrous Nations Verse 10 Ver. 10. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die But if upon Admonition he desisted from his Enticement and repented of what he had said to his Neighbour and resolved himself not to worship other gods he was not bound to inform against him Because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt c. See v. 5. The very attempt of this was Criminal though he did not prevail in his Seducement Verse 11 Ver. 11. And all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this among you The end of this Severity was to preserve the Body of the People from the Contagion of Idolatry Nothing being more apt to deter Men from Crimes than such exemplary Punishments of them So Callimachus in his Hymn to Ceres Vers 23. makes this the design of the Punishment she inflicted on Erysichthon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that others might shun the like Transgression Verse 12 Ver. 12. And if thou shalt hear say in one of thy Cities which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell in saying If the Infection was spread into a City or a considerable part of it there was still more danger and greater Severity was to be used to prevent the whole Country about it from being drawn away from their Allegiance to the Divine Majesty And therefore upon such an Information as follows in the next Verse which is here meant by thou shalt hear say given to the great Sanhedrim they were to do as is directed v. 14. Ver. 13. Certain Men the Children of Belial So Verse 13 the most profligate Wretches are called in Scripture XIX Judges 22. 1 Sam. I. 16. X. 27. XXV 17 25. signifying lawless Persons who had no regard either to God or Men. Are gone out from among you Left the Worship of God at the Tabernacle For it doth not signifie their forsaking the City in which they continued to seduce Men from their Religion but forsaking their Communion in Divine Service By which many have well observed that place in St. John may be interpreted 1 Epist. St. John II. 19. And have withdrawn the Inhabitants of their City The Hebrew word which here we
were to make a spacious place into which all the Spoil and the Housholdstuff was to be brought and fire set to it to consume it as an Anathema or cursed thing What temperaments as they called them there were to mitigate the Severity of this Sentence see Mr. Selden in the place forenamed Sect. VII And shalt burn with fire the City and all the spoil thereof every whit for the LORD thy God For the Vindication of God's Honour and preserving Men in their Allegiance to him R. Simeon in the Title Sanhedrim interprets it in this manner Sect. VI. Thus saith the LORD if you do justice upon a City full of Idolatry I will account it as if you had offered an whole Burnt-offering unto me And it shall be an heap for ever it shall not be built again The Hebrew Doctors do not intirely agree in the Interpretation of these words For some of them say in that place of the Sanhedrim now named that they were not so much as to make a Garden or Orchard in that place Others of them say though it might not be restored into the form of a City yet they might employ the Ground in Plantations of Trees But there are those who interpret the words so rigidly that they think it was not lawful to erect any Building there not so much as a Dove-house but it was to lye waste See Selden Sect. VIII If any Man did attempt to build such a City he was to be beaten as the same great Man observes Lib. I. de Synedriis Cap. XIII p. 558. Verse 17 Ver. 17. And there shall cleave nothing of the cursed thing to thine hand They were not to take the smallest part of the Spoil to their own use For as long as the Wicked are in the World say the Jews in the forenamed Title Sanhedrim the fierce Anger of God will remain in the World but when they are removed the Wrath of God also will cease Now the wickedness of purloyning any thing that was a Cherem as the Hebrews call it or an accursed thing appears in the story of Achan who brought all Israel into danger by it as we read in the Seventh of Joshua And Saul is an eminent Example of it also for he lost his Kingdom for this Sin 1 Sam. XV. 3 9 19 26 c. That the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger This explains in part what he means in the former Verse when he bids them burn the City and the Spoil for the LORD their God i. e. To pacifie the Divine Majesty who was highly incensed by such a wickedness The punishment of which was indeed very terrible but very necessary because the Crime was of so high a nature that it struck at the very Foundation of their Religion and Government And shew thee mercy and have compassion upon thee Chapter XIV God promises to deal the better with them for executing this Judgment upon such dangerous Offenders And multiply thee as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers They were not to fear any want of People by cutting off such a Multitude for God promises to increase them by this loss Ver. 18. When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Verse 18 LORD thy God to keep all his Commandments which I command thee this day c. It was not sufficient that they kept themselves from Idolatry unless they also executed his Vengeance upon Idolaters For the inflicting the Punishment before-named was as right in his eyes as the observance of any other of his Precepts CHAP. XIV Verse 1. YE are the Children of the LORD your Verse 1 God So the LORD had owned them to be when he sent Moses unto Pharaoh to command him to dismiss Israel telling him he was his Son even his First-born IV Exod. 22 23. This was a good Reason therefore why they should own no other God but him and consequently follow none of the Customs of Idolatrous People but be wholly governed by his Laws Ye shall not cut your selves This might seem to forbid the making any Incisions in their Body as the Heathen did at least in future times who marked themselves thereby to belong to such and such gods for the Israelites had received the Mark of God in their Flesh by Circumcision which obliged them to receive no other if the following words did not plainly determine this to their cutting themselves for the dead which hath been sufficiently explained in XIX Levit. 28. yet it is fit to note that the Hierusalem Targum expounds this of Incisions here and there for Idolatry And it may be further observed that the Heathen were wont to cut themselves in pangs of Devotion as appears by the Priests of Baal 1 Kings XVIII 28. as well as when they were full of Sorrow and Grief for the dead XVI Jerem. 6. and in all Publick Calamities XLI Jerem. 5. XLVII 5. All which arose from an opinion they had that the more they afflicted themselves the less they should be afflicted by God Nor any baldness between your eyes for the dead Some of the Heathen saith Theodoret Quoest XIII upon this Book cut off all their Hair and offered it to the Dead others shaved their Beards and others their Eye-brows and Eye-lids or which some think is the meaning of between their eyes the Hair in the fore-part of their Head or near their Temples as R. Solomon interprets it Which seems to be the meaning of the Hierusalem Targum which translates it Ye shall not make any baldness in the house of your Countenance And whether it were done with a Rasor or they used any Art by Plaisters or Ointments to make the Hair fall off it was the same Crime as Maimonides saith that is a piece of Idolatry For this was practised not meerly to make themselves look rufully but there was some respect to their gods in it which is the reason it is here prohibited Certain it is that in after times the Gentiles pulled off their Hair or cut it off and laid it upon the Face or the Breast of the Dead or in their Sepulchres to pacifie the Infernal gods We find Instances of it in Homer And likewise they made Incisions in their Flesh and spilt their Blood at Funerals with the same intention to appease the gods below and make them kind to the dead See our Learned Dr. Spencer Lib. II. Cap. XII Sect. 2 3. All which shows that Moses still pursues the Argument which he begun at the Sixth Chapter and hath continued ever since to press upon them the strict observance of the first Commandment Insomuch that he would not have them use any of the Rites which were used at their Funerals by those that worshipped other gods Ver. 2. For thou art an holy People unto the LORD Verse 2 thy God and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar People unto himself above all the Nations that are on the Earth The very same words in a manner we had before
of the release It is Verse 2 thus to be understood Every Creditor that lendeth ought unto his Neighbour shall release it It was an entire acquittance not of Debts contracted by Sale of Lands or Goods to those who were able to pay but of Money lent to a Neighbour or Friend meerly to relieve his Poverty not to carry on Trade or to make a Purchase For nothing could have been more absurd than to have extinguished such Debts whereby the borrower was inriched He shall not exact it of his Neighbour or of his Brother Here the word Brother is added to explain what is meant by a Neighbour viz. an Israelite or a Proselyte entirely of their Religion who had all the Priviledges of an Israelite Some think that by not exacting Money lent to such a Man is meant no more but only forbearing to demand it in this year because there was no sowing or reaping in it or if he did that he should not have power to recover it by Law this year though afterward he might But the plain meaning seems to be that he should be perfectly free from his Debt as a Servant after six years was from his Service Though if afterward he grew rich in good Conscience he was bound to pay it Because it is the LORD's release In the Hebrew the words Schemitta laihova signifie that this year was a Release to the LORD or for the LORD In honour that is of him who made this a year of great Charity In obedience to whom they were bound to be very kind to their poor Brethren But the Jews fancy they were not bound to be so kind as to make this Release till the very last day of the year So that if a Man had borrowed Money in the beginning of it he was not acquitted till the year expired Verse 3 Ver. 3. Of a forreigner thou mayest exact it again Of an Alien as we translate the word Nocri in the foregoing Chapter v. 21. That is of one who was neither an Israelite nor proselyted to their Religion but a meer Gentile The only question is whether they were not to remit the Debts of a Proselyte of the Gate who I think is no where called their Brother in the Law and therefore they were not obliged to discharge them from what they owed But that which is thine with thy Brother thine hand shall not touch This seems to restrain it wholly to those who were Jews or had all the Priviledges of Jews Verse 4 Ver. 4. Save when there shall be no poor among you Whether we follow this Translation or that in the Margin of our Bibles it appears that they were obliged to acquit only their poor Brethren Of whom they were not to exact their Debts least they should be tempted to flee to the Gentiles and forsake their Religion So this was a Provision still against Idolatry Or if we understand it as it is in the Margin to the end that there be no poor among you the sence is the same that they were by this Charity to keep Men from extream Necessity which might force them to go a begging or to seek for Relief in strange Countries For the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it He would not have them think that they might become poor themselves by this means for he assures them God would prevent that by sending his extraordinary Blessing upon them Cardinal Cajetan and some others understand this Verse as if it were all of it a Promise and contained no Precept in it viz. That God would take care they should not be burdened by this Law for he would so bless them that they should have no Poor among them and then they were not obliged to acquit those of their Debts who were able to pay them Ver. 5. Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice Verse 5 of the LORD thy God to observe to do all these Commandments which I command thee this day Particularly this of releasing their poor Neighbours from their Debts which would intitle them to the Blessing he promises again in the next Verse Ver. 6. For the LORD God blesseth thee as he promised Verse 6 thee God had many ways blessed them already and he promises to reward their Obedience with greater Blessings And thou shalt lend unto many Nations but thou shalt not borrow Grow so very rich that other Nations should come to borrow of them but they be beholden to none And thou shalt reign over many Nations c. I suppose he means no more than Solomon doth when he saith The borrower is servant to the lender XXII Prov. 7. But it may extend to their dominion over many Nations whom they conquered till they enlarged their Bounds as far as Euphrates Verse 7 Ver. 7. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren in any of thy gates in the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother As they might be inclined to do after the passing of this Law thinking with themselves that what they lent to such a Man they should never have again but must lose it if he were not able to repay it before the Year of Release This seems to be the meaning of this Verse which the Jews interpret not of lending but of giving Alms. It is not much material which way we take it For he that lent to a poor Man was willing to give what he lent if he could not pay him before the Year of Release after which he could not demand it Thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shalt thou shut thine hand from thy poor brother Covetousness proceeds from want of Pity Tenderness and Compassion towards others in their Miseries unto which Nature it self inclines us especially towards Members of the same Society And the Jews had several particular Obligations to be tender-hearted as they were all Children of God after a peculiar manner who had been wonderful kind and merciful to them XIV 2. Verse 8 Ver. 8. But thou shalt open thine hand wide to him Bountifully supply him with what he wants And shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanted The Jews understood this not meerly of affording him Food sufficient to satisfie his hunger and Clothes to cover his nakedness and keep him warm but furnishing him with Houshold-goods if he had been forced to sell all he had that he might live comfortably Yea they proceed so far as to determine that the Neighbourhood should joyn together and make a Purse for him to put him in as good a Condition as he was before he fell into this want They determine also the quantity that every Man should give A very liberal Person the fifth part of what he had if need required a Man of moderate Bounty a tenth part If any Man gave less when the Case required
forth out of Egypt This seems to belong to the Ammonites who had no Compassion towards the Israelites when they were distressed in the Wilderness but though they were near of kin to them did not show them that Civility which is commonly expressed to meer strangers in their Travels XIV Gen. 18. XVIII 2 31. XIX 1 2. We do not find any mention of this barbarity of theirs in the foregoing History but we read how kind God ordered the Israelites to be to them in not medling with them much less distressing them as they passed by their Country II Deut. 19. Which aggravated their Inhumanity in not vouchsafing this common kindness to the Israelites of giving them the Refreshment of Bread and Water as they went by them And because they hired against thee Balaam the Son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse thee As the foregoing passage peculiarly refers to the Ammonites so this doth to the Moabites who with the Assistance of the Midianites invited Balaam by the Promises of a great Reward to come from the Eastern Country and curse the Israelites See XXII Numb 5 6 7. For these two Reasons God laid this Prohibition upon his People in which Maimonides observes the Divine Justice in proportioning Punishments to Offences For Amalek coming out against the Israelites when they were newly come forth from Egypt to cut them off with the Sword God commanded their Memory to be blotted out XXV 19. but the Ammonites being only basely covetous and the Moabites acting against them only by Craft and not by Force God inflicted no other Punishment upon them but this That his People should avoid all Affinity with them and show no love to them More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLI And the MS. Author of Etz-Hachajim mentioned by Wagenseil in the place forenamed makes this the ground of the distinction mentioned before between the Males and the Females of those Countries Their Males saith he might never marry with an Israelitish Woman but by a Tradition delivered down to us from Moses in Mount Sinai we hold that the Women of those Countries if they embraced the Jewish Religion might be married to a Man of Israel For the Women must be thought in all reason not to have been guilty as the Men were of that which was the reason of this Law it not being the Custom for Women to bring out Bread and Water to Travellers nor did they send Ambassadors to hire Balaam to come and curse the Israelites Accordingly we find Ruth who was a Moabitess married to Boaz the Ancestor of David Verse 5 Ver. 5. Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the LORD thy God loved thee Balaam indeed did not Curse the Israelites as the Moabites desired and he intended but no Thanks was owing to him for that but it was to be ascribed to the Love of God to his People who constrained him against his will to Bless them Verse 6 Ver. 6. Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever By entering into any League with them much less by taking them into Conjugal Society but on the contrary they were to look upon them as dangerous Enemies who being their near Neighbours would watch all Opportunities to ensnare or disturb them Some of the Jews would have this to be an Exception to the General Rule XX. 10. that they might not offer them Terms of Peace as they were bound to do to all Men but the Seven Nations of Canaan though if they desired Peace they were bound they say to grant it See Schickard in his Mischpat Hammelech p. 118. But Grotius hath well observed upon V Matth. 43. that God did not give the Jews any Right to their Country as appears from I Deut. 19. and therefore the meaning here is that they should not make any League with them of mutual Assistance which they called foedera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 7 Ver. 7. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite So as never to enter into the Society of Marriage with them they being a circumcised People For he is thy brother Nearer of kin to them than the Ammonites and Moabites Esau their Father being the Twin-brother of Jacob. And so Moses calls them when he delivers God's Command to the Israelites not to meddle with them II Deut. 8. We passed by from our Brethren the Children of Esau c. Here it may be observed that the word Brother comprehended more than the Israelites as our Saviour shows the word Neighbour did X Luke 29 c. Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian because thou wast a stranger in his Land That is the Egyptians in a sore Famine sustained them their Children Flocks and Herds very kindly the memory of which benefit God would not have forgotten though in future Generations they were cruelly oppressed by them Ver. 8. The Children that are begotten of them shall Verse 8 enter into the Congregation of the LORD in the third Generation When they had been Proselytes for three Generations it was lawful to marry with them Nay some of the Jews are so liberal here of their kindness as to understand by banim not Children in general but Sons with whom only Marriage is forbidden till the third Generation Marriage with their Daughters being lawful as they think as soon as they turned compleat Proselytes Upon which account Solomon took Pharaoh's Daughter to Wife See Selden Lib. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. XIV XV. where he observes that all this held good only till the Captivity of Babylon when all these Nations being confused they might marry with any of them if they became Jews For Wars and Colonies and Deportations had made such a mixture of People that one could not be known from another This Wagenseil hath lately confirmed out of several Hebrew Authors whom Mr. Selden did not trouble himself to mention and particularly out of the MS. Etz-Hachajim which he most highly commends See p. 149. upon Sota They all agree likewise that none of these Laws extended to Proselytes who might marry with any of these Nations See Selden ib. Cap. XVIII Verse 9 Ver. 9. When the host goeth forth against thine Enemy then keep thee from every wicked thing This was a Rule to be observed at all times but then especially when they had the greatest need of the Divine help for which wicked People could not reasonably hope and when there was the greatest danger of being wicked in a time of such licence as Soldiers commonly take There is a Sentence very like this in Agathias Lib. II. mentioned by Grotius towards the conclusion of his Prolegomena to the Book de Jure Belli Pacis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Injustice and neglect of God's Service are ever to be avoided as most pernicious but especially in a time of War and when Men are upon the point of giving battle Which he proves
of thy strangers that are in thy Land within thy gates No difference was to be made between a Natural Jew and a Proselyte of the Gate according to the general Law XIX Levit 34. For such oppression might tempt them to do very wicked things for instance expose or kill their Children when they were not able to maintain them after the manner of the Heathen who were frequently guilty of this and thought it no Crime when their Poverty constrained them to it See Petrus Petitus Lib. III. Miscell Observ Cap. XVII where he produces many proofs of it both out of Greek and Roman Authors Verse 15 Ver. 15. At his day thou shalt give him his hire Which was due to him either by Contract or by natural Equity and whether he had agreed to serve him for a Day or a Month or a Year At the time when his Wages was due it was to be punctually paid unless he were willing to have it remain in his hands For this was not an Act of Mercy but of Justice to pay an Hireling his Wages Neither shall the Sun go down upon it for he is poor This shows he speaks particularly of one that served for a days Wages and could not forbear the payment of it because he was so poor as not to be able to provide himself and family Necessaries without it And setteth his heart upon it Eagerly expects it as the Support of his Life So the Vulgar translates it with it he supports his Soul that is his Life Lest he cry unto the LORD Make grievous Complaints to him who made both Rich and Poor And it be sin unto thee God will hear his Cry and severely punish thee See V James 4. Ver. 16. The father shall not be put to death for the Verse 16 children neither shall the children be put to death for the father every man shall be put to death for his own sin This is a Rule of Common Reason which was anciently expressed in this vulgar saying Noxa Caput sequitur And is excellently expressed by Dion Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every Man be the Author of his own Misfortune Which Amaziah King of Judah thought extended to the Children of Traitors unto whom he allowed the benefit of this Law as we read in so many words 2 Kings XIV 6. 2 Chron. XXV 4. And not only Philo but Dionys Hallicarnassaeus condemns the Custom of those Nations who put to death the Children of Tyrants or Traitors See Grotius Lib. II. de Jure Belli Pacis Cap. XXI Sect. XIII XIV where he observes that God indeed threatens to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children but in this Case Jure dominij non poenae utitur he uses the Right of Dominion not of Punishment Verse 17 Ver. 17. Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger nor of the fatherless Nor of the Widow who is joyned with them v. 19. For such Persons commonly had none to stand by them and plead their Cause and therefore the Judges were to take the greater Care to see them have Justice done XXII Exod. 21. XXIII 9. Nor take the widows raiment to pledge Which is to be understood of one that is poor as appears from v. 12. See XXII Exod. 21 26 27. Verse 18 Ver. 18. But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bond-man in Egypt and the LORD redeemed thee thence therefore I command thee to do this thing The remembrance of their own miserable Condition in Egypt till God took pity upon them was to work Compassion in them towards others in the like forlorn Estate otherwise they did not remember them as they ought This is often urged as a Reason for showing Mercy to Strangers and such like helpless Persons particularly in XIX Levit. 33 34. and in this Book X. 19 20. XV. 15. Ver. 19. When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field and hast forgot a sheaf in the field thou shalt not go back again to fetch it There are many merciful Laws about the Poor See XIX Levit. 9 10. XXIII 22. They are all put together by Mr. Selden Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. VI. where the Exposition the Talmudists give of this Law seems to me to be so strict that it could do little good For they say a Sheaf was not taken to be forgotten unless not only the Owner of the Field but all the Labourers forgot it and if none of them remembred it yet if any Man that passed by that way came and gave them notice of it it was not lookt upon as left by forgetfulness Yet they are so kind as to extend this Law not only to Sheaves of Corn left in the Field but to Bunches of Grapes and other Fruit which was left behind in their Vineyards or Orchards And it seems no unreasonable Interpretation of this Law that if an Owner of a Field or his Workmen called to mind before they were gone quite out of the Field that a Sheaf was left in such a place they might go back and fetch it but not if they did not remember it till they came into the City They that would see more Cases about this matter may look into Maimonides de Donis Pauperum translated by Dr. H. Prideaux Cap. V. and his very learned Annotations upon it Josephus seems to me to have interpreted this Law most charitably Lib. IV. Archaeolog Cap. VIII where he saith they were not only not to go back to fetch what they had forgot but to leave on purpose Corn and Grapes and Olives c. for the benefit of the Poor It shall be for the stranger for the fatherless and for the Widow Who are commonly put together as proper Objects of Charity and are as Mr. Selden speaks a kind of Paraphrase upon the word Poor That the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand Make their Land still very fruitful which was a reward of their Charity Ver. 20. When thou beatest thine Olive-tree As Verse 20 they were wont to do in those Countries with Sticks to bring down the Olives Thou shalt not go over the boughs again Not search the Boughs after they are beaten whether any be left It shall be for the stranger c. Who might go into the Olive-yards after the Owner had carried out his Fruit and gather what they found still remaining on the Trees Verse 21 Ver. 21. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy Vineyard thou shalt not glean it afterwards By making a new gathering after the first But if the poor themselves left any behind after the usual time allowed for the gathering such Fruits or Corn as were left for them it was lawful for the Owner to take it himself and he was not bound either to pay the Poor the price of it or to leave it for the Beasts and the Birds For the command is say the Jewish Doctors who nicely scan these things that it shall be for the Poor and
the Seed which was come up to maturity See XI 14. See the Learned Dr. Prideaux upon Maimonides his Treatise de donis Pauperum Cap. I. Not. 25. And to bless all the work of thine hand By these seasonable showres he blessed their ploughing and sowing and produced a plentiful Harvest which seems to be meant here by the work of their hand viz. their Husbandry which included all sorts of Plantations as well as Tillage IX Gen. 20. And thou shalt lend unto many Nations and thou shalt not borrow A token of great Riches See XV. 6. which all Nations lookt upon as a Blessing as indeed they are with piety And therefore Callimachus in his Hymn to Jove prays him to bestow both Vertue and Riches upon them v. 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which puts me in mind of a pertinent Observation of Maimonides in his Preface to Perck Chelek in which he treats of the Foundations of the Jewish Religion This is the meaning saith he of the Promises and Threatnings in the Law that if they were obedient to his Precepts he would further them with all good things that should furnish them therein and remove from them all that hinder them For no Man can serve God as he ought when he is sick or oppressed with Famine or vexed with Wars Therefore God Promises to remove all these things and to give them Health and Tranquillity that they might perfect their Obedience and be worthy of the Life of the World to come For this is not the end of the Law to make the Earth bring forth plentifully and to prolong Mens Life upon the Earth and give them healthful Bodies but that by all those things they may be helpt and incouraged to perform Obedience to it c. Ver. 13. And the LORD shall make thee the head and not the tail This is a proverbial Speech which is explained in the words following and thou shalt be above only and thou shalt not be beneath For the Head Verse 13 being the first and chief part of all Animals and the Tail the last and lowest those Persons are said to be the Head who command over others and those the Tail who are subject And therefore this is a Promise that they should rule over other Nations as their Lords as they did in the days of David and Solomon but other Nations should not Lord it over them If that thou hearken unto the Commandments of the LORD thy God which I command thee this day to observe and to do them This was the Condition upon which all their Happiness depended as he had told them in the beginning of this Discourse v. 1. Ver. 14. And thou shalt not go astray from any of the Verse 14 words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left See Chapt. V. 32. To go after other gods to serve them This was the principal Commandment of the Law to serve no other gods but the LORD alone Which while they observed he was pleased to bless them and to bear with many other sins which they committed Upon which account this Commandment is so often repeated as we find it in this very Book VI. 14. VII 4 16. VIII 19. IX 16 28. XI 3 4 30 c. Ver. 15. But it shall come to pass if thou wilt not Verse 15 hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe to do all his Commandments and Statutes which I command thee this day Especially that great Commandment Not to go after other gods to serve them That all these Curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee Pursue them so that they should not possibly escape them The same phrase is used of the Blessings v. 2. Verse 16 Ver. 16. Cursed shalt thou be in the City and cursed shalt thou be in the field As miserable that is every where as he intended to have made them happy v. 3. Verse 17 Ver. 17. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store The blessing of the Barn was to have it full v. 5. and therefore the Curse upon it was to make it empty Verse 18 Ver. 18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land c. He threatens to consume their Children their Corn and other Fruits with their Herds and Flocks Verse 19 Ver. 19. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out Have no Comfort in any Undertaking either at home or abroad in Peace or in War Verse 20 Ver. 20. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing vexation and rebuke It is very hard to know what these three words particularly import the two first of them being very variously translated The first of them Meera seems to signifie in general that God would blast them in all they designed and went about for although the LXX and Vulgar here render it famine and want yet elsewhere the LXX renders it as we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cursing And the next word Mehuma they translate hunger but in other places the LXX render it by six or seven words which import the same with our English vexation viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trouble or disturbance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tumult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horror or affrightment c. Which relate to great disorder disquiet and perplexity in their Mind And the last word Mighereth the Vulgar translate as we do rebuke but the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consumption which are the same in effect For when God rebukes a Man for his iniquity he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth XXXIX Psal 11. For God's Rebukes consist not in Words but in sore Afflictions 2 Kings XIX 3. XVIII Psal 15 c. particularly in Disappointments and Ill-success in their Undertakings and continual fear of worse for the future In all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do In all their Affairs v. 8. they should meet with trouble perplexity and defeats Vntil that thou be destroyed He threatens that this Curse Trouble and Rebuke from God should pursue them till they had compleated their Ruin And until thou perish quickly When God began to punish them after long patience with them he was quick in his Executions and many times brought upon them sudden destruction So he threatens in Zephaniah I. 18. That he would make a speedy riddance of all that dwell in the Land And though the whole Nation was not rooted out speedily but by degrees yet they enjoyed it but a short time in comparison of what God designed if they had been obedient and in that time they were seldom without some trouble or other till they were expelled out of their Country Because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me And followed after other gods which was the great Crime that brought them to desolation Ver. 21. The LORD shall make the Pestilence cleave unto thee The Pestilence is threatned in
for new ones even when the Supream Powers endeavoured to hinder them And no man shall save thee This was so remarkably fulfilled in these parts of the World that the Magistrates who had a mind in many places to preserve them from such Outrages as none but Jews can justifie durst not venture to appear for their Rescue And those that did take them into their Protection were the Instruments of their further Wrongs by grievous exactions for the maintenance of the War undertaken in their defence So strangely as that excellent Person forenamed speaks Chap. XXIX did the Wisdom of God bring that to pass which his Servant Moses had foretold in this Verse No man shall save thee For even succour it self turned into their sorrow and it is hard to say whether mens purposes for their good or for their evil brought greater plagues upon them Thus it was before their first Captivity Pharaoh King of Egypt came to help them but was not able XXXVII Jerem. 7. XLVI 17. Verse 30 Ver. 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her Take her away from thee before thou canst consummate the Marriage This was a sore Affliction for all Nations accounted it a singular blessing to compleat a Marriage and on the contrary a Curse to be defeated of such delightful hopes Whence Callimachus in his Hymn to Apollo promising many Blessings to the Youths who sung and danced before his Altar mentions this in the first place verse 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he would be with them and prosper them if they were to be married Thou shalt build an house and thou shalt not dwell therein But another take possession of it Zephan I. 13. Thou shalt plant a vineyard and shalt not gather the grapes thereof So we rightly translate the Hebrew word which as the Margin notes is thou shalt not prophane or make common the Grapes thereof which was not to be done till the fifth year after the Plantation Before which time God threatens another should enter into it and enjoy the Fruits thereof Ver. 31. Thine Ox shall be slain before thine eyes and Verse 31 thou shalt not eat thereof thine Ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face and shall not be restored to thee c. All these are but particular Instances of their grievous Oppressions in all Countries where their Goods have been confiscated the Bills of Debts owing to them all cancelled Of which the same pious and learned Person Dr. Jackson gives several Instances in the forenamed Chapter Ver. 32. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given Verse 32 unto another people This was literally fulfilled when the Jews were banished out of Portugal in the time of King Emanuel who ordered their Children under Nineteen years of Age to be taken from them and brought up in the Christian Religion When In ants also were torn from their Mothers Breasts with far more grief and sorrow than they had at their coming out of their Womb and many hundred years before that when the Goths were Lords of Spain and suffered no Parents to have any Commerce with their Children after the seventh year of their Age but by publick Decree they were committed to Christians to be educated by them who married them to their own Sons and Daughters See the same Dr. Jackson Chapt. XXVIII Paragr 1 2. And thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day long Their Women filling the Heavens with more hideous shrieks than the Egyptians did when all their First-born were slain in the night For these were bereft at once of all their dear Children in the open Sun in vain begging to have them restored to them And to increase their Calamity as that excellent Person observes Chap. XXIX Paragraph 15. many Moors professing Mahometism were transported out of Portugal the same time without such violence offered to them What was the reason saith he God would have a manifest distinction made between the Jews and other People that this Prophecy might be fulfilled And there shall be no might in thy hand Either to protect or to rescue them from violence Where I cannot but take notice with the same Doctor that the Moors then had some power in their hand which moved the Portugals perhaps to abstain from such usage of them lest the report of it coming to the African Mahometans they might attempt to avenge their wrongs But these wretched Jews had no power any where none to avenge their Injuries which God had ordained they should suffer at all times and in all places wheresoever they came without redress Ver. 33. The fruit of thy Land and all thy labours shall a Nation which thou knowest not eat up This was remarkably fulfilled when Salmaneser came and dispossessed the Ten Tribes and when Nebuchadnezzar Verse 33 carried the other two Tribes away and placed other People in their room There were many strange People also among the Romans who devoured their Labours before their last destruction by Titus And ever since they have been subject to depredations of various sorts having scraped up Riches with great Care which have often faln into the hands of Strangers Particularly in the time of the famous Crusado's when divers Nations marched in great numbers to recover the Holy Land from Infidels their business was in their way to rob and spoil the Jews and to make great slaughter of them as both Jewish and Christian Writers witness Particularly the Author of Schalscheleth Hakkabala and our Matthew Paris And thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway That they should not only sometimes or in some Ages or in some one or few Kingdoms but always in every Kingdom whither they removed as he speaks v. 25. suffer such violence and wrong as no other People hath done must needs be thought to proceed rather from Divine Justice than Mens inclination to Injustice Which could not but have varied with the diversity of Times and Places and the several Dispositions of Parties among whom they have been dispersed And yet the brief enumeration of their particular Spoils and hard Usage which Dr. Jackson makes in the forenamed Chapter whose words these are in the beginning of it throughout the most Civil and best govern'd States of Europe will abundantly confirm the truth of Moses his words in this place Thou shalt never but suffer wrong and violence alway as our old Translation hath it The same is lately observed by an eminently learned Person J. Wagenseil in his Confutation of R. Lipman's Carm. Memoriale p. 241. where he takes notice that the Jews no sooner have grown rich and by degrees become considerable in any Country but some great Calamity hath befaln them This the attentive consideration of their History will justifie particularly as he observes in France Spain and England God not suffering them to be quite destroyed like the Amalekites Jebusites and Philistims of whom no Foot-steps remain but be scattered and tossed about
till they had brought them to utter ruin Which is so evidently fulfilled that would but the Atheists consider it and lay it to heart it would wring from them a Confession of the truth of what these Divine Oracles have uttered That this was a People who had been appointed to destruction For though there be a great many of them remaining in several parts of the World yet they have never been suffered to grow into a Nation but in that sense are utterly destroyed as Moses here prophesied Because thou hearknedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God to keep his Commandments and his Statutes which I commanded thee this day It hath manifestly appeared the hand of God is very heavy upon them for their Disobedience to him there being no other reason why they who were once so favoured by him should be so long as they have been more miserable than any other People Verse 46 Ver. 46. And they shall be upon thee That is the Curses before-mentioned should remain fixed upon them and continue unremoved from Age to Age. For a sign and for a wonder That all Men may take notice of them and look upon them as extraordinary Tokens of God's high displeasure and take warning thereby to beware of their Infidelity and Disobedience For as that great Man often saith No sign can be given equivalent to the desolatiqn of the Jewish Nation and their continuing still banished from their own Land and miserably treated in all other Countries And upon thy seed for ever All the World may clearly see to use his words again that the God of their Fathers hath cast them off they having no signs or badges of his ancient wonted favours whilst innumerable Marks and Scars of his fearful Indignation against their Fathers remain unhealed in their Children after more Generations than their Ancestors had of Prosperity in the promised Land Ver. 47. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy Verse 47 God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things Or In the abundance of all things for this is opposed to the hunger and thirst in which he saith in the next Verse they should serve their Enemies as a punishment for their wanton abuse of God's Mercies Which being so exceeding great justly required not only their obedience but cheerfulness and delight therein Ver. 48. Therefore shalt thou serve thine Enemies Verse 48 which he shall send against thee He doth not call the LORD their God as he did before now they were abandon'd by him for their sins In hunger and thirst and nakedness and in want of all things This shows what he meant before by abundance of all things plentiful provision of Food and Raiment and all other things belonging to the Comfort of Life And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck The loss of Liberty was as great a Misery as any other which ended also in hard Servitude And it was but just that they should be Slaves in the Land of their Enemies to cruel Masters who would not in their own Country serve so gracious and loving a Father as the LORD their God A yoke of iron Signifies an unsupportable Yoke which could not be broken See XXVIII Jerem. 13 14. Verse 49 Ver. 49. And the LORD shall bring a Nation against thee from far This evidently belongs to the Romans as Manasseh ben Israel acknowledges who thinks that at this Verse begins his Prophecy of their Calamities under the second Temple as in the foregoing he describes their Calamities under the first And in this I think he saith right That there is scarce any thing mentioned in the following part of this Chapter but what relates to what they suffered under the second Temple as he speaks and since its destruction though I cannot say as he doth of the foregoing part of it that it was fulfilled in the Calamities which befel them under the first Temple for many things were never so compleatly fulfilled as since they crucified our Saviour From the end of the earth This shows he speaks of the Romans rather then of the Chaldaeans who did not come from far much less from the end of the earth but out of the North Country which was not very far distant from Judaea Whereas the Romans by whom they were last destroyed came literally from far and from the end of the earth Particularly Julius Severus was called by the Emperour Adrian to their destruction out of this Island of Britain Wherein Vespasian also had given great proof of his Conduct And Adrian himself and Trajan by whom they were still more crushed after Vespasian had destroyed their City and Temple were both Spaniards by birth And therefore Manasseh ben Israel says peremptorily in his Book de Termino Vitae Lib. III. Sect. III. this is to be understood of the Souldiers in Vespasian's Army which he brought out of England France and Spain and other remote parts of the World As swift as the Eagles Which every one knows the Romans carried in their Ensigns And these Birds are observed to fly upon their Prey with great force and violence to whom therefore fierce Souldiers such as the Romans were are compared when they set upon their Enemies So Homer describes Achilles falling upon the Trojans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iliad Φ. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 furious assaults as the Scholiast interprets it And so he speaks concerning Hector Iliad X. As David also speaks of Saul and Jonathan 2 Sam. 1.23 and the Chaldaeans are so described coming against Jerusalem IV Jerem. 13. XLVIII 40. XLIX 22. I Lament 19 XVII Ezek. 3. and see VII Daniel 4. and Bochartus in his Hierozoicon Pars I. Lib. II. Cap. IX P. II. Lib. II. Cap. II. A Nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand The Roman Tongue was more strange to them than the Chaldaean especially the Language of many Nations of which the Roman Army was composed And being a People whom their Ancestors perhaps never heard of Dr. Jackson justly looks upon the Destruction and general Desolation of their Country made by the Romans and their Tributaries in these Western Parts of the World as an Everlasting Monument of the truth of Moses his Prophecy in this and in the following Verses Verse 50 Ver. 50. A Nation This word Nation being used thrice in this and the foregoing Verse Manasseh ben Israel in the place forenamed is so critical as to observe that this Repetition shows Jerusalem was to suffer thrice by the Roman power First In the time of Pompey and secondly when Sosius came to the assistance of Herod against Antigonus and thirdly when it was besieged and overturned by Vespasian and his Son Titus Of a fierce countenance So we translate this Phrase VIII Daniel 23. which in the Hebrew is a strong or hard face Accordingly we translate it impudent or in our language brazen-faced VII Prov. 13. and hard XXI Prov. 29. and bold of face
21. And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel Though he offended Verse 21 never so secretly for he speaks of one that blessed himself in his heart c. v. 19. God threatens to make him a publick and notorious Example of his Vengeance to all the People of Israel According to all the Curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of the Law It was a singular condescension in the Divine Majesty to enter into Covenant with them but it contained not only Blessings to the obedient but Curses upon the disobedient the latter of which were as certain as the former Ver. 22. So that the Generations to come of your Children Verse 22 that shall rise up after you and the stranger that shall come from a far Land shall say That which follows v. 24. When they see the Plagues of that Land This shows that these Threatnings are denounced not meerly against a simple Idolater but such an one as made it his endeavour to draw others from the Worship of God not being content to be drunk himself with Heathenish Superstition but zealous to intoxicate as many as he could with it and to root true Religion out of the Nation And the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it In the Hebrew it is The sicknesses wherewith he hath made it sick i. e. the heavy Punishments which he hath inflicted upon it and thereby made it a miserable Nation Ver. 23. And that the whole Land is brimstone and salt and burning Or as it may be translated Is burnt up with brimstone and salt For these make Land Verse 23 barren and unfruitful as Pliny particularly observes of Salt Lib. XXX Cap. VII Omnis locus in quo reperitur Sal sterilis est nihilque gignit All ground in which Salt is found is barren and produceth nothing See IX Judges 45. CVII Psal 34. XVII Jerem 6. XLVII Ezek. 11. II Zephan 9. That it is not sown nor beareth nor any grass groweth therein That neither Nature nor Art will make it fruitful Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim And the Country about them which was the most beautiful of all other in that part of the World XIII Gen. 10. but on a sudden turned into a filthy stinking Lake where no Creature neither Fish nor Fowl can live Which the LORD overthrew in his anger and in his wrath Being highly incensed by their wickedness See Gen. XVIII 20. XIX 24 25. as he was by the wickedness of the Jews which was the more provoking because they had such an example of his Vengeance continually before their eyes and yet went on in their evil ways till they brought the like Judgment upon all Judoea 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 Wars More especially in the time of Adrian when Julius Severus as I observed upon the foregoing Chapter made such a devastation that the whole Country was turned in a manner into a Wilderness Ver. 24. Even all Nations shall say All that were near them or came that way from far Countries as it goes before v. 22. Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this Land Verse 24 Which he formerly made so populous and plenteous And what means the heat of this great anger These exceeding dreadful Calamities which evidently proceeded from a Divine Vengeance For the Jews fought so valiantly and defended Jerusalem so resolutely as appears by Josephus that the Author of Schebet Juda had reason to say that it was not want of Arms nor the unusual terrour of new Machines but the Anger of God provoked by their Wickedness which was the true and only Cause of their destruction And indeed Titus himself said as much that God fought for the Romans and drove the Jews from their Fortifications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what could the hands of Men or Machines have done against such strong Towers See Chap. XXXII v. 22. Ver. 25. Then shall men say because they have forsaken Verse 25 the Covenant of the LORD God of their Fathers which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the Land of Egypt This account must be supposed to be given by the pious Jews or by those who were made sensible when it was too late how stedfast God was in his Covenant which contained Curses as well as Blessings as was before observed v. 21. And see VII 9 10. XI 26 27 28. Ver. 26. For they went and served other gods and Verse 26 worshipped them whom they knew not This aggravated their sin that they sought for acquaintance with strange gods directly contrary to the Covenant of God XII 30 31. And whom he had not given unto them Or as it is in the Margin had not given or divided to them any portion that is never bestowed any benefit upon them as the LORD their God had done who brought them out of Egypt Or more simply as Bootius thinks the words will bear to whom no worship belonged Verse 27 Ver. 27. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this Land to bring upon it all the Curses that are written in this Book So Moses foretold them VII 4. XI 16 17. Verse 28 Ver. 28. And the LORD rooted them out of their Land in anger and wrath and in great indignation Here is one word more to express his displeasure against them than was used before when he speaks of the destruction of Sodom c. v. 23. And they all denote the great Plagues threatned in XXVI Levit. and in the foregoing Chapter of this Book And cast them into another Land as it is this day This may seem to relate only to their Captivity in Babylon for after they were rooted out by the Romans they were scattered into all Lands XXVIII 63 64. But considering what goes before v. 23 24. and that they were not quite rooted out many of them remaining in the Land when Nebuchadnezzar conquered them till the desolation made by the Romans I think these words relate to them also and another Land is only the singular number as is usual for the plural And so the Author of Schebet Juda understood it who quoting these words cast them out into another land adds which experience now proves to be true Verse 29 Ver. 29. The secret things belong unto the LORD our God but those that are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever c. The Jews generally take these words to be meant of the punishment of secret sins particularly of Idolatry spoken of before v. 19. which belongeth unto God as the punishment of open sins belonged unto them in obedience to his Law who commanded them to put to death him that seduced any Person to Idolatry and to raze the
that if they would not hearken and keep his Precepts the Heavens were forbidden to give them Rain and the Earth to bring forth Fruit. The Gloss also of the Hierusalem Targum is not amiss that Moses being shortly to die calls the Heavens and the Earth which endure through all Ages to be Witnesses against them when he was gone But the following observation is too curious That Isaiah when he prophecied i. e. being far remote from the Heavens and near to the Earth calls upon the Heavens to hear and the Earth to give ear or attend whereas Moses quite contrary approaching now very near to the Heavens calls upon them to attend or give ear and being in Spirit remote from the Earth bids it hear Ver. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew Or Let my doctrine drop c. For this seems to be a Prayer that his words which were sent from Heaven to them might sink into their hearts and soften them as the drops of Rain and the dew do the Earth and produce such Fruits of Obedience as might make them happy As the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass The aforesaid Targum thus paraphrases this whole Verse Let the Doctrine of my Law be as sweet upon the Children of Israel as the Rain and the word of my mouth be received by them as the delectable Dew Let it be as gentle showers refreshing the Grass and as the drops of the latter Rain descending and watering the blades of Corn in the Month of March Verse 3 Ver. 3. Because I will publish the Name of the LORD For my Song shall be concerning the LORD of Heaven and Earth whose glorious Perfections I will proclaim which make him the sole Object of your Worship Ascribe ye greatness unto our God Acknowledge therefore the Infinite Power of our God and his Soveraign Dominion over all and give Honour and Service to none besides him These three first Verses seem to be the Preface to the Song and now follows the Song it self Which Josephus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Poem in Hexameter Verse Lib. IV. Antiq. Cap. VIII Verse 4 Ver. 4. He is the Rock Always indures and never changes so that in him we may find at all times a sure Refuge His work is perfect Whatsoever he undertakes he perfects and compleats it For all his ways are judgment He doth nothing without the greatest reason and according to the Rules of the exactest Justice A God of truth Who is faithful to his Promises And without iniquity And never deceives or wrongs any Man Just and right is he Nor will he punish any Man without a cause or more than he deserves Maimonides takes the first words of this Verse He is the Rock to signifie the first Principle and the efficient Cause of all things without himself For so the word Rock is used when God bids the Children of Israel Look to the Rock out of which they were hewn LI Isa 1. that is to Abraham their Father from whom they were descended And so he thinks it signifies v. 18. of this Chapter Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful i. e. of God the Author of their being And again v. 30. their Rock i. e. the LORD sold them See More Nevochim P.I. Chap. XVI And then by the next words His way is perfect he thinks is meant that as he is the Creator of all things so there is no defect or superfluity in his Works For he takes these words to be the same with those I Gen. 31. God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good See there P. II. Cap. XXVIII and P. III. Cap. XXV And as his Works of Creation are most perfect so are his Works of Providence for he governs the World with the greatest Judgment and Justice So he seems to understand the next words P. III. Cap. XVII all his ways are judgment We are ignorant of the Methods and Reasons of his Judgments yet no injustice or iniquity is to be ascribed to him But all the Evil and all the Good that befals any Man or the whole Church proceeds from the just and equal Judgment of God And more largely Cap. XLIX Our narrow minds cannot apprehend either the Perfection of his Works or the Equity of his Judgments for we apprehend his admirable Works only by parts whether we look upon the Bodies of Animals or the Celestial Spheres and in like manner we apprehend but a little of his Judgments For that of which we are ignorant in both is far more than that which we know of either I conclude this with the words of the Author of Sepher Cosri Part III. Sect. XI He that believes this that all God's Works are perfect and his Ways Judgment will always lead a sweet and pleasant Life All Afflictions will be made light to him nay he will rejoyce that his Iniquities are hereby alleviated and that he shall one day be rewarded for his Patience which he teaches Men by his example and thereby justifies the Judgments of God With respect to which I suppose the Jews now begin the Prayer which they make at the burial of their dead with this Verse of Moses his Song Which Prayer they call Tzidduck haddin i. e. just judgment as Leo Modena observes in his History of the present Jews Part V. Chap. VIII Verse 5 Ver. 5. They have corrupted themselves c. I know not how to justifie this Translation nor that in the Margin He hath corrupted himself Maimonides translates them better making these words a Question and the next words an Answer to them in this manner Did he i. e. God the Rock before spoken of do him any hurt For the Hebrew word Shecheth with lamed after it signifies to hurt or destroy XXXII Numb 15. 1 Sam. XXIII 10. as Joh. Cocceius observes in his Vltima Mosis Sect. 701. And so the meaning is Is God to blame for the Evils that befal him i. e. Israel Unto which the Answer follows in the next words which we thus translate Their spot is not the spot of his Children In the Hebrew the first word of this Sentence is lo i. e. not or no. Which the accent Tipcha as they call it under it shows is not to be joyned with the words that follow banau Mumam but taken by it self being a denial of the foregoing Question And these words are thus to be translated No. His Children are their blot i. e. all the Evil that befals them is the fruit of their Childrens wickedness And so these words are in effect the same with those of Solomon XIX Prov. The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the LORD He complains of God when the fault is in himself See More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XII Onkelos translates it thus They corrupted to themselves not to him Children that served Idols i. e. as Paulus Fagius
accounts of the word are better than that of Manasseh ben Israel who derives it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a field because they frequent desert places But then they should have been called Sedim not Schedim as he must needs know who was a great Master in the Hebrew Learning The LXX call them here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth the Apostle 1 Corinth X. 19. because the Daemons led Men into the impiety of worshipping other gods either themselves or other beings which they perswaded simple People had some Divinity in them And that not only the Stars but even Beasts here upon the Earth nay Onions and Garlick Which they did not take to be gods but things by which as intermediate Causes their gods were pleased or offended with them and therefore worshipped them To gods whom they knew not Or as the words may be translated gods that knew not them that is had never bestowed any benefits upon them For as it follows they were new gods never before heard of by their Ancestors New gods that newly came up Such as Jeroboam's Calves invented out of his own Brain and the gods of other Nations Moloch and Baal which were new to the Israelites and had not been known among them For the doemon gods were of no great antiquity Bel or Baal as he is called in the Chaldee Dialect the first King of Babel after Nimrod being the first that was ever deified as Mr. Mede observes or reputed a god after his death whence all other Daemons were called Baalim as all the Roman Emperors were called Caesars from the first Emperor of that Name See p. 776. Besides which the Heathens had another higher sort of Daemons which had never been linked to a Mortal Body viz. those we call Angels who the Israelites were taught to be but Ministers unto their God and therefore not to be worshipped Whom your Fathers feared not That is did not worship This was a great aggravation of their guilt that when they would have other Objects of Worship they did not return unto those whom their Ancestors had reverenced the Teraphim for instance which were the gods of Laban and Rachel for whose worship they might have pretended Tradition but chose gods whom their Fore-fathers were not acquainted withal which was a token of a strange proneness to Idolatry And Maimonides mentioning this Verse observes that they worshipped not only things that had a being but meer imaginations For which he quotes these words of the Book Siphri It was not enough that they worshipped the Sun Moon and Stars and Caelestial Signs but they worshipped their Shadow More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLVI Ver. 18. Of the Rock that begat thee God the Verse 18 Author of thy being See v. 4. Thou art unmindful Being wholly intent to Idols which they themselves had made And hast forgotten God that formed thee Into a Kingdom of Priests making them his peculiar People XIX Exod. 5 6. Ver. 19. And when the LORD saw it he abhorred Verse 19 them Cast them off as they had done him Because of the provoking of his Sons and of his Daughters For so they were till they corrupted themselves and thereby highly incensed him against them For nothing can be so provoking as the Rebellion of Children against a most indulgent Parent Maimonides translates it By reason of his Anger against his Sons and his Daughters P. I. More Nevochim Cap. XXXVI where he observes we never find the word Caas which is here used signifying indignation in Scripture applied to God but only when it speaks of Idolatry Ver. 20. And he said Resolved I will hide my face from them See XXXI 17 18. I will see what their end shall be Not cease my Judgments till I have brought the sorest Calamities upon them and made an end of them that is of their Polity and Government For they are a very froward Generation Incorrigibly wicked Children in whom there is no faith Who had broken their Covenant with him XXXI 16. so often that they were not to be trusted when they made profession of Repentance The Book of Judges and indeed their whole History testifies to the truth of this Verse 21 Ver. 21. They have moved me to jealousie See v. 16. With that which is not God By worshipping God's Creatures or the Work of their own Hands They have provoked me to anger with their vanities The same thing in other words all the gods of the Nations whom the Israelites imitated being meer Vanities or things of naught as the Hierusalem Targum hath it as hath been often observed And I will move them to jealousie He threatens to be even with them and serve them in their kind With those that are not a People Who either were not a Nation in being at this time or so obscure base and ignoble that they were not worthy the name of a Nation The Jews interpret it of the Chaldaeans whom God raised up on a sudden when no Body would believe it I Habak 5 6 c. to be a terrible Scourge to them See XXIII Isa 13. And I will provoke them to anger with a foolish Nation The Jews thought all Nations so except themselves And in one sense all the Gentiles were really so for nothing was more foolish than to Worship Creatures meaner than themselves X Jerem. 8. The Apostle applies this unto the bestowing the Blessing of the Messiah whom the Jews refused upon the Gentile World X Rom. 19. which strangely inraged the Jews as we see when our Saviour first mentioned it XXI Matth. 43 44 c. and when St. Paul did but speak of going to preach unto them XXII Acts 21 22. And see 1 Thess II. 15 16. And through all Ages since it hath made them gnash their Teeth to see so many Nations subject unto our Saviour and honour him as God whom they rejected as the vilest of Men. Ver. 22. For a fire is kindled in mine anger Great Verse 22 and sore Calamities are compared to fire in Scripture XXX Ezek. 8. which God here threatens to send upon them as the woful Effects of his heavy displeasure And shall burn unto the lowest hell Never cease till they have destroyed them For Hell and Destruction seem to be the same XV Prov. 11. And therefore the lowest Hell signifies the depth of Misery And shall consume the Earth with her increase Make an utter desolation in the Country I Isa 7. And set on fire the foundations of the Mountains Subvert the strongest Fortresses which were accounted impregnable Such as Jerusalem which Rasi thinks is here meant in whose last destruction this was perfectly fulfilled as it was in part at the first 2 Kings XXV 9. For Titus himself as Josephus relates Lib. VII de Bello Judaico Cap. 43. observing the vast height of the Walls the bigness of every Stone the exact order wherein they were laid and compacted c. cried out God was with us in this War he drove the Jews from
desist from the Doctrine of the Law Verse 4 Ver. 4. Moses commanded us a Law He commanded them to observe that Law which God had given them when he was about to depart from them This he did in this very Book I. 3. V. 1. VI. 1. VIII 1 c. He spake of himself in the third Person which is very usual throughout all this Book Even the Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. As a peculiar Blessing which God had bestowed on them and on their Posterity above all other Nations in the World IV Deut. 8. Who as they had not this Law given to them so they were not bound to observe it as the Jews themselves conclude from this very place Nor did they force any Body to embrace this Law when they made a Conquest of a neighbouring Country but left them to their liberty provided they would become Proselytes of the Gate that is forsake Idolatry and keep the common Precepts enjoyned to all Mankind Thus Maimonides interprets the word Inheritance See Schickard in his Jus Regium Cap. V. Theorem XVII and Grotius de Jure Belli Pacis Lib. I. Cap. I. Sect. XVI The Author of Ez Hachajim a MS. highly valued by the famous Wagenseil saith that when a Child began to speak the Father was bound to teach him this Verse In which instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereditary some of the Jews read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 espoused as if the Law were espoused to the Jewish Nation See Wagenseil on Sota p. 519 520. Ver. 5. And he was King in Jeshurun Or For he Verse 5 was King that is under God the Supreme Ruler and Governour of Israel and therefore in his Name and by his Authority required them to observe these Laws Which plainly shows him to have had the Supream Power in all things both Civil and Sacred Which is excellently expressed by our Mr. Thorndike in his Review of the Rights of the Church c. p. 68. where he observes That the Israelites being made a free People by the Act of God bringing them out of Egypt and intitling them to the Land of Canaan upon the Covenant of the Law had Moses not only for their Prophet and their Priest for by him Aaron and his Successors were put into the Priesthood the Tabernacle and all belonging to it consecrated but also for their King their Lawgiver their Judge and Commander in chief of their Forces under God if not rather God by Moses For we find that after Moses his decease either God by some extraordinary signification of his Will and Pleasure stirred up some Man in his stead for the time or if there was none such ruled their proceedings himself by Vrim and Thummim answering their Demands and directing what to do and what course to follow in all the Publick Affairs that concerned the State of that People Whereupon when they required Samuel to make them a King he declared it was not Samuel but himself whom they had rejected Because they had rejected him whom God had immediately set over them in his own stead by whose death the power returned to God as at the beginning Concerning the word Jeshurun see XXXII 15. and Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. II. N. 2. When the Heads of the People and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together To renew their Covenant with God and to receive his last Commands See XXIX 1 2 9 10. XXXI 28 29. Verse 6 Ver. 6. Let Reuben live and not die and let not his Men be few In the last Clause of this Verse we repeat the word not which is wanting in the Hebrew without any necessity For the words may be thus translated exactly Let Reuben live and not die though his Men be few Which seems to be a confirmation of the Prophecy of Jacob XLIX Gen. 4. That he should not excel and yet should live and not perish That is be in some measure a flourishing Tribe though not so numerous as some others See there And possibly it may be here suggested that though they passed armed over Jordan before their Brethren to settle them there according to their engagement XXXII Numb 27. IV Josh 12 13. yet none of them should perish but both they and their Wives and Children that stand behind them should be all preserved Ver. 7. And this is the blessing of Judah As much as to say Judah shall be remarkably blessed For these words this is the blessing are used of none of the rest of the Tribes either of Reuben which went before Verse 7 or the others that follow after Here is no mention made of Simeon who was next to Reuben because that Tribe was included in Judah with whom their Possessions were mixed XIX Josh 1. and therefore they went together to make Expeditions I Judg. 3. Judah also is here put before Levi because it was to be the Royal Tribe according to the Prophecy of Jacob which Moses was assured God would fulfil and therefore prays as follows And he said hear LORD the voice of Judah Grant his Petition when he calls for help against his Enemies So Onkelos paraphrases it Hear his Prayer when he goes forth to war And bring him unto his People Return him home in peace unto his People as the same Onkelos expounds it Let his hands be sufficient for him To avenge him of his Enemies as he also explains it And be thou an help to him from his Enemies Suffer them not to prevail over him but give him the victory when he fights with them So the Hierusalem Targum paraphrases these two last passages Let his hands exercise Revenge upon his Enemies in battles and do thou support and sustain him against those that hate him This was notoriously fulfilled in this Tribe which was the most valiant and successful of all other For in all their Wars this Tribe was the principal and the safety of all the rest seems to have depended upon this See I Judg. 1 2 c. XX. 18. And as these places show that this was the most considerable Tribe before they had Kings so after that it was able together with Benjamin to maintain its ground against the other ten Tribes and all other Opposers Ver. 8. And of Levi he said let thy Thummim and Verse 8 thy Vrim be with thy holy one Continue in this Tribe the high dignity of Consulting with thee and receiving Directions from thee by the High Priest concerning the Publick Safety Or as some take it because Thummim is here set before Vrim which is not in any other place make them upright and faithful as well as understanding and knowing in the discharge of their Duty For though by holy One be principally meant the High Priest who was in a peculiar manner anointed to be separated to the Service of God especially in this part of it to approach him with Vrim and Thummim which gave Aaron the name of the Saint of the LORD CVI Psal 16. yet it comprehends
Propos IV. Cap. 1. Ver. 6. The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb Verse 6 saying X Numb 13. Ye have dwelt long enough in this Mount From the third Month of the first Year XIX Exod. 1. to the twentieth day of the second Year after they came out of Egypt X Numb 11. they stayed at Mount Sinai which is the same with Horeb they being only two tops of the same Mountain one of them something higher than the other as they are described by those who have taken a view of them For Moses was twice with God for the space of Forty days in in this Mount and here the Tabernacle and all things belonging to it were made according to the Orders he there received and then was erected and consecrated and the People all numbred and disposed under their several Standards to march in such order as God appointed II Numb 3 10 17 c. X. 14 15 c. Verse 7 Ver. 7. Turn you From this Mountain And take your Journey Resume your Journey which you have so long intermitted And go to the Mount of the Amorites A Mount on the South part of Canaan inhabited by the Amorites together with some Canaanites and Amalekites XIV Numb 25 43 45. But the principal Possessors of it were Amorites as is expressed more than once in this Chapter v. 19 20 44. This is the Mountain to which Moses bid the Spies go up XIII Numb 17. and so they did v. 22. And unto all the places nigh thereunto And so pass into all the neighbouring Country which lies near it In the Plain in the Hills and in the Vale. This is a Description of the Country nigh unto this Mountain some of which was Champion as we speak and other parts of it consisted of Hills and Dales And in the South and by the Sea-side to the Land of the Canaanites and unto Lebanon and unto the great River the river Euphrates And so go into all the rest of the Land of Canaan the several quarters of which he here sets forth The Southern part lying toward this Mountain the Western upon the Sea where the People properly called Canaanites dwelt the Northern toward Lebanon and the Eastern towards the River Euphrates Which by other Authors as well as Moses is called the great River So Callimachus in his Hymn to Apollo v. 103. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The great Flood of the Assyrian River which the Scholiast observes is meant of Euphrates And Lucan cum Tigride magnus Euphrates L. III. v. 253. Ver. 8. Behold I have set the Land In the Hebrew Verse 8 Given the Land i. e. bestowed it upon you and am ready to bring you into the possession of it Before you That every one of you may have his share of it Or that you may go whether you please and settle your selves in it XIII Gen. 9. XXXIV 10. Go in and possess the Land Therefore make no longer stay here in the Wilderness but go and take possession of my Gift Which the LORD sware unto yuor Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob c. XV Gen. 18. XVII 7 8. XXVI 3. XXVIII 13. Ver. 9. And I spake unto you at that time saying Verse 9 About the time of their coming to Horeb or Mount Sinai For the Story of Jethro unto which this relates preceded that immediately XVIII Exod. Many great Men place it after the giving of the Law Of which see Selden L. II. de Synedr Cap. 2. N. IV. I am not able to bear you alone We do not read before now that Moses spake thus to the People But Jethro spake in this manner to him XVIII Exod. 18. and gave him advice to take some others to his assistance v. 21. which advice he followed v. 24. And then spake to the People what Jethro had said to him and enlarged upon it in the words we read here in the following Verses where he gives them the reason why he could not perform the Office of a Judge alone Ver. 10. The LORD your God hath multiplied you Verse 10 and behold ye are this day as the Stars of Heaven for multitude Increased unto a greater number then can easily be told Verse 11 Ver. 11. The LORD God of your Fathers make you a thousand times so many as you are As if he had said I am not troubled at your vast increase but bless God for it and beseech him to make you a thousand times more numerous then at present you are And bless you as he hath promised you In the Promise often repeated to their Fathers XII Gen. 2. XV. 5. XVII 5 6. XVIII 18. XXII 17. XXVI 4. XXVIII 14. Verse 12 Ver. 12. How can I my self alone bear your cumbrance and your burden and your strife But how is it possible for one Man alone to undergo the labour of hearing all the Complaints of such a Multitude and of remedying all their Grievances and determining all their Controversies So the last word signifies Suits at Law as we speak as the two former signifie other Differences which arose between one Man and another about such things as are mentioned in the XXI XXII and XXIII Chapters of EXODUS The first word which we translate cumbrance signifies tediosam litigantium serram as Hottinger interprets it in his Smegna Orientale Lib. I. Cap. 6. the tedious Pleadings of those that manage Causes before a Judge by Bills and Answers suppose and Rejoynders c. Verse 13 Ver. 13. Take ye In the Hebrew it is Give ye i. e. present unto me such Persons as you think fit according to the following Characters Wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes Men of known Wisdom Prudence and Integrity skilful in Divine and Humane Laws See XVIII Exod. 21. Some take Wise men to signifie such as knew much and understanding such as had prudence to make use of their knowledge being Men of Experience and they were to be noted for both these otherwise the People would not have reverenced them Ver. 14. And ye answered me and said The thing Verse 14 which thou hast spoken is good for us to do This Consent of the People is not recorded before but sufficiently implied in their Submission to this Regulation mentioned XVIII Exod. 26. Ver. 15. So I took the chief of your Tribes wise men Verse 15 and known From among those Men that they presented to him he took I suppose such Persons among the chief of their Tribes as were endowed with the Qualities here named and were known by all so to be For obscure Persons either for Birth or Experience in Affairs would have been contemned and therefore he chose the noblest of those that were presented to him called here the chief of their Tribes if they were no less worthy than others For some such no doubt there were among their great Men as might be thought fit for this high Employment And they were the fitter because being Men of Quality as we speak they were less liable to