In this chapter, the exhortation to love the Lord, and keep his commands, is repeated and urged again and again from various considerations; as not only from the chastisement of Pharaoh and the wicked Egyptians, but of such Israelites who offended the Lord, and transgressed his law, Deut.

Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God Because he is so great and glorious in himself, and because he had done such great and good things for them, the Israelites, particularly in the multiplication of them, the last thing mentioned: and keep his charge; whatsoever the Lord had charged them to…

And know you this day Take notice of, and diligently attend unto, what is now about to be delivered: for I speak not unto your children which have not known, and which have not seen, the chastisement of the Lord your God; who have no knowledge and experience of the chastisement of the Lord on…

And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt The miraculous works done there, the ten plagues inflicted on the Egyptians for refusing to let Israel go: unto Pharaoh king, of Egypt, and unto all his land; for those plagues not only affected him and his court, and his…

And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots At the Red sea, when they pursued Israel in order to bring them back or destroy them, after they had let them go, which army was very numerous; see (Ex. 14:7, Ex.

And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto this place. ] Meaning not so much the good things he did for them in divers places, as the chastisements and corrections he had exercised them with for their murmurings, rebellions, idolatry, and uncleanness, as at Taberah,…

And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben When they with Korah and his company quarrelled with Moses and Aaron about the priesthood, , how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up; the history of which see in and their households and their tents; not…

But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did; ] Even all before related, with many others; and therefore the instruction they should learn from thence should be as follows.

Therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day For the reasons before suggested, as well as for what follow: that ye may be strong; healthful in body, and courageous in mind, for sin tends to weaken both; whereas observance of the commands of God contributes to the…

And that ye may prolong your days in the land Not only enter it, and take possession of it, but continue in it long, which depended upon their obedience to the laws of God: which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed; had promised with an oath, so that they might be…

For the land whither thou goest in to possess it The land of Canaan they were about to take possession of: is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out; either the whole land of Egypt, or that part of it, Rameses, in which Israel dwelt, and which was the best of it, as Jarchi observes, and…

But the land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys And so could not be watered by the overflow of a river, and by canals cut out of it, and in the manner Egypt was; which was for the most part a plain and flat country, but not so Canaan, in which were many hills and mountains,…

A land which the Lord thy God careth for In a very particular and special manner; otherwise he has a general care of the whole world, and all the parts of it; for as the earth is his, and the fulness thereof, his providential care reaches everywhere; but as this spot was what he had chosen for his…

And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day In the name, and by the authority of the Lord, the only lawgiver: to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul; see .

That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, &c.] Such a quantity of it as the land required, a sufficiency of it to make it fruitful, and that in proper time: the first rain and the latter rain; the former rain in Marchesvan, the latter rain in Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan;…

And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle By giving plentiful showers of rain at proper times, to cause it to spring up and grow, that so there might be food for the cattle of every sort, greater or lesser; see (Ps. 104:13, Ps.

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived By observing the influence of the heavens upon the fruitfulness of the earth, and so be drawn to the worship of the host of them, the sun, moon, and stars; or by the examples of nations round about them; and by the plausible arguments they…

And then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you For their idolatry, nothing being more provoking to him than that, it being contrary to his nature and being, as well as to his will, and to his honour and glory: and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain; the treasures and storehouses of it…

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul Treasure up the laws of God delivered to them in their minds, retain them in their memories, and cherish a cordial affection for them; which would be an antidote against apostasy, idolatry, and other sins, and bind them for a…

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul Treasure up the laws of God delivered to them in their minds, retain them in their memories, and cherish a cordial affection for them; which would be an antidote against apostasy, idolatry, and other sins, and bind them for a…

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul Treasure up the laws of God delivered to them in their minds, retain them in their memories, and cherish a cordial affection for them; which would be an antidote against apostasy, idolatry, and other sins, and bind them for a…

That your days may be multiplied Long life being a very desirable blessing, and which is promised to those that obey and keep the law; see (Deut. 30:19, Deut.

For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them Observe and take notice of them, even all of them, and so as not merely to have a theory or notional knowledge of them, but to put them in practice: to love the Lord your God; and show it by obeying his commands,…

Then will the Lord drive out all those nations from before you By little and little, even all the seven nations which then inhabited the land of Canaan; and this he would do to make room for them, that they might inherit the land; see and ye shall possess greater nations, and mightier than…

Every place wherein the soles of your feet shall tread Meaning in the land of Canaan; though the Jews vainly apply this to every land, and country, and place therein, where any of them come; pleasing themselves with this foolish fancy, that all shall be theirs that the foot of any of them have trod…

There shall be no man able to stand before you Meaning not a single man, such an one as Og, or any of the sons of Anak, the giants; because it could never be thought, imagined, or feared, that one man only should be able to stand against 600,000 fighting men, but any people or nation, though…

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse Meaning the law of God, and the statutes, judgments, and commandments of it; which, if obeyed, blessings would be bestowed upon them; but if disobeyed, they would be liable to the curses of it, as the following words explain it; see everyone…

A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, &c.] That is, a blessing should come upon them, even all temporal blessings they stood in need of; they should be blessed in body and estate, in their families, and in their flocks, in town and country; see , which I command you this…

And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God Accursed in body and estate, in basket and store; in their families, flocks, and herds; within doors and without; in city, and country; going out, or coming in; in this world, and that to come, if divine goodness prevent not;…

And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath bought thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it Which is often observed, as being near at hand; and when and where many things were to be done, which could not be done in the place and circumstances they now were, particularly what…

Are they not on the other side Jordan Opposite to that where Moses now was in the plains of Moab, even in Samaria; so in the Misnah [[18]] it is said, “as soon as Israel passed over Jordan, they came to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, which are in Samaria;” but those mountains were not near Jordan…

For ye shall pass over Jordan, to go in to possess the land Which the Lord your God giveth you They were now near it, and by this they are assured they should pass over it, in order to take possession of the land God had given them, and which gift of his was a sufficient title to it: and ye shall…

And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments, &c.] Take notice of them, and heed unto them, so as to practise them: which I set before you this day; repeated in order to them, on the observance of which depended their continuance in the land of Canaan; and therefore this is so often…