This chapter begins with an intimation of another covenant the Lord was about to make with the people of Israel, Deut. 29:1; and, to prepare their minds to an attention to it, various things which the Lord had done for them are recited, Deut.

These are the words of the covenant Not what go before, but follow after, in the next chapters, to the end of the book; in which are various promises of grace, and promises of good things, both with respect to Jews and Gentiles, intermixed with other things: which the Lord commanded Moses to make…

Moses called unto all Israel He had been speaking before to the heads of them, and delivered at different times what is before recorded; but now he summoned the whole body of the people together, a solemn covenant being to be made between God and them; or such things being to be made known unto…

The great temptations which thine eyes have seen Or trials, the ten plagues which tried the Egyptians, whether they would let Israel go; and tried the Israelites, whether they would believe in the Lord, and trust in his almighty power to deliver them: the signs and those great miracles: as the said…

Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive They had some of them seen the above miracles with their bodily eyes, but had not discerned with the eyes of their understanding the power of God displayed in them, the goodness of God to them on whose behalf they were wrought, in order to obtain…

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness From the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day, which though not quite complete, is given as a round number.

Ye have not eaten bread Bread made of corn, common bread, of their own preparing, made by the labour of their own hands; but manna, the food of angelS, the bread of heaven: neither have you drank wine, nor strong drink; only water out of the rock, at least chiefly, and for constancy; though it may…

And when ye came unto this place The borders of Moab, the wilderness before it, to which joined the plains they were now in; see (Num. 21:13, Num. 21:20) ; Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle; not together, but one after the other, and that very quickly; as…

And we took their land Which belonged to the two kings, the lands of Jazer, Gilead, and Bashan, fine countries for pasturage: and gave it for an inheritances unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh; who requested it, and to whom it was granted on certain…

Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them To do which they were laid under great obligations, through the goodness of God to them, in giving them victory over the two kings, and delivering their countries into their hands, as well as by all the favours bestowed on them in the…

Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God Being gathered together at the door of the tabernacle, at the summons of Moses. Aben Ezra interprets it round about the ark, which was the symbol of the divine Presence: your captains of your tribes; the heads and rulers of them: your elders and…

Your little ones, your wives Who are scarce ever mentioned in any special law or solemn transaction: and thy stranger that is in thy camp; not only the proselyte of righteousness, who embraced the Jewish religion entirely, but the proselyte of the gate, who was admitted to dwell among them, having…

That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, &c.] That is, they were all to appear and stand in this order before the Lord, that they might solemnly avouch him to be their God, and hear him declaring them to be his people, and the many promises and prophecies of good things he…

That be may establish thee this day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God Which contains the sum and substance of the covenant; see ; as he hath said unto thee, and as he had sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; (Deut. 26:17, Deut. 26:18) .

Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath. ] That is, Moses; for he was ordered to make this covenant with them in the name of the Lord; what promises of good things, or declarations of his mind and will, God would make, Moses was to deliver to them; and what was required of them…

But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God Who are before specified according to their dignity, age, sex, and station of life; or rather, “but as with him that standeth” and so with him that is not here with us this day; detained at home by illness and indisposition of…

For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt How long they and their fathers had dwelt there, the number of years they had been in the land, as the Targum of Jonathan, which was upwards of two hundred years; and being a country the inhabitants of which were much given to idolatry, they had…

And ye have seen their abominations and their idols Or, “their abominations, even their idols”; for the same are meant by both: it is common in Scripture to call the idols of the Gentiles abominations, without any other explanation of them; see (1 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 11:7) ; because they are…

Lest there should be among you man or woman, or family, or tribe These words stand in connection with , with (Deut. 29:16, Deut. 29:17) being in a parenthesis, as may be observed, and show the design of this solemn appearance of the people, and their entering afresh into covenant; which was to…

And it cometh to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse That is, the man before compared to a root bearing bitter herbs, when he should hear the curses pronounced by the law against such persons as himself: that he bless himself in his heart; inwardly pronounce himself blessed, thinking…

Then the Lord will not spare him Have no mercy upon him, nor forgive him, being an hardhearted, impenitent, stubborn, and obstinate sinner, as well as guilty of the grossest and most provoking sin, as idolatry is: but then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall smoke against that man; or,…

And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel Unto the evil of punishment, devote and consign him to it, and make him a visible and distinguished mark of his displeasure and vengeance.

So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you Not the next generation, but in future times, in ages to come, at a great distance, even after the destruction of Judea by the Romans; to which seems to refer: and the stranger that shall come from a far land; on trade and…

And that the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt, and burning That is, is become exceeding barren, as all such land is where there are sulphureous mines, or salt pits, or burning mountains; not that this would be, or has been the case of the land of Judea in a strict literal sense; only these…

Even all nations shall say For the destruction of this land, and the people of it, would be, as it has been, so very great and awful, and so very remarkable and surprising, that the fame of it would be heard among all the nations of the world, as it has been; who, upon hearing the sad report of it,…

Then men shall say The answer that will be returned to the above questions will be this because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers: breakers of covenants with men are always reckoned among the worst of men, see ; and especially breakers of covenant with God, and with…

For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them As did all Israel, in the times of Solomon, and the ten tribes under Jeroboam, and other succeeding kings of Israel; and the two tribes in the times of Ahaz, and especially of Manasseh, when they worshipped all the host of heaven; see ; gods…

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land For this their idolatry and base ingratitude: to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book; in this book of Deuteronomy, and particularly ; see .

And the Lord rooted them out of the land Which was true both at the Babylonish captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, and at their present one by the Romans; and especially the latter, by whom they have been so rooted out, as that they have not been able to return to it these 1700 years, nor to have any…

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God Respecting the people of Israel, and the providential dealings of God with them, and especially the final rejection of them; with respect to which, the apostle’s exclamation agrees with this, ; and though the Lord had revealed many things which should…