The first words of this chapter are the contents of it, “These are the words of the covenant” , that is, these that follow. Here is, I. A recital of God’s dealings with them, in order to the bringing of them into this covenant, Deut. 29:2–8. II. A solemn charge to them to keep the covenant, Deut.

Now that Moses had largely repeated the commands which the people were to observe as their part of the covenant, and the promises and threatenings which God would make good (according as they behaved themselves) as part of the covenant, the whole is here summed up in a federal transaction.

It appears by the length of the sentences here, and by the copiousness and pungency of the expressions, that Moses, now that he was drawing near to the close of his discourse, was very warm and zealous, and very desirous to impress what he said upon the minds of this unthinking people.