upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: (23) and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. (24) And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. (25) And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded

us.

a ch. 31. 3.

Mix with the Heathen.

the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; (2) and when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: (3) neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. (4) For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be

thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and

pillars.

This

self. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me." The keeping of the Law of Jehovah by Israel as a nation in the land that He gave them was the final cause of their national existence. fundamental fact must never be forgotten. This alone would justify what had been done to Egypt. Hence the neglect of the Law must inevitably bring down the Divine vengeance.

(25) And it shall be our righteousness.-In one Targum, "It shall be merit to us," or more fully, in the other, "It shall be merit laid up for us against the world to come." In the LXX., "It shall be alms to us." This conjunction of ideas will help to explain why in Matt. vi. 1 "alms" and "righteousness" occur as alternative readings. We have "alms" in the Authorised Version, righteousness" in the Revised Version. To this day the Jews call alms ts'dákah, "righteousness."

VII.

(1) When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land. .-The former chapter applies the Decalogue to the love of Jehovah and of His word, and to faith in Him as the God of Israel; and thus it may be regarded as an expansion of the first commandment. The exhortation in this chapter concerns the treatment of idolaters in the conquest of Canaan, and the avoidance of all such intercourse or union with them as might tend to turn Israel from Jehovah. Obviously, this may be connected both with the first and with the second commandment.

(2) And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee -It would be possible to read, "Then the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, and thou shalt smite." Or the sentence might also be divided thus: When the Lord thy God shall bring thee in, and shall have delivered the nations from before thee, and thou hast smitten them, then thou shalt utterly destroy them"-i.e., shalt make them chêrem, a devoted or accursed thing. Perhaps this last way of dividing the clauses is, upon the whole, to be preferred. But in any case it should be noted that Jehovah's deliverance of the nations into Israel's

suddenly. (5) But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their 1 images, and cut down their groves, and burn their

All

hand is to precede their defeat and extermination. Indiscriminate attack and massacre are not to be thought of. (See for a further Note on this, Joshua xiii.) the operations described in Joshua-the sieges of Jericho and Ai, the southern campaign and the northern campaign-were alike undertaken under Divine direction. The same may be said of the battles in Moses' lifetime, whether against Amalek, Sihon, Og, Arad, or Midian. The same is true of the judges, and of David's operations against the Philistines after he came to the throne (2 Sam. v. 19, &c.). The principle was acknowledged by Ahab in his attack on Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings xxii.).

Thou shalt make no covenant with them. -The reason for this is too obvious to need comment. If Israelites and idolaters were united-still more if they were intermingled in marriage-there was an end to the distinction of race and religion-an end to the supremacy of Israel or the isolation of the people of Jehovah, as exhibiting His Law and the blessings of His government to mankind. It must be remembered, however, that the isolation here commanded was only a means to an end; it was not the end itself. It may be further observed that as soon as the danger of idolatry was at an end, the isolation of Israel in a great measure ceased. The object of giving the people a land of their own, and supremacy among the surrounding nations, was to enable them to develop the religion which was to prepare the way for Christianity. When the religious principles of the nation were sufficiently fixed to make their political supremacy unnecessary, this supremacy was taken away.

(5) Ye shall destroy their altars This course, if adopted in a conquered territory, would be certain to bring matters to a crisis. The inhabitants must rise in defence of the objects of their worship-a course which would end in their extermination or they must adopt the worship of Jehovah.

Their groves. Here the grove itself in which the idol was worshipped, and so in chap. xvi. 21. Sometimes the word is used for the image.

Burn their graven images with fire.-David treated the images of the Philistines thus (1 Chron. xiv. 12). Compare Isa. xxxvii. 19.

God will Help them

24. 12.

against the Heathen.

destruction, until they be destroyed. (24) And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall

d

с

b

until thou have destroyed them. (25) The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God. (26) Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house,

:

the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. (21) Thou shalt not be affrighted at them for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. (22) And the LORD thy God will 1 put out those nations before thee by little and little thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. (23) But the LORD thy God shall deliver them 2 unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty

c ch. 12. 3.

e ch. 13. 17.

(18) Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember... Egypt.-No free nation could ever have the same ground for terror as a nation of slaves rising up against its masters. If Israel had been delivered by Jehovah in that position, it was a security for all time that He would give them the victory in every enterprise He called them to undertake.

(19) The great temptations.-The several repetitions of the summons to Pharaoh that he should let Israel go, accompanied and enforced by plagues, may well be called "temptations" in the sense of trials of his character. The word " temptation" in the sense of "inducement to sin" is very rare, if not absolutely wanting, in the Old Testament.

(20) The hornet.-To be understood literally. (See on chap. i. 44, and Josh. xxiv. 12.) The "land flowing with (milk and) honey" may well have swarmed with bees and hornets.

(22) The Lord thy God will put out.-The word for "putting out" is illustrated by its use in chap. xix. 5, of the axe-head flying off from the handle in the midst of a blow, and of the olive "casting" his fruit in chap. xxviii. 40. (Comp. also 2 Kings xvi. 6, and 1 Sam. xxv. 29, for a similar thought.)

By little and little.-This confirms the view already expressed, that the expulsion of each particular nation was contingent upon the Divine decree, and that none were to be attacked by Israel except when the Lord should deliver them into Israel's hand.

(24) He shall deliver their kings into thine hand. In the summary of Joshua's conquest (Josh. xii.) the kings are reckoned for the cities. Special mention is made of seven of them who were hanged.

There shall no man be able to stand before thee.-A promise personally renewed to Joshua (chap.

thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

CHAPTER VIII.—(1) All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. (2) And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to

i. 5), and fulfilled to Israel under his command (Josh. xx. 44).

(25, 26) These words are a special warning against the sin which Achan committed (Josh. vii. 21): "I coveted them, and took them." They also describe the consequences which he experienced, together with his whole household, being made chérem, devoted or accursed by the spoil which he took from Jericho. (See on Josh. vii.)

VIII.

(1) All the commandments.-Perhaps this verse should be placed at the conclusion of the preceding paragraph rather than at the commencement of the next. The second verse of this chapter introduces a fresh branch of the subject.

That ye may . . go in and possess.-This does not refer simply to the passage of Jordan and the first conquest under Joshua so much as to that work of possession in detail which Joshua left for Israel to do after their first establishment in the country. On this distinction, see Josh. xiii. 1, 7 (Note).

THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE EXODUS.

(2) And thou shalt remember.-The whole of the remainder of this exhortation, to the end of chap. x., is chiefly taken up with this topic. Israel must remember (1) the leading of Jehovah, and (2) their own rebellious perversity in the journey through the wilderness. The same recollection is made the occasion for a separate note of praise in Ps. cxxxvi. 16: "To him which led his people through the wilderness; for his mercy endureth for ever."

The way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years.-Not so much the literal journey,

but "the way: i.e., the manner. The details of the actual journey are of course included, but only as incidents of "the way." In the Acts of the Apostles the Christian life is in several passages called "the way." In all these things the Israelites were types of us.

To humble thee, and to prove thee.-The way in itself is described as "three days' journey into the wilderness," so far as the leading to Sinai is concerned (Exod. iii. 18), and "eleven days' journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea " (Deut. i. 2). It was in the power of Jehovah to bring Israel from Egypt to Canaan, had He so willed it, without delay, in a very little time. And just so with "the way" of salvation. There is no intrinsic or necessary impossibility in the immediate turning of mankind, or of any individual, from darkness to light. And this change might be followed by immediate removal from "this present evil world" into the place which Christ has gone before to prepare for us. But manifestly the formation of human character by probation and training would vanish in such a process as this. There could be no well-tried and deliberate purpose to serve our Creator and Redeemer in any of us-or, at least, no proof of our deliberate preference for His service-under such circumstances. Nor, again, could there be that humility which arises only out of self-knowledge. The transitory nature of all mere human resolutions and impressions for good demonstrates to the man who knows himself, better than anything else could do, the power and patience of his Redeemer, and the moral cost of his redemption. This human transitoriness and feebleness is strikingly illustrated by the story of the Exodus.

To know what was in thine heart." To know" is not simply that He might know ("Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men!"), but that the knowledge may arise-to determine, disclose, discover. So in 2 Chron. xxxii. 31: "God left him (Hezekiah) to try him, to know all that was in his heart." What God Himself knows by omniscience He sometimes brings to light by evidence for the sake of His creatures. (Comp. Ephesians iii. 10: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by (by means of) the church the manifold wisdom of God.")

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(3) And he ... suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee.-A process naturally humbling. He might easily have fed them without "suffering them to hunger." But He did not give them the manna until the sixteenth day of the second month of the journey (see Exodus xvi. 1, 6, 7); and for one whole month they were left to their own resources. When it appeared that the people had no means of providing sustenance during their journey, "they saw the glory of the Lord" in the way in which He fed them; and for thirty-nine years and eleven months "He withheld not His manna from their mouth."

Manna, which thou knewest not.-Its very name (but see Note on Exod. xvi. 15) commemorates the fact "unto this day." All the natural things which have

been called manna (and Dr. Cunningham Geikie, in "Hours with the Bible," has described several) do not afford the least explanation of the bread which God gave Israel to eat.

That man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.-Not here alone, but throughout the Law, as in the Gospel, we are taught that life is to do the will of God. Our Saviour called that " My meat." What the visible means of subsistence may be is a secondary matter. Man's life is to do the will of God: "My commandments, which, if a man do, he shall even live in them." "He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

But the special interest of these words arises from our Lord's use of them in the hour of temptation. He also was led forty days (each day for a year of the Exodus) in the wilderness, living upon the word of God. At the end of that time it was proposed to Him to create bread for Himself. But He had learnt the lesson which Israel was to learn; and so, even when God suffered Him to hunger, He still refused to live by His own word. He preferred that of His Father. And the angels came and ministered unto Him." It is noticeable that all our Lord's answers to the tempter are taken from this exhortation upon the Decalogue in Deut. vi.-X.

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(4) Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee. -The Jewish commentators say that it grew with their growth, from childhood to manhood. We cannot say that anything miraculous is certainly intended, though it is not impossible. It may mean that God in His providence directed them to clothe themselves in a manner suitable to their journey and their mode of life, just as He taught them how to make and clothe His own tabernacle with various fabrics and coverings of skin. This tabernacle, which was God's dwelling, was (like the Temple) a figure of man. (Comp. Ezek. xvi. 10: “I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin.”)

Neither did thy foot swell.-Just as those who were to die in the wilderness could not live, so those who were to enter Canaan were preserved in health through the journey thither. It seems allowable to point out the spiritual interpretation of the passage also. If "the way" that God leads any of His children through this present evil world should seem long, and should entail constant need of renewal and cleansing in His sight, He provides us with "raiment that waxes not old," in the everlasting righteousness of His Son, and also in the good works which He prepares for us to walk in-that "fine linen which is the righteousness of saints." He also says of those that wait on the Lord that they shall "walk, and not faint" (Isa. xl. 31).

(5) As a man chasteneth his son.-This is the foundation of many similar sayings in Holy Scripture: Prov. xiii. 24, "He seeketh chastening for him," i.e., seeks it early. All our ideas of training necessarily imply time; it cannot be done in a moment. But the main point of the illustration is to prove God's love.

They are to Remember

God's Goodness to them.

chasteneth thee. (6) Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

of oil.

(7) For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; (8) a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land oil olive, and honey; (9) a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

(10) a When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: (12) lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; (13) and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

"Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth;" else, why should He be at the pains to chasten at all?

(7) For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land.-The description in this and the following verses is most attractive; but it is a long time since any one has seen Palestine in that condition. Its desolation, no less than its beauty, is a proof of the truth of the Divine word.

of fountains and depths that spring out. -Rather, that go forth in the valley and on the hill. The watercourse down the mountain-side, and the deep lake or still pool below, are both described here.

(9) Whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.-We do not hear of mining operations in Palestine from sacred history. "Brass," .e., copper; and so in all passages.

(10) When thou hast eaten.-Literally, and thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and shalt bless the Lord thy God.

There is a saying in the Talmud (Berachoth, p. 35 a.), "It is forbidden to any man to take any enjoyment from this present world without thanksgiving; and every one who does so is a transgressor."

(11) Beware that.-From verse 11 to verse 18 inclusive is one long sentence in the Hebrew, and may be taken thus: "Take heed to thyself lest thou forget Jehovah thy God (so that thou keep not, &c.); lest thou eat and be satisfied (while thou buildest, &c.); and thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget Jehovah (thy deliverer, thy leader, thy sustainer), and say in thine heart, My power, &c.; and (take heed) that thou remember Jehovah thy God, that it is He that giveth thee

C

thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; (15) who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; 'who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; (16) who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; (17) and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. (18) But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

(19) And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. (20) As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.

power to get wealth," &c. The caution is prophetic, as may be seen by the following examples :

"When Rehoboam had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him' (2 Chron. xii. 1).

"But when he (Uzziah) was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction" (2 Chron. xxvi. 16).

"Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up” (2 Chron. xxxii. 25).

Other instances might easily be added.

(12) Hast built goodly houses.-One of the conditions prescribed by Jonadab the son of Rechab to his family was, "All your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers" (Jer. xxxv. 7).

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(15) The rock of flint.-The rock in Horeb is called tsûr; the rock smitten in Kadesh, selagh. The first word conveys the idea of "hardness ; the other is rather a 66 cliff," or "height," and suggests the idea of inaccessibility. In Num. xx. 10, the words of Moses to the rebels, Must we fetch you water out of this rock? seem to help the distinction, whatever its purpose may be. On the associations of the word tsûr with flint, see Note on Josh. v. 2. The word challâmîsh, here used for flint, occurs in chap. xxxii. 13, Job xxviii. 9, Ps. cxiv. 8 (an allusion to this passage), and Isa. 1. 7. (20) Because ye would not be obedient.In return for your disobedience. The same word is employed in chap. vii. 12. The use of the word in these two places might fairly be taken to mark off the intervening portion as a complete section of the discourse.