Blessings promised

children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. (56) The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, (57) and toward her 1 young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want

for Obedience.

plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD 2 bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. (62) And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD

a

that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. (4) And the LORD shall scatter thee among all

straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall

distress thee in thy gates.

(58) If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; (59) then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. (60) Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. (61) Also every sickness, and every

ascend.

a ch. 10. 22.

shall eat some of their children and refuse to share even this food with those that are lefr.

(56) The tender and delicate woman.- This was fulfilled to the very letter in the case of Mary of Beth-ezob in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. The story is told with horrible minuteness by Josephus, and again by Eusebius in his Church History. The secrecy of the deed was one of its horrors.

(58, 59) See Note on chap. xxv. 2, 3.

This glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God. The first Note of the Decalogue is here referred to, as the great curse of the Law draws to its close. It is no light matter when the Almighty says to any people or to any person, "I am Jehoval thy God." They who are His must obey Him, love Him, and acknowledge Him. He will not be mocked. Never did He in all history "assay to go and take Him a nation" from the midst of other nations as he took Israel. Hence these tremendous consequences.

Of long continuance.-Eighteen hundred years have they lasted, and seem to be breaking out afresh now (1882) as though they were in full force. "To chastise thee permanently is their mission" (Rashi).

(60) The diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of. Contrast Exod. xv. 26. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah

.

I

will put none of these diseases of Egypt which thou knowest, upon thee; for I am Jehovah, that healeth thee." But, on the other hand, it is said (Ezek. vii. 9),

even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor tly fathers have known, even wood and stone. (65) And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: (66) and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: (67) in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the

"Ye shall know that I am Jehovah that smiteth.”

Jehovah-Ropheka and Jehovah-Makkeh are one Je

hovah.

(61) Every sickness and every plague (or "smiting; " Heb., Makkah) which is not written. -Well might the Apostle write, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

(63) As the Lord rejoiced over you.- See on chap. xxx. 9.

(64) And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people.-Fulfilled, literally, in this last dispersion.

Thou shalt serve other gods.- We do not know of Israel's falling into actual idolatry in disper sion, except in Egypt (Jer. xliv. 17), and possibly in Babylon (Ezek. xiv. 22, 23. Comp. chap. xxxiii. 25). But they were slaves to the worshippers of other gods.

(65) And among these nations shalt thou find no ease. The repeated persecutions of the Jews by other nations in the time of their dispersion are among the most fearful and wonderful phenomena of history.

And failing of eyes.-"Looking for salvation, and it cometh not "(Rashi). How many years have they gone on praying that they may keep the feast "next year" in Jerusalem? and still the hope is deferred.

(66) Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee." Perhaps I shall die to-day by the sword that cometh upon me " (Rashi).

(67) Thou shalt say.-The Talmud expounds this of the constant increase of trouble. Yesterday evening

The Second Covenant

Ye shall be sold and no man shall buy you.-Rashi explains thus: "Ye shall desire to be sold-ye shall offer yourselves as slaves to your enemies, and shall be refused, because you are appointed to slaughter and destruction. Or the sellers shall sell you to other sellers, and no one will care to keep you." But the same word is used in the following passage by Nehemiah, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold to the heathen" (Neh. v. 8). Probably the meaning in Deuteronomy is similar: "Ye shall be sold as slaves to your enemies, and there will be no one to redeem you."

XXIX., XXX.

THE SECOND COVENANT.

(1) These are the words of the covenant.— The Hebrew Bibles add this verse to the previous chapter, and begin chap. xxix. at the second verse. But they cannot be right in so doing. For though the pronoun "these" in Hebrew has nothing to determine whether it belongs to what precedes or to what follows, yet the context shows that the covenant is described in chap. xxix., not in chap. xxviii. (See verses 12-15 below). It is very significant that this "covenant in the land of Moab" stands outside the tremendous sanction appended to the expansion of the Sinaitic covenant in Deuteronomy. The effect of this arrangement may be illustrated by a reference to Lev. xxvi., xxvii. The "sanction" of the law in Leviticus, which is a complete code of ceremonial and moral holiness, is contained in chap. xxvi. But that chapter is followed by a passage respecting vows, which are not compulsory, and therefore obviously lie, as a whole, outside that which is “commanded.” The position of Deut. xxix. and xxx. is analogous to that of Lev. xxvii. Thus we see that the tremendous curse of the Sinaitic covenant is not the end of God's dealings with the chosen people. After that, there is still another covenant, to the force of which there is no limit (see verse 15 below). The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Nothing

declared by Moses.

(2) And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, "Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; (3) the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: (4) yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. (5) And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is thy foot.

not waxen old upon (6) Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong

can destroy the relation between Jehovah and Israel. Their resurrection as a nation may well be described by the words of Moses in Ps. xc., "Thou turnest man to destruction (national death- Deut. xxviii.), and sayest (chaps. xxix., xxx.), Return, ye children of men (resurrection). For a thousand years in thy sight (though spent in the grave) are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night" (to be followed by the dawn of morning). "A watch in the night" is not the blackness of darkness for ever.

Beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.-It should be carefully noted that the formal repetition of the law in Moses' second great discourse in this book opens with these words (ch. v. 2), "the Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb." There is no real break in Deuteronomy from chap. v. 1 to the end of chap. xxvi. And chaps. xxvii. and xxviii. are the "sanction" of that covenant.

(2) And Moses called all Israel and said unto them. The address in this chapter may be compared with that of Joshua to the people (as distinct from their heads and officers) in Josh. xxiv. The topics brought before them are simple. In verses 2, 3, the miracles of the Exodus; in verses 5, 7, the wilderness journey; in verses 7, 8, the conquest of Sihon and Og. All are appealed to, from the captains of the tribes (verse 10), to the little ones (verse 11), and the lowest slaves (verse 11). And the point set before them is one simple thing, to accept Jehovah as their God. All this is very closely reproduced in Josh. xxiv. (see Notes in that place).

Ye have seen. The pronoun is emphatic. Yourselves are witnesses. I need not repeat the story. (Comp. chap. xi. 2—7.)

(4) Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive.-"To mark the mercies of the Holy One, blessed be He! and to cleave unto Him" (Rashi). And so in Ps. cvi. 7, "Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies." (See also on chap. xxxi. 16, &c.)

(5) See on chap viii. 4.

(6) Ye have not eaten bread-but manna (chap. viii. 3).

Neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink. A fact stated here only, and evidently coming from the lips of one who "knew their walking through the wilderness." "They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." God

drink that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.

(7) And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them (8) and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh. (9) « Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

(10) Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

to Enter into this Covenant.

and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: (13) that he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

(14) Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; (15) but with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: (16) (for ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye

stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: (12) that thou shouldest 1enter into covenant with the LORD thy God,

cared for their physical health and strength by the natural food which He gave them, and made their natural food represent the act of feeding upon Him. It is observable also that God seems to have especially blessed the abstinence from wine and strong drink for His sake in Israel. (See Lam. iv. 7.)

(7, 8) See chap. iii. 1-17.

(9) Keep therefore the words of this covenant... that ye may prosper.-Comp. Josh. i. 8 (Note); Ps. i. 3.

(10) Ye stand this day all of you.-There is no limit to the blessing of following Jehovah and keeping His word. It is open to all, from the highest to the lowest, to take hold of His covenant.

(11) Your little ones.-Compare St. Peter's words on the day of Pentecost: "The promise is unto you and to your children" (Acts ii. 39). The covenant with Abraham was that the Almighty would be a God to him and to his seed (Gen. xvii. 7), including the child of eight days old (verse 12), and the slave (verse 13), who were to receive the sign of His covenant in their flesh for an everlasting covenant.

66

From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water.-From this Rashi infers that "there were Canaanites who became proselytes in the time of Moses, in the same way as the Gibeonites in the days of Joshua." It may have been so. And we know that there were many female captives of the Midianites who became slaves. (See Num. xxxi.) (12) Enter (literally pass") into covenant with the Lord.-Comp. Ezek. xx. 37: "I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." Rashi illustrates by Jer. xxxiv. 18, the passing between the parts of the divided victim, in order to enter into the covenant. (Comp. Gen. xv. 17, 18.) But no such ceremony is mentioned here, and therefore we can only say that possibly the practice may have given occasion for this use of the word "pass.'

His oath.-A word here used for the first time

in Deuteronomy. It is rendered curse " in verses 19-21. It seems to mean an imprecation in the name of God (comp. Lev. v. 21; Gen. xxiv. 41), which

abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them :) (18) lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family,

may bring a curse if the thing sworn to is not fulfilled.

Which the Lord thy God maketh with thee. -Maketh; literally, cutteth. The word refers to the "covenant." ""

(13) That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself.-It must be carefully observed that this is the aspect of the covenant which makes Jehovah responsible for the fulfilment of the whole. "He takes all this trouble for the sake of establishing thee in His presence for a people" (Rashi). The people's part, as described in this verse, is only to accept the position. And thus the covenant of Deut. xxix. is brought into the closest similarity with that which is called the New Covenant in Jer. xxxi. 31, Heb. viii. 8; the form of which is "I will " be to them a God, and "they shall" be to me a people. God undertakes for the people's part of the covenant as well as His own. In Deuteronomy the first half of the New Covenant appears here in chap. xxix., “that He may be unto thee a God." The second part appears in chap xxx. 6-8, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God." (14, 15) Neither with you only

but

"

also with him that is not here with us this day-i.e., "also with generations yet to be (Rashi).

(16, 17) These verses seem rightly placed in a parenthesis. (Comp. Ezek. xx. 7, 8, 18.)

(17) Their abominations.-This word occurs here for the first time, but the verb appears in chap. vii. 26 ("utterly detest "), and in Lev. xi. 11, 13, 43, xx. 25. In the later scriptures of the Old Testament this word "abomination" is frequently used to denote an idol.

Their idols.-Either "great blocks," or as in the margin, a term of extreme contempt. (See Lev. xxvi. 30, where the word first occurs.) It is a favourite term with the prophet Ezekiel, who uses it four times as often as other writers in the Old Testament.

(18) Lest there should be.-The connection with verse 15 seems to be this. "I make this covenant binding with all your generations, in case there should