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Commentary

Deuteronomy 12:32

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

That only do thou: They are forbid here to follow the ceremonies of the heathens; or to make any alterations in the divine ordinances.

Deuteronomy 13:9

But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

Presently put him to death: Not by killing him by private authority, but by informing the magistrate, and proceeding by order of justice.

Deuteronomy 13:13

Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;

Belial: That is, without yoke. Hence the wicked, who refuse to be subject to the divine law, are called in scripture the children of Belial.

Deuteronomy 14:3

Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

Unclean: See the annotations on Lev. 11.

Deuteronomy 15:4

Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:

There shall be no poor: It is not to be understood as a promise, that there should be no poor in Israel, as appears from ver. 11, where we learn that God's people would never be at a loss to find objects for their charity: but it is an ordinance that all should do their best endeavours to prevent any of their brethren from suffering the hardships of poverty and want.

Deuteronomy 17:3

And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

The host of heaven: That is, the stars.

Deuteronomy 17:8

If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;

[8] If thou perceive: Here we see what authority God was pleased to give to the church guides of the Old Testament, in deciding, without appeal, all controversies relating to the law; promising that they should not err therein; and surely he has not done less for the church guides of the New Testament.

Deuteronomy 22:6

If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young:

Thou shalt not take: This was to show them to exercise a certain mercy even to irrational creatures; and by that means to train them up to a horror of cruelty; and to the exercise of humanity and mutual charity one to another.

Deuteronomy 22:8

When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.

Battlement: This precaution was necessary, because all their houses had flat tops, and it was usual to walk and to converse together upon them.

Deuteronomy 23:1 · 2 passages

He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Eunuch: By these are meant, in the spiritual sense, such as are barren in good works. Ibid.

Into the church: That is, into the assembly or congregation of Israel, so as to have the privilege of an Israelite, or to be capable of any place or office among the people of God.

Deuteronomy 23:14

For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

No uncleanness: This caution against suffering any filth in the camp, was to teach them to fly the filth of sin, which driveth God away from the soul.

Deuteronomy 23:20

Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

To the stranger: This was a dispensation granted by God to his people, who being the Lord of all things, can give a right and title to one upon the goods of another. Otherwise the scripture everywhere condemns usury, as contrary to the law of God, and a crying sin. See Ex. 22. 25; Lev. 25. 36, 37; 2 Esd. 5. 7; Ps. 14. 5; Ezech. 18. 8, 13, etc.

Deuteronomy 25:4

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

Not muzzle: St. Paul understands this of the spiritual labourer in the church of God, who is not to be denied his maintenance. 1 Cor. 9. 8, 9, 10.

Deuteronomy 25:17

Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt;

Amalec: This order for destroying the Amalecites, in the mystical sense, showeth how hateful they are to God, and what punishments they are to look for from his justice, who attack and discourage his servants when they are but just come out, as it were, of the Egypt of this wicked world and being yet weak and fainthearted, are but beginning their journey to the land of promise.

Deuteronomy 26:5

And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

The Syrian: Laban. See Gen. 27.

Deuteronomy 28:2

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

All these blessings: In the Old Testament, God promised temporal blessings to the keepers of his law, heaven not being opened as yet; and that gross and sensual people being more moved with present and sensible things. But in the New Testament the goods that are promised us are spiritual and eternal; and temporal evils are turned into blessings.

Deuteronomy 28:15

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

All these curses: Thus God dealt with the transgressors of his law in the Old Testament: but now he often suffers sinners to prosper in this world, rewarding them for some little good they have done, and reserving their punishment for the other world.

Deuteronomy 29:4

Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

Hath not given you: Through your own fault and because you resisted his grace.

Deuteronomy 29:19

And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

The drunken: absumat ebria sitientem. It is a proverbial expression, which may either be understood, as spoken by the sinner, blessing, that is, flattering himself in his sins with the imagination of peace, and so great an abundance as may satisfy, and as it were, consume all thirst and want: or it may be referred to the root of bitterness, spoken of before, which being drunken with sin may attract, and by that means consume, such as thirst after the like evils.

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