Deuteronomy 11 commentary

DEUTERONOMY 11 COMMENTARY

EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Love and Obey the Lord

1 Love the Lord your God and keep his

requirements, his decrees, his laws and his

commands always.

CLARKE, "Thou shalt love the Lord - Because without this there could be no obedience to the Divine testimonies, and no happiness in the soul; for the heart that is destitute of the love of God, is empty of all good, and consequently miserable. See the note on Deu_10:12.

GILL, "Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God,.... Because he is so great and glorious in himself, and because he had done such great and good things for them, the Israelites, particularly in the multiplication of them, the last thing mentioned:

and keep his charge; whatsoever the Lord had charged them to observe, even what follow:

and his statutes and his judgments, and his commandments, alway; all his laws, ceremonial, judicial, and moral; and that constantly and continually, all the days of their lives.

HENRY, "Because God has made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude (so the preceding chapter concludes), therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God (so this begins). Those whom God has built up into families, whose beginning was small, but whose latter end greatly increases, should use that as an argument with themselves why they should serve God. Thou shalt keep his charge, that is, the oracles of his word and ordinances of his worship, with which they were entrusted and for which they were accountable. It is a phrase often used concerning the office of the priests and Levites, for all Israel was a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Observe the connection of these two: Thou shalt love the Lord and keep his charge, since love will work in obedience, and that only is acceptable obedience which flows from a principle of love. 1Jo_5:3.

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JAMISON. "Deu_11:1-32. An exhortation to obedience.

Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge — The reason for the frequent repetition of the same or similar counsels is to be traced to the infantine character and state of the church, which required line upon line and precept upon precept. Besides, the Israelites were a headstrong and perverse people, impatient of control, prone to rebellion, and, from their long stay in Egypt, so violently addicted to idolatry, that they ran imminent risk of being seduced by the religion of the country to which they were going, which, in its characteristic features, bore a strong resemblance to that of the country they had left.

CALVIN, "1.Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God. The whole address has

this scope, that the people should testify their gratitude by their obedience, and

thus being allured by God’s bounties, should reverently embrace His Law. On

this account also, he requires them to love God, before he exhorts them to obey

the Law itself. For, although he might have imperiously and menacingly

commanded them, he preferred to lead them gently to obedience, by setting

before them the sweetness of His grace. In sum, he exhorts them that, being

invited by God’s love, they should love him in return. Meanwhile, it is well to

observe that free affection is the foundation and beginning of duly obeying the

Law, for what is drawn forth by constraint, or servile fear, cannot please God.

He designates the precepts of the Law by various names, in order that they may

zealously and attentively apply themselves to listen to God, who has omitted

nothing calculated to regulate their life; for, by this variety of words, he signifies

that God had familiarly and perfectly taught whatever was required. As to the

three latter words, “his statutes, and judgments, and commandments,” what I

have observed in Genesis and in the Psalms may be referred to. The word משמות,

(254) meshamroth, or guards, (custodiae,) which here stands first, is spoken in

commendation of the Law on this ground, that it fences in our life, as it were,

with rails, lest it should be exposed to errors on the right hand and on the left,.

At the end of the verse he exhorts them to perseverance, because it was not

allowable for the recollection of their deliverance ever to cease.

COFFMAN, "Here is a renewal of Moses' exhortation to the people, urging them

to obedience, enforced by experiences that they had in the wilderness, and in

view of God's threatenings and promises. Of particular interest is that, after the

pattern of the suzerainty treaties, there is included here a catalogue of curses and

blessings contingent upon their keeping the Law or transgressing it, with specific

instructions for such a formal re-ratification of the covenant in the days of

Joshua within the land of Canaan itself. This element in the chapter

(Deuteronomy 11:26-32) is of special importance, because, "In the Hittite

suzerainty treaties, it was not unknown for a king, some time before his death, to

cause his vassals to swear allegiance to his successor."[1] (For a list of some of

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the features of those ancient treaties, see the chapter introduction to

Deuteronomy 4.) This swearing of allegiance to the God of the covenant to be

repeated in the land of Canaan in the days of Moses' successor is another of

those features. Still another is the making of two copies of the covenant (seen in

the two tables of the Decalogue), and the depositing of these "witnesses" in the

holiest shrine of each party. In Israel's case, since God was in their midst, both

copies (the two tables) were deposited in the ark of the covenant.

As Dummelow pointed out, there is no break at all here,[2]; Deuteronomy 11:1

being an integral part of Deuteronomy 10:21,22. Moffatt, in fact, included

Deuteronomy 11:1 in the same paragraph that began in Deuteronomy 10:20.

"Therefore thou shalt love Jehovah thy God and keep his charge, and his

statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, alway. And know ye this

day: for I speak not with your children that have not known, and that have not

seen the chastisement of Jehovah your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and

his outstretched arm, and his signs, and his works which he did in the midst of

Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; and what he did

unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made

the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how

Jehovah hath destroyed them unto this day; and what he did to you in the

wilderness, until ye came unto this place; and what he did unto Dathan and

Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth,

and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living

thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel: but your eyes have seen all

the great work of Jehovah which he did."

Critics are quick to find an anachronism in Deuteronomy 11:2, noting that it was

with a PREVIOUS generation that the covenant at Horeb was made, but ALL of

the people whom Moses addressed here between the ages of forty and sixty years

were present at Sinai where the mountain burned with fire and God spoke to

them out of the midst of the fire. Furthermore, Moses also INCLUDED with

them the generation that had participated in the long wilderness experience,

seeing many wonders such as the one mentioned, that of the death of Dathan and

Abiram. So where is any anachronism? Therefore, it is a mistake to read "your

children" (Deuteronomy 11:2) as any others than those very small children and

infants recently born.

In Deuteronomy 11:6 we have another example of how FALSE interpretation is

made the basis of a critical claim of divergent sources for Deuteronomy. As is

well known, Korah was a prominent figure in the rebellion that included Dothan

and Abiram, and the omission of Korah's name here leads to the bald and

unsupported assertion that the author of this part of Deuteronomy "knew

nothing" of Korah's part in that rebellion! It is not Moses' ignorance that shines

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in a remark like that but the ignorance of the critic. Wright used such notions as

the basis of assigning this part of Deuteronomy to an imaginary "JE" and much

of the rest of it to "P,"[3] another imaginary non-existent "document."

Moses, the author here, certainly knew all about Korah's guilt, along with that of

Dathan and Abiram. Why, then, did he not mention Korah here? There are a

number of the most excellent reasons why, as discerned by many able and

competent scholars. "Although Korah was the head of this rebellion, Dathan and

Abiram were the more determined, audacious and obdurate."[4] It was no doubt

because of this greater guilt on the part of Dathan and Abiram that there was a

difference in the punishments meted out to Korah on the one hand and to

Dathan and Abiram on the other hand, a difference seen in the fact that "the

sons of Korah" were spared to continue their father's name among the tribes of

Israel. It cannot be denied that it was in respect to that difference that Moses

here omitted Korah's name in mentioning the rebels. Keil properly understood

and noted this, explaining Moses' omission of Korah's name as being due to

considerations of tact, "Out of regard to his sons who were not swallowed up by

the earth along with their father,"[5] but who at the time of Moses' speech here

were a faithful and significant part of the nation of Israel. What a gratuitous

insult (to the Korahites) it would have been for Moses to drag the name of Korah

into the speech at this point!

Concerning the dramatic and terrible judgment of the rebels (Dathan, Abiram,

etc.), "One would think that such an event would have put a stop to all thoughts

of rebellion, murmuring, and disobedience for a long time to come, but on the

very next day the people were murmuring against Moses, saying, `Ye killed the

people of Jehovah.'"[6] (See Numbers 16).

ELLICOTT, "(1) Therefore.—There is no break here in the original. “The Lord

thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude, and thou shalt love

the Lord thy God.”

And keep his charge.—Literally, keep his keeping, i.e., all that is to be kept in

obedience to Him.

Alway.—Literally, all the days. (Comp. “I am with you all the days” in Matthew

28:20) Israel must not omit one day in keeping the charge of Jehovah, for “He

that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

HAWKERS, "We may consider the contents of this Chapter to be the conclusion

of one branch of Moses' Sermon, in the arguments he had been bringing forward

to enforce Israel's love and obedience to the LORD. Blessings and cursings are

held forth in order to accomplish this great end. The man of GOD is very

particular in reminding Israel of the many signal instances of favor the LORD

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had shown the people, and he carries this subject to a most extensive view.

Deuteronomy 11:1

The charge to Israel was special and distinguishing. Israel was set apart, and

distinguished, from all other nations of the earth. No people knew the LORD by

signs and wonders, by holy worship and ordinances, as Israel did. What nation

(as Moses told them) had the LORD so nigh as Israel? Deuteronomy 4:7. Reader!

I charge it upon your mind, in the view of this subject, to consider how infinitely

this argument is heightened since the SON of GOD, in substance of our flesh,

came and tabernacled among us. Oh! what nearness are believers now brought

to, in the blood and righteousness of JESUS! How beautifully the apostle dwells

upon this, 1 Peter 2:9-10.

CONSTABLE, "Verses 1-12

In these verses Moses developed the requirement of love for God more fully.

God's acts toward Israel had been discipline (Deuteronomy 11:2), not just

punishment.

The force of the comparison of Egypt and Canaan in Deuteronomy 11:10-11 is

that irrigation was necessary in Egypt. However in Canaan the people would not

need it because God sent rain from heaven on Canaan. Most farmers would

prefer the rich land of the Nile region to land that depended on rain that might

or might not come. Perhaps Moses was ironically comparing Egypt to a small

green garden irrigated by dirty water with the extensive farmlands of Canaan

that God watered with clean rain. [Note: L. Eslinger, "Watering Egypt

(Deuteronomy XI 10-11)," Vetus Testamentum 37:1 (January 1987):85-90.]

Verses 1-32

The consequences of obedience and disobedience ch. 11

The section of Deuteronomy dealing with general stipulations of the covenant

ends as it began, with an exhortation to covenant loyalty (Deuteronomy 5:1-5; cf.

Deuteronomy 4:32-40).

"This chapter is to be understood as a re-emphasis of these principles [that were

to govern Israel's life] before the detailed laws of the so-called Deuteronomic

Code (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 26:19) are presented." [Note:

Thompson, p. 151.]

LANGE 1-6, "1. Deuteronomy 11:1-25. Deuteronomy 11:1. A consequence of the

foregoing, and parallel with Deuteronomy 10:19. The exhortation marks itself as

self-evident ( Deuteronomy 6:5). ָׁשַמר (comp. upon Deuteronomy 4:2;

Deuteronomy 4:6; Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 2, etc.), to hold fast, keep;

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hence keep his charge, what in reference to Him is to be kept, what He will have

kept or held fast. The particulars of this general term, follow nearly as in Genesis

26:5. Comp. Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 4:10. Perhaps, as already

Deuteronomy 10:20 was inserted in order that the kindness to strangers should

not be shown at the cost of the observance of the law, of faithfulness towards

Jehovah. Deuteronomy 11:2. And know—through which love and the observance

of the law were at the same time sanctioned and urged. With a retrospect also to

Deuteronomy 10:21 sq. The chastisement [instruction] of the Lord your God fits

alike well with the parenthesis (not with your, sq.) and as the subject of the

knowledge. For מּוָסר comp. upon Deuteronomy 4:36; Deuteronomy 8:5. It is the

instruction to praise and love, as it with the redemptive works, Deuteronomy

10:21, was already sketched in a general way, and in the following Deuteronomy

10:22 the enlargement is given more in detail. What Jehovah had thus actually

taught Israel, it, i.e. the present Israel, exclusive of the children, as Deuteronomy

5:3 of the fathers, should know. The children are to be taught by the present

fathers ( Deuteronomy 11:19). The subject in regard to which Jehovah had

instructed Israel: His greatness, Deuteronomy 3:24; Deuteronomy 4:34. Upon

Deuteronomy 11:3, comp. Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 6:22; Deuteronomy

7:18 sq. Upon Deuteronomy 11:4, Exodus 14:26 sq.—Unto this day, so that the

Egyptian has not oppressed thee any more to this day; perfect redemption. Upon

Deuteronomy 11:5; Deuteronomy 8:2 sq, 15 sq.; Deuteronomy 9:7. Upon

Deuteronomy 11:6, Numbers 16. If on account of the sons ( Numbers 26:11) who

separated themselves from their fathers, true Levites ( Deuteronomy 33:10), and

therefore did not perish, Korah was not named, so also the Reubenite On was

not named, who truly does not appear further ( Numbers 16), because he

probably drew back from the rebellion in time. Moreover Moses in Deuteronomy

(comp. upon Deuteronomy 10:8) uses the name Levi in a comprehensive way,

and has therefore no interest in bringing out the violent dispute between the

Levite Korah and the Aaronic priesthood, which burst out in that event, and was

forever settled. What was necessary was intimated in the bare naming of Dathan

and Abiram, especially the Reubenites, who could not bear to see their lost

primogeniture transferred not only to Aaron, but still further to Moses. But

Aaron’s priesthood, as we have seen (chap10) is merely the official institution

and limitation of the Mosaic mediation with God. Thus the naming of Dathan

and Abiram only, coincides readily with the connection between chap 11 and

chap10 [Bib. Com.: The rebellion of Korah evidently included an attack upon

the ecclesiastical and civil arrangements of Moses. The latter was the only

portion of the sedition which it was relevant to Moses’ purpose to name, and

therefore he omits to name Korah. Korah’s mutiny was against the Levites, and

it did not concern the people generally, whereas that of Dathan and Abiram was

against the rulers of the people, and so concerned the people.—A. G.]

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PETT, "Introductory.

Part 1 of the commentary contained the first speech of Moses which proclaimed

the recent history of Israel under the hand of Yahweh, demonstrating why they

had reason to be grateful to Him, and finishing with a reminder of how

gloriously and fearsomely the covenant had been given and an exhortation to

keep the covenant requirements and remember Who had given them. From

Deuteronomy 4:44 to Deuteronomy 29:1 this is followed by the central renewal of

the covenant in Moses’ second speech, commencing with a renewed description

of the giving of the covenant (Deuteronomy 5), followed by the basic principles

lying behind the covenant (chapters 5-11), more detailed regulations (chapters

12-26), the requirement that the covenant be recorded in writing at Shechem

(where Abraham first built an altar when entering the land and received his first

theophany in the land) as confirmed by all the elders (Deuteronomy 27:1-8), the

acknowledgement of it by the priesthood along with Moses as witnesses to it

(Deuteronomy 27:9-10), and the applying to it of curses and blessings (chapters

Deuteronomy 27:11 to Deuteronomy 29:1).

This section of the commentary will cover chapters 5-11, but these chapters must

be seen as part of the greater whole to Deuteronomy 29:1, as incorporated in the

whole book.

The Covenant Stipulations - the Basic Underlying Principles (chapters

Deuteronomy 4:45 to Deuteronomy 11:32).

This introductory section begins the second section of the book which consists

mainly of a proclamation of general basic principles related to the fulfilment of

the covenant (chapters 5-11). This is then followed by a detailed review of the

statutes and ordinances which have been spoken of previously, but with special

reference to their applicability to the people and mainly ignoring priestly activity

(chapters 12-26). It is ‘popular’ Law. In this second section Moses once again

makes clear the demands that Yahweh is making on His people as a response to

what He has done for them. But he will begin it by repeating, with minor

alterations, the covenant made at Horeb, at Mount Sinai. Thus he declares that

covenant in chapter 5 almost word for word, although slightly revised in order to

bring out new emphases. This is then followed chapter by chapter by the

requirements that Yahweh is laying on them as a response to His covenant love.

In 6-11 he first deals with the basic principles involved, and then in chapters

12-26 moves on to the specific detailed requirements. This is a pattern typical of

ancient treaty covenants.

Central to all the chapters are the ideas of how they must obey His

commandment, His statutes and His ordinances that He might bless them in all

they do (Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 5:31-33;

Deuteronomy 6:1-3; Deuteronomy 6:6-8; Deuteronomy 6:17-18; Deuteronomy

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6:24-25; Deuteronomy 7:11-12; Deuteronomy 8:1; Deuteronomy 8:6;

Deuteronomy 8:11; Deuteronomy 10:13; Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 11:8;

Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 11:22; Deuteronomy 11:27; Deuteronomy

11:32); of how the reason that they are being blessed is not for their own sakes,

but because of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 6:10;



Deuteronomy 11:9); of how they must remember Yahweh their God Who has

mightily delivered them from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 5:15;

Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 6:21-23; Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 7:15;

Deuteronomy 7:18; Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 9:26); of how He is

bringing them into a good and prosperous land where they will enjoy great

blessings (Deuteronomy 6:10-11; Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 7:13-16;

Deuteronomy 8:7-10; Deuteronomy 8:12-13; Deuteronomy 11:10-12;

Deuteronomy 11:14-15), and of how they must then beware of turning to false

gods and false religion once they enter the land, and must rather totally destroy

them (Deuteronomy 5:8-9; Deuteronomy 6:14-15; Deuteronomy 7:4-5;

Deuteronomy 7:25-26; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy 9:12; Deuteronomy

9:16; Deuteronomy 11:16; Deuteronomy 11:28).

These are the general emphases, but each chapter also has a particular emphasis.

· Deuteronomy 6 stresses their need to love Yahweh, their covenant

Overlord, with all their beings (Deuteronomy 6:5), to fear Him (Deuteronomy

6:2; Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 6:24), and to teach their children His

instruction, and warns them that when they are prospering in the land they must

not forget what He has done for them. Their Overlord is calling His subjects to

love and obedience.

· Deuteronomy 7 confirms Yahweh’s elective covenant love for them

(Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Deuteronomy 7:13) as His holy people, chosen and

treasured (Deuteronomy 7:6), and promises them that because of that love He

will bless them wonderfully, delivering the promised land into their hands. Here

He reveals why they should love Him and respond to Him, because He has first

loved them, and chosen them to be the recipients of His love with all its great

benefits.

· Deuteronomy 8 reminds them of how they must remember and not forget

the past (Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 8:11; Deuteronomy

8:14; Deuteronomy 8:18), especially how He has looked after them in the

wilderness, with the promise that He is bringing them to a good and prosperous

land, and that once He has done so they must beware of self-glorification. Here

the details of His watch over them are laid out demonstrating the practicality of

His love.

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· Deuteronomy 9 exhorts them on this basis to go forward and cross the

Jordan knowing that Yahweh goes before them, while reminding them that their

success will not be because of their own righteousness, a fact which he then

demonstrates from their past history, reminding them how right from the very

beginning they had broken God’s covenant that He had made with them. Here

He emphasises how gracious He has been to them even though they had not been

fully faithful to His covenant. While they do not deserve His goodness, He is

pouring it on them anyway.

· Deuteronomy 10 stresses that God then graciously renewed that covenant

which they had broken so quickly, and goes on to describe the greatness and

uniqueness of Yahweh their covenant God and Overlord. They must recognise

how good He has been to His erring subjects and take note of the fullness of His

glory, lest they again break His covenant with them.

· Deuteronomy 11 urges them to learn from the past and go forward on the

basis of it, repeats the promises and warnings of the previous chapters,

constrains them to remember His words, and bear them about with them and

teach them to their children, and promises the good things to come, and the

certainty of their possession of the land because Yahweh is with them. It finally

concludes the section with the reminder of the blessings and cursings, which will

be solemnly applied on Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, which are by the oaks of

Moreh, that is, at Shechem, and says that which of these will come on them will

depend on whether they faithfully respond to His covenant or not. This

conclusion prepares the way for Deuteronomy 27, although meanwhile being

first of all preceded by the detailed stipulations of chapters 12-26.

So throughout these chapters the covenant is constantly stressed, a covenant

which is the result of His love for their fathers and for them and is their

guarantee of the future as long as their response to it is full and complete.

Chapter 11 They Face The Final Choice.

This chapter continues the themes of the previous chapters and brings this

section to a close. In it Moses summarises what has gone before and lays

emphasis on the past history which they have experienced, both of deliverance

and judgment. On the basis of this he is concerned that they respond fully to the

covenant, for if they do they will know the full blessing of the land and God’s

fullness of provision for it, and will be able to drive out its inhabitants. This is

then expounded in vivid pictures of the abundance of that provision. Thus if they

would enjoy His blessing they must take His words to their hearts and apply

them in every part of their lives. For if they keep His covenant then they will be

blessed and will be victorious in what lies ahead, while if they turn to idolatry

then only judgment will await them.

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The choice is therefore with them as to whether they experience blessing or

cursing, and once they are in the land they must ensure that they seal this very

fact at the place that He has chosen by the oaks of Moreh, the place where He

had first revealed Himself to Abraham, and where Abraham first worshipped

Him, on entering the land, at Shechem (compare Genesis 12:6).

Verses 1-9

Chapter 11 They Face The Final Choice.

This chapter continues the themes of the previous chapters and brings this

section to a close. In it Moses summarises what has gone before and lays

emphasis on the past history which they have experienced, both of deliverance

and judgment. On the basis of this he is concerned that they respond fully to the

covenant, for if they do they will know the full blessing of the land and God’s

fullness of provision for it, and will be able to drive out its inhabitants. This is

then expounded in vivid pictures of the abundance of that provision. Thus if they

would enjoy His blessing they must take His words to their hearts and apply

them in every part of their lives. For if they keep His covenant then they will be

blessed and will be victorious in what lies ahead, while if they turn to idolatry

then only judgment will await them.

The choice is therefore with them as to whether they experience blessing or

cursing, and once they are in the land they must ensure that they seal this very

fact at the place that He has chosen by the oaks of Moreh, the place where He

had first revealed Himself to Abraham, and where Abraham first worshipped

Him, on entering the land, at Shechem (compare Genesis 12:6).

Let Them Consider Their Past, Recognising God’s Activity In It, and Respond

To It (Deuteronomy 11:1-9).

Moses reminds them of different ways in which they have seen Yahweh at work,

against Egypt, against rebels, and even against themselves, in all cases because of

sin. But now that is behind them and they must therefore love Him and go

forward in obedience to His commands and covenant stipulations.

Analysis in the words of Moses:

a Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his charge, and his

statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always (Deuteronomy

11:1).

b And know you (ye mature Israelites) this day, for I speak not with your

children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of

Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, and

his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh, the king

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of Egypt, and to all his land (Deuteronomy 11:2-3).

c And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their

chariots; how he made the water of the Reed Sea to overflow them as they

pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day

(Deuteronomy 11:4).

d And what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place

(Deuteronomy 11:5).

c And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of

Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their

households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the

midst of all Israel (Deuteronomy 11:6).

b And your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which he did

(Deuteronomy 11:7).

a Therefore shall you keep all the commandment which I command you this

day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, to which you go over

to possess it, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh

swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk

and honey (Deuteronomy 11:8-9).

Note that in ‘a’ it commences ‘therefore (and) you shall love’ and requires the

keeping of His commandments, and in the parallel it begins ‘therefore (and) you

shall keep’ and promises rewards for keeping His commandment. In ‘b’ he

reminds them that they have seen the great works that Yahweh has done in

Egypt, and in the parallel refers to their eyes having seen all the great work of

Yahweh which He did. In ‘c’ he refers to what He did to the Egyptians who were

enemies of Israel and in the parallel to what He did to Dathan and Abiram who

were (internal) enemies of Israel. And in ‘d’ he refers centrally to what He did to

Israel in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 11:1

‘Therefore you (thou) shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his charge, and his

statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always.’

Therefore, because of what he has been saying in the previous chapters, and

especially what He has declared about Yahweh’s superlative greatness in chapter

10, and because He has demonstrated His love by multiplying them like the stars

of heaven, they, as a nation and as responsible individuals (thou), are to

recognise His great sovereignty and graciousness and love Him, and keep His

charge, and His statutes, and His ordinances, and His commandments always.

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Once again we see that loving response and appreciation comes first, to be

followed by obedience (compare Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12). Unless

there is that personal relationship with Yahweh the remainder will not happen.

Love must come first. But then it must be followed by responsive action. And

that responsive action is to be revealed by keeping His charge (compare Leviticus

8:35), in this case to possess the land, to destroy its inhabitants and to keep His

commandments. This is the only use of the noun ‘charge’ in Deuteronomy. That

charge is now to be described in some detail in the following chapters.

We can compare this verse with Deuteronomy 8:1, although the pronoun is there

‘ye’, which warns us about making too much of a distinction between ‘ye

children of Israel’ and ‘thou nation of Israel’, while noting the distinction.

K&D, "In Deu_11:1-12 the other feature in the divine requirements (Deu_10:12), viz., love to the Lord their God, is still more fully developed. Love was to show itself in the

distinct perception of what had to be observed towards Jehovah (to “keep His charge,” see at Lev_8:35), i.e., in the perpetual observance of His commandments and rights. The words,

“and His statutes,” etc., serve to explain the general notion, “His charge.” “All days,” as in Deu_4:10.

BI, "Love the Lord thy God, and keep His charge.

On the imperfection of righteousness without religion

In the expression, “the love of God,” are comprehended admiration of Him, and delight in meditating upon Him, reverence towards Him, desire of His approbation, and a fear of offending Him, gratitude for His benefits, and trust in Him as our Father; for perfect goodness, which is the object of this love, at the same time calls for the exercise of all these affections of soul. And this inward religion is the sole fountain of an uniform righteousness

“of keeping the commandments of God alway.”

I. The influence of religion upon righteousness will appear, if we consider—

1. That God, who is the wise and righteous Creator and Governor of the universe, and the object of all religion, is also the perfect pattern of all excellence.

2. As loving God under the notion of the pattern of all goodness, naturally transforms a devout mind into the Divine image, by a secret but strong sympathy betwixt God and the pious soul, by its essential admiration and love of what is really beautiful, righteous, and excellent, and by its desire of possessing what it so much admires; so the same view of God will appear to work the same effect in another way. Perfect goodness, which is the true object of love, is an awful thing, commanding reverence from every mind, and a care not to contradict its ordinances. It is not a changing principle, but ever holds one fixed invariable course. Every attentive person therefore will perceive that the only way to be acceptable to this goodness is to resemble it, and consent, in all his actions, to its dictates. This must be a natural reflection upon the first just apprehension of the Divine goodness, and of some force even before love towards it has grown strong in the soul. Can, then, a man who really loves the perfect goodness of God, be without great awe of Him? Must

he not be earnest for God’s approbation, and be afraid to do anything disagreeable to Him?

3. The devout Christian looks upon himself as a son of God through Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind; and shall he not be animated with a spirit suited to the dignity of

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his high birth and origin?

4. Must not the soul of that man who loves God be animated by a strong gratitude towards Him? Can he behold the Almighty continually pouring forth His bounty on himself and on all other creatures, without feeling himself moved with the warmest sentiments of gratitude leading him to keep the charge and statutes of God cheerfully?

II. We come now to make improvement of all that has been said.

1. Hence we may see how much we are indebted to our holy religion, which has given us so amiable a character of God as naturally invites our love. The Gospel has opened our eyes to discern the beauties of His holiness; it has banished all that darkness which overshadowed the nations, and all those dreadful opinions of the Almighty, which were fitted only to excite terror in the breasts of men.

2. Considering the necessity and great advantage of religion and true devotion, whence can it proceed that a matter of such moment is so generally neglected? It is very observable that many, who bestow little thought upon God and His righteousness, never fail to applaud every instance of worth and righteousness amongst men. An upright, a merciful, a generous man they extol with the most liberal praises; while the fountain of all this excellence is not acknowledged, is not heeded. What can occasion this egregious contradiction? There are many causes for it; but amongst others this must be acknowledged not a small one. That the hypocrisy and sinful lives of many who profess piety and devotion, bring a strong prejudice against religion itself, and occasion it to be evil thought of and evil spoken of.

3. From what has been said, let us all be persuaded to cultivate a spirit of devotion, and strive to grow in the love of God. (John Drysdale, D. D.)

God requires our love

You buy a camellia, and determine, in spite of florists, to make it blossom in your room. You watch and tend it, and at length the buds appear. Day by day you see them swell, and fondly hope they will come to perfect flower; but just as they should open, one after another they

drop off, and you look at it, despairingly exclaiming, “All is over for this year.” But someone

says, “What! the plant is healthy; are not the roots, and branches, and leaves good? Yes,” you

answer, “but I do not care for them, I bought it for the blossom.” Now, when we bring God the roots, and branches, and leaves of morality, He is not satisfied, He wants the blossoming of the heart, and that is love.

God the only object of supreme love

There is a noble economy of the deepest life. There is a watchful reserve which keeps guard over the powers of profound anxiety and devoted work, and refuses to give them away to any

first applicant who comes, and asks. Wealth rolls up to the door, and says, “Give me your

great anxiety”; and you look up and answer, “No, not for you; here is a little half-indifferent

desire which is all that you deserve.” Popularity comes and says, “Work with all your might

for me”; and you reply, “No; you are not of consequence enough for that. Here is a small

fragment of energy which you may have, if you want it; but that is all.” Even knowledge

comes, and says, “Give your whole soul to me”; and you must answer once more, “No; great,

good, beautiful as you are, you are not worthy of a man’s whole soul. There is something in a man so sacred and so precious that he must keep it in reserve till something even greater than

the desire of knowledge demands it.” But then, at last, comes One far more majestic than

them all—God comes with His supreme demand for goodness and for character, and then you open the doors of your whole nature and bid your holiest and profoundest devotion to come trooping forth. Now you rejoice that you kept something which you would not give to any

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lesser lord. Now here is the deep in life which can call to the deep in you and find its answer.

2 Remember today that your children were not

the ones who saw and experienced the discipline

of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty

hand, his outstretched arm;

BARNES, "And know ... - Render it: And own ye this day (for I have not to do with your children which have not known and which have not seen) the chastisement of the Lord, his greatness, etc.

The “chastisement” consisted in the many mighty acts, both of punishment and mercy, through which God had guided them from Egypt to the borders of the promised land.

GILL, "And know you this day,.... Take notice of, and diligently attend unto, what is now about to be delivered:

for I speak not unto your children which have not known, and which have not seen, the chastisement of the Lord your God; who have no knowledge and experience of the chastisement of the Lord on themselves, or on their foes or friends; and with whom the argument drawn from it could not come with that force, and make that impression, as it might be thought it would, being used with them who had perfect knowledge of it. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it doctrine, which, being children, they were not instructed so perfectly in as they were who were adult persons, to whom Moses directs his discourse:

his greatness, his mighty hand, and stretched out arm: the exceeding greatness of his power, displayed in the following instances.

HENRY2-6, "Mention is made of the great and terrible works of God which their eyes had seen, Deu_11:7. This part of his discourse Moses addresses to the seniorsamong the people, the elders in age; and probably the elders in office were so, and were now his immediate auditors: there were some among them that could remember their deliverance out of Egypt, all above fifty, and to them he speaks this, not to the children, who knew it by hearsay only, Deu_11:2. Note, God's mercies to us when we were young we should remember and retain the impressions of when we are old; what our eyes have seen, especially in our early days, has affected us, and should be improved by us long after. They had seen what terrible judgments God had executed upon the enemies of Israel's peace, 1. Upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians that

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enslaved them. What a fine country was ruined and laid waste by one plague after another, to force Israel's enlargement! Deu_11:3. What a fine army was entirely drowned in the Red Sea, to prevent Israel's being re-enslaved! Deu_11:4. Thus did he give Egypt for their ransom, Isa_43:3. Rather shall that famous kingdom be destroyed than that Israel shall not be delivered. 2. Upon Dathan and Abiram that embroiled them. Remember what he did in the wilderness (Deu_11:5), by how many necessary chastisements (as they are called, Deu_11:2) they were kept from ruining themselves, particularly when those daring Reubenites defied the authority of Moses and headed a dangerous rebellion against God himself, which threatened the ruin of a whole nation, and might have ended in that if the divine power had not immediately crushed the rebellion by burying the rebels alive, them and all that was in their possession, Deu_11:6. What was done against them, though misinterpreted by the disaffected party (Num_16:41), was really done in mercy to Israel. To be saved from the mischiefs of insurrections at home is as great a kindness to a people, and therefore lays them under as strong obligations, as protection from the invasion of enemies abroad.

JAMISON. 2-9"I speak not with your children which have not known ... But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did — Moses is here giving a brief summary of the marvels and miracles of awful judgment which God had wrought in effecting their release from the tyranny of Pharaoh, as well as those which had taken place in the wilderness. He knew that he might dwell upon these, for he was addressing many who had been witnesses of those appalling incidents. For it will be remembered that the divine threatening that they should die in the wilderness, and its execution, extended only to males from twenty years and upward, who were able to go forth to war. No males under twenty years of age, no females, and none of the tribe of Levi, were objects of the denunciation (see Num_14:28-30; Num_16:49). There might, therefore, have been many thousands of the Israelites at that time of whom Moses could say, “Your eyes have seen all the great acts which He did”; and with regard to those the historic review of Moses was well calculated to stir up their minds to the duty and advantages of obedience.

K&D 2-7, "To awaken this love they were now to know, i.e., to ponder and lay to heart, the discipline of the Lord their God. The words from “for (I speak) not” to “have not seen” are a parenthetical clause, by which Moses would impress his words most strongly upon the hearts of the older generation, which had witnessed the acts of the Lord. The clause is without any verb or predicate, but this can easily be

supplied from the sense. The best suggestion is that of Schultz, viz., ַההּוא for it“ ,ַהָ�ָבר

is not with your children that I have to do,” not to them that this admonition applies. Moses refers to the children who had been born in the desert, as distinguished from those who, though not twenty years old when the Israelites came out of Egypt, had nevertheless seen with their own eyes the plagues inflicted upon Egypt, and who were now of mature age, viz., between forty and sixty years old, and formed, as the older and more experienced generation, the stock and kernel of the congregation assembled round him now. To the words, “which have not known and have not seen,” it is easy to supply from the context, “what ye have known and seen.” The accusatives from “the chastisement” onwards belong to the verb of the principal sentence, “know ye this day.” The accusatives which follow show what we are to understand by “the chastisement of the Lord,” viz., the mighty acts of the Lord to Egypt and to Israel in the desert. The object of them all was to educate Israel in the

fear and love of God. In this sense Moses calls them מּוָסר (Eng. Ver. chastisement),

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παιδεία, i.e., not punishment only, but education by the manifestation of love as well

as punishment (like ַיֵ�ר in Deu_4:36; cf. Pro_1:2, Pro_1:8; Pro_4:1, etc.). “His

greatness,” etc., as in Deu_3:24 and Deu_4:34. On the signs and acts in Egypt, see at

Deu_4:34; Deu_6:22; and on those at the Red Sea, at Ex 14. ְ�ֵניֶהם - ֵה�יף over“ ,ֲאֶׁשר

whose face He made the waters of the Red Sea to flow;” cf. Exo_14:26. - By the acts of God in the desert (Deu_11:5) we are not to understand the chastenings in Num 11-15 either solely or pre-eminently, but all the manifestations of the omnipotence of God in the guidance of Israel, proofs of love as well as the penal wonders. Of the latter, the miraculous destruction of the company of Korah is specially mentioned in Deu_11:6 (cf. Num_16:31-33). Here Moses only mentions Dathan and Abiram, the followers of Korah, and not Korah himself, probably from regard to his sons, who were not swallowed up by the earth along with their father, but had lived to perpetuate the family of Korah. “Everything existing, which was in their following” (see Exo_11:8), does not mean their possessions, but their servants, and corresponds to “all the men who belonged to Korah” in Num_16:32, whereas the possessions

mentioned there are included here in the “tents.” ַהְיקּום is only applied to living

beings, as in Gen_7:4 and Gen_7:23. - In Deu_11:7 the reason is given for the admonition in Deu_11:2 : the elders were to know (discern) the educational purpose of God in those mighty acts of the Lord, because they had seen them with their own eyes.

CALVIN, "2.And know ye this day. He again confirms the preceding sentence;

because they had been more than sufficiently taught by the illustrious acts of

God, how great was His power and how remarkable His mercy toward

themselves. Two meanings may be given to the words; for some connect them

thus, “Know ye this day the chastisement of the Lord,” and include in a

parenthesis the clause, “for I speak not with your children, which have not

known, and have not seen;” but others read the word of exhortation “know ye”

separately, and (255) without any connection. The latter view pleases me best;

although it little affects the substance of the matter which exposition we follow.

For Moses admonishes them, that, if they only pay attention to the works of God,

His glory, which may instruct them to fear Him, may be clearly beheld in them.

In order, however, to urge them more vehemently, he adds, that he does not

speak to posterity, to which the fame of these miracles would reach, but that he

addresses eye-witnesses, who need no proof of them, having been assured of

them by certain experience. He celebrates in many expressions of eulogy these

miracles, whereby God had testified to them His power and goodness, lest they

should lightly pass by what was worthy of their most earnest attention, and

constant meditation. I forbear now to speak of other points, which I have

elsewhere commented on. The word מוסר (256) musar, which stands first, is

general, and extends to all the specific terms that follow; some, therefore,

improperly render it “chastisement.” Where it is said at the end of verse 4, that

the Egyptians were “destroyed unto that day,” we must understand that the

effects of the slaughter, wherewith God destroyed them, were felt as if still

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present.

ELLICOTT, "(2) And know ye.—Or, and ye know.

Not with your children which have not known.—It must be remembered that all

those who were less than twenty years of age at the date of the Exodus would still

be living, and the events of their youth must have left a strong impression on

their memories. Every man of forty-five years of age would feel the force of this

address.

The chastisement.—Whether of the Egyptians in wrath, or of Israel in love.

His mighty hand. . . .—Or, His hand in its strength, and His arm in its length.

The position of the adjectives is emphatic.

HAWKER, "Verses 2-7

This is a charming line of distinction which the man of GOD hath drawn

between the ignorance and unconsciousness of children, and the experience of

men. In recapitulating those mighty acts of GOD, he appeals to facts which their

eyes had seen, and which their knowledge of allowed no debate concerning, in

proof of mercy shown them: what the LORD did for them against their enemies;

and what the LORD did to them in numberless providences during their

wilderness state: Hence therefore, it is as if he had said, I appeal to your own

judgments; is not this a most gracious GOD, and justly entitled to all the love,

and reverence, and obedience of a people so highly favoured. But Reader! when

you have paid all possible attention to this view of Israel of old, pause over the

subject, and consider how increased is the argument, as it may be applied to

Israel now. If the Reader himself be an object of divine grace, may I not say, in

the language of Moses, Know you this day, for I speak not to the unconscious,

unawakened state of childhood, who have never experienced the grace of GOD in

JESUS, but it is to you I speak, whose eyes have seen, and whose hands have

handed, the word of life. What spiritual foes hath the LORD your GOD driven

out, and consumed before you, and what great acts of grace in quickening mercy,

converting mercy, and renewing mercy, hath the LORD manifested to you

otherwise than he doth to the world? Oh! what a volume is opened to every

man's view, in the history of his own heart, who reads GOD'S love to Israel of

old with the New Testament explanation, as the truth is in JESUS.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:2. Know ye this day — That is, acknowledge and

consider it with diligence and thankfulness; for that is the sense of the original

word here, and in a multitude of other places. Your children, who have not

known — But your eyes have seen, Deuteronomy 11:7. The chastisement of the

Lord — His judgments executed on the Egyptians in various plagues, the sundry

methods of punishment and correction he has used to chastise, amend, and

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render you obedient to his laws, see Deuteronomy 4:36; and Deuteronomy 8:5;

and Proverbs 1:2, where the same Hebrew word is used in this sense. His

greatness, &c. — His majesty and great power, appearing in his works. He uses a

variety of words to make them sensible in how many instances the divine power

and goodness had been manifested in effecting their deliverance out of Egyptian

bondage, and their subsequent preservation.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 11:2-3

‘And know you (ye mature Israelites) this day, for I speak not with your children

who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your

God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, and his signs, and

his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and

to all his land,’

He calls on the mature among them to recall on this day what wondrous things

Yahweh has done for them in the past. For they are not like their children who

have not seen His ‘chastening’ as in Deuteronomy 8:5 (chastening is suffering

which was intended to bring about a change of heart by a combination of love

and punishment), or known in experience His greatness, His mighty hand and

His outstretched arm (a sign of His personal involvement), and His signs and His

works which He did in the midst of Egypt to the mighty Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

and to the whole of Egypt. No, they have seen it for themselves, as young men in

their teens and as children.

There is a roughness of grammar in the reference to their children which springs

out of the oratorical nature of the words, another evidence that we have here a

genuine speech of Moses.

LANGE, "Deuteronomy 11:2

Knew ye; take note of, ponder, lay to heart. The words that follow, for … seen,

are a parenthesis thrown in by the speaker to attract the attention especially of

the older generation, who had witnessed the acts of the Lord. The words, the

chastisement, etc; are to be connected with know ye, as the object of the

knowing, And know ye this day the chastisement, etc. Which have not known,

and which have not seen; supp. "what ye have known and seen." Your children;

those born during the wandering in the wilderness. Chastisement; not

punishment, but discipline, education, training (LXX; παιδεία), including both

correction and instruction (of. the use of the Hebrew word מּוָסר in Proverbs 1:2;

Proverbs 5:12; Proverbs 6:23, etc.). His greatness …stretched out arm (cf.

Deuteronomy 3:24; Deuteronomy 4:34).

Deuteronomy 11:3, Deuteronomy 11:4

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(Cf. Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 6:22; Exodus 31-14:1 .)

3 the signs he performed and the things he did

in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of

Egypt and to his whole country;

GILL, "And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt,.... The miraculous works done there, the ten plagues inflicted on the Egyptians for refusing to let Israel go:

unto Pharaoh king, of Egypt, and unto all his land; for those plagues not only affected him and his court, and his metropolis, but all parts of the land, the inhabitants of it everywhere.

4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses

and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with

the waters of the Red Sea[a] as they were

pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting

ruin on them.

GILL, "And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots,.... At the Red sea, when they pursued Israel in order to bring them back or destroy them, after they had let them go, which army was very numerous; see Exo_14:7.

how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them; "or to flow over their faces" (b):

as they pursued after you; so that they could not see their way, nor steer their

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course after them; and not only so, but were covered with the waters of the sea, drowned in them, and sunk to the bottom of them: and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day; either continued to destroy them yet more and more by one means or another; or else the destruction made by the several plagues upon them, and particularly that of their army at the Red sea, which was the strength and glory of the nation, was so general and extensive, that they never recovered it to that day; and so were in no capacity of coming out against them, and attacking them, and doing them any hurt, all the forty years they had been in the wilderness; of which no doubt they had knowledge, and of their condition and circumstances there.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 11:4

‘And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots;

how he made the water of the Reed Sea to overflow them as they pursued after

you (ye), and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day.’

(The pronouns are ‘ye, your’ up to Deuteronomy 11:9)

They know too how He humiliated and destroyed the army of Egypt, their horses

and their chariots (compare Exodus 15:1; Exodus 15:4; Exodus 15:21). How He

had made the Reed Sea overflow them when they were in pursuit of Israel, and

how He had totally destroyed them. Thus can they be confident that He can deal

so with all their enemies.

This is the only mention of this great incident in Deuteronomy, for Moses has

concentrated more on the whole panorama of the mighty acts of God in Egypt as

in Deuteronomy 11:3, but it comes out here as an outstanding individual

example. The general is followed by the particular. In the same way He will now

speak of God’s general activities in the wilderness, followed by a particular

example. In both examples their enemies were destroyed.

5 It was not your children who saw what he did

for you in the wilderness until you arrived at

this place,

GILL, "And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto this place. Meaning not so much the good things he did for them in divers places, as the chastisements and corrections he had exercised them with for their murmurings,

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rebellions, idolatry, and uncleanness, as at Taberah, Kibrothhattaavah, on the coast of Edom, and plains of Moab; by fire, by sword, by plagues, and fiery serpents; the instances both before and after being of this sort.

CALVIN, "5.And what he did unto you. These things will be spoken of in their

proper place in the regular course of the history, from which my method of

teaching has compelled me to wander a little. For Moses, to heighten the

authority of the Law, sets before them compendiously the circumstances which

had occurred in the desert, partly in order that God’s judgments might alarm

them by their severity, and partly that His mercies might draw their minds

towards Him by their graciousness. Finally, he concludes by saying that he does

not speak of unknown things, but that he merely recalled to their recollection the

works of God whereof they had been themselves spectators.


‘And what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, and what

he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the

earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their

tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel,’

And they know too all that happened in general in the wilderness up to this time,

both good and bad, and especially what happened in particular to Dathan and

Abiram when the earth opened up its mouth and swallowed them up, together

with their households and all their possessions (Numbers 16:30-32), and that it

was done in the midst of all Israel. And they would remember that this had

happened because they had challenged Yahweh’s ordinances. The result had

been immediate and catastrophic death. So they have seen both the positive and

the negative. They have seen what happens when they obey Him, and they have

seen what happens when men disobey Him.

The non-mention of Korah, the co-conspirator with Dathan and Abiram, may be

due to his not having been specifically mentioned as coming out to the door of the

tent, a picture rooted in Moses’ memory, and thus not being seen as openly

consumed (Numbers 16:27), or may be out of delicacy for the feelings of

descendants of Korah who were present, or may be because his name was not to

be mentioned (note how his death is not even mentioned in Numbers 16, possibly

because his name was seen as blotted out).

LANGE, "Deuteronomy 11:5

What he did unto yon in the wilderness. The doings of God to the people in the

wilderness comprehend the manifestations of his omnipotence, both in their

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guidance and protection, and in the punishment of those who transgressed. One

instance of the latter is expressly referred to—the destruction of those who

joined in the insurrection of Korah (cf. Numbers 16:31-33). Moses does not

mention Korah himself here, but only his accomplices Dathan and Abiram,

probably, as Keil suggests, "from regard to his sons, who were not swallowed up

by the earth along with their father, but had lived to perpetuate the family of

Korah;" perhaps also because, though Korah was at the head of the

insurrection, Dathan and Abiram were the more determined, audacious, and

obdurate in their rebellion (cf. Numbers 16:12-15, Numbers 16:25, Numbers

16:26), so that it came to be named from them.

6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons

of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened

its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and

swallowed them up with their households, their

tents and every living thing that belonged to

them.

BARNES, "See the margin. literally, “every living thing at their feet.” The expression does not mean their goods, which would be included in their “households and tents,” but their followers Num_16:32.

GILL, "And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben,.... When they with Korah and his company quarrelled with Moses and Aaron about the priesthood, Num_16:1, how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up; the history of which see in Num_16:30.

and their households and their tents; not their houses and their tents, as the Septuagint and some other versions; for though the word signifies houses, and is often used for them, yet here it must signify families, their wives, and children; since they had no houses, but dwelt in tents, all which were swallowed up with them:

and all the substance that was in their possession; gold, silver, cattle, household goods, and whatever they were possessed of:

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or was at their feet (c); or which followed them, their living creatures; or was for them, as Aben Ezra interprets it; for, their use, service, and necessity: and this was done

in the midst of all Israel; openly and publicly, they beholding it, as follows; and therefore should be rendered, "before all Israel" (d); and, besides, the tents of Dathan and Abiram, Reubenites, were not in the midst of Israel.

ELLICOTT, "(6) What he did unto Dathan and Abiram. . . .—See Numbers 16.

It is impossible to separate the rebellion of Korah from that of Dathan and

Abiram, and seeing that the whole point of Korah’s rebellion was the priesthood,

it is difficult to see how the writer of Deuteronomy could be ignorant of any

priesthood save that of the whole tribe of Levi. The object of Koran’s rebellion

was to abolish the distinction between a Kohathite and a priest,

WHEDON, "6. What he did unto Dathan and Abiram — Korah is not here

mentioned, though in Numbers xvi the destruction of Korah and his company is

recorded as well as that of Dathan and Abiram. Keil suggests that Korah is

omitted out of regard to the feelings of his kindred who were then living.

Another suggestion to account for the omission is that the rebellion was

sufficiently characterized by the two names Dathan and Abiram. There is the

same omission of Korah in Psalms 106:17 : “The earth opened and swallowed up

Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.” Moses is not giving a full history

of the misdeeds of the people. Nor does he mention all the rebellions. He is not

writing as an annalist, he is talking as a prophet, and he introduces the historical

incidents to add force to his admonitions.

The substance… in their possession — Literally, the living thing which was at

their feet. Undoubtedly it means all their servants. In Numbers 16:32, all the men

that belonged to Korah is the correct rendering of the Hebrew expression, and is

analogous to this.

BI, "And what He did unto Dathan and Abiram.

The spirit of revolution

Moses recalls the revolt against his authority in the wilderness. It took place in conjunction with the revolt of Korah (Num_17:1-13). The point which Moses emphasises is the revolt against Divinely constituted authority, and the result thereof. At the head of the civil rebellion were the sons of Reuben, Dathan and Abiram. As descendants of the first-born of Israel they grudged Moses his lofty position. They allied themselves with the Levitical revolt, and under the cloak of asserting the universal priesthood of the people (Num_16:3) led many to follow them into the vortex of revolution. This insurrection against the Divinely ordered religious and political order threatened the very existence of Israel. God therefore visited the

rebels with special Divine judgment, and the nation was saved. This episode in Israel’s history gives us a glimpse of the motives which underlie most revolutionary movements. In

these—

I. Vice decks herself in the appearance of virtue.

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1. The revolutionaries profess ardent desires for the commonweal, for freedom—to save

the “enslaved community,” etc. Liberty, equality, etc., is their cry, war against tyranny and oppression. They seek to play the role of unselfish friends of the people.

2. But in their depths such movements are mostly dominated by selfishness. In the revolt here referred to Korah was simply an ambitious Levite, hypocritical and selfish. The Reubenites were moved by tribal ambition. Selfishness, ambition, special interests were the moving springs of this as of other revolutions.

3. The revolution of Dathan and Abiram took its rise first on an ecclesiastical ground; but the political movement was not far behind the ecclesiastical. Men with widely differing

opinions joined in opposing constituted authority. The cry for “illumination” is speedily

followed by that for so-called “freedom.”

4. Revolution is not accompanied by penitence. It never seeks the ground of its complaints in the faults of the people themselves.

5. Most revolutions are dominated by some “phrase” or party cry. Here it was: “All the

people are holy.” The power of the partial truth in it lay in God’s Word: “Ye shall be to

Me . . . an holy nation.” But God had appointed leaders in Church and State, therefore it was against His authority Dathan and Abiram rebelled.

II. The prophetic significance of this typical event.

1. The deepest fulfilment lies in the future—in the days of antichrist. Then the political

and ecclesiastical order will be overturned—when antichrist comes offering promise of deliverance from all ecclesiastical and political ills.

2. But the punishment meted out to Dathan and Abiram with their fellow rebels shall fall more fiercely on antichrist (Rev_19:20).

3. A veil, however, overhangs this future. Still there are experiences in history which prepare us to understand what shall be. The French Revolution is a striking example. It was not merely a revolt of ruled against rulers. It was first a spiritual revolution. Scepticism had loosened religious authority, and the political crisis speedily followed, as in the rebellion of Korah. So in France ambitious leaders shrieked of liberty, etc. The whole foundations of order were overturned. Then from the Revolution rose one who had no law but his own will. He trod men under his feet; for twenty-five years the storm raged. Here was a faint experience of what will be in the times of antichrist. A respite has been given; but he who has eyes may conceive somewhat of the trend of that great future revolt.

III. What shall we do in view of what is coming?

1. Let us ask, guided by God’s Word, what revolts in Church and State will lead to. What

is the meaning of much of so-called “progress” and “freedom”? “If the Son shall make

you free,” etc. (Joh_8:36). What is “culture” if not found in Christ’s Gospel?—this is the

only “culture” of eternal worth. Modern “progress” does not always mean progress in righteousness.

2. Do not let the hollow “phrases” of the modern age influence us. In God’s Word the madness of rebellion, its falseness and hypocrisy are seen, and its terrible end. The way of righteousness is conformity to the Divine order. The sin of participation in rebellion must be shunned. Those who stand on the side of revolution, of the antichristian age, or (in the future) of antichrist, lay themselves open to the punishment of the rebellious Reubenites. (W. Grashoff.)

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7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these

great things the Lord has done.

GILL, "But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did; Even all before related, with many others; and therefore the instruction they should learn from thence should be as follows.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:7. Your eyes have seen — Some of them had seen

all the great things done for them in Egypt, and at the Red sea, and in the

wilderness; and all of them had seen some of his mighty acts in their behalf. As if

he had said, You yourselves have had experience of God’s goodness and power,

and therefore you should be the more affected therewith. What our eyes have

seen, especially in our younger days, should be improved by us long after.

LANGE 7-10, "Deuteronomy 11:7. The basis of Deuteronomy 11:2

( Deuteronomy 4:3; Deuteronomy 3:21). The keeping of the law of God makes

sure also what follows Deuteronomy 11:8. חזק ( Deuteronomy 1:38) gives courage

and strength. Deuteronomy 11:9. Comp. Deuteronomy 4:26 ( Deuteronomy

5:16); Deuteronomy 6:3. Deuteronomy 11:10 occurs similarly here with the

second description of Canaan, as Deuteronomy 8:7 sq. at the close of the

exposition of the first commandment. For lays the ground for the long life

( Deuteronomy 11:9) in this land flowing with milk, sq, as however entirely

depending upon the blessing of God. The reference to the closing reason of the

second command already appears ( Deuteronomy 5:9 sq.).—Not as the land of

Egypt. Here the contrast is Egypt; in Deuteronomy 8:7 sq. it was the wilderness.

There the passage, here the point of departure. With this latter allusion, it was

already intimated that Israel redeemed indeed, still needed the continuing divine

keeping, that it may remain in life. It is not the fruitfulness, but the method of

producing it, which makes the distinction between Canaan and Egypt. In Egypt

this appears in some measure dependent upon the hand and foot of men.—And

wateredst with thy foot.—The irrigation in Egypt, of which Herodotus says even

that it does not rain there, is by means of numerous canals and channels, in

which the water of the overflowing Nile is retained, and from which it is brought

upon the fields and gardens repeatedly and with great hardship, and this was

especially true of the grazing region of Israel bordering upon the desert. We are

not constrained to think of any mechanical labor with the feet, which is

described by Philo, or the like, since the usual movement of the feet is significant

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for man’s exertion in a general way ( Deuteronomy 11:6), but especially for his

diligence and toil ( Genesis 30:30), and draw wells out of which the water is

brought, but not irrigating machines, are customary in Hebraic and in Egyptian

monuments. Hence as already Piscator: “Thou must go here and there upon the

land in order to water it.” Schultz well calls attention to both the standing water

in the trenches and to the smaller tanks in the gardens, in both which the feet

must be employed. [The Egyptians probably used tread-wheels, working pumps,

and the artificial channels referred to above. But the expression is probably

idiomatic for the toil and diligence requisite in the irrigation of the soil, including

all the methods rather than referring to any one.—A. G.] For the sense of the

passage the remark of Herodotus ii 13 is significant (Hengst. Books of Moses),

that the Egyptians say of the Greeks, who have no Nile to water their land, as

they have, they would one day suffer grievous famine, since water could never

come to them otherwise than from the gods. “As if the Lord had especially

arranged that the Egyptians should live in their self-confidence, and by their

own efforts, wherein they live as heathen; as if Egypt in this regard had been so

truly placed as a land of heathenism.” Schultz.—As a garden of herbs, i.e. from

whence one could pluck vegetables and herbs, and which could be made fruitful

by watering, even without the rain.


‘And your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which he did.’

For their eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which He had done in

defence of His covenant, destroying those in the wrong, whether outside

oppressors or internal troublemakers, and in supporting His people. They are

eyewitnesses! And the point he is making is that Yahweh does not change. He can

and will do it again.

8 Observe therefore all the commands I am

giving you today, so that you may have the

strength to go in and take over the land that you

are crossing the Jordan to possess,

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CLARKE, "Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments - Because God can execute such terrible judgments, and because he has given such proofs of his power and justice; and because, in similar provocations, he may be expected to act in a similar way; therefore keep his charge, that he may keep you unto everlasting life.

GILL, "Therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day,.... For the reasons before suggested, as well as for what follow:

that ye may be strong; healthful in body, and courageous in mind, for sin tends to weaken both; whereas observance of the commands of God contributes to the health and strength of the body, and the rigour of the mind; both which were necessary to the present expedition they were going upon:

and go in and possess the land whither ye go to possess it; the land of Canaan, they were marching towards in order to possess it; and nothing would more inspire them with courage, and cause them to enter it manfully without fear of their enemies, than obedience to the commands of God; whose presence being promised them on that account, they might expect it, and so had nothing to fear from the inhabitants of the land.

HENRY 8-9, "Still Moses urges the same subject, as loth to conclude till he had gained his point. “If thou wilt enter into life, if thou wilt enter into Canaan, a type of that life, and find it a good land indeed to thee, keep the commandments: Keep all the commandments which I command you this day; love God, and serve him with all your heart.”

I. Because this was the way to get and keep possession of the promised land. 1. It was the way to get possession (Deu_11:8): That you may be strong for war, and so go in and possess it. So little did they know either of hardship or hazard in the wars of Canaan that he does not say they should go in and fight for it; no, they had nothing in effect to do but go in and possess it. He does not go about to teach them the art of war, how to draw the bow, and use the sword, and keep ranks, that they might be strong, and go in and possess the land; no, but let them keep God's commandments, and their religion, while they are true to it, will be their strength, and secure their success. (2.) It was the way to keep possession (Deu_11:9): That you may prolong your days in this land that your eye is upon. Sin tends to the shortening of the days of particular persons and to the shortening of the days of a people's prosperity; but obedience will be a lengthening out of their tranquillity.

JAMISON 8-11. "And this knowledge was to impel them to keep the law, that they might be strong, i.e., spiritually strong (Deu_1:38), and not only go into the promised land, but also live long therein (cf. Deu_4:26; Deu_6:3). - In Deu_11:10-12Moses adduces a fresh motive for his admonition to keep the law with fidelity, founded upon the peculiar nature of the land. Canaan was a land the fertility of which

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was not dependent, like that of Egypt, upon its being watered by the hand of man, but was kept up by the rain of heaven which was sent down by God the Lord, so that it depended entirely upon the Lord how long its inhabitants should live therein. Egypt is described by Moses as a land which Israel sowed with seed, and watered with its foot like a garden of herbs. In Egypt there is hardly any rain at all (cf. Herod. ii. 4, Diod. Sic. i. 41, and other evidence in Hengstenberg's Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 217ff.). The watering of the land, which produces its fertility, is dependent upon the annual overflowing of the Nile, and, as this only lasts for about 100 days, upon the way in which this is made available for the whole year, namely, by the construction of canals and ponds throughout the land, to which the water is conducted from the Nile by forcing machines, or by actually carrying it in vessels up to the fields and plantations.

(Note: Upon the ancient monuments we find not only the draw-well with the long rope, which is now called Shaduf, depicted in various ways (see Wilkinson, i. p. 35, ii. 4); but at Beni-Hassan there is a representation of two men carrying a water-vessel upon a pole on their shoulders, which they fill from a draw-well or pond, and then carry to the field (cf. Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 220-1).)

The expression, “with thy foot,” probably refers to the large pumping wheels still in use there, which are worked by the feet, and over which a long endless rope passes with pails attached, for drawing up the water (cf. Niebuhr, Reise, i. 149), the identity

of which with the �λιξ described by Philo as !δρηλ$ν &ργανον (de confus. ling. i. 410)

cannot possibly be called in question; provided, that is to say, we do not confound

this �λιξ with the Archimedean water-screw mentioned by Diod. Sic. i. 34, and

described more minutely at v. 37, the construction of which was entirely different (see my Archaeology, ii. pp. 111-2). - The Egyptians, as genuine heathen, were so thoroughly conscious of this peculiar characteristic of their land, which made its fertility far more dependent upon the labour of human hands than upon the rain of heaven or divine providence, that Herodotus (ii. 13) represents them as saying, “The Greeks, with their dependence upon the gods, might be disappointed in their brightest hopes and suffer dreadfully from famine.” The land of Canaan yielded no support to such godless self-exaltation, for it was “a land of mountains and valleys,

and drank water of the rain of heaven” ()ְל before ָמָטר, to denote the external cause; see

Ewald, §217, d.); i.e., it received its watering, the main condition of all fertility, from the rain, by the way of the rain, and therefore through the providential care of God.

COFFMAN, "It is mandatory to see in these verses that, "God's blessing is not

automatic, nor linked to descent, but depends upon obedience."[7] Not only did

ancient Israel fail to understand this vital truth, but countless Christians all over

the world today look upon their eternal salvation as a thing already achieved and

settled because of their claim to have "faith" in Christ, relegating "obedience" to

the status of something nobody does anyway, and which is, in fact, impossible!

This paragraph sets forth a favorable contrast of Palestine with Egypt. In Egypt,

the agriculture depended upon extensive irrigation, whereas in Palestine God

watered the land by the annual rainfall. The mention of watering the crops "with

thy foot" could refer either to the devices for pumping water from the Nile "by

means of pumps worked by foot,"[8] or to the channeling of irrigation water to

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successive parts of a field by piling up little mounds and removing them with the

feet as the irrigation progressed from one row to another, "thus directing the

water from one furrow to another,"[9] a device still known where fields must be

irrigated from a common source.

Oberst was certainly correct when he pointed out that today "Agriculture in

Palestine depends upon vast irrigation projects, but that is not the way it was

when Moses wrote this."[10] There are examples in North America of similar

dramatic changes. Frijoles Canyon was once a lush rain valley and supported a

prosperous tribe of Indians, but today it is a desert waste land. What made the

difference? The blessing of God is a blessing always contingent upon the

OBEDIENCE of the people.

HAWKER, "Verse 8-9

Let not the Reader overlook the expression in those verses that Israel was to go

in to possess the land. Not as if they were to fight for it, but as if it was already

conquered. The reason was, the LORD their GOD had promised Canaan to his

people. He undertook to drive out the present possessors, and to bring them in.

And therefore so promised, the thing itself was as good as accomplished. But,

considered as this really was, a type of the heavenly Canaan, the subject riseth

higher to our view, and becomes abundantly more interesting, JESUS hath in

reality already conquered for his people. He hath purchased their redemption by

his blood. He is gone before to take possession of the promised land in their

name, and will come again, and bring them into the possession of it, with himself;

that where he is, there they may be also. See his sweet promise to this effect, John

14:3.


‘Therefore shall you keep all the commandment which I command you this day,

that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, to which you go over to

possess it, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore

to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and

honey.’

So knowing that His hand is so with them, they must observe all that He

commands this day, so that they may be strong and go in and possess the land,

and so that they may prolong their days in the land. Both their victory and their

continual presence in the land will be dependent on willingness to be obedient to

His requirements. They cannot remain in His land and under His rule, if they

are disobedient.

And this land is the land which Yahweh swore to give to their fathers and their

descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For Yahweh’s gifts are subject

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to true response. But they may be assured that if they do respond Yahweh will

fulfil His promises and give them the land, a land which is a good land, a land

flowing with milk and honey (compare Deuteronomy 6:3; Deuteronomy 26:9;

Deuteronomy 26:15; Deuteronomy 27:3; Deuteronomy 31:20; Joshua 5:6;

Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17 etc.), God’s adequate provision for man’s need. Milk

was man’s staple requirement, honey pleasant to man’s taste. Such a land

promised all that was good.

And we too should look back on all that God has done, the death of His Son and

His glorious resurrection and work amongst men, and should rejoice in it, and as

a result of it commit ourselves fully to him revealing our confidence in Him

(Romans 12:1-2).

9 and so that you may live long in the land the

Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them

and their descendants, a land flowing with milk

and honey.

GILL, "And that ye may prolong your days in the land,.... Not only enter it, and take possession of it, but continue in it long, which depended upon their obedience to the laws of God:

which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed; had promised with an oath, so that they might be assured of the enjoyment of it, though they could not be of their continuance in it, unless they obeyed the divine commands:

a land that floweth with milk and honey; abounds with all good things, whose fruits are fat as milk, and sweet as honey; so the Targum of Jonathan.

10 The land you are entering to take over is not

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like the land of Egypt, from which you have

come, where you planted your seed and

irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.

BARNES, "Another motive for fidelity is added, namely, the entire dependence of the promised land upon God for its fertility. It was “a land flowing with milk and honey;” yet this its richness was not, as was that of Egypt, the reward of truman skill and labor, but was, on the contrary, the gift of God simply and entirely; the effect of “the former and the latter rains” sent by Him. The spiritual significance of these and many other such peculiarities of the promised land must not be overlooked.

Egypt and Canaan are distinguished in this and the following verses, by certain of their most remarkable physical traits. Canaan as a mountainous country (compare Deu_3:25 note) was well watered, but by the rains of heaven, on which it absolutely depended for its crops. Artificial irrigation could do nothing to remedy this dependence. Hence, it was a land on which, so long as God’s people were faithful and consequently prosperous, “the eyes of God” would always be: i. e., He would supply at each successive season (compare Deu_11:14-15) the useful conditions of productiveness. But Egypt, fit emblem here as elsewhere of the world of nature in distinction from the world of grace, though of course deriving its all ultimately from the Giver of all good things, yet directly and immediately owed its riches and plenty to human ingenuity and capital. It enjoyed no rain worth speaking of, but drew its water supply from the annum overflowing of the Nile. This only lasts about a hundred days; but is rendered available for agricultural purposes throughout the year by an elaborate and costly system of tanks, canals, forcing machines, etc. To these mechanical appliances allusion is made in Deu_11:10. The inhabitants of Egypt probably watered “with the foot” in two ways, namely, by means of tread-wheels working sets of pumps, and by means of artificial channels connected with reservoirs, and opened, turned, or closed by the feet. Both methods are still in use in Egypt.

CLARKE, "Wateredst it with thy foot - Rain scarcely ever falls in Egypt, and God supplies the lack of it by the inundations of the Nile. In order to water the grounds where the inundations do not extend, water is collected in ponds, and directed in streamlets to different parts of the field where irrigation is necessary. It is no unusual thing in the East to see a man, with a small mattock, making a little trench for the water to run by, and as he opens the passage, the water following, he uses his foot to raise up the mould against the side of this little channel, to prevent the water from being shed unnecessarily before it reaches the place of its destination. Thus he may be said to water the ground with his foot. See several useful observations on this subject in Mr. Harmer, vol. i., pp. 23-26, and vol. iii., p. 141. “For watering land an instrument called janta is often used in the north of Bengal: It consists of a wooden trough, about fifteen feet long, six inches wide, and ten inches deep, which is placed on a horizontal beam lying on bamboos fixed in the bank of a pond or river in the form of a gallows. One end of the trough rests upon the bank, where a gutter is prepared to carry off the water, and the other is dipped into the water by a man standing on a stage near that end, and plunging it in with his foot. A

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long bamboo, with a large weight of earth at the farther end of it, is fastened to that end of the janta near the river, and passing over the gallows, poises up the janta full of water, and causes it to empty itself into the gutter.” This, Mr. Ward supposes, illustrates this passage. See Hindoo Customs, etc., vol. iii., p. 104. But after all, the expression, wateredst it with thy foot, may mean no more than doing it by labor; for, as in the land of Egypt there is scarcely any rain, the watering of gardens, etc., must have been all artificial. But in Judea it was different, as there they had their proper

seasons of rain. The compound word ברגל beregel, with, under, or by the foot, is used

to signify any thing under the power, authority, etc., of a person; and this very meaning it has in the sixth verse, all the substance that was in their possession, is,

literally, all the substance that was under their feet, ברגליהם beragleyhem, that is, in

their power, possession, or what they had acquired by their labor.

GILL, "For the land whither thou goest in to possess it,.... The land of Canaan they were about to take possession of:

is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out; either the whole land of Egypt, or that part of it, Rameses, in which Israel dwelt, and which was the best of it, as Jarchi observes, and yet Canaan exceeded that; though the design of this passage is not so much to set forth the superior excellency and fertility of the land of Canaan to that of Egypt, which was certainly a very fruitful country; see Gen_13:10but to observe some things in which they differed, whereby they both became fruitful, and in which Canaan had the advantage:

where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; as a gardener when he has sowed his seed, or planted his plants, waters them that they may grow, by carrying his water pot from bed to bed, which requires much labour and toil. In Egypt rain seldom fell, especially in some places it was very rare, though that there was none at all is a vulgar mistake; See Gill on Zec_14:18 (e). To supply the want of it the river Nile overflowed once a year, which not only moistened the earth, but left mud or slime upon it, which made it fruitful; but this was not sufficient, for what through the river not overflowing enough sometimes, and so as to reach some places, and through the heat of the sun hardening the earth again, it was found necessary to cut canals from it, and by water from thence to water it, as a gardener waters his seed and plants; and it is to this watering that respect is here had, not to the overflowing of the Nile, for that was before the seed was sown; but to the watering of it out of the canals, which was done after it was sown; the former was without any trouble of theirs, the latter with much labour; the manner in which it is done is expressed by the phrase "with thy foot", which the Targum explains "by thyself", by their own labour and industry. Jarchi is more particular; "the land of Egypt had need to "have water brought from the Nile with thy foot; he seems to have understood the phrase to signify carrying water on foot from the Nile to the place where it was wanted; but the custom still in use in Egypt, when they water their fields, plantations, or gardens, will give us a clear understanding of this phrase; as a late traveller informs us (f), the water is drawn out of the river (Nile) by instruments, and lodged in capacious cisterns; when plants require to be refreshed, they strike out the plugs that are fixed in the bottoms of the cisterns, and then the water gushing out, is conducted from one rill to another by the gardener, who is always ready as occasion requires to stop and divert the torrent by turning the earth against it "with his foot", and opening at the same time with his mattock a new

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trench to receive it: and to the same purpose another learned person (g) has observed, that at other times (than the flowing of the Nile) they are obliged to have recourse to art, and to raise the water out of the river and some deep pits by the help of machines, which water is afterwards directed in its course by channels cut in the ground, which convey the water to those places where it is wanted; and when one part of the ground is sufficiently watered, they then stop that channel, by thrusting some earth into the entrance of it "with their foot", and then also "with their foot" open a passage into the next channel, and so on: and Philo the Jew (h) speaks of a machine with which they used to water fields, and was worked with the feet by going up the several steps within, which gave motion to it.

HENRY 10-12, "II. Because the land of Canaan, into which they were going, had a more sensible dependence upon the blessing of heaven than the land of Egypt had, Deu_11:10-12. Egypt was a country fruitful enough, but it was all flat, and was watered, not as other countries with rain (it is said of Egypt, Zec_14:18, that it has no rain), but by the overflowing of the river Nile at a certain season of the year, to the improving of which there was necessary a great deal of the art and labour of the husbandman, so that in Egypt a man must bestow as much cost and pains upon a field as upon a garden of herbs. And this made them the more apt to imagine that the power of their own hands got them this wealth. But the land of Canaan was an uneven country, a land of hills and valleys, which not only gave a more pleasing prospect to the eye, but yielded a greater variety of soils for the several purposes of the husbandman. It was a land that had no great rivers in it, except Jordan, but drank water of the rain of heaven, and so, 1. Saved them a great deal of labour. While the Egyptians were ditching and guttering in the fields, up to the knees in mud, to bring water to their land, which otherwise would soon become like the heath in the wilderness, the Israelites could sit in their houses, warm and easy, and leave it to God to water their land with the former and the latter rain, which is called the river of God (Psa_65:9), perhaps in allusion to, and contempt of, the river of Egypt, which that nation was so proud of. Note, The better God has provided, by our outward condition, for our ease and convenience, the more we should abound in his service: the less we have to do for our bodies the more we should do for God and our souls. 2. So he directed them to look upwards to God, who giveth us rain form heaven and fruitful seasons (Act_14:17), and promised to be himself as the dew unto Israel,Hos_14:5. Note, (1.) Mercies bring with them the greatest comfort and sweetness when we see them coming from heaven, the immediate gifts of divine Providence. (2.) The closer dependence we have upon God the more cheerful we should be in our obedience to him. See how Moses here magnifies the land of Canaan above all other lands, that the eyes of God were always upon it, that is, they should be so, to see that nothing was wanting, while they kept close to God and duty; its fruitfulness should be not so much the happy effect of its soil as the immediate fruit of the divine blessing; this may be inferred from its present state, for it is said to be at this day, now that God has departed from it, as barren a spot of ground as perhaps any under heaven. Call it not Naomi: call it Marah.

JAMISON. 10-12 "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out — The physical features of Palestine present a striking contrast to those of the land of bondage. A widely extending plain forms the cultivated portion of Egypt, and on the greater part of this low and level country rain never falls. This natural want is supplied by the annual overflow of the Nile, and by artificial means from the same source when the river has

33

receded within its customary channel. Close by the bank the process of irrigation is very simple. The cultivator opens a small sluice on the edge of the square bed in which seed has been sown, making drill after drill; and when a sufficient quantity of water has poured in, he shuts it up with his foot. Where the bank is high, the water is drawn up by hydraulic engines, of which there are three kinds used, of different power, according to the subsidence of the stream. The water is distributed in small channels or earthen conduits, simple in construction, worked by the foot, and formed with a mattock by the gardener who directs their course, and which are banked up or opened, as occasion may require, by pressing in the soil with the foot. Thus was the land watered in which the Israelites had dwelt so long. Such vigilance and laborious industry would not be needed in the promised land. Instead of being visited with moisture only at one brief season and left during the rest of the year under a withering blight, every season it would enjoy the benign influences of a genial climate. The hills would attract the frequent clouds, and in the refreshing showers the blessing of God would especially rest upon the land.

ELLICOTT, "(10) Not as the land of Egypt.—“But much better. And Egypt was

praised above all lands, as it is said (Genesis 13:10), ‘As the garden of the Lord,

like the land of Egypt.’ And the land of Goshen, where Israel dwelt, is called ‘the

best of the land of Egypt’ (Genesis 47:6). And even this was not so good as the

land of Israel” (Rashi).

Wateredst it with thy foot.—An allusion either to the necessity of carrying the

water or to the custom of turning the water into little channels with the foot, as it

flowed through the garden.

HAWKER, "Verses 10-12

These verses afford a delightful view, even considered as an history of the

promised land. It is beautiful to remark the several characters here drawn by the

pencil of Moses, under the direction of the HOLY GHOST. Canaan was not as

Egypt, even beheld as to its situation by nature. Egypt owed its fruitfulness to

great labour and art: but Canaan was watered by the rain of heaven. The river

Nile did not overflow its banks to water Egypt but once in the year, and all the

rest of the year the country of Egypt became a dry soil. The Prophet gives an

account of this, that Egypt had no rain, Zechariah 14:18. No doubt, as Israel had

been long in bondage, the Fathers well recollected their labour and toil in the

gardens of their masters, and how they had been compelled to sow the seed, and

water it with their feet; meaning, perhaps, to fetch water from the Nile. Sweetly

therefore the man of GOD draws the contrast to this servitude, in the

spontaneous fruitfulness of Canaan, which had the eye of the LORD their GOD

upon it from one end of the year to the other. Canaan had no river excepting the

sacred stream of Jordan, in which, in after ages, the SON of GOD was baptized.

So that, as the Prophet elegantly described it, there was no navigable channel for

a galley with oars, or gallant ship, to pass by. No enemy could approach by

water. But, saith the Prophet, there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of

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broad rivers and streams. His presence made up all deficiencies. See Isaiah

33:20-23. But we lose still greater beauties in this passage if we stop here.

Canaan, considered as a type of heaven, is yet more delightful to contemplate. Of

the heavenly Canaan it may be truly said, it is not like the earthly Egypt of our

fallen state. The land which the believer is going to possess hath not only the eye,

but the presence of the LORD GOD upon it forever. JESUS is there, His person,

his love, his redemption, his relations, offices, character; all are the same,

yesterday, today, and forever. And if the Reader will pursue this train of

reasoning through all the various parts in which it is capable of being traced, he

will discover a most pleasing subject opening to his meditation. 2 Corinthians

3:18.

WHEDON, "10-12. The land… is not as… Egypt — Moses contrasts the land

they have left with the land they are to possess. Egypt depended, as it still does,

for its fertility upon the annual overflow of its great river, whose waters were

made available for the whole year by artificial water-courses. Human labour and

human foresight were constantly required. Man must especially care for the land

in Egypt. The country they are seeking is one that Jehovah cared for. Not a land

of extended plains reclaimed from the desert by the waters of its single river, but

a land of hills and valleys, which drinketh the rain of heaven.

Wateredst it with thy foot — This expression suggests their servile toil in Egypt.

It may refer to the use of some kind of machinery for irrigation worked by the

foot, but “it is more probable that this alludes to the mode of stopping small

watercourses with mud by the foot, and turning off the water into another

channel.” — WILKINSON’S Ancient Egyptians, vol. i, p. 581. Comp.

THOMSON’S Land and the Book, vol. ii, p. 279.

A land which the Lord thy God careth for — As if he watered it with his own

hands. All that servile toil required in Egypt for irrigation will be unnecessary in

the land to which they are bound.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:10. The land is not as the land of Egypt — The

fruitfulness of it depends more especially on the divine providence, and therefore

you should be careful to serve the Lord, and secure his favour and blessing.

Wateredst it with thy foot — That is, with great pains and labour of thy feet;

partly by fetching water and dispersing it, and partly by digging furrows, by a

spade, with thy foot, and using engines for distributing the water, which engines

they wrought with their feet. This is explained by a passage out of Philo, who

tells us that the Egyptians, to supply the want of rain, were wont to water their

gardens by machines for drawing water, fixed upon the banks of the Nile; which

machines were so contrived as to be turned with their feet. So the meaning is,

that whereas Egypt was watered by human art, Canaan was watered by rain

from heaven, as the next verse explains.

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PETT, "Verses 10-12

The Land To Which They Are Going Is An Abundant Land. It Is Watered By

God And Is Dependent On His Care, A Care Dependent On Their Obedience To

The Covenant Requirements (Deuteronomy 11:10-17).


a For the land, to which you are going in to possess it, is not as the land of

Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it

with your foot, as a garden of herbs (Deuteronomy 11:10).

b But the land to which you are going over to possess it, is a land of hills

and valleys, and drinks water of the rain of heaven (Deuteronomy 11:11).

b A land which Yahweh your God cares for (Deuteronomy 11:12 a).

a The eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the

year even to the end of the year (Deuteronomy 11:12 b).

Note that in ‘a’ the land that they are going over to possess is not a land which

they will have to toil hard on, for in the parallel it is one on which Yahweh’s eyes

are permanently set, from the beginning to the end of the year. In ‘b’ it is a land

fed by wateer from heaven, and in the parallel is a land that Yahweh their God

cares for.

Deuteronomy 11:10

‘For the land, to which you (thou) are going in to possess it, is not as the land of

Egypt, from where you (ye) came out, where you (thou) sowed your (thy) seed,

and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs,’

For they were going to a far, far better land than the one from which they had

come out. The land to which they are going is not like Egypt, the land which they

had left. That was a flat land, and there they sowed their seed, and then had to

keep it watered by building irrigation channels, and laboriously working

equipment with their feet to bring the water to the land, as they would water a

garden of herbs. They would then use their feet again to open and block small

channels around their land. It all required constant effort. ‘A garden of herbs’

stressed the effort that had to be put in, and the fruitful result that followed, for

the maintenance of such gardens required great effort.

Egypt enjoyed the blessing that the Nile rose and covered parts of their land

every year, renewing the land, but it then fell, and they had to work hard to

ensure that they made the best use of its waters. It required constant effort. The

point is being made that the watering there was a result of man’s physical

activity and exertions. They would remember only too well those activities and

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exertions in which they had had to engage, no doubt even as children.

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 11:10, Deuteronomy 11:11

An additional motive to fidelity and obedience is here adduced, drawn from the

peculiar excellence and advantages of the land. Canaan was not like Egypt, a

country that depended for its fertility on being irrigated by man's labor or by

artificial processes, but was a land where the supply and distribution of water

was provided for in natural reservoirs and channels, by means of which the rain

which God, who cared for the land, sent plentifully on it, was made available for

useful purposes. In Egypt there is little or no rain, and the people are dependent

on the annual overflowing of the Nile for the proper irrigation of their fields; and

as this lasts only for a short period, the water has to be stored and redistributed

by artificial means, often of a very laborious kind. Wateredst it with thy foot.

"The reference, perhaps, is to the manner of conducting the water about from

plant to plant and from furrow to furrow. I have often watched the gardener at

this fatiguing and unhealthy work. When one place is sufficiently saturated, he

pushes aside the sandy soil between it and the next furrow with his foot, and thus

continues to do until all are watered. He is thus knee-deep in mud, and many are

the diseases generated by this slavish work. Or the reference may be to certain

kinds of hydraulic machines which were turned by the feet. I have seen small

water-wheels, on the plain of Acre and elsewhere, which were thus worked; and

it appeared to me to be very tedious and toilsome, and, if the whole country had

to be irrigated by such a process, it would require a nation of slaves like the

Hebrews, and taskmasters like the Egyptians, to make it succeed. Whatever may

have been the meaning of Moses, the Hebrews no doubt had learned by bitter

experience what it was to water with the foot; and this would add great force to

the allusion, and render doubly precious the goodly land which drank of the rain

of heaven, and required no such drudgery to make it fruitful". Philo describes a

machine cf. this sort as in use in Egypt; and in that country, "a garden of herbs"

is still generally watered by means of a machine of simple construction,

consisting of a wheel, round which revolves an endless rope to which buckets are

attached; this is worked by the feet of a man seated on a piece of wood fastened

by the side of the machine, labor at once monotonous and severe.

BI 10-12, "Not as the land of Egypt.

Canaan on earth

Egypt is typical of the condition of the children of God while they are in bondage to the law of sin. There they are made to work unceasingly, without wages or profit, but continually subject to pains. The coming up out of Egypt is the type of the deliverance which every one of God’s people enjoys, when by faith he strikes the blood of Jesus on his doorpost, and spiritually eats the paschal lamb; and the passage through the wilderness is typical of that state of hoping, and fearing, and doubting, which we

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usually experience between the period when we come out of Egypt, and attain unto the full assurance of faith. Many of you are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. “We that have believed do enter into rest”; but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on Him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest.

I. True religion makes a difference not only in a man, but in a man’s condition; it affects not only his heart, but his state; not only his nature, but his very standing in society. The Lord thy God cares not only for Israel, but for Canaan, where Israel dwells. God has not only a regard to the elect, but to their habitation, and not only so, but to all their affairs and circumstances. My habitation is now guarded by Jehovah; my position in this world is no longer that of a needy mendicant; my position, which was that of a bondslave in Egypt, is now become that of an inheritor in Canaan. In this difference of the condition of the Christian and the worldling we shall mark three things.

1. The Christian’s temporal condition is different to that of the worldling, for the worldling looks to secondary causes; the Christian looks to heaven; he gets his mercies thence.

2. But now comes the second distinction, and that is, a difference in the toilsomeness of their lives. The worldly man, just like the Israelites in Egypt, has to water his land with his foot. Read the passage: “For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs.” This alludes, possibly, to the practice amongst all eastern nations where the land is irrigated, of letting out a certain quantity of water into a trench, and then having small gutters dug in the gardens, to compel the water to run along different parts of the ground. Sometimes one of these gutters might be broken, and then the gardener would press the mould against it with his foot, to keep the water in its proper channel. But I am inclined to think that the passage alludes to the method which those eastern countries have of pumping up the water by a tread wheel, and so watering the land with their foot. However that may be, it means that the land of Egypt was watered with extraordinary labour, in order to preserve it from sterility. “But,” says Moses, “the land, to which ye are going, is not a land which you will have to water with your foot. The water will come spontaneously; the land will be watered by the rain of heaven. You can sit in your own houses, or under your own vine, or under your own fig tree, and God Himself shall be your irrigator. You shall sit still, and ‘in quietness shall ye possess your souls.’” Now, here is a difference between the godly and ungodly—the ungodly man toils. Suppose his object is ambition; he will labour and spend his very life, until he obtains the desired pinnacle. Suppose it is wealth; how will he emaciate his frame, rob his body of its needed sleep, and take away the nourishment his frame requires, in order that he may accumulate riches! And if it is learning, how will he burn his eyes out with the flame of his hot desire, that he may understand all knowledge; how will he allow his frame to become weak and wan by midnight watchings! Men will in this way labour, and toil, and strive. But not so the Christian. No; his “strength is to sit still.” He knows what it is to fulfil the command of Paul—“I would have you without carefulness” We can take things as God gives them, without all this toil and labour. I have often admired the advice of old Cineas to Pyrrhus. Old story saith, that when Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was making preparation for his intended expedition into Italy, Cineas, the philosopher, took a favourable opportunity of addressing him thus: “The Romans, sir, are reported to be a warlike and victorious people; but if God permit us to overcome them, what use shall we make of the victory?” “Thou askest,” said

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Pyrrhus, “a thing that is self-evident. The Romans once conquered, no city will resist us; we shall then be masters of all Italy.” Cineas added, “And having subdued Italy, what shall we do next?” Pyrrhus not yet aware of his intentions, replied, “Sicily next stretches cut her arms to receive us.” “That is very probable,” said Cineas, “but will the possession of Sicily put an end to the war?” “God grant us success in that,” answered Pyrrhus “and we shall make these only the forerunners of greater things, for then Libra and Carthage will soon be ours; and these things being completed, none of our enemies can offer any further resistance.” “Very true,” added Cineas, “for then we may easily regain Macedon, and make absolute conquest of Greece; and when all these are in our possession, what shall we do then. Pyrrhus, smiling, answered, “Why then, my dear friend, we will live at our case, take pleasure all day, and amuse ourselves with cheerful conversation.” “Well, sir,” said Cineas, and why may we not do this now, and without the labour and hazard of an enterprise so laborious and uncertain?” So says the Christian.

3. This brings us to the last difference that we will note, and that is, that the unbeliever, he who has not crossed the Jordan and come to full confidence, does not understand the universality of God’s providence, while the assured Christian does. In Egypt the ground is almost entirely flat; and where it is not flat, it is impossible, of course, to grow anything, unless the ground is watered at considerable difficulty by some method of artificial irrigation, which shall force the water on to the high places. “But,” says Moses, “the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys.” The Egyptians could not get the water up on the hills, but you can; for the mountains drink in the rain, as well as the valleys. Now look at a worldling. Give him comforts, give him prosperity. Oh! he can be so happy. Give him everything just as he likes it; make his course all a plain, all a dead valley and a flat; he can fertilise that, and water it; but let him have a mountainous trouble, let him lose a friend, or let his property be taken from him—put a hill in his way, and he cannot water that, with all the pumping of his feet, and all the force he strives to use. But the Christian lives in “a land of hills and valleys”; a land of sorrow as well as joys; but the hills drink the water, as well as the valleys. We need not climb the mountains to water their heads, for our God is as high as the hills.

II. We must consider the special mercy. We must now turn away altogether from the allegoric, and come to this special mercy, which is the lot only of God’s people. “The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” That is, upon the lot of all Christians individually. Do not pick out one day in the year, and say it was a bad day, but take all the year round. “Ah! bless the Lord! He hath done all things well; my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!” And you know why all things have been well. It is because the eyes of the Lord have been upon you all the year. Then might I not say a word to you concerning the eyes of the Lord having been upon us as a church? Ought we to let this year pass without rehearsing the works of the Lord? Hath He not been with us exceeding abundantly, and prospered us? Some old writer has said, “Every hour that a Christian remains a Christian is an hour of miracle.” It is true; and every year that the Church is kept an entire Church is a year of the beginning of the miracle. “The eye of the Lord” has been upon us, “from year even unto the end of the year.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Gospel for the day-a glad word for the New Year

I. Notice that the people are reminded of the past. Confidence in God for the future is

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to grow out of the memory of His former dealings with them. “Your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which He did.” “Think of your almighty Helper,” cried Moses, “He goeth with you into this land: He careth for it.” And so let us call to mind the greatness and the glory of our God. What tokens of His love to us we have! What pledges of His care for us, far outpassing all that Israel ever looked upon.

II. Look at the land in which God would have us to live. Egypt is the type of the world, the world that knows not God. “Who is the Lord that I should serve Him? I know Him not.” This is the language of Pharaoh, the language, too, of the prince of this world. Egypt is the land where they looked down for their supply—wateredst it with thy foot. They got their harvests by their own toil and depending upon themselves; they knew not God. Israel must come out of this into a land where they look up for their supply, up into the hills whence cometh their help—a land of hills and valleys that drinketh in the rain of heaven. The wilderness between the two was the school where the people were to learn the first lesson of their dependence upon God. We have long enough been fretting and murmuring in the wilderness. In the Lord’s name arise and enter into the land where God’s presence encircles all, the eyes of the Lord are always upon it. Rest in the Lord. Believe in His power, not as a reserve fund from which you are to draw when your strength is spent, but as actively engaged for you, interested in all your affairs, ever eager to help and guide.

III. Notice the lord’s promises concerning this land in which we are to dwell. “The land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven.” All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. Here, anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. If He be the Source of our mercies, they can never fail us. Do not go down to Egypt for your pleasure, or your strength, or your wisdom, or your comfort. Man of God, thy place is Canaan, the land that the Lord careth for. Fetch all thy supplies from Him. If strength is needed, who can help thee like the Lord? Who else can give thee patience or who so tenderly comfort as the God of all consolation, the God of all patience? If the way grow tangled, who can give thee wisdom as He can? There is the land to live in—the land that drinketh in the rain of heaven.

IV. Here is a lesson in physical geography. The land is a land of “hills and valleys.” That is all we are told of it. And that is all we know of the land in which we are just entering. This much I can tell of your fortune in the New Year. It will be a year of ups and downs, of hills and valleys. The hills, so hard to climb, that make you sigh and wonder why they are sent—they make the glad and fruitful valleys. If life were all one dead level every pleasure would grow wearisome, the dull sameness of life would oppress us. We want the hills and valleys. The steep climb shows us the landscape that we could never have seen otherwise. The little vexations make the pleasant things fresh in their pleasantness. Only he who has tasted the bitterness of sorrow for sin can taste and see how gracious the Lord is. The beauty, the blessedness, the pleasure of our life is more dependent than we can ever know on the hills of life. The land whither thou goest is a land of hills and valleys. “A land of hills and valleys.” Look again. The hills drink in the rain of heaven and thereby make the valleys fruitful. The desert is a desert, because no hills rise up to heaven to touch the clouds and bring down blessings on the thirsty land below. The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah, so it is with us. It is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and fetches down a shower of blessing. It is the trial that sends us to the Lord for help. The hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down the showers. They drink in the rain from heaven. And yet again—the hills give to the valleys their fruitfulness and beauty by protecting them. They rise up and shut back bleak winds and furious storms: then in the sunny shelter

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the valleys shall be covered over with corn, the pastures are clothed with flocks. So is the land whither we go to possess it—a land of hills and valleys. Ah, how the soul had been withered, dead, if no steep hill had risen for its shelter. How many have perished in the wilderness, buried under its golden sands, who would have lived and thriven in the hill country. We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. Do not judge, much less grumble. Trust only. (M. G. Pearse.)

The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys.

The land of hills and valleys

1. Note how often God tells Israel that the land they were making for was their possession. In Egypt they had possessed nothing; they were possessed. Their time, their children, their lives were not their own there. Now they were to be slaves of a tyranny no more. And every man who is living his life well is marching forward in the track of Israel. There is a sense in which we all begin by being possessed; but we shall end, God helping us, possessing. Sometimes it is a foolish ambition that possesses us; sometimes it is a hereditary curse: or a habit, or sloth, or cowardice, or passion; and we are not our own. But when God breaks that bondage of the soul, far off, it may be, but gleaming in the morning, we see the peaks of a land that shall be ours. Gradually, not without many a failure, through daily effort, and prayer, and watching, we come to a country where we are not slaves but kings.

2. These marching Israelites had been told what the land was to be like in outline. It was to be “a land of hills and valleys.” How high the hills would be, they did not know. Much was shrouded in impenetrable dark. And do you say that the future is all hidden? There is a deep sense in which that is true. The separate secrets of the coming days are lodged and locked in the eternal mind. But there is an outline of the coming year that God makes plain to every child of man. For, what your past has been, and what your God has been, and what your heart is eager for tonight—all that will map out the New Year for you.

3. There was to be no monotony in their new home. It would be ever fresh with endless charm. Every valley would have its rushing stream, and every ridge its separate vista. And is there ever monotony where God conducts? It is a lie to say that being good takes all the charm and colour out of life. It is our sins that grow monotonous; our graces are dew-bespangled till the end.

4. I wonder how long it took the Israelites to learn that the hills were necessary to the valleys. How sweet and fertile the valleys were, they knew. Life was a joy down by these happy meadows; it was a sweet music, that of the rustling corn. But yonder, towering skyward, were the hills, and the brigands were there, and over them, who could tell what tribes there were? And there was an element of tempest too, among the hills. The children said life would be perfect here, if God had but spared us those barren and baneful hills. But halt! these rushing brooks, where did they come from? Out of the hills. And where were the sharp sea winds that would have blighted the vine and withered the springing corn? It was the barrier of mountains that kept them off. The children said, we hate these ragged hills, and we wish that God would level them to the ground;—and it was when they grew to men and women that they knew that never a vine would have clustered in the hollows, and never a harvest turned golden in the valleys, but for the mountains that they wished away. Is there nothing in your life you wish away? Is there no cross, no trial, no limitation? Do not be angry with the hills, because they shut you in. Fret not. Accept them. Is there no lily of the valley at

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your feet? It would never have been there but for the hills.

5. But the valley does not always speak of harvest. It is not always ringing with the vine dresser’s lilt. There are valleys in which we catch the sound of weeping, and see the rolling mist and never the sunlight. And it is then that we need this text graven upon our heart. For in the valleys we sometimes forget the hills. In the hour of mist we forget that the sun was ever shining. You would think there had never been any blue sky at all, we are so utterly disheartened in the cloudy day. Are the stars not there, though the clouds are abroad tonight? Are the hills not rising heavenward and Godward, though I am in the valley of the shadow? Recall the hours of vision on the mount.

6. Remember the valley when on the hill. To stand on the hill-top is an exquisite joy. There is vision in it: there is the birth of song. And to be strong and vigorous, with a firm grasp of oneself and one’s work, that is like heaven began. Only remember, the day of the valley is coming; the shadow, the mist, and parting are coming; and the wise man, though not with noise and fuss, will be quietly preparing upon the hills for that. (G. H. Morrison, M. A.)

Drinketh water of the rain of heaven.—

The God of the rain

Beautiful, simple, noble, true words. Who would change them for all the scientific phrases in the world? The eyes of the Lord were upon the land. It needed His care; and therefore His care it had. Therefore the Jew was to understand from his first entry into the land, that his prosperity depended utterly on God. The laws of weather, by which the rain comes up off the sea, were unknown to him. They are all but unknown to us now. But they were known to God. Not a drop could fall without His providence and will; and therefore they were utterly in His power. God is the living Judge, the living overlooker, rewarder, punisher of every man, not only in the life to come, but in this life. His providence is a special providence. But not such a poor special providence as men are too apt to dream of nowadays, which interferes only now and then on some great occasion or on behalf of some very favoured persons, but a special providence looking after every special act of man, and of the whole universe, from the fall of a sparrow to the fall of an empire. And it is this intense faith in the living God, which can only come by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, which proves the Old Testament to be truly inspired. This it is which makes it different from all books in the world. This it is, I hold, which marks the canon of Scripture. As it was then, so may it be again. There may come a time in this land when people shall profess to worship the Word of God; and yet, like those old scribes; make it of none effect by their own commandments and traditions. When they shall command men, like the scribes, to honour every word and letter of the Bible, and yet forbid them to take the Bible simply and literally as it stands, but only their interpretation of the Bible; when they shall say, with the scribes, “Nothing new can be true. God taught the apostles, and therefore He is not teaching us. God worked miracles of old; but whosoever thinks that God is working miracles now is a Pantheist and a blasphemer. God taught men of old the thing which they knew not; but whosoever dares to say that He does so now is bringing heresy and false doctrine, and undermining the Christian faith by science falsely so called.” From ever falling into that state of stupid lip-belief, and outward religion, and loss of faith in the living God: Good Lord, deliver us. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)

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The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it.—

Good cheer for the New Year

Observe here a type of the condition of the natural and the spiritual man. In this world in temporals and in all other respects the merely carnal man has to be his own providence, and to look to himself for all his needs. Hence his cares are always many, and frequently they become so heavy that they drive him to desperation. He lives in Egypt, and he knows no joy. But the spiritual man dwells in another country; his faith makes him a citizen of another land. It is true he endures the same toils, and experiences the same afflictions as the ungodly, but they deal with him after another fashion, for they come as a gracious Father’s appointments, and they go at the bidding of loving wisdom.

I. First, we will consider the text as we find it. “The eyes of the Lord.” What is meant here? Surely not mere omniscience, No, there is love in the text to sweeten observation. “The Lord knoweth the righteous” with a knowledge which is over and above that of omniscience. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, not merely to see them, hut to view them with complacency and delight.

1. The meaning of the text then is, first, that God’s love is always upon His people. The big heart of Deity is set upon us poor insignificant, undeserving, worthless beings.

2. The expression of the text teaches us that the Lord takes a personal interest in us. It is not here said that God loves us, and therefore sends an angel to watch over us; but the Lord does it Himself.

3. Further, the text reminds us of the unwearied power of God towards His people. What, can His eyes be always upon us? This were not possible if He were not God. The next word that seems to sparkle in the text is that word “always.” “The eyes of the Lord are always upon it.” And it is added, as if that word were not enough for such dull ears as ours, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. I tried to discover the other day what time there was in one’s life when one could best afford to be without God. Perhaps imagination suggests the time of prosperity, when business prospers, wealth is growing, and the mind is happy. Ah, to be without God then, why it would be like the marriage feast without the bridegroom, it would be the day of delight and no delight, a sea and no water in it, day and no light. What! all these mercies and no God? If you can do without God at all, it certainly is not when you are standing on the pinnacle. What then? Could we do without Him in adversity? Ask the heart that is breaking! Ask the tortured spirit that has been deserted by its friend I Ask the child of poverty, or the daughter of sickness tossing by night and day on that uneasy bed, Couldst thou do without thy God? And the very thought causes wailing and gnashing of teeth. With God pain becomes pleasure, and dying beds are elevated into thrones, but without God—ah! what could we do? Well then, is there no period? Cannot the young Christian, full of freshness and vigour, elated with the novelty of piety, do without his God? Ah, poor puny thing, how can the lamb do without the shepherd to carry it in his arms? Cannot the man in middle life then, whose virtues have been confirmed, do without his God? He tells you that it is the day of battle with him, and that the darts fly so thick in business nowadays, that the burdens of life are so heavy in this age that without God a man in middle life is like a naked man in the midst of a thicket of briars and thorns—he cannot hope to make his way. Ask yon grey beard with all the experience of seventy years, whether at least he has not attained to an independence of grace, and he will say to you that as the infirmity of the body presses upon him it is his joy that his inner man is renewed day by day, but take

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away God, who is the spring of that renewal, and old age would be utter wretchedness. Ah! there is not a moment in any one day that you or I have ever lived, that we could have afforded to dispense with the help of God, for when we have thought ourselves strong, as, alas! we have been fools enough to do, in one five minutes we have done that which has cost us rivers of tears to undo; in an unguarded moment we have spoken a word which we could not recall, but which we could have recalled if we should have had to bite our tongues in halves to have had it unsaid. The next word that springs from the text is that great word “Jehovah.” He who surveys us with love and care is none other than the one and indivisible God, so that we may conclude if we have His eyes to view us we have His heart to love us, and if we have His heart we have His wings to cover us, we have His hands to bear us up; we have all the attributes of Deity at our command. Oh, when God says that He always looks at you, He means this, that He is always yours, there is nothing which is necessary for you which He will refuse to do; there is no wisdom stored up in Him which He will not use for you, there is no one attribute of all that great mass of splendour which makes up the Deity which shall be withheld from you in any measure, but all that God is shall be yours. He shall be your God forever and ever. He will give you grace and glory, and be your guide even unto death. Perhaps the sweetest word of the text is that next one—the eyes of Jehovah “thy God.” Ah, there is a blessed secret! Why? Ours in covenant, our God, for He chose us to be His portion, and by His grace He has made us choose Him to be our portion. We are His and He is ours.

II. We are now to turn the text over; that is to say, we will misread, it, yet read it rightly. Suppose the text were to run thus—“The eyes of the Lord’s people are always upon Him from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” We like the text as it stands, but I do not believe we shall ever comprehend the fulness of it unless we receive it as I have now altered it, for we only understand God’s sight of us when we get a sight of Him.

III. In the third place, we will imagine that we blot the text out altogether. We are to suppose that it is blotted out, to imagine that you and I have to live all the year without the eyes of God upon us, not finding a moment from the beginning of the year in which we perceive the Lord to be caring for us or to be waiting to be gracious to us. Imagine that there is none to whom we may appeal beyond our own fellow creatures for help. Oh, miserable supposition! We have come to the opening of the year, and we have to get through it somehow, we must stumble through January, go muddling through the winter, groaning through the spring, sweating through the summer, fainting through the autumn, and grovelling on to another Christmas, and no God to help us; no prayer when God is gone, no promise when God is no more. There could be no promise, no spiritual succour, no comfort, no help for us if there were no God.

IV. Let us close with using the text. The way to use it is this. If the eyes of the Lord will be upon us His people, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, what shall we do? Why, let us be as happy as we can during this year. You have your trials—do not expect that you will be free from them. The devil is not dead, and sparks still fly upward. Herein is your joy, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. Up with your standard now and march on boldly! I would have you use the text by the way of seeking greater blessings and richer mercies than you have ever enjoyed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s care for His Church and people in all ages

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The land which the Lord thy God careth for. This is true not only of the land of Canaan which was considered in the proper sense of it, but also of any other land together with it, which is the place and residence of the Church, and ordinances, and people of God. This is reductively, and interpretatively, and proportionably the land which the Lord thy God careth for.

I. When it is said here that He careth for it, this word care may admit of a three-fold explication. First, as a word of respect. He cares for it—that is, He regards it. Secondly, as a word of providence. He cares for it—that is, He looks after it and takes care of it. Thirdly, as a word of solicitude. He cares for it, is anxious about it.

1. As a word of respect. The Church of God, and such a land where the Church resides. God cares for it—that is, He regards it, and has an esteem for it. It is precious and of great account with Him.

2. It is a word of forecast or providence. He cares for it—that is, He looks after it, and inquires into the state of it. He casts about what may be best and most convenient for it, and answerably does bring it about.

3. It is a word of solicitude and perplexity. He cares for it—that is, He is anxious about it (Hos_11:8). There is no man can express more affection in any thing whereof he is solicitous as to the welfare of it, than God does express towards His Church, as there is occasion for it. It is the land which the Lord cares for in the full extent and latitude of care.

Now as there is a three-fold expression of God’s care for His Church; so there is a three-fold account also, which may be given to us of this care, as from whence it does proceed in Him.

1. From His relation. The Church is His own land by special purchase and redemption, and so He takes care of it more particularly in that respect.

2. From His covenant. It is the land that He cares for upon this consideration also. Because He has engaged Himself hereto.

3. From His interest and more peculiar concernment. The Lord takes care of His Church as that which He receives the greatest advantage from any other besides; not in a strict sense, but in a qualified, and as He is pleased to account it. The use of this point to ourselves comes to this purpose. First, as it serves to inform us, and to satisfy us in the truth of this point, which we have now before us, that we be persuaded of it. It is that which we are ready sometimes to doubt of whether God cares for His Church or no. Especially according to the circumstances wherein it may be as Gideon sometimes reasoned with the angel (Jdg_6:13). This proposition which we are now upon, it hath both an inclusive emphasis and an exclusive. It has an inclusive emphasis in it, as it does signify; that God does indeed take care of His Church and land. An exclusive emphasis, as it does signify that He does care of it both in the denial of others’ care for it, and in His own denial of care for others. And so now I have done with the first general part of the text, which is the interest this land here had in God’s affection expressed to us in these words, “The land which the Lord thy God careth for.”

II. The second is the interest which it hath in God’s inspection in these words. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of, etc. Wherein, again, we have two branches more. First, the privilege itself, and that is of being under the eyes of God; the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it. Secondly, the continuation of this privilege, and that is expressed in two words more. First, in the word of perpetuity, and that is, always. Secondly, in the words of extent. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

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1. First, we will take notice of the former, namely, the privilege itself here mentioned. And that is, of being under God’s eye. First, an eye of observation, that is one which God hath upon His Church, He does mark, and mind, and take notice of the state and condition in which it is. Secondly, an eye of compassion; He has an eye upon it, to pity it, and to comfort it in the state in which it is. Thirdly, an eye of direction, a teaching eye; God has such an eye as this which He does sometimes vouchsafe His Church. There is a great matter in the eye to such a purpose as this is, and it is here considerable of us, as we have it in Psa_32:8. Fourthly, an eye of protection and preservation and authority.

2. Now for the second, which is the continuation of this privilege, that is exhibited to us in two expressions more. First, in the word of constancy or perpetuity; and that is always. Secondly, in the words of extent, or production. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year. First, we may take notice of the continuance of the privilege he mentioned in the word of constancy or perpetuity. And that is always. It hath three properties in it, which are here particularly considerable of us. First, it is a quick eye, there are many persons which see a thing at last, but it is a great while first before they come to do so; yea, but God beholds His Church, and the state and condition of it, as soon as ever there is need for Him to see it. Secondly, it is a fixed eye. He looks upon His land, as if He would in a manner look through it and pierce it with His eyes. Thirdly, it is a frequent eye. His eyes are never off it. The second is the words of extent or production. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Where there are three periods, as I may so call them, of the care and providence of God towards His land and people. There is the initial, and the intermediate, and the final. First, here is the initial point of God’s providence, taking its rise from the beginning of the year. Thus it signifies to us God’s earliness, and readiness, and forwardness in His goodness towards His people, that He takes the very first season and opportunity that is afforded unto Him, for the hastening of His favours upon them. Secondly, here is the intermediate point, in the rising or progress of the year, that is also included as joining both terms together: God is not only kind a little at first, when the year begins, and so making a good entrance, but He holds on and proceeds in His goodness as the year itself rises and gets up. This is God’s manner of dealing, not only like some misers, perhaps, to make a feast for a time, and once a year, but like a liberal and free-hearted person—that keeps open house all the year long, from the beginning of the year to the end. The third is the final point or conclusive. He ends the year as well as begins it, with the expressions of His goodness in it; “He crowns the year with His goodness” (Psa_65:11). Thus is God gracious to His land and people, in all points and periods of time, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year; from one year to another: yea, from one age to another. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Lessons:

1. First, in a way of thankfulness and acknowledgment, where we have at any time the experience of this made good to us in our own particulars, as we very much have.

2. In a way of faith and dependence, let us make use of it also, that so we who have had experience of His goodness in the past may still wait upon Him and rest comfortably in His providence.

3. In a way of fruitfulness and obedience, we are to improve this point so likewise. That as the eyes of the Lord our God are upon us, in this extent and production, so our eyes may be upon Him likewise in the same extent. As His in a way of providence, and protection, and preservation; so ours in a way of obedience, and fruitfulness, and circumspection. To begin the year with Him, as

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He does with us, and thereby to lay a good foundation of holy conversation to ourselves; to set ourselves in a good way at first, in this entrance of time. If we have hitherto been any way failing in our duty, and neglected it, let us now at least and at last keep it. Let us proceed also, as God does with us. He begins, and He goes on in His goodness, His eyes which He cast upon His Church and people, they never fail, but continue, and hold good still. So should our eyes be also upon Him, we should perfectly continue in goodness; and proceed in it, from one degree of it to another. As the year rises in the light of it, so should we rise also in the improvement of it. Let us also end well; be especially careful of that. (T. Horton, D. D.)

The Lord’s eyes on the land

Consider Canaan, with its privilege of being ever under the open eyes of the Lord, as setting forth to us, in a very real manner, the spiritual condition of the Church of Christ, and the blessedness of that state.

I. The spiritual ground of the Christian Church.

1. The freedom of the new land, though Divinely given, was to be acquired and retained by courageous conflict and endeavour.

2. The productiveness of the new land was to be a blessing to the producer. God has expended His Divine treasures, that His children may bring forth the rich fruits of His own glorious life.

3. Purity of life was to be realised in the new land. The Church exists to promote the worship of the Revealed Father in spirit and in truth. The Church’s worship is the drawing forth of its strength from God—the reception of the Divine life into the human.

4. The beauty of the new land was to be the counterpart of spiritual beauty. The fruits and flowers of earth were the response to the light and rains of heaven. The Church exists, that the beauty of the Lord our God may be upon us. Nothing in creation is more beautiful than the sight of consecrated spirits cooperating in the work of God and of His Christ.

II. The divine observation of the Christian Church. A high privilege and blessing.

1. For the condemnation of wrong.

2. For the approbation of right. No encouragement to the pursuit of goodness can be so great as that which is derived from the truth that God is beholding the fight with evil. (W. R. Percival.)

The ideal country

Palestine included everything required to make a perfect commonwealth, an earthly paradise. It had—

1. God’s special husbandry. God cared for it.

(1) A free land.

(2) A productive land.

(3) A beautiful land.

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(4) A holy land.

2. The perennial watchfulness of God.

(1) The land, with all its interests, was precious to Him.

(2) The produce of the land was assured.

(3) No wrong-doer could be uncondemned.

(4) The right had His approbation. (Homiletic Monthly.)

The land that the Lord eateth for

I. “A land which the Lord thy God careth for,” says the Jewish lawgiver. The word is very suggestive to us. It speaks to our hearts of a kind and loving oversight. Our age, distinguished as it has been by scientific advances of all kinds, has perhaps in nothing made more rapid strides than in improved methods for the cultivation of the soil. The farmer no longer rejoices in his ignorance; and agricultural chemistry has taken rank among the established studies of the day. But what proof are all such appliances against the continued drought, or the falling blight, or the wasting rains? No; we must be taught, as Israel was taught, that fruitfulness was not so much the happy product of the soil, still less the natural requital of man’s industry and skill, but an immediate effect of the Divine blessing—a consequence of the eyes of the Lord never being off the land, but ever seeking and ever caring for it to do it good.

II. But the evidence that we are a cared for people, and, therefore a fresh ground for our devotedness and love, is to be found in the time when this blessing of an abundant harvest has been sent to us.

III. But here the scoffer may interject, “Why, if this be ‘a land which the Lord careth for,’ is it suffered to be darkened here and there by the overhanging pestilence, or drained of its best blood to keep down a despot’s pride?” Should we call that a cared for land over which the ploughshare had never passed, neither iron had entered to break up the fallow ground? Many can see this with regard to the wasting sickness, who find it hard to apply to the case of a tyrant’s misdoing. But we cannot allow a Divine purpose to the pestilence, and refuse a heavenly mission to the sword. It would be a deep enigma in Providence, and contrary to all that has been hitherto known among men, if the desolating scenes which are now taking place in the East should be without some great moral—should pass away, like the dark shapes upon a storm cloud, and leave no trace behind. All God’s judgments, whatever the instrumentality employed, are to teach men righteousness. It is so with individuals; it is so with nations. (D. Moore, M. A.)

The beginning of the year.—

A sermon for the New Year

What are the reflections which are specially appropriate to “the beginning of the year”? It occupies, as it were, a middle position between the year which has just closed, and which you cannot recall, and that portion of time of equal duration on which you have entered; and it thus invites you to look back to the one, to look forward to the other, and in connection with both to look up to that God who has brought you safely through the former, and who alone can determine the events that will befall you during the course of the latter.

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I. Look back on the year which has expired. The man of business is accustomed at this season to review the transactions of the preceding year, that he may ascertain the amount of his gains and losses. And it becomes you as rational, as immortal, and as accountable beings, to reflect seriously on all that you have received and endured and done during the past year, that thus you may be able to correct what has been wrong, and to supply what has been wanting, in your character and conduct, so as to be better prepared for the trial which you must undergo when you leave the present scene of activity.

1. The outward blessings you have received, and the manner in which you have employed them.

2. The spiritual privileges with which you have been favoured, and the improvement which you have made of them.

3. The trials you have endured, and the effect which they have had upon you.

4. The sins you have committed, and the sentiments and feelings which they have awakened in you. Have you been led gradually to think less of the evil involved in them, and to indulge in them with diminishing repugnance? Or have you been prompted to increased vigilance, in avoiding everything that has a tendency to betray you into them, and increased care to keep at a distance from them, and shun even the appearance of them? In the one case, there is evidence that you have been making a mock at sin, or have looked on it as a trivial thing, which ought not to awaken in you any deep distress; in the other, there is ground for the conclusion that you possess the broken and contrite spirit which God does not despise.

II. Look forward to the year which has commenced. I do not mean that you should look forward to it with the design of discovering the events which will occur in your history, or the vicissitudes which you will experience during its course. That would be a vain attempt; and if it were practicable, it would be unwise in you to make it. But your ignorance of futurity should urge you to seek preparedness for the events that will befall you, whatever they may be. You ought not, indeed, to conjecture new and unusual circumstances in which it is possible that you may be placed, and to distract your thoughts from present duties, by considering what in all probability you would do, were these conjectures to be realised; for the grace, or Divine assistance, which the Christian is encouraged to ask, is grace for present need, and not present grace for future supposed necessities. Still, however, there is a state of habitual preparedness for everything that may occur in his future life, which it is of the highest importance for you to possess. Now, there is a two-fold preparedness for death which you should desire to possess. The first is a preparedness as to state, which imparts a title to eternal blessedness. And the second is a preparedness as to character, which fits or capacitates for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness.

III. Look upward to God, in connection both with the retrospect of the past, and with the anticipation of the future.

1. With self-dedication. Cherish a sincere desire and resolution to have Jehovah for your God. Enter now into covenant with Him, if you have not hitherto done so; and if in past times you have chosen Him to be your God, renew your solemn engagement to Him.

2. With confession of sin, and engagement to holiness. Let your contemplation of the past prompt to an humble acknowledgment of the greatness and inexcusableness of the offences by which you have provoked the Divine displeasure, and let the anticipation of the future be accompanied with sincere

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resolutions of new obedience.

3. With prayer for forgiveness and needed grace. Ask God in His great mercy to pardon the sins of the past year, and to grant to you that assistance which will enable you to avoid these sins during the year that has commenced.

4. With gratitude and confidence. While you cherish thankfulness to God for the goodness which He has manifested to you during the past year, cherish also reliance on His kindness and care for the year that is to come. (D. Duncan.)

11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to

take possession of is a land of mountains and

valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

GILL, "But the land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys,.... And so could not be watered by the overflow of a river, and by canals cut out of it, and in the manner Egypt was; which was for the most part a plain and flat country, but not so Canaan, in which were many hills and mountains, as those about Jerusalem, Carmel, Tabor, Lebanon, and others; and plains and valleys, as the valley of Jezreel, &c. and which made it more delightful and pleasant for prospects; see Deu_8:7 and drinketh water of the rain of heaven; by which it was watered, refreshed, and made fruitful; not by means of men, but by the Lord himself, and so with much more ease to men, and without the toil and labour they were obliged to in Egypt, as well as it was both more healthful and pleasant; for the damps that arose from the overflow of the Nile were sometimes prejudicial to health; and during the season of its overflow, which was in the summer, they were obliged to keep in their houses, and could not walk abroad for weeks together; to which inconveniences the land of Canaan was not subject; but then, as its fertility depended on rain from heaven, the Israelites would be under the greater obligation to observe the commands of God, who could give and withhold it at his pleasure, and as they conducted themselves; which seems to be the general drift of this passage.

SBC 11-12, "I. The Jew was to understand from his first entry into the land of Canaan that his prosperity depended utterly on God. The laws of weather, by which the rain comes up off the sea, were unknown to him. They are all but unknown to us now. But they were known to God. Not a drop could fall without His providence and will; therefore they were utterly in His power.

The warning of this text came true. More than once we read of drought, long, severe, and ruinous. In one famous case, there was no rain for three years, and Ahab had to

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go out to search through the land for a scrap of pasture. These droughts came at times when the Jews had fallen into idolatry and profligacy.

II. It is the intense faith in the living God which can come only by the inspiration of the Spirit of God which proves the Old Testament to be truly inspired. In later times the Jews had these words of Moses written on their foreheads, but not on their hearts. They had lost all faith in God; He had spoken to their fathers, but they could not believe that He was speaking to them, not even when He spoke by His only-begotten Son, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. Wrapped up in their narrow, shallow book-divinity, they said, "This people who knoweth not the law is accursed." Nothing new could be true. It must be put down, persecuted down, lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation. But they did not succeed. The Romans came after all and took away their place and nation, and so they failed, as all will fail, who will not believe in God. The truth which they think they have stifled will rise again, for Christ, who is the Truth, will raise it again, and it shall conquer, and leaven the hearts of men till all be leavened.

C. Kingsley, Gospel of the Pentateuch, p. 210.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:11. A land of hills and valleys — Which could not

be made fruitful but by rain from heaven, which seldom fell in Egypt, whose

fruitfulness depended on the overflowing of the Nile. Thus he informs them that

the promised land was of such a condition as would keep them in a constant

dependance upon God for the fruitfulness of it. He means, however, also to

signify that it was much more pleasant and healthful than Egypt, which, as it was

enriched, so it was annoyed with the Nile, which, overflowing the land in

summer-time, made the country both unpleasant and unhealthy. And health

being the greatest of all outward blessings, Canaan must therefore be a more

desirable habitation than Egypt. The rain of heaven — Which was more easily

obtained, being given them without any charge or pains; more sweet and

pleasant, not hindering their going abroad upon their affairs, as the overflowing

of the Nile did; more safe and healthful, being free from that mud which

attended the waters of the Nile; and more certain too, while they were obedient,

the former and the latter rain being promised to be given to them in the proper

season, on condition of their adhering to God’s worship, and obeying his laws.

And even this condition, though it might seem a clog and inconvenience, yet

indeed was a great benefit; for thus, by their own interest and necessities, they

were obliged to that obedience and reliance on God upon which their happiness

depended, both for this life and the next.

LANGE 11-25, "Deuteronomy 11:11. No low land as Egypt. Comp. Deuteronomy

3:25; Deuteronomy 8:7.—Of the rain, the ְל denoting the outward cause.

Deuteronomy 11:12. ֹּדֵרׁש, to seek, ask after ( Job 3:4), to take care for (Sept.:

ἐπισκοπεῑται). The continual dependence upon God places it as a geographical

foil to the true religion. The expression seems at first rich with promise; the

threatening in such relations comes later ( Deuteronomy 11:17). Deuteronomy

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11:13. Comp. Deuteronomy 7:12; Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12. Moses’

words pass into the words of God. So distinctly does the speaker know himself as

Moses. Deuteronomy 11:14. Rain of your land, as your land needs it; in its

season, viz. the first [early] rain, after the seeding, from October until December,

and the latter rain before the harvest (“at the last ripe,” Baumgarten) in March

and April. Comp. further Deuteronomy 8:8. Deuteronomy 11:15. Comp.

Deuteronomy 6:11. Deuteronomy 11:16. The contrast. Comp. Deuteronomy 4:23,

where it occurs in reference to the making of images, and thus here with an

altogether fitting retrospect ( Deuteronomy 9:12). ִיְפֶּתה, will open, stands open to

enticement, foolishly opens itself. Comp. Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 7:4;

Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 6:14. Deuteronomy 11:17.

Comp. Deuteronomy 4:25; Deuteronomy 6:15; Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy

8:19. “The heavens are thought of as a mother’s breasts.” Schultz. Deuteronomy

11:18. Comp. Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 6:8. Deuteronomy 11:19. Comp.

Deuteronomy 6:7. Deuteronomy 11:20. Comp. Deuteronomy 6:9. In the

connection of the second with the first command, these repetitions are not

strange. It forms a parallel completion for the memory. Deuteronomy 11:21.

Comp. Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 5:16.—As the days of heaven, sq.

( Psalm 89:29), i.e. as long as the heaven (“with its blessing power,” Baumgarten)

stands over the earth, so long shall Israel, if faithful, as the fathers, so the

children, dwell in Canaan. Deuteronomy 11:22. For lays the ground for this

supposition. Comp. Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 8:6.

Deuteronomy 11:23. Comp. Deuteronomy 7:1 sq.; Deuteronomy 9:1 sq.

Deuteronomy 11:24. Comp. Deuteronomy 2:5. For the borders, southerly and

northerly, easterly and till the westward (“the posterior,” i.e. Mediterranean)

sea, comp. Deuteronomy 1:7. Deuteronomy 11:25. Comp. Deuteronomy 7:24;

Deuteronomy 2:25.


‘But the land to which you (ye) are going over to possess it, is a land of hills and

valleys, and drinks water of the rain of heaven, a land which Yahweh your (thy)

God cares for. The eyes of Yahweh your (thy) God are always on it, from the

beginning of the year even to the end of the year.’

But in the land to which they were now going, where water would be provided

by God, it was not like that. It was to be a land of hills and valleys, a land that

drank water that came from above (it did not need to be force fed), even the rain

of heaven. It would receive water that fell where it was wanted, or flowed down

to where it was wanted. And it was a land which Yahweh their God cared for

continually, for His eyes were always on it, from the beginning of the year to the

end of the year. So those who lived in it depended on His goodness for the

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provision of water, and when they were right with Him could be sure of that

provision (except for occasional times of testing). Thus while Egypt depended on

the Nile, they would rather depend directly on God, and while Egypt laboured to

spread their waters Israel would receive God’s blessing with joy.

And what was more God cared for this land especially, because it was the land

that He had promised to Abraham, and He was keeping it for his descendants. It

does not mean that God did not care for other lands, only that they did not come

under His special care. Here God was intimately concerned for the sake of His

people.

NISBET, "CANAAN UNLIKE EGYPT

‘But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of bills and valleys, and

drinketh water of the rain of heaven,’ etc.

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

I. The Jew was to understand from his first entry into the land of Canaan that

his prosperity depended utterly on God.—The laws of weather, by which the

rain comes up off the sea, were unknown to him. They are all but unknown to us

now. But they were known to God. Not a drop could fall without His providence

and will; therefore they were utterly in His power.

The warning of this text came true. More than once we read of drought, long,

severe, and ruinous. In one famous case, there was no rain for three years, and

Ahab had to go out to search through the land for a scrap of pasture. These

droughts came at times when the Jews had fallen into idolatry and profligacy.

II. It is the intense faith in the living God which can come only by the inspiration

of the Spirit of God which proves the Old Testament to be truly inspired.—In

later times the Jews had these words of Moses written on their foreheads, but not

on their hearts. They had lost all faith in God; He had spoken to their fathers,

but they could not believe that He was speaking to them, not even when He spoke

by His only-begotten Son, the brightness of His glory and the express image of

His person. Wrapped up in their narrow, shallow book-divinity, they said, ‘This

people who knoweth not the law is accursed.’ Nothing new could be true. It must

be put down, persecuted down, lest the Romans should come and take away their

place and nation. But they did not succeed. The Romans came after all and took

away their place and nation, and so they failed, as all will fail, who will not

believe in God. The truth which they think they have stifled will rise again, for

Christ, who is the Truth, will raise it again, and it shall conquer, and leaven the

hearts of men till all be leavened.

—Canon Kingsley.

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Illustration

(1) ‘No passage could be chosen that would more fitly illustrate God’s method of

governing His ancient people Israel. It is blessing dependent on behaviour

always. And that is God’s method of governing us still. He gives us

commandments. If we obey them it is well with us, if we disobey them we suffer.

Let us not think that God has altered, or that He has altered His laws. As He was

to the Israelites who entered Canaan, so is He to the people who are settled

securely in these Islands of the West.’

(2) ‘A description is given of the fair land which God had prepared for His

people; and of the blessings that would accrue to obedience (Isaiah 64:4; 1

Corinthians 2:9, etc.). We need to remember that a like obedience is demanded of

us, and is the condition of fruitfulness and blessedness. Our Lord Jesus lays

great emphasis on obedience (John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23; John 15:10).

We do not obey to be saved; but being saved, we obey. What a contrast between

the life of effort and that of trust is suggested by the description of the difference

between the laborious irrigation of Egypt, and the blessed rains which God

would send from heaven!’

(3) ‘“I’ve reached the land of corn and wine,

And all its wealth is freely mine.

Here shines undimmed the blissful day,

For all my night has passed away.”’

12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the

eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it

from the beginning of the year to its end.

GILL, "A land which the Lord thy God careth for,.... In a very particular and special manner; otherwise he has a general care of the whole world, and all the parts of it; for as the earth is his, and the fulness thereof, his providential care reaches everywhere; but as this spot was what he had chosen for his own residence, and the place of his worship, and for an habitation for his peculiar people; he exercised a more peculiar care over it, to make it fruitful, commodious, and pleasant; or which

54

"he seeketh" (i); that is, the good of it, and to make it convenient, useful, and delightful to his people; yea, which he sought for and desired for his own habitation, Psa_132:13,

the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year; his eyes of providence, to give the former and the latter rain, and that there be seedtime and harvest in their seasons, and that the fruits of it be produced at their proper time; some at the beginning, others at the end of the year, and others in the intervening months, and all wisely suited to the good of the inhabitants of it.

K&D, "It was a land which Jehovah inquired after, i.e., for which He cared (ָ�ַרׁש,

as in Pro_31:13; Job_3:4); His eyes were always directed towards it from the beginning of the year to the end; a land, therefore, which was dependent upon God, and in this dependence upon God peculiarly adapted to Israel, which was to live entirely to its God, and upon His grace alone.

ELLLICOTT, "(12) A land which the Lord thy God careth for.—Literally,

seeketh, as in the margin of our Bibles. Comp. Ezekiel 20:6 : “A land that I had

espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.”

“To search out a resting-place for them” (Numbers 10:33). It is difficult not to

think of the better land in this description, and of our Saviour’s promise, “I go to

prepare a place for you.” There “the poor and needy” shall not “seek water,” for

“He shall lead them to living fountains of water.” They shall “hunger no more,

neither thirst any more.”

That something unusual is indicated here seems to have occurred to the old

Jewish writer, who says—“And does He not seek out all lands? as it is said, ‘To

cause it to rain on the earth where no man is’” (Job 38:26).

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:12. Which the Lord careth for — In a special

manner, watering it immediately, as it were, by his own hand, without man’s

help, and giving peculiar blessings to it, which Egypt enjoyed not. To the end of

the year — To give it the rain, and other blessings proper to the several seasons.

But all these mercies, and the fruitfulness of the land consequent upon them,

were suspended upon their disobedience. And therefore it is not at all strange

that some later writers describe the land of Canaan as a barren soil; which is so

far from affording ground to question the authority of the Scriptures, that it

much more confirms it, this being an effect of that threatening, that God would

turn a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwelt in it,

Psalms 107:34.

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 11:12

Careth for; literally, searcheth or inquireth after, i.e. thinks about and cares for

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(LXX; ̓פביי͂ניףךןנוו , oversees; cf. Job 3:4; Psalms 142:4; Jeremiah 30:17; Ezekiel

34:8; Isaiah 62:12). The eyes of the Lord thy God; i.e. his special watchful

providence (cf. Psalms 33:18; Psalms 34:15; Ezekiel 4:5). It was a land on which

Jehovah's regard was continually fixed, over which he watched with unceasing

care, and which was sustained by his bounty; a land, therefore, wholly

dependent on him, and so a fitting place for a people also wholly dependent on

him, who owed to his grace all that they were and had.

13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am

giving you today—to love the Lord your God

and to serve him with all your heart and with all

your soul—

GILL, "And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day,.... In the name, and by the authority of the Lord, the only lawgiver:

to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul; see Deu_10:12. Jarchi interprets this of prayer; but it is not to be restrained to that only, but includes the whole service of God, in all the parts of it, performed from a principle of love to him, and in sincerity and truth.

HENRY 13-15, "III. Because God would certainly bless them with an abundance of all good things if they would love him and serve him (Deu_11:13-15): I will give you the rain of your land in due season, so that they should neither want it when the ground called for it nor have it in excess; but they should have the former rain, which fell at seed-time, and the latter rain, which fell before the harvest, Amo_4:7. This represented all the seasonable blessings which God would bestow upon them, especially spiritual comforts, which should come as the latter and former, rain,Hos_6:3. And the earth thus watered produced, 1. Fruits for the service of man, corn and wine, and oil, Psa_104:13-15. 2. Grass for the cattle, that they also might be serviceable to man, that he might eat of them and be full, Deu_11:15. Godliness hath here the promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil will.

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K&D 13-15, "Deu_11:13-15

If Israel would serve its God in love and faithfulness, He would give the land early and latter rain in its season, and therewith a plentiful supply of food for man and beast (see Lev_26:3 and Lev_26:5; and for the further expansion of this blessing, Deu_28:1-12).

COFFMAN, ""The former rain ... the latter rain ..." (Deuteronomy 11:14). The

former rains came from the middle of October to the end of December, and the

latter rains came in March and April."[11] The failure of either of these seasonal

rains was a very serious impediment to the production of crops. On the other

hand, God's generosity to Israel in the unusual fertility of the land of Canaan at

that time, along with its plentiful rainfall at appropriate times, might be a source

of temptation to Israel to believe that, "The fertility was due to Baal, the god of

the land (as in the customs and beliefs of the Canaanites)."[12] We like Moffatt's

rendition of this warning, "Beware of letting yourselves be fooled!"

(Deuteronomy 11:16).

These verses make agricultural blessings to be CONTINGENT absolutely upon

the blessing of Almighty God, and Scott, commenting on this said:

"After all, there is truth in the saying that sound morality and true religion are

good economics. `Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these

things shall be added unto you (Luke 12:31).' The position of Deuteronomy is

very similar. Reverence and love Jehovah for what He is; put His laws into daily

practice, and it shall be well with thee."[13]

ELLICOTT, "(13) It shall come to pass.—At this point begins the formal

sanction of this charge by a declaration of rewards and punishments. Such

sanctions are a characteristic feature of the Law. (Comp. Exodus 23:20—end, at

the close of the first code; Leviticus 26, and Deuteronomy 28; and, in the New

Testament, the well-known close of the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew 7,

and of the parallel sermon in St. Luke 6 )

To love the Lord your God.—“Not that thou shouldst say, ‘Behold, I am a

disciple in order that I may become rich: in order that I may be called great: in

order that I may receive reward; “but whatsoever ye do, do from love” (Rashi).

To serve him with all your heart.—The Jewish commentator says that this refers

to prayer, and compares Daniel (Deuteronomy 6:16): “Thy God whom thou

servest continually, He will deliver thee.” There was no religious service for

Israel in Babylon except prayer. The thought seems worth preserving, though

the words are obviously capable of a wider application.

PETT, "Their Blessing And Fruitfulness Will Depend On Whom They Serve

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(Deuteronomy 11:13-18 a).


a If you will listen diligently to my commandments which I command you

this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with

all your soul (Deuteronomy 11:13).

b I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the

latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil,

and I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full


b Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside,

and serve other gods, and worship them, and the anger of Yahweh be kindled

against you, and He shut up the heavens, so that there shall be no rain, and the

land shall not yield its fruit, and you perish quickly from off the good land which

Yahweh gives you (Deuteronomy 11:16-17).

a Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul

(Deuteronomy 11:18 a).

Note that in ‘a’ they are to listen carefully to Yahweh’s commandments and to

love and serve Him with all their heart and soul, and in the parallel they are to

lay up His words in their heart and soul. In ‘b’ if they do so they will receive

abundant rain from heaven and the earth will be fruitful, but in the parallel if

they seek to other gods the heavens will be closed and there will be no rain, and

their land will not be fruitful.


‘And it shall come about, that if you (ye) shall listen diligently to my

commandments which I command you (ye) this day, to love Yahweh your God,

and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the

rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you

(thou) may gather in your (thy) grain, and your new wine, and your oil. And I

will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you (thou) shall eat and be full.’

Note that the words now suddenly become a citation of Yahweh’s. Moses

continues the revelation as though it was spoken by Him. Here Yahweh Himself

is seen as speaking. The promises are personalised.

And what does the future hold when they have possessed the land? That if they

diligently obey God’s command which He is giving through Moses this day, the

command to love Him and serve Him with all their heart and soul, He will give

the rain for the land, as it is required, in its season, both the early, pre-ploughing

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and pre-sowing rain, coming in October or sometimes a little later, the

continuing rain showers necessary for the fruitfulness of the land, and the late

rain in around April which consisted of the final showers of the rainy season, all

of which watered the land and made it productive.

The result will be that they will be able to gather in their grain, and their new

wine, and their olive oil, and their fields will be full of grass for the cattle, and

they will themselves eat and be full.

For this stress on loving God we can compare Deuteronomy 6:5. So after the

repeat of the covenant word for word in Deuteronomy 5 this whole section from

chapters 6-11 is seen as beginning and ending with the same emphasis, the

requirement to love God totally, and the need to bind His words in their hearts

and minds and lives (see Deuteronomy 11:18-21 below and compare

Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

So the lesson is clear. To live in that land, which was God’s land, was to be

dependent on God, and the provision of all they needed would depend on His

supply. But they need not fear, for it was His land for which He cared. And if

they loved and feared Him, and lived rightly before Him, they could then be sure

of His full provision.

This idea of who provided the rain was all important. For Baal, a main god of

the Canaanites, whose worship was widespread in Canaan and even beyond, was

seen by the present inhabitants of Canaan as the means by which the rain was

provided in its season. According to them it was Baal, the god of storm and rain,

who had to be stirred into action by their religious rites, which included sexual

activities of a gross and immoral kind. Moses makes quite clear that this was not

so. Baal had nothing to do with it. There was in fact only One provider of rain

(as Elijah will reveal after him - 1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:41), and that was

Yahweh.

PULPIT, "Being thus wholly dependent on God, it behooved them to be careful

to attend to his commandments and to obey them, that so his blessing might be

continued to them and to the laud. If they would love and serve the Lord as they

were bound to do, he would give them the rain of their land, i.e. rain for their

land, such as it required (cf. "rain of thy seed," Psalms 30:2, Psalms 30:3), in the

proper season, the early and the latter rain, so that they should fully enjoy the

benefits of the land.

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14 then I will send rain on your land in its

season, both autumn and spring rains, so that

you may gather in your grain, new wine and

olive oil.

BARNES, "The first rain and the latter rain - The former is the proper term for the autumn rain, falling about the time of sowing, and which may be named “the former,” as occurring in the early part of the Hebrew civil year, namely, in October and November. The other word is applied to the spring rain, which falls in March and April, because it fits the earth for the ingathering of harvest. Between these two wet periods, and except them, there was little or no rain in Canaan.

CLARKE, "The rain - in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain - By the first or former rain we are to understand that which fell in Judea about November, when they sowed their seed, and this served to moisten and prepare the ground for the vegetation of the seed. The latter rain fell about April, when the corn was well grown up, and served to fill the ears, and render them plump and perfect. Rain rarely fell in Judea at any other seasons than these. If the former rain were withheld, or not sent in due season, there could be no vegetation: if the latter rain were withheld, or not sent in its due season, there could be no full corn in the ear, and consequently no harvest. Of what consequence then was it that they should have their rain in due season! God, by promising this provided they were obedient, and threatening to withhold it should they be disobedient, shows that it is not a general providence that directs these things, but that the very rain of heaven falls by particular direction, and the showers are often regulated by an especial providence.

GILL, "That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season,.... Such a quantity of it as the land required, a sufficiency of it to make it fruitful, and that in proper time:

the first rain and the latter rain; the former rain in Marchesvan, the latter rain in Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan; the first fell about our October, which was at or quickly after seedtime, to water the seed that it might take root, and grow and spring up; and the latter fell about March, a little before harvest, to ripen the corn, and swell and plump the ears of it, and make them yield more and better; See Gill on Joe_2:23,

that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil; which were the principal things the land afforded for the sustenance of men; bread corn, the stay and staff of human life, and which strengthens man's heart, and makes him fit for labour; wine, which is his drink, and makes the heart of man glad and cheerful; and oil, which in these countries was used instead of butter, and was fattening, and made the face to shine, Psa_104:15. The ingathering of these fruits were at different

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times; the barley harvest first, the wheat harvest next, and after that the vintage, and the gathering of the olives; and by means of rain in due season they were favoured with each of these.

JAMISON. "the first rain and the latter rain — The early rain commenced in autumn, that is, chiefly during the months of September and October, while the latter rain fell in the spring of the year, that is, during the months of March and April. It is true that occasional showers fell all the winter; but, at the autumnal and vernal seasons, they were more frequent, copious, and important; for the early rain was necessary, after a hot and protracted summer, to prepare the soil for receiving the seed; and the latter rain, which shortly preceded the harvest, was of the greatest use in invigorating the languishing powers of vegetation (Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23; Amo_4:7; Jam_5:7).

ELLICOTT, "(14) The first rain (after sowing), the latter rain (just before

harvest). In the ninth month and the first month respectively. (See Ezra 10:9;

Ezra 10:13, and Joel 2:23.)

That thou mayest gather in.—Literally, and thou shalt gather in. Rashi reminds

us that this may mean “thou, and not thine enemies.” “They that have gathered

it shall eat it” (Isaiah 62:8-9).

WHEDON, "14. The first rain and the latter rain — In “the present time rain in

an ordinarily good year falls first at the autumnal equinox. During November

frequent thunderstorms occur, and about Christmas the weather is generally

stormy. In January the heaviest rains fall, and in February sometimes none at

all; but the weather is never settled till after the vernal equinox and the early

April showers are past.” — Survey of Western Palestine, Special Papers, p. 196.

In the Mishnah we find, “From what time shall they begin the form of praise that

the Almighty power is manifested in giving rain? Rabbi Eliezer said from the

first day of the feast of tabernacles. Others place it a few days later. Until what

time shall rain be sought? Until the passover is finished. Comp. BARCLAY’S

Talmud, p. 158.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:14-15. I will give you — Moses here personates

God; or, rather, God speaks by him. The rain of your land — Which is proper to

your land, and not common to Egypt, where there is little rain. The first rain and

the latter rain — In Judea and the neighbouring countries there is seldom any

rain, save at two seasons, about the autumnal and vernal equinox, called the

former and latter rain. The first fell about the time of sowing their seed, and

served to prepare the ground, and make the grain take root in the earth; and the

other when the corn was well grown, toward earing-time, to make the ears full

and plump for harvest. I will send grass in thy fields — So godliness has here the

promise of the life which now is. But the favour of God puts gladness into the

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heart more than the increase of corn, wine, and oil.

PULPIT, "The first rain; the rain which falls from the middle of October to the

end of December, which prepares the soil for the seed, and keeps it moist after

the seed is sown. The latter rain; that which falls in March and April, about the

time when the grain is ripening for harvest; during the time of harvest no rain

falls in Palestine. But if they allowed themselves to be deceived and misled, so as

to apostatize from the Lord and serve other gods and worship them, the Divine

displeasure would be shown in the withholding from them of the blessing, so that

they should miserably perish.

15 I will provide grass in the fields for your

cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

GILL, "And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle,.... By giving plentiful showers of rain at proper times, to cause it to spring up and grow, that so there might be food for the cattle of every sort, greater or lesser; see Psa_104:13,

that thou mayest eat and be full; which refers to the preceding verse as well as to this; and the sense is, that the Israelites might eat of and enjoy the fruits of the earth to satiety; namely, their corn, wine, and oil; and that their cattle might have grass enough to supply them with.

JAMISON 15-17. "I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle — Undoubtedly the special blessing of the former and the latter rain [Deu_11:14] was one principal cause of the extraordinary fertility of Canaan in ancient times. That blessing was promised to the Israelites as a temporal reward for their fidelity to the national covenant [Deu_11:13]. It was threatened to be withdrawn on their disobedience or apostasy; and most signally is the execution of that threatening seen in the present sterility of Palestine. Mr. Lowthian, an English farmer, who was struck during his journey from Joppa to Jerusalem by not seeing a blade of grass, where even in the poorest localities of Britain some wild vegetation is found, directed his attention particularly to the subject, and pursued the inquiry during a month’s residence in Jerusalem, where he learned that a miserably small quantity of milk is daily sold to the inhabitants at a dear rate, and that chiefly asses’ milk. “Most clearly,” says he, “did I perceive that the barrenness of large portions of the country was owing to the cessation of the early and latter rain, and that the absence of grass and flowers made it no longer the land (Deu_11:9) flowing with milk and honey.”

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16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn

away and worship other gods and bow down to

them.

GILL, "Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived,.... By observing the influence of the heavens upon the fruitfulness of the earth, and so be drawn to the worship of the host of them, the sun, moon, and stars; or by the examples of nations round about them; and by the plausible arguments they may make use of, taken from the traditions of ancestors, from antiquity, and the consent of nations, and the great numbers of worshippers, and the like:

and ye turn aside; from the true God, and the worship of him; or from the law, as Jarchi, which directs to the worship of one God, and forbids idolatry, or the worshipping of images:

and serve other gods, and worship them; other gods than the one only living and true God; gods that made not the heavens and the earth, and which cannot give rain, nor any blessing and mercy of life, nor help and deliver their worshippers when in distress.

HENRY 16-17, "IV. Because their revolt from God to idols. would certainly be their ruin: Take heed that your hearts be not deceived, Deu_11:16, Deu_11:17. All that forsake God to set their affection upon, or pay their devotion to, any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived to their own destruction; and this will aggravate it that it was purely for want of taking heed. A little care would have prevented their being imposed upon by the great deceiver. To awaken them to take heed, Moses here tells them plainly that if they should turn aside to other gods, 1. They would provoke the wrath of God against them; and who knows the power of that anger? 2. Good things would be turned away from them; the heaven would withhold its rain, and then of course the earth would not yield its fruit. 3. Evil things would come upon them; they would perish quickly form off this good land. And the better the land was the more grievous it would be to perish from it. The goodness of the land would not be their security, when the badness of the inhabitants had made them ripe for ruin.

K&D 16-25, "Deu_11:16-25

But if, on the other hand, their heart was foolish to turn away from the Lord and serve other gods, the wrath of the Lord would burn against them, and God would shut up the heaven, that no rain should fall and the earth should yield no produce, and they would speedily perish (cf. Lev_26:19-20, and Deu_28:23-24). Let them

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therefore impress the words now set before them very deeply upon themselves and their children (Deu_11:18-21, in which there is in part a verbal repetition of Deu_6:6-9). The words, “as the days of the heaven above the earth,” i.e., as long as the heaven continues above the earth, - in other words, to all eternity (cf. Psa_89:30; Job. Deu_14:12), - belong to the main sentence, “that your days may be multiplied,” etc. (Deu_11:21). “The promise to give the land to Israel for ever was not made unconditionally; an unconditional promise is precluded by the words, 'that your days may be multiplied'” (Schultz). (For further remarks, see at Deu_30:3-5.) For (Deu_11:22-25) if they adhered faithfully to the Lord, He would drive out before them all the nations that dwelt in the land, and would give them the land upon which they trod in all its length and breadth, and so fill the Canaanites with fear and terror before them, that no one should be able to stand against them. (On Deu_11:23, cf. Deu_7:1-2; Deu_9:1, and Deu_1:28.) The words, “every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours,” are defined more precisely, and restricted to the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan by the boundaries which follow: “from the desert (of Arabia on the south), and Lebanon (on the north), and from the river Euphrates (on the east) to the hinder sea” (the Mediterranean on the west; see Num_34:6). The Euphrates is given as the eastern boundary, as in Deu_1:7, according to the promise in Gen_15:18. (On Deu_11:25, cf. Deu_7:24; Deu_2:25, and Exo_23:27.)

CALVIN, "16Take heed to yourselves. By often inculcating the same thing, viz.,

that they should diligently take heed, he indirectly arraigns man’s proneness to

superstition; and this too is again expressed in the words, “that your heart be not

deceived;” for by them he signifies, that unless they take diligent heed to

themselves, nothing will be more easy than for them to fall into the snares of

Satan. Wherefore the impudence of the Papists is the less excusable, who

intoxicate their own and others’ minds with security, when God constantly

exhorts them to solicitude. Let us learn, then, that since many impostures and

deceits besiege us on every side, we shall in the vanity of our nature be liable

immediately to fall into them, unless we carefully guard ourselves. By the

expression “turn aside,” he implies what has been before said, that whosoever

declines to corrupted worship, impiously falls away from the true God.

Unbelievers but little think so, for with them it is a light transgression to exceed

in this respect; and they would wilfully blind the eyes of God with their

inventions (commentis), nay, there is nothing too silly for them to desire to be

approved of, and sanctioned by God. But if it be objected that obedience is better

than sacrifice, they shield themselves under the cover of their good intention, as

if God were not at liberty to repudiate what they foolishly obtrude upon Him. At

any rate, they so pertinaciously indulge themselves in their inconsiderate zeal,

that they will hardly acknowledge the slightest fault in it. But, on the other side,

God declares that all are apostates who do not confine themselves to the

simplicity of the Law. A threat is again added, that God will avenge the violation

of His worship, and will curse their land, until He shall destroy them by dearth

and famine; and, finally, He pronounces that they shall perish off that land

which God had promised them to the end that He might be there purely

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worshipped.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:16-17. That your heart be not deceived — By the

specious pretence of idolaters, persuading you that they enjoy fruitful seasons,

and other temporal blessings, as a reward for their worship. And he shut up the

heaven — Withhold rain from you, which will be a sore judgment, quickly

bringing a famine, whereby you will be wasted and consumed. Here, and

elsewhere, heaven is compared to a great store-house, wherein God lays up his

treasures of dew and rain, (Job 38:22,) the doors whereof God is said to open

when he gives rain, and to shut when he withholds it.


‘Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you (ye) turn aside,

and serve other gods, and worship them, and the anger of Yahweh be kindled

against you, and he shut up the heavens, so that there shall be no rain, and the

land shall not yield its fruit, and you (ye) perish quickly from off the good land

which Yahweh gives you.’

Thus when they entered the land they must not allow themselves to be deceived.

Let them not turn aside to worshipping and serving the gods of the land,

thinking that such gods could help them. For if they did God’s anger would be

‘set alight’ against them, and He would shut up the heavens so that there was no

rain, and so that the land would not yield its fruit. And they would soon perish

from the land which He had given them. Trusting Canaan’s rain gods might

seem attractive for a while, but they could be sure that it would end disastrously.

So the stress here is on the fact that their continual presence in the land, and

their continual provision, will be dependent on true obedience to the covenant.

This is all part of His covenant. For the land was for the righteous, with full

provision made, as long as they served Him faithfully, and repented when they

slipped up.

PULPIT, "That your heart be not deceived; literally, lest your heart be enticed

or seduced ( ִיְפָתה ). The verb means primarily to be open, and as a mind open to

impressions from without is easily persuaded, moved either to good or evil, the

word came to signify to induce in a good sense, or to seduce in a bad sense. Here

the people are cautioned against allowing themselves to be enticed so as to be led

astray by seductive representations (cf. Job 31:27; Proverbs 20:19 ["flattereth"];

Job 5:2 ["silly one"]; Hosea 7:11)/

BI 16-17, "Take heed . . . that your heart be not deceived.

Religion no humbug

I. Let us not be deceived in our ideas about God.

1. Let us not be deceived in thinking that our heavenly Father is partly good and

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partly bad.

2. Let not your heart be deceived in thinking that God cannot pardon the one who supposes himself or herself to be the worst. We all do wrong, in some sense or another; and when the thought of our sin weighs down our hearts, let us feel persuaded that God can forgive us. But do not mistake His pardon by thinking that when He forgives us, there is an end of it. Here is a careless weaver at work, throwing the shuttle containing the weft. When she has got half through the warp, she finds she has made an error in the pattern, and when the overlooker unwinds the piece he discovers the flaw running through the whole. Well, what is to be done? She says, “O, do forgive me!” He replies, “Certainly I will; but you know it must be undone.” It is weary work undoing a web of long threads; but nobody would buy that piece as it is. So the weaver begins with the last thread and pulls it out from side to side and begins again. Likewise, though the Lord forgives us, we must undo the bad life. As the kindly overlooker stands beside the weaver, saying, Let me help you, so the Lord stands by us to help us to amend the tangled web of our life. While God forgives us and inspires our heart, the rectification of what is wrong must, however, be our own act. We must undo our bad life by beginning afresh.

II. Do not be deceived in your views concerning religion. Religion is not a theory; it is the living spirit of usefulness. Religion that does not inspire us to be pure ourselves and useful to others is not the true Christian religion; it is a humbug. Religion will comfort your own heart and make you a blessing wherever you go. While it teaches you to fight against your evil propensities, it trains you to be kind-hearted at home and peaceable-minded abroad. In leading you down the steps of true humility, it exalts you to the noblest manhood; and while constraining you to surrender your will to the Christ-spirit, it gives you the glorious power of God-likeness. A minister was on one occasion preaching on peaceableness, having special reference to Messrs. Pincher and Stiggins, two of his deacons who had long been at daggers’ point. Such was his faithful earnestness that the whole congregation was moved, and when the benediction was pronounced, Mr. Pincher went across the chapel to the other, and with tears in his eyes, remarked, “Brother Stiggins, after such a sermon there must be peace between us. Now, I can’t give in, so you must!” The other replied, “Well, Brother Pincher, if you won’t give in, I’m blessed if I will!” You see, they were religious in theory but not in practical life.

III. We should not be deceived in our thoughts about the invisible world called heaven and hell. If you have good things in this world, and do not care for the destitute, you cannot have good things in the other world. (W. Birch.)

A caution against deception

I. An evil anticipated. That of having the heart deceived.

1. The scantiness and imperfection of human knowledge.

2. The deceitfulness of the heart.

3. The deceitfulness of sin.

4. The deceitfulness of the world.

5. The deceitfulness of the devil.

Such are the reasons we have for believing that our hearts may be deceived. But the text assumes that this deception is an evil pregnant with very pernicious

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consequences. And this appears from the consideration, that those whose hearts are deceived are involved in a state of the most palpable error. What tradesman would wish to make errors in his accounts? What scholar would not guard against error in his sums? But these errors are trivial, when compared to the grievous error in which those are involved whose hearts are deceived concerning their salvation and their God. Nor is this all; those whose hearts are deceived, are exposed to extreme danger.

II. The caution urged against this deception. “Take heed to yourselves,” etc.

1. Be alive to a sense of your extreme danger. Let us consider what we are—how deeply fallen! Let us weigh well our circumstances, dangers, and enemies; this will lay the foundation for caution and circumspection.

2. Seek for the illuminating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit; O, seek His influence by fervent, importunate prayer. “Take heed to yourselves.”

3. By the constant practice of self-examination.

4. By watching over yourselves. “Watch and pray.” “Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” “Watch thou in all things.” Watchfulness will lead you to keep a strict guard over your thoughts, words, actions. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you,

and he will shut up the heavens so that it will

not rain and the ground will yield no produce,

and you will soon perish from the good land the

Lord is giving you.

GILL, "And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you,.... For their idolatry, nothing being more provoking to him than that, it being contrary to his nature and being, as well as to his will, and to his honour and glory:

and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain; the treasures and storehouses of it there, or the windows of it, the clouds, which when opened let it down, but when shut withhold it; the key of rain is one of the keys which the Jews say (k) the Lord keeps in his own hand, and with it he opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens; see Deu_28:12.

and that the land yield not her fruit; which is unavoidably the case when rain is withheld:

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and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you; for if the land does not yield its fruits sufficient to support the inhabitants of it, they must in course perish.

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and

minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and

bind them on your foreheads.

GILL 18-20, "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul,.... Treasure up the laws of God delivered to them in their minds, retain them in their memories, and cherish a cordial affection for them; which would be an antidote against apostasy, idolatry, and other sins, Psa_119:11.

and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes; of this and the two following verses; see Gill on Deu_6:7; see Gill on Deu_6:8; see Gill on Deu_6:9.

HENRY 18-20, "Here, I. Moses repeats the directions he had given for the guidance and assistance of the people in their obedience, and for the keeping up of religion among them (Deu_11:18-20), which is much to the same purport with what we had before, Deu_6:6, etc. Let us all be directed by the three rules here given: - 1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God: Lay up these words in your heart and in your soul. The heart must be the treasury or store-house in which the word of God must be laid up, to be used upon all occasions. We cannot expect good practices in the conversation, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles, in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God. “Bind these words for a sign upon your hand, which is always in view (Isa_49:16), and as frontlets between your eyes, which you cannot avoid the sight of; let them be as ready and familiar to you, and have your eye as constantly upon them, as if they were written upon your door-posts, and could not be overlooked either when you go out or when you come in.” Thus we must lay God's judgments before us, having a constant regard to them, as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work, Psa_119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Let it be the subject of our familiar discourse, wherever we are; especially with our children, who must be taught the service of God, as the one thing needful, much more needful than either the rules of decency or the calling they must live by in this world. Great care and pains must be taken to acquaint children betimes, and to affect them, with the word of God and the wondrous things of his law. Nor will any thing contribute more to the prosperity and perpetuity of religion in a nation than the good education of children: if the seed be holy, it is the substance of a land.

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CALVIN, "18.Therefore shall ye lay up these my words. He again demands their

serious attention, lest if the doctrine he propounds should be only lightly and

carelessly received, it should speedily be let slip; for to lay up in, or on, the heart,

is the same as to hide deeply in it; although, where the word “soul” is added, the

“heart” refers to the mind, or the intellectual faculties. In fine, he commands

them to have the Law not only impressed on the mind, but embraced with

sincere affection. In the next place, he commands that aid to the memory which

we have just considered, viz., that they should wear the precepts on the arms and

foreheads; as if God should constantly meet them, to arouse their senses. For (as

has been said) God had no regard to the bands themselves, but would have them

seen on their arms and foreheads for another object, viz., (236) to suggest and

renew their care for religion. Again, He appointed them to occupy the place of

ornaments, in order to accustom the people to take their chief delight in

meditating on the Law. Thus that foolish ambition is sufficiently refuted, when

hypocrites sought after a reputation for holiness by their fringes and other

fopperies, as well as that gross error of the whole people, in thinking that they

discharged their duty to God by their outward dress. What follows afterwards,

that the precepts should be written on the gates of their cities, and on their

private houses, tends to the same thing; for we have said, that since men’s minds

are prone to vanity, and are easily distracted by innumerable allurements, they

have need of such stays to hold them back. And this object is plainly expressed,

when He commands them severally to speak of the precepts of the Law, whether

they are sitting at home, or going abroad, or lying down, or rising up; because

without diligent exercise, it usually happens that whatever men have once learnt

is soon lost. He adds, also, another effect of this diligence, viz., that not only

should each of them consult their own individual advantage, but also teach their

children, whereby God’s Law would ever be maintained in rigor by perpetual

succession.

COFFMAN, "(For a more detailed discussion of the [~tsitsith], the [~tephillin],

and the [~mezuzah], see under Deuteronomy 6:7,8, above.) The attachment

which the Jews have ever had for these items is attested by the fact that, "Even

today, one may see on the houses of orthodox Jews a [~mezuzah] on the outside

door-post."[14]

"As the days of the heavens above the earth ..."; Deuteronomy 11:21. This

means. "As long as the heavens remain stretched over the earth, to the end of

time, forever,"[15] or, "As long as the cosmos endures."[16]

The use of such a metaphor is enough to convince some people that, no matter

what Israel does, Palestine belongs to Israel as long as the world stands, but that

is a gross error. In this very verse, "These words, `that your days may be

multiplied' preclude any thought that the land promise to Israel was made

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unconditionally."[17] Not only that, take a look at the colossal word that begins

the very next verse and which contains a statement which is a vital part of this

promise, "For IF ye shall diligently keep all this commandment ... etc."

Deuteronomy 11:24 gives the boundaries of the land promise. "The near Eastern

peoples oriented themselves by facing east. Thus, the south was on their right,

and the hinder sea was the Western Sea, the Mediterranean." In this fact may

also lie the reason for the blessings (Deuteronomy 11:26ff) being placed on

Mount Gerizim (south of Mount Ebal). That would have been on the right hand

of a person facing eastward! Traditionally, the RIGHT hand was always the

place of blessing. Jesus spoke of the "sheep on the right hand, and the goats on

the LEFT."

"Christians, why can't we learn this lesson that Israel so stubbornly refused to

learn, that faithful service of God will enable us to do things that appear totally

impossible, accomplish things that try even the imagination, conquer the

unconquerable, and to overcome difficulties that seem to be insurmountable? ...

Who can stand up against him who is aligned with and in fellowship with

Almighty God?"[18]

ELLICOTT, "(18) Therefore shall ye lay up these my words.—The same

injunctions are found above (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). The Jewish commentator

remarks, somewhat sadly, here, that they would remember them in their

captivity, if not before. The “therefore” at the commencement of the verse is a

simple “and,” so that the passage can be read in connection with what precedes:

“Ye will perish quickly from off the good land, and ye will lay these my words to

your hearts.” But the words of Deuteronomy 11:21 seem to show that this is not

the primary meaning—only an application suggested, like many other

applications of Scripture, by the actual event.


I have often admired the LORD'S affectionate regard to the happiness of Israel,

as set forth in these precepts, and have figured to myself the Jewish family

following up the command of the LORD, in forming around them their little

circle, to speak to their children and little ones of the LORD'S gracious dealings.

And what can afford a sight more lovely or more engaging, than to behold the

father of a family recounting to his children and household around him, what the

LORD hath done for his soul. That is a sweet comment of David upon this

scripture: Psalms 34:11.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:18. Lay up these my words — Let us all observe

these three rules: 1st, Let our hearts be filled with the word of God; let it dwell in

us richly, in all wisdom, (Colossians 3:16,) and be laid up within us as in a store-

house, to be used upon all occasions. 2d, Let our eyes be fixed upon it: Bind these

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words for a sign upon your hand — Which is always in view; and as frontlets

between your eyes — Which you cannot avoid the sight of. 3d, Let our tongues

be employed about the word of God, especially with our children, who must be

taught this, as far more needful than the rules of decency, any branch of human

learning, or the calling they are to live by.

PETT, "Deuteronomy 11:18 a

‘Therefore shall you (ye) lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul.’

So with these promises and warnings in mind they must lay His words up in

their hearts. Thus will they take heed to them and respond to them, being

faithful to the covenant with Yahweh.

They Must Therefore Keep The Covenant Requirement Before Their Thoughts

Always (deu Deuteronomy 11:18-21).

What follows brings out the care that they must take to constantly remind

themselves of these facts. It is almost a repeat of Deuteronomy 6:6-9, with the

ideas in a slightly different order, giving a different emphasis, and stressing the

importance of keeping His words ever in their thoughts. For if they were to

prosper in the land they and their children must be fully aware of His

commandments. So this section of the covenant opens and closes with similar

thoughts.


· ‘And you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for

frontlets between your eyes’ (Deuteronomy 11:18 b).

· ‘And you shall teach them to all your children, talking of them, when each

of you sits in your house, and when each of you walks by the way, and when each

of you lies down, and when each of you rises up’ (Deuteronomy 11:19).

· ‘And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your

gates’ (Deuteronomy 11:20).

· ‘That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the

land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the

heavens above the earth’ (Deuteronomy 11:21).

Note that in ‘a’ they are to apply His word to hand and eye, and the result in the

parallel is that their days will be long in the land which Yahweh gives them (they

will not be thrown out) and their days will be as the days of the heavens above

the earth. This suggests that heavenly days are seen as longer than earthly days.

It may be that hand and eye relates to earth and heaven, for with the hands man

toils (Genesis 5:29), and with his eyes uplifted he beholds the heavens (Psalms

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8:3) he beholds the glory and righteousness of God (Psalms 19:1; Psalms 97:6).

In ‘b’ they are to teach their children constantly and in the parallel they are to

proclaim the truth to teach outsiders.

Deuteronomy 11:18 b

‘And you (ye) shall bind them for a sign on your (of ye) hand, and they shall be

for frontlets between your eyes.’

Compare and contrast Deuteronomy 6:8 where ‘thou’ is used. Each is to do it,

every person is to do it, the whole nation must do it. The thought is symbolic and

spiritual rather than literal. The word of God is to affect what they do with their

hands and what they look at with their eyes.

Here a new phrase comes first in order to emphasise the spiritual nature of the

requirement. They must lay up His words deep within them, in their hearts and

souls. They must bind them on their hands and between their eyes. That is, they

must ensure that His word sinks into their hearts and allow His word to

determine what they do and what they look at. They were to be a people active in

knowing and understanding and responding to God’s word.

It is questionable whether the last part was intended to be taken literally,

although it was later so taken by the Pharisees and many others. They would

wear small pouches containing Scripture on their persons during the time of

morning prayer, on their foreheads and arms, and fasten them to their doors.

Such pouches containing small scrolls have been discovered in the Dead Sea

area. That was fine when it meant something genuine, but the danger came when

it became a formality producing self-righteousness and vanity/

BI, "Lay up these my words.

The four places in which a good male keeps God’s truth

The four places are here: heart, soul, hand, head; or put it another way: there are two departments of the religious life—first, the truth of God, the reality of religion revealed in us, that is in the heart and soul; and second, the truth of God revealed by us, that is, by the hand and by the head. Even as it is said there were four rivers flowing from paradise, so also there are four rivers which flow through the paradise of a good man’s life. They, are love, truth, use, beauty.

I. The first place is the heart.

1. Lay up God’s words like treasure in a chest; they are the family plate of believers, the heirlooms of the household of faith.

2. Like books in a library, ready for reference. We cannot read all books at once; we cannot read the whole Bible at one time, it is neither necessary nor desirable. In a very large library well selected, it may be thought there are no books useless, every book has its place and worth, and may be referred to again and again; but it is laid up on the shelf against the time.

3. Like clothes in a wardrobe, ready for all weathers: for summer’s sunshine, and

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for winter’s storms. The truth of God should be the garment of the soul.

4. Like conserves of precious fruit, gathered in the time of plenty to be eaten in the snow time of winter scarcity; as of Mary, the mother of our Lord, we read, “She kept all these sayings and pondered them,” she laid them up for love to brood over.

5. Like knowledge hidden but not lost. It does not follow always that what does not appear does not exist. A capable captain on shore is not always telling you how he would manage a ship in difficulties; an accomplished musician may be sitting quite still, and saying nothing of the art he loves and of which he knows so much; but in both of these, and many such men, the knowledge only needs the occasion; it is there.

6. Lay them up in the heart as guides. We are not always studying the map, but if we desire to know a country, it is useful to have it; and these words are for use, meditation, and memory.

7. In the heart: not like misers’ hoards, but like bankers’ gold, which turns into capital, and is not only wealth itself, but a means of creating more.

II. The second place is the soul.

1. The soul is the seat of thought or understanding.

2. The soul is the seat and place of mind-life.

3. The soul is the scat of conviction, and conviction is mental activity and independence.

III. And now the relations of the text change; and this third head brings us to the second department. I said at the first, those two places to which I have referred speak of the truth of God revealed in your heart and soul—refer to the moral and mental power of man. Now in this third particular religion is brought into notice; it is the truth of God revealed by us, “therefore shall ye bind these words for a sign upon your hand.” I suppose, that is as much as to say, realise them in your life. Religion is for use, fuel is for fire, wood cut down is to be used, bricks are to build, cloth is for clothes, religion is for life. If you have any religion, use it. Some years ago there was a sect of people called the Rosicrucians; they were a very remarkable people. It was said of them that they had discovered the principle of an ever-burning flame; but then nobody was able to see it; the singularity of the lamp was, that it only shed its lustre in vaults, in closely sealed and concealed tombs. I do not so much doubt the discovery, as I deny the use of such a flame; open the door, it was said, and instantly the light was extinguished. Why, whatever is the use of such a light as that—a light that nobody ever sees? And so it is with the religion of some people; if they have got any, they keep it all to themselves as in a vault or a tomb. “Therefore bind these words as a sign upon the hand.”

1. Like a glove, on the hand for defence. The hedger and ditcher tears up many a weed, and encounters fearlessly many a prickly thorn with his rough glove, which he would be fearful to grapple with his ungloved hand.

2. Like a gauntlet, as a sign of challenge.

3. Like a tool, an implement of labour, something to work with, to build with.

4. Like a sword.

IV. The head. “Lay up these words in the heart, that they may be a frontlet to the eye,” that is, before you; what you possess you will profess; in a word, avow the Word; do not be ashamed of it. On the other hand, do not make profession of it

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before you possess it. Thus—

1. These words are to be a source of pride; for what is worn on the head, or between the eyes, is usually a source of pride, or a manifestation of it. Be proud then, not of yourself, of your attainments, but of that which has been conferred upon you in the possession of these words.

2. As frontlets between the eyes, for this implies dignity, giving ornament, rank, elevation; so it ought to be if these words are laid up in heart and soul and are manifested in the life; they will be like an ornament of grace to the head, and chains about the neck; they will be wreathed into a coronet, diadem, a tiara, a crown—all these are worn on the head; and I cannot imagine religion really possessed without its giving beauty, some royalty and elevation to character, something that alike dignifies person and speech.

3. That they may be as frontiers between your eyes, that they may be a source of protection. Wear them as helmets are worn, like that of which we read, “for a helmet the hope of salvation.” And is not this also in the words of God? for they constitute not only the ornament or character, but its defence too, as it is written, “Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.” These are the principles of a religious, life—these, are the principles which the great Hebrew lawgiver beheld as lying at the foundation of all prosperous states, and all truly noble personal character. (The Preacher’s Lantern.)

Intellectual religion

You cannot read this Book without perceiving that Moses delivers himself with the energy and affection of one who knew that though his strength was unabated and his eye not dimmed, he had but few days to remain upon earth, and who therefore desired to gather into a parting address whatever was most calculated to arrest the attention and confirm Israel in loyalty to Jehovah. And if we attach a more than ordinary interest to the last words of distinguished individuals, ought we not to listen with a reverent attention to the lawgiver with whom God had spoken face to face, whilst in the thought of a speedy dissolution he pours forth lessons, warns, and exhorts? Now, we believe that in our own day, perhaps more than in any other, there is a risk of men being satisfied with a merely intellectual religion. Undoubtedly the character of the age will tell upon the character of the religion of the age, and a mere head knowledge of Christianity will satisfy many of the admirers and cultivators of intellect. And besides this possible case of surrendering to religion an intellectual homage, in which, from the beginning to the end, the heart has no share, we believe that with those who are really converted the head very often outruns the heart, and that many truths are acknowledged which are not at all felt.

I. Now, let it be distinctly observed, that there is a great province for the understanding as well as for the affections in the matter of true religion. It is the business of reason to scrutinise the claims of the Bible to the being received as inspired; and there can be no proper place for the exercise of faith until there be in some shape this exercise of reason. I can never ask a man to believe that the Bible is God’s Word, except as the result of a painstaking inquiry; but when once this inquiry has been made, when once the conclusion has been arrived at, that the Bible is inspired, then, indeed, we expect of a man that he prostrate his reason before the disclosures of the Book, and that, whenever these disclosures surpass his comprehension, he give them that unhesitating admission which is due to the confessed fact that they are communications from God. And over and above this

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employment of the understanding in determining the evidence of the Volume, and therefore the veracity of the doctrines, a man is to read Scripture with just the same endeavour to gain a clear and intelligent acquaintance with its statements which he would make in perusing an ordinary book. There is no fault in the effort to comprehend whatever comes within the range of a finite comprehension; the only fault is in the refusing, when a point is reached by which the understanding is baffled, to receive on God’s Word what we cannot clear up by human reason. And thus the intellect is to be no idle agent in religion, for a man must know what he is to believe before he can believe it. We contend that faith cannot be in advance of the understanding; but we are equally clear that the understanding may often be in advance of faith. We are not speaking of mere historical faith, but of that powerful principle which the Scriptures alone recognise as faith; and we say that faith cannot be in advance of the understanding, for according to the foregoing statements, a man must know the object of faith before he can believe: he must know that there are Three Persons and but One God, ere he can believe a Trinity in Unity. But then, on the other hand, the understanding may be very far in advance of the faith, for a man may have knowledge of a vast variety of truths, on not one of which is there any influential fastening of his belief. So that whilst there is a kind of necessity that the intellect possesses itself of doctrines before they can become objects of faith, it by no means follows that the intellect will send them on to the heart; on the contrary, it is a thing of most common occurrence, that the intellect will retain them as merely speculative truths, and that the historical uninfluential assent is the highest homage which they shall ever obtain. And our business is to endeavour to show you the danger of this laying up of religious truth within the confines of the intellect, and the consequent importance of attempting all obedience to the precept of our text. There is a danger to those who are unconverted; there is a danger also to those who are converted. We begin with the former, and we declare that the parties on whom it seems hardest to make a moral impression are those who are thoroughly well acquainted with the letter of the Gospel. If there be one of you who knows thoroughly well the whole plan of salvation, but who has nothing more than an intellectual religion, we should like to look over what may be called the elements of his knowledge, and see whether he can stand acquitted of the charge of hindering his own conversion. It is a part of your knowledge that it is your duty, to detach yourselves from those habits and associations which are opposed to God’s Word. Do you labour to effect this detachment? You have the intellectual persuasion that you must be lost, unless Christ heal your moral disease. Do you act as you would do, if you had the intellectual persuasion that you must speedily die unless you betake yourself to this or that physician? We are sure that if there were anything of candour in your replies, they would furnish an ample demonstration that man is himself chargeable with detaining truth in the intellect, when it ought to go forward to the heart, and that it is simply through his not making that use of religious knowledge which he would and does make use of any other sort of knowledge, that he fails to become spiritually as well as intellectually a Christian. Now, up to this point we have confined our remarks to the case of unconverted men; and it may be thought at first sight that intellectual religion can never be attributed to the converted; yet, if you examine with a little attention you will perceive, that in respect of every man there is a likelihood of the understanding outstripping the affections, so that many truths may be held by the intellect which are not known in the experience. Now, look, for example, at the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not possible that a renewed man should fail to give his unqualified assent to the truth that the death of Christ was an expiation for sin, so that he will unreservedly hold the doctrine of the atonement. But all this, you observe, is purely intellectual. The truth may be thus held, but yet held only in the understanding; and the question is, whether the believer lives in the

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daily experience of this truth—whether as fast as sin is committed it is carried to the blood of the atonement, and whether, therefore, the opening of a fountain for human defilement is a fact which has only gained the assent of the intellect, or one in which the heart feels a deep and abiding concern. And thus, again, there must be with every real Christian an intellectual holding of the truth, that we are to live each moment in a realised dependence upon God; that we are to cast our burdens upon the Lord, that we are to refer to Him our every care, our every want, our every anxiety. But we want to know whether, in respect of the providence of God, as well as of the priesthood of Christ, the intellect is not often in advance of the experience. There may be an unqualified admission by the understanding of the noble truth, that not a sparrow falls without our Heavenly Father. But unless a man continually act on the admission—unless, indeed, he carry his every concern to the Almighty, so as to ask His counsel in each difficulty, His support in each trial, His guardianship in each danger, why, we contend that the understanding has outstripped the heart—in other words, that the intellect is in advance of the experience. And there are, we suppose, but few Christians who will deny that they are chargeable with this inequality of pace in the understanding and the heart.

II. We will just show you what we think the consequences of the intellect being in advance of the experience. If you know a doctrine whose power and preciousness you do not feel—and this is, in other words, the outstripping of the heart by the understanding—then you receive that doctrine only as an unconverted man receives it, and you must be chargeable even in a greater degree with its detention in the intellect, when it ought to be sent on to the affections; and there must be produced something of the like effect in two cases. You strip the doctrine of energy by allowing it to remain inert in the understanding; you reduce it into a dead letter, and thus you grieve the Holy Spirit, who intended it as an engine by which you might carry on the conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil; and we need not tell you that what grieves the Spirit must sensibly affect your well-being as Christians. Besides, in all your religious intercourse with others, the probability is that your conversation will take its measure from your knowledge and not from your experience. Take the case of a preacher. The preacher, and we suppose it to be his duty, will press upon his congregation the amount of truth which is known to himself, whether or not it be felt by himself. When I speak up to the extent of my knowledge, if that knowledge outruns my experience, I represent myself as attaching value to certain truths of which, after all, I have not tasted the preciousness. And what is this but representing myself as a more thorough believer than I am? And what again is this but the playing the hypocrite, though I may have no distinct purpose of palming a false estimate upon others? And if the excess of knowledge over experience thus makes it almost certain that in attempting to instruct others we shall virtually be hypocrites, you have only to remember how hateful is hypocrisy in every degree, and under every disguise, to the Almighty, and you will have no difficulty in discerning the signal danger of allowing the intellect to outstrip the heart. It is true, you may say, we will avoid the danger by abstaining from all endeavour to instruct, but you will thus again be neglecting a positive duty—and is not this perilous? You may say, “We will never, speak beyond our experience,” and this will secure us against the alleged risk; but since your experience comes not up to your knowledge, you would thus be guilty of keeping back truths which God has given to be advanced, and you would hardly then think that the danger which you incur would be less than the danger you avoid. If, therefore, any one of you as a true Christian values peace, then his constant aim will be, that whatever of religious truth finds its way into the understanding may be sent onward at once to the affections, and that thus the precept of Moses may be sedulously obeyed—“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul.” (H. Melvill, B. D.)

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Attention to the Scriptures

Attention to the Word of God is strongly urged upon the Israelites in my text. At that time, however, only a small part of that Word—the five books of Moses—had been given by God to marl. How much more strongly, then, is our attention called to the Holy Scriptures, now that every part of the Bible, containing the will of God, is made known to us!

I. We have the reason given why we are to attend to the words of the Bible, namely, because they are the words of God; therefore shall ye lay up these My words. If an earthly king were to write a book for his subjects, how eagerly would it be read! In proportion to his authority would be the attention paid to what he wrote, especially if he were a king from whom his subjects had received great blessings, and who had no other object in view than their real good. What attention, then, ought to be paid to the Bible! It is the word of the King of kings. It also contains treasures worth more than thousands of worlds, even the Gospel of salvation to perishing sinners. Yet, alas! nothing, in general, is more neglected than the Bible. Or, if it is read, it is only in a formal manner, as a matter of duty, undertaken in order to work out a supposed righteousness. The Bible must be searched into as for hidden treasures, by all that are really anxious for the salvation of their souls; and the glorious truths it contains must be laid up in the storehouse of the heart.

II. We are commanded not only to lay up the Word of God in our own hearts, but also to teach it to the rising generation. “And ye shall teach them your children.” We have here another melancholy proof of the blindness of the natural man. We see children taught, indeed, but not taught the Word of God. We see boys taught to seek after the good things of this life. We see girls taught to adorn their perishing bodies. But we look around, almost in vain, for those who teach their children the words of the Lord. All, however, to whom the Word of God is precious, should teach it to the rising generation.

III. The next command given is to speak of the words of God, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Alas! there is, in general, no subject so completely banished from conversation as religion. To hear men in their common discourse, we might suppose that God had commanded His creatures never to talk of His words. And, surely, if the command were given to the Israelites, it is urged with far greater force upon us, in proportion as the reason is stronger. The Israelites could only talk of the wonders of creation, of the history of their forefathers, and of the law of Moses—that law which, from its very holiness, is a law of sin and death to fallen man. But, beside all this, we can talk of the wonders of redemption, and of the gracious dealings of the Lord with His people in all ages.

IV. But still further, the words of God should always be had in remembrance. The text commands the Israelites to write His words upon the doorposts of their houses. There might be some reason for this, when printing was unknown, and therefore copies of the whole Word of God scarce—but that reason exists not now. Through the mercy of God the whole of His Word may now be in the hands of everyone who wishes it. We therefore must enter into the spirit of the text. We should have the precepts and promises of the Bible fastened to the gates of our hearts, to direct our actions, words, and thoughts.

V. In the close of our text we are reminded of the encouragement given to obey the command—that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the

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land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon earth. Those who govern their lives by the Word of God are the only really happy people in this world. Faith in Christ delivers believers from the hard service and bondage of this world, and leads them into the glorious liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (H. Gipps, LL. B.)

MEYER, " THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE

Deu_11:18-32

Never in this world do we reach a position from which it is impossible to fall away. The dew and the rain of God’s blessing are contingent on obedience; and one of the strongest incentives to obedience is devout meditation on the Word of God. It is through the letter that we arrive at the spirit; and through the written words at the Eternal Word. We must store up the sacred words of God as a farmer stores up his grain, keeping them before us, making them the familiar topics of home-talk, and exercising ourselves in them. Let us specially ponder Deu_11:22-25, appropriating them in a spiritual sense, and claiming their equivalents in the inner life.

All along our lives are Ebals and Gerizims, with their “Come, ye blessed” and “Depart, ye cursed.” Always we are arriving at the crossways, on the one of which lies the smile, and on the other the frown, of God. Let us be attracted by the one and dissuaded from the other, till we climb the spiral staircase into the land where there is no cooling love or faltering faith.

19 Teach them to your children, talking about

them when you sit at home and when you walk

along the road, when you lie down and when

you get up.

SBC, "I. This is the simplest notion of education; for undoubtedly he is perfectly educated who is taught all the will of God concerning him, and enabled through life to execute it. And he is not well educated who does not know the will of God, or, knowing it, has received no help in his education towards being inclined and enabled to do it.

II. The special thing meant to be taught to the Israelites was a knowledge of God’s statutes and ordinances, not the Ten Commandments only, nor all the early history

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of their forefathers contained in the Book of Genesis, but God’s law given to them His people, His will respecting them morally and politically, His will with regard to all the relations of private and public life; all this was laid down in their law; all this was carefully to be taught them in their youth, that so, in whatsoever line of life they might be thrown, or whatever questions might be agitated, they might know what was God’s will, and therefore might know and do their own duty.

III. For the Israelites the Bible contained both the rule and its application; for us it contains only the rule. In order, therefore, to instruct our children fully in God’s will and enable them to execute it, we must bring in some other knowledge and other studies, not to be found in the Bible, in order to make up for that part of the Bible which gave this instruction to the Israelites, but which gives it us no longer.

And hence it is clear that neither is the Bible alone sufficient to give a complete religious education, nor is it possible to teach history and moral and political philosophy with no reference to the Bible without giving an education that should be anti-religious. For in the one case the rule is given without the application; in the other the application is derived from a wrong rule.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 131


‘And you (ye) shall teach them to your (of ye) children, talking of them, when

you (thou) sit in your house, and when you (thou) walk by the way, and when

you (thou) lie down, and when you (thou) rise up.’

Compare and contrast Deuteronomy 6:7 where ‘thou, thee’ is used all the way

through. There the thought was of one nation doing it, here it is of all of them

doing it.

They must also teach them to their children by day and by night. Most of the

children would be sleeping in the same place as their parents (compare Luke

11:7). Thus they must talk of such things under all circumstances, whether in the

house, on their excursions, at breakfast time and at bed time, and in bed, so that

all may know, and continually be reminded of, God’s covenant. The atmosphere

was to be one where God’s covenant was ever seen as important. Today we

would see this in terms of good reading matter with spiritual lessons suitable for

children. But we should ever be willing to talk about such things with our

children, and give them good guidance, and let them see that we talk about such

things too.

BI 19-21, "Teach them your children.

Religious education

I. This is the simplest notion of education, for undoubtedly he is perfectly educated who is taught all the will of God concerning him, and enabled through life to execute it. And he is not well educated who does not know the will of God, or, knowing it, has received no help in his education towards being inclined and enabled to do it:

II. The special thing meant to be taught to the Israelites was a knowledge of God’s statutes

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and ordinances, not the Ten Commandments only, nor all the early history of their forefathers

contained in the Book of Genesis, but God’s law given to them His people, His will respecting them morally and politically, His will with regard to all the relations of private and public life; all this was laid down in their law; all this was carefully to be taught them in their youth, that so, in whatsoever line of life they might be thrown, or whatever questions might

be agitated, they might know what was God’s will, and therefore might know and do their own duty.

III. For the Israelites the Bible contained both the rule and its application; for us it contains

only the rule. In order, therefore, to instruct our children fully in God’s will and enable them to execute it, we must bring in some other knowledge and other studies, not to be found in the Bible, in order to make up for that part of the Bible which gave this instruction to the Israelites, but which gives it us no longer. And hence it is clear that neither is the Bible alone sufficient to give a complete religious education, nor is it possible to teach history and moral and political philosophy with no reference to the Bible without giving an education that should be anti-religious. For in the one case the rule is given without the application; in the other the application is derived from a wrong rule. (T. Arnold, D. D.)

Parents the divinely appointed teachers of their families

I. The light in which we ought to regard the family relation. Parents should never forget that the family is the school in which they are training the men and women of the future age, from whom the world will gain its votaries, the church its members, heaven its redeemed spirits, and hell its victims, and that their examples are making impressions which will extend their blissful or baneful influence on their eternal destiny.

II. The teachers and their qualifications. Parents are constituted the teachers of their children by the express appointment of God, and any arrangement that sets aside this appointment can neither be wise nor safe. As God has thus clearly defined who are to be the teachers, so He has, in the text, no less clearly pointed out what are to be their qualifications.

III. The matter and the manner of the teaching which God has enjoined. Surely nothing is so

worthy of engaging the first recollections of the mind as “the words of God,” nor anything so

important as to have the heart—before it is immersed in the cares of life—fully brought under the guidance of God, the grace and love of Christ, and the attractions of heaven. And to attain this should elicit the daily efforts and the daily prayers of the Christian parent, as he sits in his house, or walks by the way, or lies down, or rises up.

IV. The happiness which may be expected to result from this. There are those who would make us believe that these, and all similar promises of a temporal nature, which we meet with under the Old Testament dispensation, have no place under the new. But so long as it is true

that “in the keeping of God’s commands there is a great reward,” and that “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to

come,” and that there is a natural adaptedness in a life of piety to promote the universal well-being of man, I cannot see how such interpretations of Scripture can be according to truth. It

is quite true, however, that the chief and most glorious part of “the recompense of reward” is spiritual, and such as can be fully enjoyed only in the heavenly state. (M. T. Adams.)

The training of children

The most powerful institution that abides today is not the regal, nor the noble; it is not political economy; it is not industry, nor is it the Church: it is the family, the household.

1. In rearing children, the first step should be in securing health; and for this sake the

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requirement is healthy parents. Children that bear the sins of their fathers are not few, and miserable are they; but taking it for granted that children are born with fair chances of life, sound in every part, and well-tempered together, the very first parental duty is to secure for them, from year to year, air, exercise, and wholesome food, that they may grow up healthily. Under this general head of health parents need instruction against the early forcing of their children. See that your children are kept down to animal conditions, so that the brain shall not destroy them.

2. Next to health in importance in the family, as well as in order, is obedience. The child is born into a world of infinite subordinations, where the business of life itself is to

suppress one’s self, and to give way here and there to strength, to social arrangements, to law. There can, therefore, be nothing less wise in the parent, and nothing less beneficial to the child, than that questioning, hesitating obedience which finally dragged into an unwilling submission, the child at last yields; but that is family government, as it is seen

in many households; and wherever you see this—especially if you see it in your own

house—understand that you are bringing up your children to disobey God, and the magistrate, and their fellow men, by teaching them to disobey you, or to give only a grudging instead of a cheerful and prompt obedience. It may be said that this is to break the will of the child, and that he needs all the will he is possessed of with which to fight his way through life. Now it is no more breaking the will of the child to teach him to obey his father and mother, than it is the breaking of the bones of my arms to teach me exactly how to use them, or exactly how to hold my hand to the keyboard of a piano. It is merely teaching the child how to use his will; and without teaching of that kind we are all brutes and barbarians.

3. We are next to consider that our children are not given to us for our accommodation and our pleasure. They are not, in one sense, our own children; they are lent to us; and no trust was ever reposed by king, by noble, by any human being upon another, so august, and of which the responsibilities are so tremendous, as the trust of a child placed in the hands of fallible, feeble, erring men, to be brought up for his destiny in this life, and in the life which is to come. These considerations reach backward. The laws of taking care of our children ought to go back further than the birth of the child, to antecedent conditions. I do not think that civilisation will ever take its last flight, or that religion will ever universally prevail, until physiological laws are observed to the letter.

4. Let me say that I regard a happy Christian family, consisting of wise parents and dutiful children, dwelling together in love as Eden restored. I regard the development of love in the family, its impartiality, its pitifulness to the weak, its watch and care, its patience, its suffering, its power to suffer, its stern requisition, its discrimination between right and wrong, its endurance of pain for the objects of its discipline, as the grandest, and as the only perfect revelation of Divine moral government. (H. W. Beecher.)

Have the Word of God ready far use

It is a Word directive, explanative, consolatory, inspirational, redemptive. It is God’s spoken

wisdom for man’s active guidance. And the wise man will ponder well these Divine

revelations before he sets out, will get a good grip of heaven’s instructions and promises before passing on to the stress and strain of conflict. The heart has need to store such things as these in readiness. They are not easily or readily found if left at one side till immediately wanted. It is an easier and wiser course for your railway official to light up his carriages amid broad daylight and before the train starts than it would be to send a man with flaming torch along the roof of a speeding train after it had dashed into the darkness of a tunnel. The ship

that sails forth well equipped does not put her lifeboats in the hold because the day is fine—she carries them taut, furnished, ready fitted for immediate use, prepared beforehand even

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down to details for any moment’s service. So must we equip ourselves with Divine wisdom

for life’s voyage. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Let it be a perpetual

remembrance. Its interpretation of life’s meaning and issue, its solution of the ways of Providence, its new and chivalrous setting of old moral obligations, its bright-hued promises,

above all its message of grace to the needy soul—let us take a lively realisation of these truths with us. (C. A. Berry, D. D.)

Aids to memory required

The Hebrew prophet anticipated the difficulty of attaining this Divine consciousness. Our natural tendency in respect of spiritual verities is not towards remembrance but forgetfulness. Great emotions, bright visions, hours of keen insight, pass, leaving behind only a vague, occasional reminiscence. We are alive at so many sensuous points, and there is so much to be alive to in the intensity of our worldly life, that we easily become absorbed in what is

passing, our thought of the Divine becomes meagre, spasmodic, feebly influential—an occasional jerk, not a constant, steady, regnant force. Moses foresaw this: foresaw, too, that the only way to check this and to reverse it was to turn the outward into a ministering reminder of spiritual things. In the first place he asked them to associate everything in life with the gracious words of God, to turn their surroundings into memory helps, recalling to the mind the great lessons of heaven. In the next place, observing that men best learn what

they oftenest teach, he directed them, in relation to God’s Word, to follow a course of pupil-teachership, to fix in themselves by imparting to others the truths and promises of grace. Our first step towards the perpetual remembrance of Christ is to surround ourselves with memorials of Him, to put up tokens, symbols, writings, which shall recall past lessons and experiences. We must use our common sense in this matter. We must give to the soul at least as many helps as we give to the mind in our efforts to produce and to fix great impressions.

When I go into a schoolhouse I find the wise teacher calling into the service of his pupils’memory every sense with which they are gifted. He is not content to repeat a thing, nor even to make it clear: he seeks thereafter to set up a sensuous memorial of the thing taught. Now by a rhyme which captivates the ear, now by a picture or demonstration which masters the eye, he endeavours to render permanent the instruction of the hour. Every surrounding of life is thus turned into the service of the memory. Things are made vocal of ideas. The eye and the ear are made daily ministers to the intellect and the heart. Memory is built up of memorials. Every Christian home should be well furnished with memorial writings and suggestive memory helps. Some vivid experience has lit up for you the full meaning and graciousness of an old Scripture promise. Put up that promise where it shall often meet the eye, and through the eye you shall be able to re-awaken the soul to that old and blessed experience. A blessed answer to family prayer has saved your home from disaster, has brought back to you a wanderer, has delivered you from the loss of members or fortune. Set up in the midst of your household a monument of that great answer. So ought it to be with all the cardinal truths and promises of the Gospel. But there is suggested another help to the

realisation of Christ’s Word. It is that which springs from teaching to others what we

ourselves have learned. “Teach them your children.” (C. A. Berry, D. D.)

The young should be valued

Value the young. How precious these germs are! These spring buds are lovely to look upon, but their worth is greater than their beauty. An immortal life is opening there; heed it well. Proprietors rear strong fences round young trees, while they leave the aged forests to take their chance. Permit not the immortal to be twisted at the very starting of its growth for the want of such protection as it is in your power to afford. (W. Arnot.)

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The mind of a child

The mind of a child is not like that of a grown person, too full and too noisy to observe everything: it is a vessel always ready to receive, and always receiving. (Mrs. Child.)

Scriptural instruction of children

Charles Dickens once addressed a letter to his son Henry while he was at college, advising him to keep out of debt and confide all his perplexities to his father. The letter concluded as

follows: “I most strongly and affectionately impress upon you the priceless value of the New Testament, and the study of that book as the one unfailing guide in life. Deeply respecting it, and bowing down before the character of our Saviour, you cannot go very wrong, and will always preserve at heart a true spirit of veneration and humility. Similarly, I impress upon you the habit of saying a Christian prayer every night and morning. These things have stood by me all through my life, and remember that I tried to render the New Testament intelligible

to you and lovable by you when a mere baby. And so God bless you.”

That your days may be multiplied.

A long life and a happy one

I. That experimental godliness has a tendency to add length of days to man’s life.

1. Genuine religion engenders and fosters states of mind highly conducive to physical health.

2. Genuine religion stimulates a practical regard to the laws of human health.

II. That experimental godliness has a tendency to add heaven to a man’s life.

1. It gives him the spirit of heaven.

2. It engages in the service of heaven.

3. It introduces into the fellowship of heaven. (Homilist.)

As the days of heaven upon the earth.—

The days of heaven upon the earth

The text implies a very elevated principle, that we should spend our days on earth as the days are spent by angels and the spirits of the just in heaven. And, without doubt, men might be incomparably happier than they are, if they would. There is no hindrance in God; there is no obstacle in the Divine arrangements; but man destroys his own well-being, and is ofttimes miserable, amid all the opportunities of the sweetest peace and the deepest joy, and when he might have days of heaven upon the earth.

I. What are the days of heaven? “No night there.”

1. In heaven they see the face of God. Manifestations of the excellence and glory of the Divine perfections: satisfying, felicitous, transforming.

2. In heaven they glorify Christ and celebrate His praise.

3. In heaven they are full of knowledge.

4. Full of love.

5. Prompt and perfect in obedience.

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Their delight is in doing God’s will; they dwell together in perfect unity. And from this state of mind and nature unmingled satisfaction flows, like waters from a fountain. Deep and ineffable happiness is realised. The pulsations of their joy produce no exhaustion, but forever increase in pleasantness and power.

II. The possibility of this, and the duty of attempting to make our days like the days of heaven, whilst we are upon earth.

1. And, first, I would refer to the elements of happiness which have been already

specified. Respecting the spiritual sight of the Deity, our Lord affirms, “Blessed are the

pure in heart,” etc. “The world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me.” “I will manifest Myself

to you, as I do not unto the world.” If you delight in the complacency of God, be sure that His favour will be opened upon you as the sun shining in his strength. Then, as to

glorifying and praising Christ; do we not now say, “Unto Him that loved us,” etc.? And have we not love in exercise? Are we not ready to do the will of God? Do we not dwell in peace? When the light and fire of the Holy Ghost is given; when our best passions are kindled, when we are filled with the celestial communications and communion, there is a near resemblance of heaven upon the earth.

2. Let me appeal to some passages of Scripture which convey the same truth. The Gospel dispensation is the reign of heaven. It is the ascendency of holiness in the heart and mind. The kingdom of God is within you, and it consists of righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

3. Let us advert to some of the recorded experiences of good men on the subject. It has

been said, “Grace is glory in the bud, and religion in the soul is the glory of the soul.” “A timorous faith will bring a man safely to heaven, but a strong and vigorous faith will

bring heaven to us now.” And I was startled by this sentiment: “It is better to be here than

in heaven.” Yes, so long as it shall please God it is so, and to think the contrary shows insubmissiveness to His will and discontent with His providential arrangements.

III. How may they be secured to us?

1. Receive the Gospel. Christ is our life; if He and the Father come and abide in our souls, heaven is begun.

2. Settle the possibility of it in your own mind.

3. Observe the ordinances of Christ.

4. Avoid all known causes of disquietude.

5. Maintain your self-possession. Cultivate tranquility of spirit.

6. Take care of your thoughts.

7. Take care of your tongue.

8. Take care of your conscience.

9. Do not harass yourself concerning the future.

10. Study to be quiet, and to attend to your own business.

11. Do good every day to someone, either by example, instruction, or generosity. (James Stratten.)

Heaven upon the earth

In this clause extremes meet. Things that are distant are brought together—“heaven” and

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“earth.”

1. We know something of the “days . . . upon the earth.” If we told our story, each would be different from the other; yet there would be a wonderful sameness. It would be a story of light and shade, beauty and barrenness, laughter and tears, success and failure.

2. We have dreamed, most of us, of “the days of heaven”; when the sun, no longer battling with the mists, should shine in the glory of his brightness; when fleecy clouds, like angel chariots, should fleck the blue expanse; when all the bustle and riot should be exchanged for unbroken peace and perpetual quiet; when vision should be no longer blurred by the uprising vapours of evil.

3. The text speaks to us of realisation, enjoyment, benediction, contentment. It contains the ideas of continuity and felicity, duration and fulness, or a blending of these ideas.

I. The text finds a pleasing illustration in happy childhood under kindly parental control.

1. Given all the healthful influences of a home where judicious training is linked with affectionate yearning; where example is set like a jewel in a circlet of gold, and the parents are recognised as priest and priestess of the home sphere: I know no words more

fittingly appropriate to describe that period of life than these, “As the days of heaven

upon the earth.”

2. The child’s best interests are secured by obedience and subjection, and his heaven is found in harmony with the parental will. Then shall his course be crowded with sunny

memories, for his way shall be illumined by the father’s smile; voices shall cheer him in the darkness; while from day to day shall be added mercies new and many, the true value of which shall only be discovered upon review.

II. The text is suggestive of the new epoch inaugurated at conversion. One summer morning a lady I knew well went into her garden. She looked up at the blue sky, she gazed at the trees, she bent over the flowers, she examined everything as though she had not seen anything of

the kind before. Her sister inquired, “Why are you looking at everything thus?” She replied

with a smile, “Well, it is all so very lovely, and seems so new.” She had been converted the previous evening, and that was the explanation of her awakened interest and evident admiration.

III. View the text as the epitome of the grateful soul’s estimate of a life that often seems anything but heavenly. The point of view makes all the difference in the estimate of the life of faith on the earth. I read somewhere of one who had moved into a new flat, which could hardly be described as cheerful in its surroundings. The outlook was not very pleasant, and

the building had not what the Frenchman called “a sunny exposition.” The ordinary woman would have regarded it but as a dismal shelter from the frosts of winter or the rains of summer. A friend called one day, and was asked by the cheerful housewife to notice the

pleasant view from the window. “Yes,” said the friend, “I see a remarkably fine lot of

chimney pots.” “Chimney pots,” said her hostess in astonishment,—“why, I never saw any chimney pots before. I looked over the chimneys, and saw only those trees which form the

line on the horizon. I thought only of the trees and the sunsets.” Happy are they who look beyond all which tends to depress and distress!

IV. The text singles out the red-letter days in the spiritual experience of those whose faces are heavenward set. Cannot we recall seasons of elevation, times of transport, periods of exceptional delight? When thoughtfully reading, when quietly meditating, when kneeling in prayer, when gathered for worship, when observing the ordinances with our fellow believers, have we not often been lifted out of and above ourselves? Such experiences are not to be forgotten. The record of them must be deeply engraven. (Isaac O. Stalberg.)

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Days of heaven upon earth

The text shows us a Divine method in providence; a law for individual and national life, and for the larger life of the race; a law borne witness to by the history of the people whose history is a light for all time, and by which we have gleams through experience of bitter times, earnests of the inheritance of light, periods filled with special mercy and truth, times of quickening and spiritual growth, days of heaven upon earth.

I. The first days of the Christian revelation were, in the highest and most absolute sense, days of heaven upon earth. A light began to shine amid the dark shadows of that time, and a Divine life to give forth sparks and gleams of a better world. God was manifest. He dwelt with men. He trod the common paths of life. Brief though the days were, all the great days of human history which preceded them had led up to them; and they were themselves, while they lasted, a vision of heaven for all time, an actual dawn of the possibilities to which Christ is conducting His Church, a demonstration of the power of that life of Christ in His people which, today as then, may be an opener of blind eyes, and a raiser of the dead, and may still go forth, as in the first apostles, to conquer the world. Those days were sent to us to create new days in our daily lives, and enable us, even amid the shadows and imperfections of our earthly life, to live lives of heaven upon earth. And these days still return to us. Times of revival are simply repetitions on a smaller scale of the first days of the Church. The light that shines upon human life at such times is light from heaven. Christ once more walks among men, and His presence seems to encompass them wherever they go.

II. The times when the soul is open to the revelations and offers of Divine life are days of heaven upon earth. The dawns and sunsets of these days are in the soul itself. These are the blessed times when the heart is still impressible, when the eyes of the soul are undimmed, when the conscience is still tender. The soul is face to face with the claims of God. It has new

views of its responsibilities, of its aims, and of its destiny. Christ’s word and the Spirit of God and our own conscience work together to range us on the side of God. New visions of the Divine mercy and goodness are opened up to us, and we are placed under the argument of the love that died for us, to admit that love into our hearts.

III. The coming of Christ into a life is the beginning of days of heaven for that life. We are not our true selves until the blood of the Divine life has been mingled with ours. In the midst of natural occasions for joy we are not glad. Christ enters and joy begins. The long absent

Friend has come—the life is heightened. The thoughts flow forth, the nature expands, the eyes kindle, and the whole wide world of circumstance and relationship takes on our joy.

IV. Times of service under Christ are days of heaven upon earth. The soul has now entered into loving relations with the Lord. It is no longer its own, but His. Its joy is to live in Him. Its life is a daily consecration to His service. Sacrifice, gifts, labours, worship: Christ is the object of them all.

V. The beautiful days of earth are types and sometimes actual realisations of such days. On such days every river becomes an emblem of the river of life; every tree, of the tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations; and the glory of the sky when the dawn burns into the perfect day, of the glory which is to lighten the streets of the New Jerusalem, and clothe the nations of the saved who shall walk in its light. I recall at this moment such a day of heaven upon earth. Here and there, all up the sides of a Highland mountain, patches of corn were yellowing for the sickle. These literally peeped out, so small they were, from amid great breadths of purple heather. Little hollows of meadow grass shot up over their edges the richest green; and, at irregular intervals, the bare rock displayed itself like protruding bones. The sun was setting. His rays came level and struck all that breast of colour at once, and seemed to touch it into active life. It expanded, it swelled, it rose upwards until clouds of

colour floated about all the mountainside. The whole scene glowed with coloured light—yellow and green and purple. It flamed upwards, outwards, downwards, casting back upon the naked granite an ethereal brightness, and down upon the spectator a glory as if the gates

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of heaven had been opened to his view. It was one among ten thousand glimpses of the glory of God in the face of harvest. To them who were present it was a day of heaven upon earth.

VI. Christ is the light which makes days of heaven possible. And such days fail of their purpose if they fail to increase our joy in Him. Man in his ordinary state can neither see nor

enjoy such days. He is blinded and oppressed by his burdens—the well known, the

universally felt burdens, which only Christ can remove—of guilt and care and sorrow. (A. Macleod, D. D.)

Days of heaven

I. When may our days be said to be “as the days of heaven upon the earth”? When—

1. We enjoy much of a sense of the Divine presence, and live in the contemplation of the glorious perfections of God.

2. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

3. We enjoy a spirit of gratitude and praise.

4. We possess brotherly love and enjoy the happiness of fellowship with the saints.

5. We obtain great victories over sin and have intense rove of purity.

6. We cheerfully obey God’s commands.

7. We frequently meditate on the heavenly state.

II. What course should we take in order that our days may be as such? We must—

1. Be partakers of vital faith in Christ, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds.

2. Make the glory of God our highest aim.

3. Wean our hearts from earthly things.

4. Watch against grieving the Holy Spirit.

5. Be perpetually employed for God, and resign our wills to His. (J. Ryland.)

The spirit of heaven to be infused into the present life

He whose mind is here absorbed in the desire for the distant heaven is like a man walking through scenes of exquisite loveliness, and fields of delicious fruit, with his eye so fixed on a mirage scene in the distance, that he sees no beauty on his way, starves amid the exuberant provisions which lie about his path, and reaches what he sees, an exhausted pilgrim, to find the object of his search vanish into air. Infuse, then, the spirit of heaven into thy present life. Moral goodness of soul, springing from faith in Christ, is your way into the present and all the future heavens of your being. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Heaven on earth

It was said of an old Puritan, that heaven was in him before he was in heaven. That is

necessary for all of us—we must have heaven in us before we get into heaven. If we do not get to heaven before we die, we shall never get there afterwards. An old Scotchman was

asked whether he ever expected to get to heaven. “Why, man, I live there,” was his quaint reply. Let us all live in those spiritual things which are the essential features of heaven. Often go there before yon go to stay there. If you come down tomorrow morning, knowing and

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realising that heaven is yours, and that you will soon be there, those children will not worry you half so much. When you go out to your business or to your work, you will not be half so discontented when you know that this is not your rest, but that you have a rest on the hills eternal, whither your heart has already gone, and that there your portion is in the everlasting

dwellings. “Lay hold on eternal life.” Get a hold of it now. It is a thing of the future, and it is a thing of the present; and even your part of it that is future can be, by faith, so realised and grasped as to be actually enjoyed while you are yet here. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Days of heaven on earth

A minister one day preached on heaven. Next morning he was going down town, and he met

one of his old wealthy members. The brother stopped the preacher and said: “Pastor, you preached a good sermon about heaven. You told me all about heaven, but you never told me

where heaven is.” “Ah! “said the pastor, “I am glad of an opportunity this morning. I have just come from the hill top yonder. In that cottage there is a member of your church. She is sick in bed with fever; her two little children are sick in the other bed, and she has not got a bit of coal nor a stick of wood, nor flour, nor sugar, nor any bread. If you will go down town and

buy five shillings’ worth of things—race provisions—and send them up to her, and then go up

there and say, ‘My sister, I have brought you these nice provisions in the name of our Lord

and Saviour,’ then ask for a Bible and read the twenty-third Psalm, and get down on your

knees and pray—if you don’t see heaven before you get all through, I’ll pay the bill. The next

morning he said: “Pastor, I saw heaven, and I spent fifteen minutes in heaven as certainly as

you are listening.”

20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses

and on your gates,


‘And you (thou) shall write them on the doorposts of your (thy) house, and on

your gates, that your (of ye) days may be multiplied, and the days of your (of ye)

children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the

days of the heavens above the earth.’

This may be intended both outwardly, as a testimony that the inhabitants were

people of the covenant, and as a witness to all who visited them that they were so,

and inwardly as a reminder to them as they went in and out of the requirements

of God’s covenant. Their presumed response to this would ensure that they lived

long lives in the land, and their children after them.

“As the days of the heavens above the earth”, that is, continually all the while

that the heavens were still above the earth. This would indicate for them

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everlastingness. Had they been obedient Israel would have enjoyed the

everlasting kingdom on earth (the only promise for the future that they would be

able at this stage to understand).

Alternately the idea may be that heavenly days are longer than earthly days, so

that their children will enjoy longer lives just as the heavens have longer days.

All these things remind us that we too must make an effort to ensure by the

reading of His word that we too ever keep before our thoughts what the Lord

requires of us and offers us. If we disobediently neglect such matters we should

not be surprised to find our spiritual lives waning.

21 so that your days and the days of your

children may be many in the land the Lord

swore to give your ancestors, as many as the

days that the heavens are above the earth.

BARNES, "The sense is: “Keep the covenant faithfully, and so shall your own and

your children’s days be multiplied as long as the heaven covers the earth.” The

promise of Canaan to Israel was thus a perpetual promise, but also a conditional one.

GILL, "That your days may be multiplied,.... Long life being a very desirable blessing, and which is promised to those that obey and keep the law; see Deu_30:19.

and the days of your children; which are dear to parents, and the continuance of whose lives, next to their own, is most desirable, yea, as desirable as their own; and especially it is desirable that they might have a posterity descending from them, to enjoy for ever their estates and possessions; as it was to the people of Israel, that they might have a seed always to dwell

in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them; the land of Canaan, so often spoken of as the promise, oath, and gift of God:

as the days of heaven upon the earth; that is, as long as the heavens and the earth shall be, and the one shall be over the other, as they will be to the end of time.

HENRY, "II. He repeats the assurances he had before given them, in God's name, of

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prosperity and success if they were obedient. 1. They should have a happy settlement,

Deu_11:21. Their days should be multiplied; and, when they were fulfilled, the days

of their children likewise should be many, as the days of heaven, that is, Canaan

should be sure to them and their heirs for ever, as long as the world stands, if they

did not by their own sin throw themselves out of it.

SBC, "The text shows us a Divine method in providence; a law for individual and national life, and for the larger life of the race; a law borne witness to by the history of the people whose history is a light for all time, and by which we have gleams through experience of bitter times, foretastes and earnests of the inheritance of light, periods filled with special mercy and truth, times of quickening and spiritual growth, days of heaven upon earth.

I. The first days of the Christian revelation were, in the highest and most absolute sense, days of heaven upon earth. And these days still return to us. Times of revival are simply repetitions on a smaller scale of the first days of the Church.

The old doctrines, the old familiar facts of the Gospel, are transfigured as Christ was. They rise, as He rose, from the dead, and again we behold the miracle of a nation being born in a day.

II. The times when the soul is open to the revelations and offers of Divine life are days of heaven upon earth. The dawns and sunsets of these days are in the soul itself. "Be not disobedient to the heavenly vision." While the light of it is shining walk in the light. It is the light which is the life both of God and man.

III. The coming of Christ into a life is the beginning of days of heaven for that life. That would be a day of heaven to Zaccheus when Christ said to him, "To-day I must abide at thy house." Suddenly, by Christ’s visit, life changes for him, and the poor lorn, lost, hated Zaccheus has a song in his heart, and a heart resolute to be on God’s side and do God’s will.

IV. Times of service under Christ are days of heaven upon earth. The time spent in Christian service seems to expand, to become more capacious for enterprise, more filled with opportunity, until we come, in our experience of it, to have vivid conceptions of the state concerning which it is written, "There is no night there," and real gleams of days of heaven upon earth.

V. The beautiful days of earth are types and sometimes actual realisations of such days of heaven.

VI. Christ is the Light which makes days of heaven possible. And such days fail of their purpose if they fail to increase our joy in Him.

A. MACLEOD, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 1.

ELLICOTT, "(21) In the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give

them.—“It is not written here ‘to give you,’ but ‘to give them.’ Hence we find the

resurrection of the dead taught in the Law.” If this were the remark of a

Christian commentator, it would be thought fanciful; but it is only the comment

of a Jew. And the Jewish belief in the literal fulfilment of these promises to

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, simply on the ground of God’s word, is an

unquestionable fact, whatever may be thought of it. Comp. Acts 7:5, which is

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singularly pointed. God “gave him (Abraham) none inheritance in it, no, not so

much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a

possession, and to his seed after him,” besides.

22 If you carefully observe all these commands I

am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your

God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold

fast to him—

GILL, "For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them,.... Observe and take notice of them, even all of them, and so as not merely to have a theory or notional knowledge of them, but to put them in practice:

to love the Lord your God; and show it by obeying his commands, and which is the end of the commandment, and the principle from which all obedience should flow:

to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; see Deu_10:12.

HENRY 22-25, "It should not be in the power of their enemies to give them any disturbance, nor make them upon any account uneasy. “If you will keep God's commandments, and be careful to do your duty (Deu_11:22), God will not only crown the labours of the husbandman with plenty of the fruits of the earth, but he will own and succeed the more glorious undertakings of the men of war. Victory shall attend your arms; which way soever they turn, God will drive out these nations, and put you in possession of their land,” Deu_11:23, Deu_11:24. Their territories should be enlarged to the utmost extent of the promise, Gen_15:18. And all their neighbours should stand in awe of them, Deu_11:25. Nothing contributes more to the making of a nation considerable abroad, valuable to its friends and formidable to its enemies, than religion reigning in it; for who can be against those that have God for them? And he is certainly for those that are sincerely for him, Pro_14:34.

ELLICOTT, "(22) To walk in all his ways.—“He is compassionate, and thou

shalt be compassionate. He showeth mercies, and thou shalt show mercies.”

Again Rashi’s comment is worthy of the New Testament. What follows shows the

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need of a mediator.

To cleave unto him.—Is it possible to speak so? Is He not “a consuming fire “?

(and how can we cleave unto Him?) “But cleave unto wise men and their

disciples (the students of the Law), and I tell thee it will be as though thou didst

cleave unto Him.” In New Testament language this would read, “Be ye followers

of me, as I am of Christ;” and “He that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent

Me.”

CONSTABLE, "Verses 22-32

God would drive out all the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 11:23) and give Israel all

the land that He had promised Abraham (Deuteronomy 11:24; cf. Genesis

15:18). [Note: See Richard D. Patterson, "The Biblical Imagery of Feet as a

Vehicle for Truth," Bibliotheca Sacra 163:649 (January-March 2006):35.]

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 are a concluding summary. The decision Israel faced

would result in either blessing or cursing.

"One of the most frequently used words in Deuteronomy is 'today.' It occurs

almost a hundred times, most frequently in the phrase 'the commandment that I

am commanding you today.' This usage is of great significance for the theological

understanding of the book. Basically it is used to indicate the crucial nature of

the moment at which the covenant at Horeb is established and the people are

summoned to obedience." [Note: Whybray, p. 95. Cf. Isaiah 49:8; 2 Corinthians

6:2.]

God commanded that when the Israelites entered the land they should assemble

beside the oaks of Moreh (Deuteronomy 11:30, near Shechem) where Abraham

had received the promise of the land (Genesis 12:6-7). Gilgal may have been

another name for Shechem or a town close to Shechem. This is probably not the

same Gilgal that stood near Jericho. Shechem was near the geographic center of

Canaan. There the people were to recite the blessings and curses from the two

mountains on either side of the site (i.e., Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal; cf. chs.

27-28; Joshua 8:33; Joshua 24:1-28). This ceremony would repeat and reinforce

the instructions Moses gave here after Israel entered the land.

Peter Craigie pointed out the chiastic structure of the major blessing and curse

references in Deuteronomy as follows.

A The blessing and curse in the present covenant renewal (Deuteronomy

11:26-28)

B The blessing and curse in the future covenant renewal (Deuteronomy

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11:29-32)

C The specific legislation (Deuteronomy 12:1 to Deuteronomy 26:19)

B' The blessing and curse in the future covenant renewal (Deuteronomy

27:1-26)

A' The blessing and curse in the present covenant renewal (Deuteronomy

28:1 to Deuteronomy 29:1). [Note: Craigie, The Book . . ., p. 212.]

This arrangement stresses the consequences of obedience and disobedience in the

present and the future.

This first part of Moses' second address concludes with an exhortation to obey

God's covenant (Deuteronomy 11:32). In this part of his speech to the Israelites,

Moses explained and emphasized the essence of the Law. His words expounded

the meaning of the first three commandments in the Decalogue and urged Israel

to be absolutely faithful to God. Because He had loved His people they should

love Him.

"The basic stipulation of covenant, then, (1) lays a foundation for the specific

stipulations, a foundation that consists of a recognition of Yahweh's election of

Israel by love and grace, (2) forms a recapitulation of and commentary on that

fundamental principle of covenant as seen in the Ten Words and the Shema, the

latter in turn being an adumbration of the former, and (3) urges (as seen in the

historical review and hortatory sections) compliance with the covenant mandate

of the Ten Words and with the specific stipulations that follow." [Note: Merrill,

"A Theology . . .," p. 79.]

PETT, "Verses 22-25

The Result Of This Will Be That Their Way Will Prosper Before Them

(Deuteronomy 11:22-25).

Note that love for Yahweh commenced chapter 6 and now ends chapter 11 of the

general stipulations of the covenant. And if they do love Him and obey Him then

their success in conquering the land is guaranteed.


a For if you will diligently keep all this commandment which I command

you, to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave to

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him (Deuteronomy 11:22).

b Then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you

shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves (Deuteronomy

11:23).

b Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread will be yours, from

the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the

hinder sea shall be your border (Deuteronomy 11:24).

a There shall no man be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will

lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread on, as

he has spoken to you (Deuteronomy 11:25).

Note than in ‘a’ they are to diligently keep His commandments and love Yahweh

their God, and walk in His ways, and cleave to Him, and the result is that their

enemies will fear them (in contrast to Yahweh loving them) and all the land that

they tread on (in contrast with walking in it) will be filled with dread because of

God’s powerful word. In ‘b’ Yahweh will drive out nations more powerful than

themselves, and they will dispossess them, and in the parallel they will take

possession on any land on which the sole of their foot treads within the area of

the promised land.


‘For if you will diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to

do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave to him,

then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall

dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.’

Compare Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:13. The dispossessing of the

nations and Israel’s love for Yahweh, their walking in His ways, and their

cleaving to Him had to go in tandem. If they looked to Yahweh for their victory,

it must be because they loved Him and were genuinely in covenant with Him,

and sought diligently to keep the totality of what He has commanded because of

that love. Then would they drive out the nations mightier than themselves. The

corollary is that if they did not have this covenant response then the covenant

would not be valid, and they would not receive Yahweh’s assistance, in the same

way that their fathers had not received His assistance (Deuteronomy 1:44). Then

He would have to wait for another generation and begin again.

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 11:22-25

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If they were sedulous to keep God's commandments, and faithfully adhered to

him, loving him and walking in all his ways, he would drive out before them the

nations of the Canaanites, and cause them to possess the territory of nations

greater and mightier than themselves. Every place on which the soles of their feet

should tread should be theirs, i.e. they had but to enter the land to become

possessors of it. This is more exactly defined as restricted to the land the

boundaries of which are given—from the Arabian desert on the south to

Lebanon on the north, and from the river Euphrates on the east to the

Mediterranean on the west (Deuteronomy 1:7). From the wilderness and

Lebanon; read, even unto Lebanon; ַהֶע ָבנֹון is for ַעד־ַהְּל ַבנֹון(cf. עדַהָּים in the end of

the verse). The uttermost sea; rather, the hinder sea (Numbers 34:6), the sea that

lay behind one looking to the east (Deuteronomy 11:26; cf. Deuteronomy 7:24;

Deuteronomy 2:25; Exodus 23:27).

23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations

before you, and you will dispossess nations

larger and stronger than you.

GILL, "Then will the Lord drive out all those nations from before you,.... By little and little, even all the seven nations which then inhabited the land of Canaan; and this he would do to make room for them, that they might inherit the land; see Deu_7:1.

and ye shall possess greater nations, and mightier than yourselves; countries whose inhabitants were more in number, and greater in strength, than they; and therefore the conquest of them was not to be ascribed to themselves, but to the Lord; this is often observed; see Deu_7:1.

24 Every place where you set your foot will be

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yours: Your territory will extend from the

desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates

River to the Mediterranean Sea.

CLARKE, "From the river - Euphrates, which was on the east, to the uttermost sea - the Mediterranean, which lay westward of the promised land. This promise, notwithstanding the many provocations of the Israelites, was fulfilled in the time of Solomon, for “he reigned over all the kings from the river (Euphrates) even unto the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.” See 2Ch_9:26, and the note, Num_34:12 (note).

GILL, "Every place wherein the soles of your feet shall tread,.... Meaning in the land of Canaan; though the Jews vainly apply this to every land, and country, and place therein, where any of them come; pleasing themselves with this foolish fancy, that all shall be theirs that the foot of any of them have trod upon, or they have dwelt in; but that it respects only the land of Canaan appears by the following description of it and its boundaries:

from the wilderness; the wilderness of Paran, which lay to the south of it, where Kadesh was, from whence the spies were sent, and was the southern border of it:

and Lebanon; which was a range of mountains to the north of it; and was the northern border of the land:

from the river, the river Euphrates; which was the eastern border of it, when it was carried to its utmost extent, as in the days of Solomon, 1Ki_4:21.

even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be: the Mediterranean sea, which was the western border of the land of Canaan, or "the hinder sea", and so it is called Zec_14:8, it lay at the back of them; for if a man stands with his face to the east, the south will be on his right hand, and the north on his left, and the west will be behind him, or at the back of him.

JAMISON. "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours — not as if the Jews should be lords of the world, but of every place within the promised land. It should be granted to them and possessed by them, on conditions of obedience:

from the wilderness — the Arabah on the south;

Lebanon — the northern limit;

Euphrates — their boundary on the east. Their grant of dominion extended so far, and the right was fulfilled to Solomon.

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even unto the uttermost sea — the Mediterranean.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:24. Every place — Not absolutely, as the Jewish

rabbis fondly imagine, but in the promised land, as the sense is restrained in the

following words; either by possession or by dominion, namely, upon condition of

your obedience. From the wilderness — Of Sin, on the south of Canaan, and

Lebanon — On the north. From Euphrates — On the east. So far the right of

dominion extruded, but that their sins cut them short; so far, however, Solomon

extended his dominion. Unto the uttermost sea — The Mediterranean, on the

west.


‘Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread will be yours, from the

wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder

sea shall be your border. There shall no man be able to stand before you.

Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land

that you shall tread on, as he has spoken to you.’

But if they do love Him and walk in His ways, cleaving to Him, and keeping all

He has commanded, then every place on which the sole of their foot treads (see

Deuteronomy 2:5; Joshua 1:3; Joshua 14:9) within the land promised to them

will be theirs. They will take it and possess it. They will possess ‘from the

wilderness and Lebanon, from the Euphrates to the western sea’ (the

Mediterranean). Note how Lebanon here possibly represents both a part of

Canaan and the land to the north, which also belonged to Canaanites whom we

know as Phoenicians, (compare Isaiah 23:11). The wilderness lay to the south,

the western sea lay to the west, the Euphrates lay to the ‘north’ (Deuteronomy

1:7; Genesis 15:18; Exodus 23:31; Joshua 1:4). It was to the north that they

always went to reach the River Euphrates. The eastern border did not need to be

mentioned because they were standing on it and possessed it, again evidence that

this was spoken at the time when Moses was east of Jordan.

Indeed none would be able to stand against them for Yahweh would fill their

enemies with fear at the very thought of them. Wherever they trod, those who

were there would be terrified, just as he had always promised.

25 No one will be able to stand against you. The

Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the

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terror and fear of you on the whole land,

wherever you go.

GILL, "There shall be no man able to stand before you,.... Meaning not a single man, such an one as Og, or any of the sons of Anak, the giants; because it could never be thought, imagined, or feared, that one man only should be able to stand against 600,000 fighting men, but any people or nation, though greater and mightier than they:

for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you, and the dread of you, upon all the land that ye shall tread upon: that is, upon all the land of Canaan, and the inhabitants of it; who should hear what wonderful things had been done for them in Egypt, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; and what they had done to Sihon and Og, and to their countries, and which accordingly was fulfilled, Jos_2:9.

as he hath said unto you; had promised them, Deu_2:25 and which was prophesied of in the prophetic song at the Red sea; see Exo_15:14.

ELLICOTT, "(25) The fear of you and the dread of you.—Rashi says: “The fear

of you on those that are near, and the dread upon those that are far off.” It is a

very far-reaching prophecy, for it may be read, “upon all the earth that ye shall

tread upon.” (See Esther 8:2-3, where it was fulfilled throughout the whole

Persian Empire.}

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing

and a curse—

CLARKE, "Behold, I set before you - a blessing and a curse - If God had not put it in the power of this people either to obey or disobey; if they had not had a free will, over which they had complete authority, to use it either in the way of willing or nilling; could God, with any propriety, have given such precepts as these, sanctioned with such promises and threatenings? If they were not free agents, they

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could not be punished for disobedience, nor could they, in any sense of the word, have been rewardable for obedience. A Stone is not rewardable because, in obedience to the laws of gravitation, it always tends to the center; nor is it punishable be cause, in being removed from that center, in its tending or falling towards it again it takes away the life of a man.

That God has given man a free, self-determining Will, which cannot be forced by any power but that which is omnipotent, and which God himself never will force, is declared in the most formal manner through the whole of the sacred writings. No argument can affect this, while the Bible is considered as a Divine revelation; no sophistry can explain away its evidence, as long as the accountableness of man for his conduct is admitted, and as long as the eternal bounds of moral good and evil remain, and the essential distinctions between vice and virtue exist. If ye will obey, (for God is ever ready to assist), ye shall live; if ye will disobey and refuse that help, ye shall die. So hath Jehovah spoken, and man cannot reverse it.

GILL, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse,.... Meaning the law of God, and the statutes, judgments, and commandments of it; which, if obeyed, blessings would be bestowed upon them; but if disobeyed, they would be liable to the curses of it, as the following words explain it; see Deu_30:15 everyone of the Israelites were called upon to see and consider this matter, it being an interesting one to them all.

HENRY 26-28, "Here Moses concludes his general exhortations to obedience; and his management is very affecting, and such as, one would think, should have engaged them for ever to God, and should have left impressions upon them never to be worn out.

I. He sums up all his arguments for obedience in two words, the blessing and the curse (Deu_11:26), that is, the rewards and the punishments, as they stand in the promises and the threatenings, which are the great sanctions of the law, taking hold of hope and fear, those two handles of the soul, by which it is caught, held, and managed. These two, the blessing and the curse, he set before them, that is, 1. He explained them, that they might know them; he enumerated the particulars contained both in the blessing and in the curse, that they might see the more fully how desirable the blessing was, and how dreadful the curse. 2. He confirmed them, that they might believe them, made it evident to them, by the proofs he produced of his own commission, that the blessing was not a fool's paradise, nor the curse a bugbear, but that both were real declarations of the purpose of God concerning them. 3. He charged them to choose which of these they would have, so fairly does he deal with them, and so far is he from putting out the eyes of these men, as he was charged, Num_16:14. They and we are plainly told on what terms we stand with Almighty God. (1.) If we be obedient to his laws, we may be sure of a blessing, Deu_11:27. But, (2.) If we be disobedient, we may be as sure of a curse, Deu_11:28. Say you to the righteous (for God has said it, and all the world cannot unsay it) that it shall be well with them: but woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them.

JAMISON. "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse — (See on Deu_27:12).

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CALVIN, "26.Behold, I set before you this day. He now embraces the two points

at once, viz., that they would be blessed if they earnestly apply themselves to the

keeping of the Law, and cursed, if they shake off its yoke and revel in their lusts.

But, when he says that he here sets before them a blessing and a curse, it is as

much as to declare, that he does not merely tell them what is right, but that the

reward is prepared if they obey; and if not, that the punishment is also at hand.

Thus we see, that the doctrine which he had hitherto delivered is sealed by hope

and fear, since they would not lose their labor if they obeyed it, nor be

unpunished if they rejected it. But, that they may learn surely to embrace the

promises and to fear the threatenings, he repeats what we have met with before,

(203) that God, who is both a faithful rewarder, and a severe judge, is the Author

of the Law; yet at the same time he magnifies his own ministry, (204) since it

behooved them to depend upon God, and to acquiesce in His commandments, in

such a manner as still to submit themselves to His Prophet. For such is men’s

pride, that they desire to fly above the clouds to listen to God; whilst He would

be heard in His servants, by whose mouth He speaks. Moses, therefore, would

again enforce upon them this humility, when he states that he enjoins what God

has commanded, as if to call himself the organ of the Holy Spirit.

COFFMAN, ""Beyond Jordan ..." (Deuteronomy 11:30) (See under

Deuteronomy 1:1 for a discussion of this expression which has the meaning of

"transjordan," sometimes meaning "West of Jordan" as here, and often

meaning "East of Jordan".) These are exactly the same words that T. Witton

Davies said, "prove that the writer was West of Jordan."[19] Nothing could be

more undependable than assertions regarding the authorship of Deuteronomy

based upon such phrases as this, which sometimes mean one thing, sometimes

another.

This whole paragraph (Deuteronomy 11:26-32) regards the transfer of the

leadership of Israel from Moses to Joshua.

The transition was to be marked by a two-stage renewal ritual, which would

exhibit the continuity of the more ultimate divine leadership. The arrangement

was the equivalent of measures taken in vassal treaties by human suzerains to

guarantee the dynastic succession on their thrones.[20] Thus, there is a glimpse

in advance (here) of that renewal ceremony recorded in Joshua 8:30-35.[21]

Another great feature of this remarkable paragraph is the positive proof it gives

of the freedom of the human will. "If Israel were not free agents, they could not

be punished for disobedience, nor could they, in any sense of the word, be

rewarded for obedience."[22]

Gerizim and Ebal were two significant peaks in central Palestine about 3,000 feet

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in elevation. They were quite close together with a little valley in between.[23]

Some have complained that Gilgal, mentioned here as being on the way to or in

the vicinity of Gerizim and Ebal, "Is not near them (if the usual Gilgal is

meant)";[24] but a number of scholars identify the Gilgal here with "the modern

Julejib, two and one half miles southeast of the village of Shechem (near these

mountains)."[25] "The name Gilgal means a circle, or a cairn of stones, and was

used to designate several localities, one of which is near Shechem."[26]

The Arabah mentioned here is the name of the Great Rift in Asia Minor that

includes the entire Jordan valley.

We are concerned with one other very important consideration in this chapter.

When Joshua, the successor of Moses, honored the instructions here given by

Moses, he specifically declared no less than three times (Joshua 8:30-35) that

MOSES had commanded these instructions to be obeyed, "as it is written in the

Book of the Law of Moses." But, the Book of Deuteronomy is the only book in

which those instructions are found, therefore Deuteronomy is a part of the Book

of the Law of Moses. If then, there is any truth in the Book of Joshua, then,

beyond all possibility of doubt, the Book of Deuteronomy came from Moses.

"There is no way to avoid the truth of this conclusion except by robbing the

sacred account of all truthfulness. This the destructive critics do without

hesitation."[27] We note this at this point, because it is a classical example of

how the so-called higher criticism, in the last analysis, is absolutely nothing but

an arrogant and conceited denial of what the Holy Bible says. It is the resurgence

of the old Satanic lie, "Ye shall not surely die!" The most devious and ingenious

methods are adopted by many of the critics to conceal what they actually do, to

deny that there is any truth in the Word of God. Such deniers of God's Word

must be accounted among the most unprincipled liars ever to appear upon earth!


It is truly refreshing to attend to the practical exhortation which Moses makes,

from what he had before said on this interesting subject, if interpreted upon

gospel principles. There is indeed a blessing and a curse set before us in the

gospel of JESUS. And if any man like the Jews of old, is at a loss to discover on

whom the whole blessing rests, and the curse of rejecting; and would ask as they

did of JESUS, What shall we do that we might work the works of GOD: the

Redeemer hath himself answered it; "This is the work of GOD that ye believe in

him whom he hath sent." John 6:28-29.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:26. I set before you — I propose them to your

consideration and your choice. So that if a curse should be your portion, instead

of a blessing, and you should be in a calamitous and miserable, and not in a

prosperous and happy condition, you must thank yourselves for it. This he

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explains more at large in the 28th chapter. And the whole historical part of the

Old Testament bears witness that God caused a blessing or a curse to attend

them, according as they observed or broke his laws.

LANGE 26-32, "Deuteronomy 11:11. No low land as Egypt. Comp. Deuteronomy

3:25; Deuteronomy 8:7.—Of the rain, the ְל denoting the outward cause.

Deuteronomy 11:12. ֹּדֵרׁש, to seek, ask after ( Job 3:4), to take care for (Sept.:

ἐניףךןנוῑפבי). The continual dependence upon God places it as a geographical foil

to the true religion. The expression seems at first rich with promise; the

threatening in such relations comes later ( Deuteronomy 11:17). Deuteronomy

11:13. Comp. Deuteronomy 7:12; Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12. Moses’

words pass into the words of God. So distinctly does the speaker know himself as

Moses. Deuteronomy 11:14. Rain of your land, as your land needs it; in its

season, viz. the first [early] rain, after the seeding, from October until December,

and the latter rain before the harvest (“at the last ripe,” Baumgarten) in March

and April. Comp. further Deuteronomy 8:8. Deuteronomy 11:15. Comp.

Deuteronomy 6:11. Deuteronomy 11:16. The contrast. Comp. Deuteronomy 4:23,

where it occurs in reference to the making of images, and thus here with an

altogether fitting retrospect ( Deuteronomy 9:12). ִיְפֶּתה, will open, stands open to

enticement, foolishly opens itself. Comp. Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 7:4;

Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 6:14. Deuteronomy 11:17.

Comp. Deuteronomy 4:25; Deuteronomy 6:15; Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy

8:19. “The heavens are thought of as a mother’s breasts.” Schultz. Deuteronomy

11:18. Comp. Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 6:8. Deuteronomy 11:19. Comp.

Deuteronomy 6:7. Deuteronomy 11:20. Comp. Deuteronomy 6:9. In the

connection of the second with the first command, these repetitions are not

strange. It forms a parallel completion for the memory. Deuteronomy 11:21.

Comp. Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 5:16.—As the days of heaven, sq.

( Psalm 89:29), i.e. as long as the heaven (“with its blessing power,” Baumgarten)

stands over the earth, so long shall Israel, if faithful, as the fathers, so the

children, dwell in Canaan. Deuteronomy 11:22. For lays the ground for this

supposition. Comp. Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 8:6.

Deuteronomy 11:23. Comp. Deuteronomy 7:1 sq.; Deuteronomy 9:1 sq.

Deuteronomy 11:24. Comp. Deuteronomy 2:5. For the borders, southerly and

northerly, easterly and till the westward (“the posterior,” i.e. Mediterranean)

sea, comp. Deuteronomy 1:7. Deuteronomy 11:25. Comp. Deuteronomy 7:24;

Deuteronomy 2:25.


‘Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, the blessing, if you will

listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this

day.’

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In true covenant fashion and in the same way as some law codes, including that

of Hammurabi (2nd millennium BC), the choice is laid by Moses before those to

whom the covenant is directed as to whether they will be blessed or cursed. To

listen to the commandments of Yahweh their God and to obey will bring

abundance of blessing.

PETT, "Blessing and Cursing (Deuteronomy 11:26-32).

Most suzerainty treaties and some law codes had cursings against those who

disobeyed their requirements, and many had both blessings and cursings. This

was especially true of second millennium BC Hittite treaties and the great law

codes (1st century BC treaties stress the cursing). In the same way therefore,

having laid out the general principles of their response to their Overlord, Moses

introduces blessing and cursing here depending on how they carry them out.


a I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, the blessing, if you will

listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this

day, and the curse, if you will not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your

God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after

other gods, which you have not known (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

b And it will come about that when Yahweh your God shall bring you into

the land to which you are going to possess it (Deuteronomy 11:29 a).

c You will set the blessing on mount Gerizim, and the curse on mount Ebal

(Deuteronomy 11:29 b).

c Are they not in Beyond Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the

sun, in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal,

beside the oaks of Moreh? (Deuteronomy 11:30).

b For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which

Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell in it


a And you shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set

before you this day (Deuteronomy 11:32).

Note than in ‘a’ the blessing is to be given if they obey His commandments, and

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the curse if they do not as a result of going after other gods. In the parallel they

are to obey all His statutes and ordinances which Moses has at that time set

before them. In ‘b’ there is reference to their going into the land to possess it and

in the parallel they are going over Jordan in order to possess the land and dwell

in it. In ‘c’ the blessing is on Mount Gerizim and the cursing on Mount Ebal, and

in the parallel the siting of these mountains is described.

K&D 26-30, "Deu_11:26-30

Concluding summary. “I set before you this day the blessing and the curse.” The blessing,

if (6 ,ֲאֶׁשרτε, as in Lev_4:22) ye hearken to the commandments of your God; the curse,

if ye do not give heed to them, but turn aside from the way pointed out to you, to go after other gods. To this there are added instructions in Deu_11:29 and Deu_11:30, that when they took possession of the land they should give the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal, i.e., should give utterance to them there, and as it were transfer them to the land to be apportioned to its inhabitants according to their attitude towards the Lord their God. (For further comment, see at Deu_27:14.) The two mountains mentioned were selected for this act, no doubt because they were opposite to one another, and stood, each about 2500 feet high, in the very centre of the land not only from west to east, but also from north to south. Ebal stands upon the north side, Gerizim upon the south; between the two is Sichem, the present Nabulus, in a tolerably elevated valley, fertile, attractive, and watered by many springs, which runs from the south-east to the north-west from the foot of Gerizim to that of Ebal, and is about 1600 feet in breadth. The blessing was to be uttered upon Gerizim, and the curse upon Ebal; though not, as the earlier commentators supposed, because the peculiarities of these mountains, viz., the fertility of Gerizim and the barrenness of Ebal, appeared to accord with this arrangement: for when seen from the valley between, “the sides of both these mountains are equally naked and sterile;” and “the only exception in favour of the former is a small ravine coming down, opposite the west end of the town, which is indeed full of foundations and trees” (Rob. Pal. iii. 96, 97). The reason for selecting Gerizim for the blessings was probably, as Schultz supposes, the fact that it was situated on the south, towards the region of the light. “Light and blessing are essentially one. From the light-giving face of God there come blessing and life (Psa_16:11).” - In Deu_11:30 the situation of these mountains is more clearly defined: they were “on the other side of the Jordan,” i.e., in the land to the west of the Jordan, “behind the way of the sunset,” i.e., on the other side of the road of the west, which runs through the land on the west of the Jordan, just as another such road runs through the land on the east (Knobel). The reference is to the main road which ran from Upper Asia through Canaan to Egypt, as was shown by the journeys of Abraham and Jacob (Gen_12:6; Gen_33:17-18). Even at the present day the main road leads from Beisan to Jerusalem round the east side of Ebal into the valley of Sichem, and then again eastwards from Gerizim through the Mukra valley on towards the south (cf. Rib. iii. 94; Ritter, Erdkunde, xvi. pp. 658-9). “In the land of the Canaanite who dwells in the Arabah.” By the Arabah, Knobel understands the plain of Nabulus, which is not much less than four hours' journey long, and on an average from a half to three-quarters broad, “the largest of all upon the elevated tract of land between the western plain and the valley of the Jordan” (Rob. iii. p. 101). This is decidedly wrong, however, as it is opposed to the fixed use of the word, and irreconcilable with the character of this plain, which, Robinson says, “is cultivated throughout and covered with the rich green of millet intermingled with the yellow of the ripe corn, which the country people were just reaping” (Pal. iii. 93). The Arabah is the western portion of

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the Ghor (see at Deu_1:1), and is mentioned here as that portion of the land on the west of the Jordan which lay stretched out before the eyes of the Israelites who were encamped in the steppes of Moab. “Over against Gilgal,” i.e., not the southern Gilgalbetween Jericho and the Jordan, which received its name for the first time in Jos_4:20 and Jos_5:9; but probably the Gilgal mentioned in Jos_9:6; Jos_10:6., and very frequently in the history of Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, which is only about twelve and a half miles from Gerizim in a southern direction, and has been preserved in the large village of Jiljilia to the south-west of Sinjil, and which stands in such an elevated position, “close to the western brow of the high mountain tract,” that you “have here a very extensive prospect over the great lower plain, and also over the sea, whilst the mountains of Gilead are seen in the east” (Rob. Pal. iii. 81). Judging from this description of the situation, Mount Gerizim must be visible from this Gilgal, so that Gerizim and Ebal might very well be described as over against Gilgal.

(Note: There is much less ground for the opinion of Winer, Knobel, and Schultz, that Gilgal is the Jiljule mentioned by Robinson (Pal. iii. 47; and Bibl. Researches, p. 138), which evidently corresponds to the Galgula placed by Eusebius and Jerome six Roman miles from Antipatris, and is situated to the south-east of Kefr Saba (Antipatris), on the road from Egypt to Damascus. For this place is not only farther from Gerizim and Ebal, viz., about seventeen miles, but from its position in the lowland by the sea-shore it presents no salient point for determining the situation of the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal. Still less can we agree with Knobel, who speaks of the village of Kilkilia, to the north-east of Kefr Saba, as the name itself has nothing in common with Gilgal.)

The last definition, “beside the terebinths of Moreh,” is intended no doubt to call to mind the consecration of that locality even from the times of the patriarchs (Schultz: see at Gen_12:6, and Gen_35:4).

BI 26-29, "A blessing and a curse.

Two mountains

Mount Ebal, we are told, “is a barren, stony, and arid crag”; so would God “smite the apostates with barrenness, hunger, and misery.” Gerizim was “covered with luxuriant verdure, streams of running water and cool and shady groves;” so would God “bless the faithful Israelites with abundance, beauty and peace.” It is a grand prophecy in landscape of the judgments of God’s eternal providence. Henceforth their future, in the country they conquer and colonise, is in their own hands. The two ways of national and individual life, to ruin or to glory, part plainly before their eyes. The things shown in that early age of symbols were only outward patterns of what goes on in facts and decisions within us. Gerizim and Ebal raise their significant and speaking summits before every life.

I. For, in other words, life is overspread, permeated, and bound in, by God’s law. That law occupies every inch of its extent and every fibre of its organisation. Obey and be blessed, disobey and be accursed; here is the sharp alternative imprinted on every department of our being. Your body, your business, your appetites, your affections, your intellect, your memory, your judgment, your imagination, your household manners, your talk at the table and in the street, your practice of your profession or performance at your trade, your levity or sobriety, your temper and your tongue, your bargains and your salutations, your correspondence and your meditation, your action and your reveries, your hands, heart, and brain, all are penetrated and encircled by this law.

II. This law is permanent and unchangeable, as its Author is, being the uniform will

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of an unchangeable mind; not one thing for preachers and communicants, but for persons who never chose to confess themselves Christians another and easier thing; not strict for one seventh of your time and lax for six sevenths; not varying with situations and fluctuating with opportunities for concealment or degrees of temptation; not satisfied to be respected in the dwellings at one end of a city while it is despised in the warehouses and offices at the other end.

III. Again, the consequences of this law which we are born and live under, in its two-fold working, whether as visiting penalties upon its violators or peace and strength upon its servants—are not to be prevented though they should be apparently obscured or postponed. This truth requires something more than a theoretic admission. How many of us realise it—that every offence against the Divine Will is certain to bring on, at last, its penal pain ant: sorrow—even its delay aggravating its torment; that every faithful or religious act or feeling must yield its infallible return of joy—the very hindrance enhancing its richness and depth; that Gerizim is sure of the fulfilment of its promise, and Ebal sure of the execution of its warning?

1. Helps enough are given to enable us to realise it. Can we pretend the law is not made plain?

2. We let our short-sightedness be deceived by the slowness of its operation; and, because sentence against our evil works is not executed speedily, suffer our hearts to get set in us to do evil. But the majestic order of nature is not really so stable as the moral results of moral choice, from greatest to least.

IV. With every right-minded Christian it must be a very earnest and very constant prayer, that he may gain larger and larger apprehensions of the extent and the sanctity of this law—the law that puts him on a perpetual choosing between holiness and worldliness, at between blessing and cursing.

V. Another step in the doctrine is to trace up this commandment to its conscious and personal infinite source. The law has its seat in the heart of God. No rigid, unfeeling abstraction is it, but the living Will of a living Father. Choose the right and scorn the wrong; and there will be growing within you a sense of His Almighty Presence, without whom no right could be, and all would be wrong. But remember that moral obedience can never be religious till it has God for its object, God’s Will for its guide, and communion with God for its daily inspiration.

VI. And thus we are led up by this order of our subject to discover, finally, the positive grandeur of allegiance to the Divine law. That grandeur is witnessed both by its nature and its effects.

1. In its nature. For obedience to the commandment is of itself a noble and valiant element in character. It is no paradox to affirm that the obedient mind is a commanding mind. The law that carries blessings in its right hand and curses in its left appeals to a deeper principle than selfishness. The blessings are not earthly advantages, but those spiritual gifts and honours, like confidence and holiness, love and faith, power and peace, which exclude all thought of self, and are kindred with the glory and purity of heaven. The curses are those elements of spiritual ruin—fear, hatred, passion, jealousy, despair, which impoverish the whole moral creation. The law does not reveal its encouragements and threatenings from Gerizim and Ebal, to make a rich or famous people, but a holy people.

2. So the effect is holiness of life. The commandment is holy, just, and good; and so must its fruit be. (Bp. F. D. Huntington.)

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Practical alternatives

Moses does not divide the people into two classes: he sets before them alternative courses:—proceed upon the line of obedience, and you come to blessing; proceed along the line of disobedience, and a curse is the inevitable necessity—not a threatening, not an exhibition of fretful vengeance, but a spiritual necessity; a curse follows evil-doing, not as an arbitrary punishment, but as the effect, which can never be changed, of a certain, positive, operating cause. What if everything round about us be confirming the testimony of Moses? What if the Decalogue be written every day of the week? What if in the operation of moral influence it can be distinctly proved that the Bible is true, that the Word of the Lord abideth forever, and that, whatever changes may have occurred, obedience still leads to blessing, disobedience still leads to cursing, and it is not within the wit or the strength of man to change that outgoing of law and consequence? A very precious thing it is that we have only to obey. At first it looks as if we were humbled by this course of service, but further inquest into the spiritual meaning of the matter shows us that in the definition of right and wrong, law and righteousness, God has been most tenderly pitiful towards us, and law is but the practical and more visible and measurable aspect of love. One who knows the universe, because He made it, and all eternity, because He inhabits it, has condescended to tell us what is good, what is true, what is pure, what is right. If we were inspired by the right spirit we would instantly stand up in thankfulness and bless the Giver’s name, and ask but one other favour—that we might have eyes to see the innermost meaning of the law, and hearts trained, disciplined, and sanctified to accept and obey it, and express it in noble behaviour. Is it true, within limits that we know, that obedience leads to blessing and disobedience to cursing? Sometimes we have to interrupt the Divine reasoning that we may assist ourselves in its comprehension by the study of analogy upon lower ground. Is it true that there is a seed time, which, if neglected, will be followed by desolation and death?. . .If all these little outside Bibles are true and can challenge facts to prove their truth, it is not difficult to rise to the higher level, and to say, There may be a Bible meant for the soul; there may be a revelation addressed to the reason, and to the higher reason called faith, and to the higher self called the spirit. This higher revelation has not the immediate advantage of the lower Bibles, because they deal with earth, body, space, time, measurable quantities; but the higher Bible deals with soul, spirit, thought, will, eternity. He who operates within a radius of a few inches can be, apparently, quicker in his movements, more precise and determined in his decisions, than the man who claims the globe as the theatre of his actions. So the Bible, having the disadvantage of dealing with spiritual quantities, must be judged, so far as we can approach it, by the spirit of the lower laws, or the laws applying to the lower economy The argument is this: seeing that in the field, in the body, in the social economy, there is a law of blessing and a law of cursing, who shall say that this same reasoning does not culminate in a great revelation of heaven, hell; “the right hand,” “the left hand”; eternal life, everlasting penalty? If the analogies had been dead against that construction, we might by so much have stood in doubt and excused ourselves from completeness of service; but every analogy becomes a preacher: all nature take up her parable and speaks the revelations of her God: all life beats with a pulse below a pulse, the physical throb being but an indication of a growing immortality. We stand in a solemn sanctuary. We cannot get rid of law. The spiritual is a present blessing or a present curse. We cannot be happy with a bad conscience: it hardens the pillow when we need sleep most, it upsets all our arrangements, or makes our hand so tremble that we cannot clutch our own property; and we cannot be unhappy with a good conscience: without bread we are still in fulness, without employment we are

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still inspired by hope, without much earthly charity or largeness of construction of our motive and force we still retire within the sanctuary of an approved judgment and conscience. Blessing is not a question of posthumous realisation, nor is cursing. Heaven is here, and hell in germ, in outline, in hint, in quick, burning suggestion. Even now sometimes men know not whether they are in the body or out of the body by reason of religious entrancement and ecstasy; and there are men who, if they dare put their feeling into words, would say, “The pains of hell gat hold upon me.” “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked”; “Though hand join in band, the wicked shall not be unpunished”; “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Who can fight God and win the battle? (J. Parker, D. D.)

The blessing and the curse

1. What is the blessing set before us? The blessing of him whose sins are forgiven, who lives in God’s favour and dies in peace.

2. What is the curse? Just this, “The soul that sins shall die.” “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written,” etc.

3. What is the way to escape the curse? By the death of Christ we are delivered from sin, redeemed from the curse, and by His obedience entitled to a blessing.

4. Which will you choose? Some people think they can make a compromise; that they need not be intensely Christian, as they are not, and will not be intensely worldly. If they do so, it is not really an alteration of their state, but a deception of themselves. You must take the sunshine or the shadow—the evil or the good—the “Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom”; or the withering sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” (J. C. Cumming, D. D.)

27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the

Lord your God that I am giving you today;

GILL, "A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God,.... That is, a blessing should come upon them, even all temporal blessings they stood in need of; they should be blessed in body and estate, in their families, and in their flocks, in town and country; see Deu_28:1,

which I command you this day; afresh repeated to them, and enjoined them the observation of it in the name of the Lord.

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28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the

Lord your God and turn from the way that I

command you today by following other gods,

which you have not known.

GILL, "And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God,.... Accursed in body and estate, in basket and store; in their families, flocks, and herds; within doors and without; in city, and country; going out, or coming in; in this world, and that to come, if divine goodness prevent not; see Deu_28:15.

but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day; which the law he gave them, and repeated to them, directed them to walk in:

to go after other gods, which ye have not known; to serve and worship the gods of other nations, strange gods, which neither they nor their fathers knew anything of, or ever received any good thing from; and which indeed are no gods, and nothing in the world, as an idol is.


‘And the curse, if you will not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God,

but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other

gods, which you have not known.’

But if they refuse to obey they will receive only cursing. For if they will not listen

to the commandments of Yahweh their God, but turn aside from the way that

Moses commands them that day, to go after other gods which they have not

known, then they will surely be cursed.

The Sealing Of The Covenant At Mounts Gerizim and Ebal.

That is why when they enter into the land successfully they must gather at the

place appointed and chosen by Yahweh, and call on themselves both the blessing

and the cursing, an acknowledgement by them that they subscribe to the

covenant, seeking the blessing that it offers and confirming that if they fail to

keep it they will only deserve cursing.

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29 When the Lord your God has brought you

into the land you are entering to possess, you

are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings,

and on Mount Ebal the curses.

BARNES, "Thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim - literally, thou shalt give, i. e., “give” utterance to it. On the ceremony see Deu_27:14 ff.

Mount Gerizim, barren like Ebal, was probably selected as the hill of benediction because it was the southernmost of the two, the south being the region, according to Hebrew ideas, of light, and so of life and blessing. The situation of the mountains is described more accurately in Deu_11:30. The words “by the way where the sun goeth down,” should run, beyond the road of the west; i. e., on the further side of the main track which ran from Syria and Damascus to Jerusalem and Egypt through the center of Palestine. This is called “the way of the west” in contrast to the ether main route from Damascus to the south which passed through the district east of Jordan. The further specifications “Gilgal” and “the plains (rather, the oaks, compare Gen_12:6note) of Moreh,” are added to define more particularly the section of Canaanites intended.

This Gilgal is perhaps to be found in Jiljilia, a large village about twelve miles south of Gerizim.

CLARKE, "Thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal - The etymology of these names may be supposed to cast

some light on this institution. גרזים gerizzim, from גרז garaz, to cut, cut off, cut down;

hence גרזים gerizzim, the cutters down, fellers, and reapers or harvest-men, this

mountain being supposed to have its name from its great fertility, or the abundance

of the crops it yielded, which is a possible case. Of עיבל ebal or eybal the root is not

found in Hebrew; but in Arabic abala signifies rough, rugged, curled, etc.; and abalo,

from the same root, signifies white stones, and a mountain in which such stones are

found; alabalo, the mount of white stones. See Giggeius and Golius. And as it is

supposed that the mountain had this name because of its barrenness, on this metaphorical interpretation the sense of the passage would appear to be the

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following: God will so superintend the land, and have it continually under the eye of his watchful providence, that no change can happen in it but according to his Divine counsel, so that its fertility shall ever be the consequence of the faithful obedience of its inhabitants, and a proof of the blessing of God upon it; on the contrary, its barrenness shall be a proof that the people have departed from their God, and that his curse has in consequence fallen upon the land. See the manner of placing these blessings and curses, Deu_27:12, etc. That Gerizim is very fruitful, and that Ebal is very barren, is the united testimony of all who have traveled in those parts. See Ludolf, Reland, Rab, Benjamin, and Mr. Maundrell. Sychem lies in the valley between these two mountains.

That the land of Judea was naturally very fertile, can scarcely be supposed by any who considers the accounts given of it by travelers; with the exception of a few districts, the whole land is dry, stony, and barren, and particularly all the southern parts of Judea, and all the environs of Jerusalem, most of which are represented as absolutely incapable of cultivation. How then could it ever support its vast number of inhabitants? By the especial providence of God. While God kept that people under his continual protection, their land was a paradise; they lent to all nations and borrowed from none. What has it been since? A demi-solitude, because that especial blessing no longer descends upon it. No land, says Calmet, was more fertile while under the benediction of God; none more barren when under his curse. Its present state is a proof of the declaration of Moses, Deu_28:23 : “The heaven over their head is brass; the earth under their feet, iron.” The land itself, in its present state is an ample proof of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. Should facts of this kind be lost sight of by any who read the sacred writings?

GILL, "And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath bought thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it,.... Which is often observed, as being near at hand; and when and where many things were to be done, which could not be done in the place and circumstances they now were, particularly what follows:

that thou shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal; that is, pronounce the one on one mountain, and the other on the other mountain, or at least towards them, or over against them. The Targum of Jonathan is"ye shall set six tribes on Mount Gerizim, and six tribes on Mount Ebal; (#De 27:12,13) blessing they shall turn their faces against Mount Gerizim, and cursing they shall turn their faces against Mount Ebal;''with which agrees the account given in the Misnah;"six tribes went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and six to the top of Mount Ebal; and the priests and the Levites, and the ark, stood below in the middle; the priests surrounded the ark, and the Levites the priests, and all Israel were on this and on that side of the ark, as in Jos_8:33 then they turned their faces against Gerizim, they opened with the blessing, blessed is he that maketh not any graven or molten image, and both answered "Amen"; then they turned their faces against Mount Ebal, and opened with the curse, Deu_27:15 and both answered Amen (s);''see the performance of this command in Jos_8:33.

HENRY 29-32, "II. He appoints a public and solemn proclamation to be made of the blessing and curse which he had set before them, upon the two mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, Deu_11:29, Deu_11:30. We have more particular directions for this solemnity in Deu_27:11, etc., and an account of the performance of it, Jos_8:33, etc. It was to be done, and was done, immediately upon their coming into Canaan,

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that when they first took possession of that land they might know upon what terms they stood. The place where this was to be done is particularly described by Moses, though he never saw it, which is one circumstance among many that evidences his divine instructions. It is said be near the plain, or oaks, or meadows, of Moreh,which was one of the first places that Abraham came to in Canaan; so that in sending them thither, to hear the blessing and the curse, God reminded them of the promise he made to Abraham in that very place, Gen_12:6, Gen_12:7. The mention of this appointment here serves, 1. For the encouragement of their faith in the promise of God, that they should be masters of Canaan quickly. Do it (says Moses) on the other side Jordan (Deu_11:30), for you may be confident you shall pass over Jordan,Deu_11:31. The institution of this service to be done in Canaan was an assurance to them that they should be brought into possession of it, and a token like that which God gave to Moses (Exo_3:12): You shall serve God upon this mountain. And, 2. It serves for an engagement upon them to be obedient, that they might escape that curse, and obtain that blessing, which, besides what they had already heard, they must shortly be witnesses to the solemn publication of (Deu_11:32): “You shall observe to do the statutes and judgements, that you may not in that solemnity be witnesses against yourselves.”

CALVIN, "29.And it shall come to pass, when the Lord. I have lately expounded

a similar passage, which, although it is subsequent in the order observed by

Moses, yet, inasmuch as it sets out the matter more clearly, I have not hesitated

for perspicuity’s sake to put first. I said that God’s intention was, whilst

appointing the Israelites to proclaim their own condemnation, to lay them under

more solemn obligation to keep the Law. If He had Himself declared His will

through the Levites only, they ought indeed to have been seriously affected, and

to have listened with reverence both to the blessings and the curses; but when

each of them testifies with his own mouth what the Levites dictated by God’s

command, the introduction of this assent, as a solemn ratification, (205) was

more efficacious in awakening their zeal and attention. A more fitting season,

however, for this protest was after they had entered the promised land than as if

it had been made in the plain of Moab; for the sight of the land tended to its

confirmation, as if they had been brought into court to make a covenant with

God.

These (206) two mountains are situated opposite to each other, in such a manner

that the two divisions of the people might easily stand to bless and to curse, so

that they might in concert approve of the promises and threats of God.

WHEDON, "29. Thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse

upon Mount Ebal — There were special reasons for selecting these mountains.

They are almost at the geographical centre of the land. They lie opposite each

other, with a beautiful, well-watered valley between — Ebal on the north and

Gerizim on the south, each rising more than twenty-five hundred feet in height

above the level of the sea. In the valley was Shechem — modern Nablus. The

modern town is beautifully surrounded with well-watered and productive

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gardens. Shechem was so prominent in the history of the patriarchs that the

gathering of the tribes there would be especially impressive and significant. This

was the first spot where Abraham pitched his tent in Canaan, and where he built

an altar. To this place Jacob came on his return from Mesopotamia, and pitched

his tent east of the city near to Shechem. Here he bought the parcel of a field

from Hamor, Shechem’s father. Genesis 33:19. Here, too, he built an altar for

worship. Here the tribes were soon to bury the bones of Joseph. See Joshua

24:32.

BENSON, "Deuteronomy 11:29-30. Put — Hebrew, Thou shalt give; that is,

speak, or pronounce, or cause to be pronounced. This is more particularly

expressed Deuteronomy 27:12-13. Over against — Looking toward Gilgal,

though at some considerable distance from it. Beside the plains of Moreh — This

was one of the first places that Abraham came to in Canaan. So that in sending

them thither to hear the blessing and the curse, they were reminded of the

promise made to Abram in that very place, Genesis 12:6-7.


‘And it shall come about that when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the

land to which you are going to possess it, you will set the blessing on mount

Gerizim, and the curse on mount Ebal. Are they not in Beyond Jordan, behind

the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in

the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?’

Confirmation is now given of the certainty of success in the invasion by

announcing that once they are established in the land they are to perform a

covenant ceremony in the very land in a place connected with the two large

mountains between which lies the valley in which is Shechem, the mountains of

Gerizim and Ebal. Some will stand on one mountain, and some on the other

(Deuteronomy 27:11-14), with the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh in the valley

in between (Joshua 8:30-35). This is the place that Yahweh their God has chosen

for such a ceremony. The blessing will be declared from Mount Gerizim, and the

cursing from Mount Ebal.

The very general geographical position of the mountains is then described. They

are in Beyond Jordan, behind ‘the way of the going down of the sun’, (the road

to the west?), in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Jordan rift valley on

the western side of Jordan, over against Gilgal, by the oaks of Moreh (Genesis

12:6; Genesis 35:4). The situation of this ‘Gilgal’ is disputed. There were a

number of Gilgals (Joshua 12:23; Joshua 15:7), for the name refers to stone

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circles, and there were many of them, and there was quite possibly one near

Shechem. Or it may simply mean ‘beyond Gilgal’ (referring to the well known

Gilgal of Joshua 4:19), i.e. in that direction. (We must remember in this regard

that our understanding of the ancient technical terms used in describing

geographical position is limited, for we do not have enough examples from the

most ancient times by which to work them out). The description is, in the final

analysis, for those who are listening. He may simply be saying in a grand manner

‘over there beyond the river on the other side of Jordan’.

The mention of the oaks of Moreh, (known to them from their traditions), which

were at Shechem, is partly in order to recall God’s dealings with Abraham and

Jacob, for this was the first place that Abraham built an altar to Yahweh when

he received his first theophany in the land (Genesis 12:6), and was later where

Jacob bought land (Genesis 33:18-20). This probably largely explains why the

area of Shechem was chosen for the purpose of establishing the covenant in the

land.

It appears to have been a regular practise for godly men to copy past events.

Thus when Samuel/Saul was re-establishing the Tabernacle worship he did so at

Gilgal (1 Samuel 13, 4, 7-14) where the Tabernacle was first sited when Joshua

entered the land over the Jordan. And both Elijah and Elisha follow the invasion

trail, crossing the Jordan, Jericho, Bethel (Elijah in reverse order - 2 Kings

2:2-8; 2 Kings 2:13-23).

The statement here is only a pause in the detailing of the covenant, for this

reference to a covenant ceremony incorporating blessing and cursing will be

expanded on in Deuteronomy 27. Meanwhile the detailed stipulations of the

covenant are to be declared in 12-26 (this Deuteronomy 27 is a necessary follow-

up to this).

PULPIT, "Deuteronomy 11:29, Deuteronomy 11:30

(Cf. Deuteronomy 27:11.) Thou shalt put the blessing; thou shalt give ( ָנַתָּתה ), i.e.

give forth, utter, announce, proclaim (cf. Genesis 49:21; Job 1:22 [gave, i.e.

uttered impiety to God]; Psalms 6-1:1 :20, gavest, didst utter, slandered. The two

mountains named stand opposite to each other, with a valley between, about two

hundred yards broad at the widest part, in which stood the town of Shechem,

now Nablus. They were selected for the purpose mentioned, doubtless, because of

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their relative position, and probably also because they stand in the center of the

land both from north to south, and from east to west. It has been suggested that

Ebal was appointed for the uttering of the curse, and Gerizim for the uttering of

the blessing, because the former was barren and rugged, the latter fertile and

smooth; but this is not borne out by the actual appearance of the two bills, both

being equally barren-looking, though neither is wholly destitute of culture and

vegetation. That Gerizim was selected for the blessing because of its position on

the south side of the valley "towards the region of light," while Ebal was

appointed for the curse because it was on the north side, can be regarded only as

an ingenious fancy. In verse 30, the position of the two mountains is defined as

on the other side of Jordan, i.e. on the side opposite to where the Israelites then

were, the western side; and as by the way—rather, behind the way—where the

sun goeth down; i.e. the road of the west, the great road which passed through

the west-Jordan country, and which is still the main route from south to north in

Palestine (Ritter, 4.293, etc.; Robinson, 3:127), passing Nablus and the two

menu-rains on the east, so that they are behind it. Which dwell in the

Champaign; in the 'Arabah (see Deuteronomy 1:1), "mentioned here as that

portion of the land on the west of the Jordan which lay stretched out before the

eyes of the Israelites, who were encamped in the steppes of Moab" (Keil). Over

against Gilgal; i.e. not the Gilgal mentioned in Joshua 4:19, which was east of

Jericho (hod. Jiljulia), nor the Gilgal of Joshua 12:23 (probably the modern

Jiljulieh, in the plain of Sharon), but the Gilgal of Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:6; and 2

Kings 2:1 (hod. Jiljilia), to the north of Bethel, from which there is "a very

extensive prospect over the great lower plain, and also over the sea" (Robinson,

'Bib. Res,' 3:138); so that the mountains by Nablus may be very well described as

"over against it." Beside the plains of Moreh; for "plains" read oaks (cf. Genesis

12:6; Genesis 35:4).

30 As you know, these mountains are across the

Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near

the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of

those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the

vicinity of Gilgal.

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GILL, "Are they not on the other side Jordan,.... Opposite to that where Moses now was in the plains of Moab, even in Samaria; so in the Misnah (t) it is said,"as soon as Israel passed over Jordan, they came to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, which are in Samaria;''but those mountains were not near Jordan nor Jericho, to which the people of Israel came first, but sixty miles from thence; though they were, as Moses says, on the other side from the place they now were:

by the way wherewith the sun goeth down; or, as the Targum of Jonathan,"after the way of the sun setting;''following that, or taking their direction from thence, signifying that they lay to the west of Jordan:

in the land of the Canaanites; of that particular tribe or nation which were eminently called Canaanites, for these dwelt by the sea by the coast of Jordan, Num_13:29 or as further described:

that dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal; in the plain open champaign country opposite to Gilgal; not that Gilgal Joshua encamped at before he came to Jericho, which in Moses's time was not known by that name, but another, as Dr. Lightfoot (u) observes, and he thinks Galilee is meant:

beside the plains of Moreh; near to Shechem, Gen_12:6 and that Gerizim, one of these mountains, was not far from Shechem, is evident from Jdg_9:6 and so in the Misnah (w) it is said, that these mountains were on the side of Shechem, which is in the plains of Moreh, as in Deu_11:30 as the plains of Moreh here denote Shechem, so there: Benjamin of Tudela says (x) there is a valley between them, in which lies Shechem; and in his time there were on Mount Gerizim fountains and orchards, but Mount Ebal was dry like stones and rocks. The Targum of Jonathan here, instead of Moreh, reads Mamre; see Gen_13:18.

CALVIN, "30.Are they not on the other side of Jordan. Although the form of

interrogation is common in Hebrew, yet in this place Moses affirms more

vehemently than as if he had only stated directly that these mountains were in

the land of Canaan; for he wishes to encourage them in the confidence of

entering the promised inheritance; just as he adds immediately afterwards, “Ye

shall pass over Jordan.” For, although they had already experienced the

miraculous power of God in the conquest of the Amorites, and in heir occupation

of the land of Bashan, yet such was their incredulity, that it was necessary

constantly to dissipate their fears, so that they might lay aside all hesitation, and

boldly prepare to advance. Finally, he founds an exhortation upon this great

goodness of God; for the actual enjoyment of the land ought to have stimulated

them the more in the service of God, because they were made to inherit it for the

purpose of keeping the Law.

ELLICOTT, "(30) Where the sun goeth down.—A memorable passage, as

attesting the true position of the speaker, east of Jordan, over against Jericho.

The sun has been seen by travellers from that very spot going down exactly in

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the remarkable gap between Ebal and Gerizim.

The plains of Moren.—Rather, the oaks or terebinths of Moreh. (See Genesis

12:6.)

WHEDON, "30. By the way where the sun goeth down — Referring to the great

highway for travel from Syria to Egypt, which runs through the land on the west

side of the Jordan. There was another main road on the east side of the river.

Which dwell in the champaign — In the Arabah. This term was applied to the

whole valley, extending from the sources of the Jordan to the gulf of Akabah. As

the Israelites are now encamped on the east side of the Jordan, the Arabah

would be right before them as they looked toward the west. Knobel thinks the

region in which Nablus is situated to be meant.

Over against Gilgal — Not Gilgal on the west side of the Jordan near Jericho,

but probably the Gilgal mentioned in 2 Kings 2:1. In the narrative it is said that

Elijah and Elisha came down from Gilgal to Bethel, and from Beth-el, going by

Jericho, they pass on to the Jordan. This Gilgal was higher than Beth-el, and

evidently more remote from Jordan. A place bearing the name Jiljilieh is thought

to be the site of this Gilgal. The critics have made this one of the points of attack

on the authenticity of the book. “It must seem strange that Moses, who had never

been in the land of Canaan, should know all these places and be able to describe

them so accurately. But it is still more strange that he should know the name

Gilgal, which, according to the book of Joshua, was not given to the place till

after the people had entered the land of Canaan. It is plain the text was written

at a later age, when these names and places were familiarly known.” —

Pentateuch Examined, ii, p. 200. Now it would be strange indeed if Moses were

not familiar with the geography of the land. The monuments of Egypt show

acquaintance with Syria. The great roads for commerce and war led through

Canaan. Forty years spent in Egypt, forty years in Midian, and forty years on

the very borders of the land would certainly give opportunity for familiar

knowledge of the physical features of the land. As there were several places that

bore the name Gilgal, one at least may have had that name before the conquest.

The plains of Moreh — Rather, the terebinths of Moreh, hallowed in the minds

of the Israelites as the place of the divine manifestation to Abraham. Genesis

12:6-7.

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31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter

and take possession of the land the Lord your

God is giving you. When you have taken it over

and are living there,

GILL, "For ye shall pass over Jordan, to go in to possess the land Which the Lord your God giveth you,.... They were now near it, and by this they are assured they should pass over it, in order to take possession of the land God had given them, and which gift of his was a sufficient title to it:

and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein: should not only take possession of it, but make their abode in it; they are assured hereby of continuance in it, on condition they obeyed the laws of God, as follows.

ELLICOTT, "(31) For ye shall pass over Jordan.—In the place of Sichern, by

the oak of Moreh, “the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I

give this land.” It is the first recorded promise given to the patriarch that his

seed should inherit that particular country. He had gone out from his own

country, “not knowing whither he went” (Genesis 12:6-7).

Here ends the first portion of the exposition of the Decalogue—that which sets

forth the relation of the people brought out of Egypt to Jehovah. The following

chapters set forth the laws of the land of Israel—first, as the seat of worship of

Jehovah; secondly, as the seat of His kingdom; thirdly, as the sphere of operation

of certain rules of behaviour, intended to form a distinctive character for His

people. For a complete analysis of this portion, see the Introduction to this Book.

Some modern writers attribute these chapters to a later hand than that of Moses.

It is therefore necessary to consider them carefully, not simply as chapters, but in

their primary structure and according to their natural divisions.

The land is considered as the seat of Jehovah’s worship from Deuteronomy 12:1

to Deuteronomy 16:17 inclusive.


‘For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh

your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell in it.’

For the truth is that they are to pass over Jordan in order to go in and possess

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the land which Yahweh their God is giving them. And they can be sure that they

will possess it, and dwell in it. They have Yahweh’s assurance of that/

BI, "Ye shall pass over Jordan.

Jordan and Canaan typical of death and heaven

I. The anticipated inheritance.

1. A land of promise.

2. A land of abundance.

3. A holy land.

4. A land of rest.

5. Permanence of residence.

6. A land freely given.

II. The manner of possession.

1. The streams of Jordan rolled between the desert and the land of Canaan. So does the river of death flow between earth and heaven.

2. Jordan separated the Israelites from the inhabitants of Canaan. Death separates the church militant and the church triumphant. On this side is a parent, on the other side a child.

3. Jordan was subject to the command of God. When He gave the word, the waters rose

and stood up (Jos_3:16). Death, too, is under His control. Christ “destroyed him who had

the power of death” (Heb_2:14-15).

4. Through Jordan was a necessary way to the laud of promise. So is death, however painful and affecting. It is necessary that the river of death should be dark and formidable to render us content with the present state of existence.

5. Jordan was the last river they had to pass. Death will be the last conflict—the last enemy with which the saint will have to struggle. Observe that when the children of Israel passed over Jordan the following things were observable.

(1) They were required to sanctify themselves previous to the passage (Jos_3:5).

Before death Christ must be made unto the believer “sanctification” (1Co_1:30).

(2) The priests were to enter the river first. So Jesus entered the river before us—as our Forerunner. The eye of faith in the dying believer beholds His footprints at the bottom.

(3) The priests stood firm in the midst of Jordan until all the people passed over (Jos_

3:17). Christ stands by His people in their dying moments, and they “feel the bottom

of the river, for it is good.”

(4) When they had passed over, they erected memorials of praise (Jos_4:5; Jos_4:8;

Jos_4:20). So when the Christian reaches heaven he shall utter a song of praise. “We went through fire and through water, but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy

place” (Psa_66:12). “Unto Him that loved us” (Rev_1:5-6).

Application:

1. The possession of the heavenly inheritance is certain: “Ye shall possess it.” “Faithful is

He who hath promised it, who also will do it.”

2. Meditate much on heaven and Christ as an important means of inducing to preparation

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for the last conflict.

3. All sinners will be overwhelmed in the swellings of Jordan. (Helps for the Pulpit.)

32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws

I am setting before you today.

GILL, "And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments,.... Take notice of them, and heed unto them, so as to practise them:

which I set before you this day; repeated in order to them, on the observance of which depended their continuance in the land of Canaan; and therefore this is so often repeated and urged.

BI, "Observe to do.

Obedience to the Divine commands

I. It is a breach of the injunction in the text for any man to substitute any contrivance or invention of his own, in the room of that which God hath prescribed in His worship, when such prescription is plain and express.

II. By virtue of the injunction in the text, we are bound to take heed, that we do not interpret any portion of Scripture, to such a sense as to pervert it from its true meaning and intention.

III. By these words we are strictly prohibited from pretending that anything is a Divine command, which is really not so.

IV. But though we must not add anything to the Word of God, or detract anything from it, pretending that any such alteration is of Divine appointment, yet where the Lord hath not spoken, I mean in such things as may be left to human prudence and discretion, the lawful magistrates, and the governors of the Church lawfully appointed, have an undoubted right to order and appoint such observances as are necessary and convenient for edification and external decorum in the public worship; and to take care that everything be done decently and in order; and so far as their commands are not in opposition or contrary to the Word of God, it becomes the duty of their people to comply with them. (Alex. Grant, D. D.).

HAWKER, "Verse 32

REFLECTIONS

DEAREST JESUS! be thou everlastingly adored for all the great things which

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mine eyes have seen of thy wonders of grace, in the rescue of thy people from

more than Egyptian bondage in sin and death. Oh! give me yet more and more to

see and know my vast privileges, and be ever ready to ascribe the whole where

alone it is due, to thine arm, and thy power, which alone bringeth salvation.

Oh, for an ardent zeal to be looking for that city of Canaan whither thou art

gone before. Blessed JESUS! may the recollection that thou art there, prompt my

soul to be sending forth its warmest affections and desires after the attainment of

it, knowing that while I am present in the body I am absent from the LORD.

And do thou, HOLY SPIRIT, whose grace and influence alone can effectually

direct and incline my heart to a right judgment in all things, do thou sweetly

constrain my soul into the love of GOD and into the patient waiting for JESUS

CHRIST that while thy servant is here setting before me, the blessing and the

curse, life and death, and good and evil: JESUS himself who is the sum and

substance of all blessings, all mercies, all good, may be my choice and my Portion

forever.


‘And you shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set

before you this day.’

And when they do they must ‘observe to do’ all the statutes and ordinance set

before them that day. They must fully obey Yahweh’s commands. For that is

what is required if they would possess this land which belongs to Yahweh.

Summary.

Having laid out the basic principles of their position before their Overlord, the

more general part of Moses’s speech is now ended and he is about to enter into

the more detailed regulations of the covenant. At this point therefore let us

reconsider what lessons he has stressed.

Central to all the chapters from 5-11 have been the ideas of how they must obey

His commandment, His statutes and His ordinances that He might bless them in

all they do (Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 5:31-33;

Deuteronomy 6:1-3; Deuteronomy 6:6-8; Deuteronomy 6:17-18; Deuteronomy

6:24-25; Deuteronomy 7:11-12; Deuteronomy 8:1; Deuteronomy 8:6;


Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 11:22; Deuteronomy 11:27; Deuteronomy

11:32); of how they are being blessed because of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac

and Jacob (Deuteronomy 6:10; Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 7:8;


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Deuteronomy 9:27; Deuteronomy 10:15; Deuteronomy 11:9); of how they must

remember their God Who delivered them from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:6;

Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 6:21-23; Deuteronomy 7:8;

Deuteronomy 7:15; Deuteronomy 7:18; Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 9:26);

of how He is bringing them into a good and blessed land (Deuteronomy 6:10-11;

Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 7:13-16; Deuteronomy 8:7-10; Deuteronomy

8:12-13; Deuteronomy 11:10-12; Deuteronomy 11:14-15), and of how they must

beware of turning to false gods and false religion once they enter the land and

must totally destroy them (Deuteronomy 5:8-9; Deuteronomy 6:14-15;

Deuteronomy 7:4-5; Deuteronomy 7:25-26; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy

9:12; Deuteronomy 9:16; Deuteronomy 11:16; Deuteronomy 11:28). They must

remember what their Overlord has done for them, must remember the promises

that He has made to bless them for their forefathers’ sakes, must recognise the

goodness of the land that He is providing for them, and recognise that they must

not enter into association with His enemies.

However each chapter has developed a different theme around the central thesis.

· Deuteronomy 5 was a detailed declaration of the covenant as given at

Mount Sinai (‘the Mount’) and the glory of how it was given.

· Deuteronomy 6 has stressed their need to love Yahweh their covenant

Overlord with all their beings (Deuteronomy 6:5) and to fear Him (Deuteronomy

6:2; Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 6:24), and that they are to teach their

children His instruction. And it reminds them that they must not forget when

they are prospering in the land what He has done for them.

· Deuteronomy 7 has confirmed His elective love for them (Deuteronomy

7:7-8; Deuteronomy 7:13) as His holy people, chosen and treasured

(Deuteronomy 7:6), and promised them that He will bless them wonderfully,

delivering the land into their hands, as long as they behave rightly towards His

enemies.

· Deuteronomy 8 has reminded them of how they must remember and not

forget the past (Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 8:11;

Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 8:18), and especially how He had looked after

them in the wilderness, with the promise that He was bringing them to a good

and prosperous land, and that once He has done so they must beware of self-

glorification.

· Deuteronomy 9 has exhorted them to go forward and cross the Jordan

because Yahweh goes before them, while reminding them that this is not because

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of their righteousness. This last fact he has then demonstrated to them from their

history, including reference to their first breaking of the covenant.

· Deuteronomy 10 has stressed the gracious renewal of that covenant which

they had broken so quickly, reversing the damage described in Deuteronomy 9,

and has described the greatness and uniqueness of Yahweh their covenant God.

· Deuteronomy 11 has urged them to learn from the past and go forward on

the basis of it, repeated the promises and warnings of the previous chapters,

constrained them to remember His words, bear them about with them and teach

them to their children, and has promised the good things to come. And it has

finally finished with the reminder of the blessings and cursings which will come

on them depending on whether they faithfully respond to the covenant or not.

Thus the foundations having been laid for the covenant, he next turns to the

detailed regulations which are required under the covenant.

NISBET, "OBSERVE TO DO

Observe to do all the statutes.’

Deuteronomy 11:32

The twin-secret of success is here disclosed—Live for God; and, in order to that,

Live in His Word.

I. Absolute surrender to all the will of God.—Their part was to ‘diligently keep

all the commandments,’ etc. (v. 23). Weakness was no hindrance whatever. So

long as they kept right with God, it simply did not enter into the problem, for He

was then responsible to give them the victory. Simple obedience pledged His

omnipotence, and so made success a certainty. Why cannot we see this always?

Why are we not wholly set on keeping step with God, instead of being, as we so

often are, absorbed with questions of our strength or weakness? When we are

fully obedient, no such question remains: We have GOD.

II. Life in the Word of God.—Absolute surrender can never be maintained apart

from the diligent use of Scripture. ‘Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in

your heart, and in your soul.’ Can a man work well if he eat little, or nothing?

How can a soul unfed, or ill-fed, do God’s work steadily or well? Meditation on

the Word is the fundamental means of grace; it leads to every other. Therefore,

as you love your life, guard well your morning watch. When the glory pales from

off the Book—beware.

Illustration

(1) ‘With this chapter closes the introduction to the enumeration of statutes and

judgments, which follows in the next chapters. One further plea for obedience

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backed by many arguments.

A recapitulation of the wondrous past (2–7). Do we often enough stir our hearts

by recalling what God has done?

Again the people are exhorted to con the holy words of God (18–25). They were

to be their incessant meditation; and it was on this condition being fulfilled that

God undertook to drive out their foes. Then (23): we must be saturated with the

word of God, if we would live an over-coming life.

One final appeal is made (26–32); as the blessing and the curse are set clearly

before the people. This choice was to be repeated to them in the Land of Promise.

Further particulars were given afterwards (Deuteronomy 27:11; comp. Joshua

8:33). We are constantly passing beneath these mountains. Be it ours to know the

Gerizim of Matthew 5:1-12. Blessing and blessedness come from the outstretched

hands of the ascending Lord (Luke 24:51).’

(2) ‘One day we shall be released and have liberty and clearer vision and greater

joy. Now you, who are over fifty years old, close your eyes a moment and think of

the people who used to be round about you forty years ago. Dead! dead! dead!

Where are they? Are they not on the other side Jordan?’

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Deuteronomy 11 commentary

Spiritual

Transcript of Deuteronomy 11 commentary