Deuteronomy · Chapter 8

ver. 1-9. A caution not to forget God in prosperity, ver. 10-18. A threatening, in case of apostacy, ver. 19, 20.

V. 1. Live-Live comfortably and happily.

Verse 1. That ye may live — Comfortably and prosperously, for life, in the Scripture phrase, signifies more than bare life, namely, happiness and prosperity, Genesis 17:18; 1 Samuel 25:6; Leviticus 25:36; 1 Thessalonians 3:8. On the other hand, afflictions and calamities are called death, Exodus 10:17, and 2 Corinthians 11:23.

1. All… which I command — A renewed admonition to obedience, that they may obtain the land which Jehovah had promised.

V. 2. All the way-All the events which befel three in the way, the miraculous protections, deliverances, provisions, instructions which God gave thee; and withal the frequent and severe punishments of thy disobedience. To know-That thou mightest discover to thyself and others that infidelity, inconstancy, hypocrisy, and perverseness, which lay hid in thy heart; the discovery whereof was of singular use both to them, and to the church of God in all succeeding ages. It is good for us likewise to remember all the ways both of God’s providence and grace, by which he has led us hitherto through the wilderness, that we may trust him, and chearfully serve him.

Verse 2. Thou shalt remember all the way] The various dealings of God with you; the dangers and difficulties to which ye were exposed, and from which God delivered you; together with the various miracles which he wrought for you, and his longsuffering towards you.

Verse 2. Thou shalt remember — Call to mind and meditate upon the wisdom and goodness of God toward thee, and the power exerted on thy behalf. All the way which the Lord led thee — All the events which befell thee in the way, the miraculous protections, deliverances, provisions, instructions, which God gave thee; and withal, the severe punishments of thy disobedience. To know what was in thy heart — That thou mightest discover thyself, and manifest to others, the infidelity, inconstancy, hypocrisy, and perverseness which lay hid in thy heart; the discovery and manifestation whereof God saw would be of peculiar use, both to them and to his church in all succeeding ages. It is well for us, likewise, to remember all the ways both of God’s providence and grace, by which he has hitherto led, and still leads us through the wilderness, that we may trust in him, and cheerfully serve him.

2. Remember all the way — That forty years’ wandering through the great and terrible wilderness was to be the dark background against which the divine leadings could be seen: in deliverance from the pursuing Egyptians; in miraculous provision for their bodily wants, as when bread came down from heaven; also when the smitten rock sent forth refreshing draughts.

V. 3. By every word-That is, by every or any thing which God appoints for this end, how unlikely so-ever it may seem to be for nourishment; seeing it is not the creature, but only God’s command and blessing upon it, that makes it sufficient for the support of life.

Verse 3. He-suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee] God never permits any tribulation to befall his followers, which he does not design to turn to their advantage. When he permits us to hunger, it is that his mercy may be the more observable in providing us with the necessaries of life. Privations, in the way of providence, are the forerunners of mercy and goodness abundant.

Verse 3. By every word of the Lord doth man live — By every, or any thing which God appoints and blesses for this end, how unlikely soever it may seem to be for the support and nourishment of the human frame. For it is not the creature, without God, that is sufficient for the support of life; it is only his command and blessing that makes it sufficient. We ought not, therefore, to fix our dependance, as we are prone to do, on natural causes, but to remember that we depend, absolutely, entirely, and immediately, on him for life and all things.

3. He humbled thee,… and fed thee with manna — Comp. Exodus 16:16. Jehovah had shown them their dependence on him, and then in their extremity he provides an abundant supply for their bodily wants. By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of The Lord — More literally rendered, on every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah. In this verse the word bread is employed to include all the ordinary provision for sustaining human life. When Jesus quotes this passage in reply to the tempter (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4) he means to say that life can be sustained by extraordinary means. God can employ other means and methods. Life can be sustained by other provision. The Saviour, as he sat by Jacob’s well, said to his disciples, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” John 4:32.

Verse 4. Thy raiment waxed not old, &c.] The plain meaning of this much-tortured text appears to me to be this: “God so amply provided for them all the necessaries of life, that they never were obliged to wear tattered garments, nor were their feet injured for lack of shoes or sandals.” If they had carvers, engravers, silversmiths, and jewellers among them, as plainly appears from the account we have of the tabernacle and its utensils, is it to be wondered at if they also had habit and sandal makers, &c., &c., as we are certain they had weavers, embroiderers, and such like? And the traffic which we may suppose they carried on with the Moabites, or with travelling hordes of Arabians, doubtless supplied them with the materials; though, as they had abundance of sheep and neat cattle, they must have had much of the materials within themselves. It is generally supposed that God, by a miracle, preserved their clothes from wearing out: but if this sense be admitted, it will require, not one miracle, but a chain of the most successive and astonishing miracles ever wrought, to account for the thing; for as there were not less than 600,000 males born in the wilderness, it would imply, that the clothes of the infant grew up with the increase of his body to manhood, which would require a miracle to be continually wrought on every thread, and on every particle of matter of which that thread was composed. And this is not all; it would imply that the clothes of the parent became miraculously lessened to fit the body of the child, with whose growth they were again to stretch and grow, &c. No such miraculous interference was necessary.

Verse 4. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee — The common interpretation of these words is, that, by a constant miracle, their clothes did not so much as decay, nor their foot swell, or, as some render it, grow callous, by so long travelling in hot and stony places. But Le Clerc thinks “it is hardly to be imagined that Moses, whose principal intention was to record the miracles which God wrought for the Israelites in the wilderness, should have mentioned this so transiently, and, as it were, by the by, if it really had been wrought to that extent, especially as it would have been one of the greatest of them. For there must indeed have been as many miracles wrought as there were persons in the camp, and that not only once, but daily, and for the space of forty years. And if we add to this, that their clothes grew in proportion to their stature, as in that case they must have done, unless they had more coats than one apiece, a greater miracle can hardly be conceived. He observes further, that God is never wont to work miracles unless they be quite necessary; yet here is one of the greatest miracles without any necessity at all. For, as the Israelites had flocks of sheep and goats in the wilderness, and certainly were not ignorant of the art of weaving, as appears from the curious work of the tabernacle, and as nothing hindered them from trafficking with their Arabian neighbours, it is evident they might have been supplied with clothes in the common way, either by making or purchasing them. This being the case, is it not as reasonable to believe that God would have fed the Israelites with manna, after their settlement in Canaan, as that he would have preserved their clothes from decay, during their abode in the wilderness, when there was no necessity for their being thus clothed by a miracle?” He therefore explains Moses’s words thus: Thy raiment waxed not old — That is, “Providence has been so liberal in supplying your wants in this desert land, that you have never been under the necessity of letting your clothes grow old upon your backs, but have always been supplied with new before the old were worn out. Nor did your feet swell — Namely, for want of shoes to defend them.” Agreeably to this interpretation, in Deuteronomy 29:5, instead of Thy foot did not swell, it is, Thy shoe did not wax old upon thy feet; that is, “You were not reduced, through poverty, to wear shoes till they were grown so old and torn that they could not defend your feet against tumours, and other inconveniences, arising from heat and rugged ways.” This interpretation, it must be observed, is not peculiar to Le Clerc; Spanheim, Burman, Bynæus, Budæus, Calmet, and many others have adopted it.

Verse 4. Thy raiment waxed not old. By a miracle the Lord preserved the clothes of the Israelites from wearing and decay, or by means of trade and war with the supplies they brought from Egypt, and by their own manufactures in the deserts; for they were never seen in nakedness and rags. The beautiful cloth of the tabernacle was all manufactured in the vicinity of mount Sinai; consequently, they could do much towards manufacturing their own raiment.

4. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee — Literally, did not fall from thee. Some of the Jewish interpreters, and some Christian commentators, have held that by supernatural means provision was made for the durability of the clothing of the Israelites during the forty years’ wandering. But there seems to be no necessity for resorting to miraculous provision in this matter. Abundant resources were at their command. They had flocks and herds. There must have been many skilful workmen among them, as is seen in the description of the building and adorning of the tabernacle. Neither did thy foot swell — The Septuagint has ouk elulwqhsan, did not become hard or callous. The Hebrew might be rendered either “to swell up” or “to blister.” The meaning of the verse is, there was no lack of clothing for the body nor of covering for the feet, all through the long and toilsome journey.

V. 5. As a man chastiseth his son-That is, unwillingly, being constrained by necessity; moderately, in judgment remembering mercy; and for thy reformation not thy destruction.

Verse 5. As a man chasteneth his son — That is, unwillingly, being constrained by necessity; moderately, in judgment remembering mercy; and for his reformation, not his destruction.

5. As a man chasteneth his son — The word which in our version is rendered chasteneth is also used in the sense of instruct, educate. In 4:36, it is translated instruct. This discipline of the wilderness was designed to educate the people. It was to teach them obedience and trust in Him who was guiding them and providing for them. It was training them to become a holy and peculiar people whose God is Jehovah.

V. 7. Depths-Deep wells or springs, or lakes, which were numerous and large.

Verses 7-9. Depths — Deep wells, or springs, or lakes, which were numerous and large. Whose stones are iron — Where iron mines are as plentiful as quarries of stone are in other places. Thou mayest dig brass — That is, copper, of which brass is made.

7, 8. A good land — In these verses Moses contrasts the sterility of the almost waterless desert with the fertility of the land they are soon to possess. They are to have a land of brooks and fountains. At Banias, the Caesarea Philippi of the New Testament, are rivulets so deep and so abundant in supply of water that they form one of the chief sources of the Jordan. This river, extending from the northern boundary to the Dead Sea, with the lakes through which it flows — Merom and Gennesaret — forms one of the most marked features of the land. “Beautiful springs, characteristic of the whole valley of the Jordan, are unusually numerous and copious along the western shore of the lake,” (Gennesaret.) — STANLEY, Sinai and Palestine, p. 374. Vines — Palestine was noted for the products of the vineyard. Comparatively little wine is now made, as the Mohammedans are forbidden to use it. But the vine is still extensively cultivated in the southern part of Palestine. The traveler sees many fruitful vineyards in the neighbourhood of Hebron.

Verse 8. A land of wheat, &c.] On the subject of this verse I shall introduce the following remarks, which I find in Mr. Harmer’s Observations on the Fertility of the Land of Judea, vol. iii., p. 243. “Hasselquist tells us that he ate olives at Joppa (upon his first arrival in the Holy Land) which were said to grow on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem; and that, independently of their oiliness, they were of the best kind he had tasted in the Levant. As olives are frequently eaten in their repasts, the delicacy of this fruit in Judea ought not to be forgotten; and the oil that is gotten from these trees much less, because still more often made use of. In the progress of his journey he found several fine vales, abounding with olive trees. He saw also olive trees in Galilee; but none farther, he says, than the mountain where it is supposed our Lord preached his sermon. “The fig trees in the neighbourhood of Joppa, Hasselquist goes on to inform us, were as beautiful as any he had seen in the Levant. “The reason why pomegranates are distinctly mentioned, in this description of the productions of the land of promise, may be their great usefulness in forming cooling drinks, for they are used among the Asiatics nearly in the same way that we use lemons; see vol. ii., 145.

“Honey is used in large quantities in these countries; and Egypt was celebrated for the assiduous care with which the people there managed their bees. Maillet’s account of it is very amusing. ‘There are,’ says he, ‘abundance of bees in that country; and a singular manner of feeding them, introduced by the Egyptians of ancient times, still continues there. Towards the end of October, when the Nile, upon its decrease, gives the peasants an opportunity of sowing the lands, sainfoin is one of the first things sown, and one of the most profitable. As the Upper Egypt is hotter than the Lower, and the inundation there goes sooner off the lands, the sainfoin appears there first. The knowledge they have of this causes them to send their bee-hives from all parts of Egypt, that the bees may enjoy, as soon as may be, the richness of the flowers, which grow in this part of the country sooner than in any other district of the kingdom. The hives, upon their arrival at the farther end of Egypt, are placed one upon another in the form of pyramids, in boats prepared for their reception, after having been numbered by the people who place them in the boats. The bees feed in the fields there for some days; afterwards, when it is believed they have nearly collected the honey and wax, which were to be found for two or three leagues round, they cause the boats to go down the stream, two or three leagues lower, and leave them there, in like manner, such a proportion of time as they think to be necessary for the gathering up the riches of that canton. At length, about the beginning of February, after having gone the whole length of Egypt, they arrive at the sea, from whence they are conducted, each of them, to their usual place of abode; for they take care to set down exactly, in a register, each district from whence the hives were carried in the beginning of the season, their number and the names of the persons that sent them, as well as the number of the boats, where they are ranged according to the places they are brought from. What is astonishing in this affair is, that with the greatest fidelity of memory that can be imagined, each bee finds its own hive, and never makes any mistake. That which is still more amazing to me is, that the Egyptians of old should be so attentive to all the advantages deducible from the situation of their country; that after having observed that all things came to maturity sooner in Upper Egypt, and much later in Lower, which made a difference of above six weeks between the two extremities of their country, they thought of collecting the wax and the honey so as to lose none of them, and hit upon this ingenious method of making the bees do it successively, according to the blossoming of the flowers, and the arrangement of nature.’”

If this solicitude were as ancient as the dwelling of Israel in Egypt, they must have been anxious to know whether honey, about which they took such care in Egypt, was plentiful in the land of promise; and they must have been pleased to have been assured it was. It continues to be produced there in large quantities: Hasselquist, in the progress of his journey from Acra to Nazareth, tells us that he found “great numbers of bees, bred thereabouts, to the great advantage of the inhabitants.” He adds, “they make their bee-hives, with little trouble, of clay, four feet long, and half a foot in diameter, as in Egypt. They lay ten or twelve of them, one on another, on the bare ground, and build over every ten a little roof.” Mr. Maundrell, observing also many bees in the Holy Land, takes notice that by their means the most barren places in other respects of that country become useful, perceiving in many places of the great salt plain near Jericho a smell of honey and wax as strong as if he had been in an apiary. By Hasselquist’s account it appears, that the present inhabitants of Palestine are not strangers to the use of hives. They are constructed of very different materials from ours, but just the same with the Egyptian hives. They seem to be an ancient contrivance; and indeed so simple an invention must be supposed to be as old as the days of Moses, when arts, as appears from his writings, of a much more elevated nature were known in Egypt. I cannot then well persuade myself to adopt the opinion of some of the learned, that those words of Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:13, He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil cut of the flinty rock, are to be understood of his causing Israel to dwell in a country where sometimes they might find honey-comb in holes of the rock. It is very possible that in that hot country these insects, when not taken due care of, may get into hollow places of the rocks, and form combs there, as they sometimes construct them in ours in hollow trees, though I do not remember to have met with any traveller that has made such an observation. But would this have been mentioned with so much triumph by Moses in this place? The quantities of honey produced after this manner could be but small, compared with what would be collected in hives properly managed; when found, it must often cost a great deal of pains to get the honey out of these little cavities in the hard stone, and much the greatest part must be absolutely lost to the inhabitants. The interpretation is the more strange, because when it is said in the next clause, “and oil out of the flinty rock,” it is evidently meant that they should have oil produced in abundance by olive trees growing on flinty rocks; and consequently, the sucking honey out of the rock should only mean their enjoying great quantities of honey, produced by bees that collected it from flowers growing among the rocks: the rocky mountains of this country, it is well known, produce an abundance of aromatic plants proper for the purpose. Nor does Asaph, in the close of the eighty-first Psalm, speak, I apprehend, of honey found in cavities of rocks; nor yet is he there describing it as collected from the odoriferous plants that grow in the rocky hills of those countries, if the reading of our present Hebrew copies be right: but the prophet tells Israel that, had they been obedient, God would have fed them with the fat of wheat, and with the rock of honey would he have satisfied them, that is, with the most delicious wheat, and with the richest, most invigorating honey, in large quantities, both for eating and making agreeable drink. Its reviving, strengthening quality appears in the story of Jonathan, Saul’s son, 1 Samuel 14:27; as the using the term rock to signify strength, &c., appears in a multitude of places. The rock of a sword, Psalm 89:43, for the edge of the sword, in which its energy lies, is, perhaps, as strange an expression to western ears.

I shall have occasion to speak of the excellence of the grapes of Judea in a succeeding chapter; I may therefore be excused from pursuing the farther examination of the productions of this country, upon giving my reader a remark of Dr. Shaw’s to this purpose, that it is impossible for pulse, wheat, or grain of any kind, to be richer or better tasted than what is sold at Jerusalem. Only it may not be amiss to add, with respect to this country’s being well watered, that the depth, תהם tehom, spoken of in this passage, seems to mean reservoirs of water filled by the rains of winter, and of great use to make their lands fertile; as the second word תעלתיה tealotheiha seems to mean wells, or some such sort of conveniences, supplied by springs, and the first word; hytrhn naharotheiha rivers or running streams, whether carrying a larger or smaller body of water. What an important part of this pleasing description, especially in the ears of those that had wandered near forty years in a most dry and parched wilderness! I will only add, without entering into particulars, that the present face of the country answers this description.

Verses 7-9. Depths — Deep wells, or springs, or lakes, which were numerous and large. Whose stones are iron — Where iron mines are as plentiful as quarries of stone are in other places. Thou mayest dig brass — That is, copper, of which brass is made.

7, 8. A good land — In these verses Moses contrasts the sterility of the almost waterless desert with the fertility of the land they are soon to possess. They are to have a land of brooks and fountains. At Banias, the Caesarea Philippi of the New Testament, are rivulets so deep and so abundant in supply of water that they form one of the chief sources of the Jordan. This river, extending from the northern boundary to the Dead Sea, with the lakes through which it flows — Merom and Gennesaret — forms one of the most marked features of the land. “Beautiful springs, characteristic of the whole valley of the Jordan, are unusually numerous and copious along the western shore of the lake,” (Gennesaret.) — STANLEY, Sinai and Palestine, p. 374. Vines — Palestine was noted for the products of the vineyard. Comparatively little wine is now made, as the Mohammedans are forbidden to use it. But the vine is still extensively cultivated in the southern part of Palestine. The traveler sees many fruitful vineyards in the neighbourhood of Hebron.

V. 9. Whose stones are iron-Where are mines of iron in a manner as plentiful as stones, and upon which travellers must tread, as in other parts they do upon stones.

Verse 9. A land whose stones are iron] Not only meaning that there were iron mines throughout the land, but that the loose stones were strongly impregnated with iron, ores of this metal (the most useful of all the products of the mineral kingdom) being every where in great plenty. Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.] As there is no such thing in nature as a brass mine, the word tvjn nechosheth should be translated copper; of which, by the addition of the lapis calaminaris, brass is made. See Clarke on “Exodus 25:3”.

Verses 7-9. Depths — Deep wells, or springs, or lakes, which were numerous and large. Whose stones are iron — Where iron mines are as plentiful as quarries of stone are in other places. Thou mayest dig brass — That is, copper, of which brass is made.

Ver. 9. Dig brass. tvjn nechosheth, and nachosh, brass; the genera is here put for all the species. We dig nickle, a word evidently Hebrew, and lapis calaminaris, which is the ore of zinc, of which brass is formed by a mixture of copper. The mountains abounded with salubrious springs, which were very scarce in the plains and deserts.

9. Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass — Instead of brass the translation should read copper. In Lebanon on the north, and in the mountains of Edom on the southeast, there were mines of copper. On the east of the Jordan are ancient worked-out iron mines. Comp. Delitzsch on Job, vol. ii, p. 91. The Jews apparently did not engage in mining to any extent.

V. 10. Bless the Lord-Solemnly praise him for thy food; which is a debt both of gratitude and justice, because it is from his providence and favour that thou receivest both thy food and refreshment and strength by it. The more unworthy and absurd is that too common profaneness of them, who, professing to believe a God, from whom all their comforts come, grudge to own him at their meals, either by desiring his blessing before them, or by offering due praise to God after them.

Verse 10. Bless the Lord — Solemnly praise him for thy food; which is a debt both of gratitude and justice, because it is from his providence and favour that thou receivest both thy food and refreshment, and strength by it. The more unworthy and absurd is that too common profaneness of them, who, professing to believe in God, from whom all their comforts come, grudge to own him at their meals, either by desiring his blessing before them, or by offering due praise to God after them.

11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord — How earnestly and persistently the aged lawgiver and leader admonishes his people of the perils of prosperity! They had been tested and trained by years of toil and self-denial. The coming years of prosperous enjoyment will still more strongly test their loyalty to Jehovah.

V. 14. Lifted up-As if thou didst receive and enjoy these things, either, by thy owns wisdom, and valour, and industry, or for thy own merit.

Verse 14. Lifted up — As if thou didst receive and enjoy these things, either by thy own wisdom, and valour, and industry, or by thy own merit.

Verse 15. Who led thee through that-terrible wilderness] See the account of their journeying in the notes, See Clarke “Exodus 16:1”, &c.; Numbers 21:10-35, &c.

Fiery serpents] Serpents whose bite occasioned a most violent inflammation, accompanied with an unquenchable thirst, and which terminated in death. See Clarke on “Numbers 21:6”.

Ver. 15. Fiery serpents, so called from the burning heat and thirst excited by the poison, in those who were bitten. See Numbers 21.

15. Who led thee — This passage is better rendered, “Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, poisonous serpents, and scorpions, and parched land, where were no waters.” Even in such a land they were the objects of a providential care. Bread from heaven, water from the rock, had supplied their wants.

V. 16. That he might humble thee-By keeping thee in a constant dependence upon him for every day’s food, and convincing thee what an impotent, helpless creature thou art, having nothing whereon to subsist, and being supported wholly by the alms of divine goodness from day to day. The mercies of God, if duly considered, are as powerful a mean to humble us as the greatest afflictions, because they increase our debts to God, and manifest our dependance upon him, and by making God great, they make us little in our own eyes. To do thee good-That is, that after he hath purged and prepared thee by afflictions, thou mayest receive and enjoy his blessings with less disadvantage, whilst by the remembrance of former afflictions. thou art made thankful for them, and more cautious not to abuse them.

Verse 16. Who fed thee-with manna] See this miracle described See Clarke “Exodus 16:13”, &c.

Verse 16. That he might humble thee — By keeping thee in constant dependance upon himself for every day’s food, and convincing thee what an impotent, helpless creature thou art, having nothing whereon to subsist, and being supported wholly by the alms of divine goodness from day to day. The mercies of God, if duly considered, are as powerful a means to humble us as the greatest afflictions, because they increase our debts to God, and manifest our dependance upon him, and by making God great, they make us little in our own eyes. To do thee good — That is, that after he hath purged and prepared thee by afflictions, thou mayest receive and enjoy his blessings with less disadvantage, while by the remembrance of former afflictions thou art made thankful for those blessings, and more cautious not to abuse them.

Ver. 16. Who fed thee daily with manna, gathered every morning, that he might teach thee to depend on him for all things, having long proved his fidelity.

16. At thy latter end — The Hebrew word which our translators have rendered latter end is the same that is used in Genesis 49:1, and Isaiah 2:2. In both cases it is rendered last days. “In this instance Moses refers to the period of their life in Canaan, in contrast with which the period of their sojourn in Egypt and their wandering in the desert is regarded as the beginning; consequently the expression does not relate to death as the end of life, as in Numbers 33:10.” — Keil.

Verse 18. God-giveth thee power to get wealth] Who among the rich and wealthy believes this saying? Who gives wisdom, understanding, skill, bodily strength, and health? Is it not God? And without these, how can wealth be acquired? Whose is providence? Who gives fertility to the earth? And who brings every proper purpose to a right issue? Is it not God? And without these also can wealth be acquired? No. Then the proposition in the text is self-evident: it is God that giveth power to get wealth, and to God the wealthy man must account for the manner in which he has expended the riches which God hath given him.

DEUTERONOMY

19, 20. Surely perish — Again Moses seeks to deepen the impression which his admonitions may make by warning the people of the fate that will overtake them if they are disobedient.

Verse 20. So shall ye perish — Assure yourselves, if you apostatize from the worship and service of God, and relapse into idolatry, irreligion, or vice, your nation will be involved in the same ruin and destruction that you are now going to execute upon the Canaanites for the like national sins. These cautions and exhortations which Moses here so forcibly and pathetically gives to the Israelites ought to be well observed and laid to heart by us all, to every one of whom they are equally necessary.

19, 20. Surely perish — Again Moses seeks to deepen the impression which his admonitions may make by warning the people of the fate that will overtake them if they are disobedient.