A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Deuteronomy 11

¹ “Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commandments, always. — 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; whatsoever the Lord had charged them to observe, even what follow: and his statutes and his judgments, and his commandments, always; all his laws, ceremonial, judicial and moral; and that constantly and continually, all the days of their lives.

² And know ye this day, for I speak not with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His stretched out arm, — 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;

— 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;

— 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.

³ and His miracles, and His acts, which He did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt and unto all His land; — 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 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 the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day; — hath destroyed them unto this day; brought them so low that they have not yet recovered their strength;

— or, the effect of which destruction continueth to this day, in their weakness and fear, and our safety from their further attempts against us, what he did in the wilderness, both in a way of judgement and mercy.

⁵ and what He did unto you in the wilderness until ye came into this place; — what he did unto you in the wilderness; the doings of God to the people; the manifestations of his omnipotence, both in their 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;

⁶ and what He did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households and their tents and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel—

— Moses does not mention Korah himself here, but only his accomplices Dathan and Abiram, 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;” 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;

⁷ but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which He did. — but your eyes have seen; literally, for your eyes are the witnesses of all the great working of God which he hath done; and therefore the instruction they should learn from thence should be as follows.

⁸ “Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land whither ye go to possess it; — therefore shall you keep all the commandment and his statutes; the ten commandments, the feasts and all others, which I command you this day,

⁹ and that ye may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. — 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;

— 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 says.

¹⁰ For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowed thy seed and watered it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs. — 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, and yet Canaan exceeded that;

¹¹ But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, — drinketh water of the rain of heaven because this comes not from man’s art or industry, but immediately from God’s power and goodness; more easy, being given thee without thy charge or pains; more sweet and pleasant,

¹² a land which the Lord thy God careth for. The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. — 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;

— in Ezekiel 20:6 it says “A land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.”

¹³ “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, — this exhortation to fear and love the Lord, with a reference to the blessing that would follow the faithful fulfilment of the law, and a threat of the curse which would attend apostasy to idolatry.

¹⁴ that ‘I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil. — 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, as the Targum of Jonathan says; 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;

¹⁵ And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.’ — 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; 

— 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.

¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; — 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;

¹⁷ and then the Lord’S wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, that there be no rain and that the land yield not her fruit, and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.

— and that the land yield not her fruit; which is unavoidably the case when rain is withheld: 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 “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. — 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;

¹⁹ And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. — let them therefore impress the words now set before them very deeply upon themselves and their children; 

²⁰ And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and upon thy gates,

²¹ that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. — 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.

²² For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them — to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him—

— 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;

²³ then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

— then will the Lord drive out all those nations from before you; little by 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;

²⁴ Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your borders be. — from the wilderness 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 north and eastern border, when it was carried to its utmost extent, as in the days of Solomon; 1 Kings 4:21.

²⁵ There shall no man be able to stand before you; 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, as He hath said unto you. — the fear of you and the dread of you; “The fear of you on those that are near, and the dread upon those that are far off.”

— 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.

²⁶ “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: — a blessing and a curse; literally, blessing and cursing; the blessing if ye obey, and the curse if ye do not;

²⁷ a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day; — 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;

²⁸ and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which ye have not known.

— 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;

²⁹ And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal.

— 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.

³⁰ Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh? — are they not on the other side Jordan; opposite to that where Moses now was in the plains of Moab, even in Samaria;

³¹ For ye shall pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it and dwell therein. — 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;

³² And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day. — 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 repeated.

Deuteronomy 12

¹ “These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. — these are the statutes and judgements; the word Mitzvah (commandment, or duty), is not used here; as institutions and judgements are now before them.

² Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree.

— ye shall utterly destroy; first of all these requirements is the destruction of every vestige of idolatry; their temples, chapels, altars, groves, as appears from other scriptures; also the Gentiles used to employ the high mountains for their idolatry;

³ And ye shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars and burn their Asherah poles with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods and destroy the names of them out of that place.

— and you shall overthrow their altars, these were to be demolished, lest the Israelites should be tempted to make use of them; and besides, the Lord would not have any remains of idolatry in the land where his tabernacle and worship were, as being abominable to him.

⁴ Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. — Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God; not sacrifice to him on hills and mountains, and under green trees;

⁵ But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come.

— to put his name there, that is, to set up hiss worship there, or which he shall call by his name, as his house, or dwelling-place, where the ark should be, the tabernacle, or temple; which was first Shiloh, Joshua 18:1, then next in Jerusalem.

⁶ And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks. — the command to bring ALL the sacrifices to the door of the tabernacle, was now explained with reference to the promised land;

⁷ And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.

— there; not in the tabernacle or temple, where only the priests might eat the most holy things, (Numbers 18:10,) but in the court of the tabernacle, or in some place adjacent to the sanctuary.

⁸ Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever being right in his own eyes. — every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes; that did he, brought the above things when and where he pleased;

— not that there was no regard had to the laws and rules given, as if there was no priest in Israel, nor the works of the Sandhedrin; but they were not so exactly in all circumstances conformed to as they would be obliged to when they came into the land of Canaan;

⁹ For ye have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. — ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance; nor would the passage of Jordan and the conquest of Joshua bring them to it.

¹⁰ But when ye go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and when He giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety,

— but when ye go over Jordan; which lay between the place where they now were, and the land of Canaan, and which they would quickly go over;

¹¹ then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. Thither shall ye bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord.

— which the Lord your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there: and it was in Jerusalem where he himself would dwell, and where his name would be called, and he would be worshipped.

¹² And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite who is within your gates, forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.

— and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, in the place chosen and later fixed at Jerusalem, where a temple would be built for him, and he would take up his residence; eating with joy and gladness that part of the offerings which belonged to them, keeping as it were a feast before the Lord, in token of gratitude for what they had received from him;

¹³ Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest; — this would be his habitation, where, as King of Israel, would be found by all who reverently sought him;

¹⁴ but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. — but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes; which tribe is not named, nor what place in that tribe;

¹⁵ “Notwithstanding, thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given thee; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck and as of the hart.

— whatsoever thy soul lusteth after; what you shall desire either for quantity or quality, provided always you observe the laws given you elsewhere about avoiding excess and uncleanness in the things you eat;

— the unclean, who is forbidden to eat of holy meats, Leviticus 7:20; may eat thereof, to wit, of any sort of creatures, even of those sorts which are offered to God in sacrifices, which are as free to your use as the roebuck and the hart, which were unclean, or not acceptable, for sacrifice, Leviticus 22:19;

¹⁶ Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. — only ye shall not eat the blood; all manner of blood being forbidden, of fowl or of beasts, whether slain for sacrifice or for common food.

¹⁷ Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings or heave offering of thine hand.

— not within thy gates; that is, not in your private residence, as opposed to the place of God’s worship; they should be eaten at the place God would cloose, that is, later identified to be in Jerusalem: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

¹⁸ But thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite who is within thy gates; and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

— but thou must eat them before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, which is in Jerusalem; which may be said to be eaten before him, being eaten in the place where his sanctuary stood, in which he dwells;

¹⁹ Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. — take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite; by withholding from him the tithes appointed for his maintenance;

²⁰ “When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border as He hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, ‘I will eat flesh,’ because thy soul longeth to eat flesh, thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

— because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; would have a craving appetite unto it, having so long ate none, or very little: thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after;

— the clean and unclean ceremonial distinctions did not apply in such cases, of any sort that is clean, and allowed to be eaten, anymore than to “the roebuck” (or gazelle) “and hart,” animals allowed for food but not for sacrifice;

— the permission to hunt and use venison for food was doubtless a great boon to the Israelites, not only in the wilderness, but in Canaan, as the mountainous ranges of Lebanon, Carmel, and Gilead, where deer abounded in vast numbers, would thus furnish them with a plentiful and luxuriant repast.

²¹ If the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to put His name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock which the Lord hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

— be too far from thee; in which case, being obliged to carry their sacrifice to Jerusalem, that the blood might be there poured forth, they might think themselves obliged, for the same reason, to carry their other cattle thither to be killed;

— they are therefore released from all such obligations, and left at liberty to kill them at home, whether they lived nearer to that place, or further from it; only the latter is here mentioned, as being the matter of any reluctance or hesitation.

²² Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them; the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. — even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, which were not only clean creatures, but were commonly and frequently eaten, there being plenty of them in those regions;

— so thou shalt eat them; their oxen and calves, their sheep and lambs, their goats and their kids: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike, as in Deuteronomy 12:15 above;

²³ Only be sure that thou eat not the blood; for the blood is the life, and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. — and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh: by which it seems that the blood might not be eaten in or with the flesh.

²⁴ Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. — thou shall pour it upon the earth as water; as the blood of sacrifices was poured upon the altar, the blood of common flesh was to be poured upon the earth.

²⁵ Thou shalt not eat it, that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

— for those that eat blood, contrary to this command of God, it is threatened that he would set his face against them, and they should be cut off, Leviticus 7:27 “Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.”

²⁶ Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take and go unto the place which the Lord shall choose. — only thy holy things which thou hast; which the Targums of Jonathan interprets of the tithe of their holy things, and their burnt offerings and peace offerings;

²⁷ And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.

— and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God; and on that only, even the altar of burnt offering;

— and the blood of thy sacrifices; not only of the burnt offerings, but of the sin offerings, trespass offerings and peace offerings; shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God.

²⁸ Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.

— when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God; for these are what are good and right in his sight, and it is for the good of men to do them.

²⁹ “When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them and dwellest in their land, — when the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee; the seven nations of the land of Canaan, Deuteronomy 7:1,

³⁰ take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after they are destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise.’

— and that thou inquire not after their gods; what they were, their names, forms, and figures: saying, how did these nations serve their gods? what was the manner of worship they gave them? what rites, customs, and ceremonies did they use in their adoration of them?

³¹ Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God, for every abomination to the Lord which He hateth have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.

— for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods; not only men have they sacrificed to them; and not only caused them to pass through the fire, but burnt them in it;

— so the Carthaginians are said to do, who learned this inhuman practice from the Phoenicians; they were a colony of the inhabitants of this land of Canaan.

³² “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it. — both as to matter and manner, were to be obeyed just as they were delivered: thou shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it; neither add any customs and rites of the heathens to them, nor neglect anything enjoined on them.

~ by Joel on May 4, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses