The Mystery of Esau and Ephraim

Deuteronomy 31

¹ And Moses went and spoke these words unto all Israel. — these are the words Moses spoke unto all Israel, which is in great contrast to the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, where was usual to read “And the Lord spoke unto Moses” and “And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord,”

² And he said unto them: “I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in. Also the Lord hath said unto me, ‘Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.’ — and he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; perhaps on the selfsame day he was bid to go up to Mount Nebo and die;

³ The Lord thy God, He will go over before thee, and He will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them; and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath said. — and He will destroy these nations from before thee; and he will destroy those nations from before thee; the seven nations which then inhabited the land;

— the Lord would fulfil His promise, to go before Israel and destroy the Canaanites, like the two kings of the Amorites; only they (the Israelites) were to do to them as the Lord had commanded them, that is, to root out the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:2; Numbers 33:51; Exodus 34:11)

⁴ And the Lord shall do unto them as He did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of those whom He destroyed. — and the Lord shall do unto them as he did unto Sihon, and to Og, kings of the Amorites; deliver them up into their hands; the story of this in Numbers 21:10

⁵ And the Lord shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you. — and the Lord shall give them up before your face; to their ruin and destruction; the Targum of Jonathan says, “the Word of the Lord will deliver them up before you:”

⁶ Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them; for the Lord thy God, He it is who doth go with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” — fear not, nor be afraid of them; their enemies, though numerous and mighty, and some of them of a gigantic stature, and their cities strong and well fenced;

⁷ And Moses called unto Joshua and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good courage; for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.

— and Moses called unto Joshua; who might be at some distance from him, with the tribe to which he belonged; the Targum of Jonathan adds, “out of the midst of the people” and said unto him, in the sight of all Israel;

⁸ And the Lord, He it is who doth go before thee. He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed.” — fear not, neither be dismayed; at the number and strength of the enemy, nor at any difficulties that might lie in the way of finishing so great an undertaking, since the Lord would be with him;

⁹ And Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel. — and Moses wrote this law; the book of Deuteronomy, or the Torah, Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, which he had now finished, and which all of them together are sometimes called the law;

¹⁰ And Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, — at the end of every seven years; thou shalt read this law; at the return of the sabbatic year and during the feast of tabernacles, the law was to be publicly read;

¹¹ when all Israel has come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. — in the place which the Lord shall choose; the city of Jerusalem, and the Temple there.

¹² Gather the people together — men, and women, and children, and thy stranger who is within thy gates — that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law,

— thy stranger who is within thy gates; those strangers that couldn’t hear, see, learn and fear the Lord, these are the blind and unrepentent Gentiles, especially, First, from those of Psalm 83, and, Second, from those of “Gog and Magog;”

— for more, see Sequence of Prophecies for the Return of Israel

¹³ and that their children, who have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.” — may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God; hear the law of God, learn the meaning of it, and so be brought up in the fear, nurture, and admonition of the Lord, and serve him their Creator in the days of their youth;

¹⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Behold, thy days approach that thou must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.

— that I may give him a charge; immediately from myself, for his great encouragement, and to gain him more authority with the people;

¹⁵ And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. — the Targum of Jonathan adds, “Moses and Joshua went, and stood in the tabernacle of ordinance;”

¹⁶ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. — this people will go after the gods of the strangers; first with the Canaanites;

— then later with others:

(a) Easters, a celebration of the Queen of heaven: Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols; and to those who actually think eggs and bunnies have something to do with the resurrection; Jeremiah 7:18 the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven; in Egypt, Jeremiah 44:17-19, 25, this is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’

(b) Christmas; Ezekiel 8:16 five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple; their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east; Christmas, which honor Mithraism, birthday on December 25th – a form of nature worship based on the Sun-Goddess Mithra who on the darkest night of the year (December 20/21), gives birth to “Light” causing each day thereafter to grow longer until the Summer solstice;

(c) Sundays; her sabbaths which is Sundays, where the original Sun-worshippers were the Samaritans, brought from Assyria: And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof, II Kings 17:24.

¹⁷ Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured; and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

— and they shall be devoured; and they shall be devoured; by their enemies, or by the sore judgments of God, by famine, sword, pestilence, and evil beasts, they and their substance; and many evils and troubles shall befall them; both in their own land, and in other countries, where they would be carried captives;

¹⁸ And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. — for all the evils which they shall have wrought; for all the immoralities they should be guilty of, every transgression of his law, whether of the first or second table, or of LGBTqia; greed or other idolatries.

¹⁹ Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. — put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness; such method of perpetuating the truth was even better adapted to the times and to the condition of the people than the delivery of a written law.

²⁰ For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves and waxed fat, then will they turn unto other gods and serve them, and provoke Me and break My covenant.

— and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; that is, after they have for a considerable time enjoyed the good things of the land, and they abound with them, and increase in them, and have great fullness of them;

— then will they turn unto other gods: turn from the Lord who has brought them into all this plenty, from the fear, worship, and service of him, and turn to the worship of idols;

²¹ And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles have befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their imagination and that which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.”

— this song shall testify against them as a witness; that they were sufficiently admonished of their duty, and forewarned what would be the consequence of their defection from me and my worship;

— for I know their imagination which they go about even now; there being a secret inclination in their minds to idolatry, which were working and contriving schemes to bring it about, and set it up;

²² Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. — Moses therefore wrote this song the same day; that same day it was dictated to him by divine inspiration; and he wrote it;

²³ And He gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a charge and said, “Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore unto them, and I will be with thee.” — and said, be strong and of a good courage; that is, not fearing the people of the land, however tall their height or statue;

²⁴ And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book until they were finished, — and it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book; this book of Deuteronomy and those preceding it, and which concluded the Torah, or the Pentateuch;

²⁵ that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, — the Levites, which bare the ark; more specifically “the priests the sons of Levi” as in Deuteronomy 31:9

²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee; — the solemn delivery of the book of the law to the Levites, to be deposited in, or rather by the side, of the ark;

— the Targum of Jonathan says “Take the book of this law, and put it into a chest on the right side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be for a testament to you.”

²⁷ for I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord. And how much more after my death? — and how much more after my death? When he would be no more with them to instruct and advise them, to caution and reprove them, and to keep them in awe by his authority.

²⁸ Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. — the heads of the tribes, the princes, and magistrates;

²⁹ For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”

— and evil will befall you in the latter days; not only in the times of the judges, nor even the time of the Babylonish captivity, but in their coming captivity, that is of “the latter days” as they call it;

— and here a revelation from Isaiah

Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none other; I am God, and there is none like Me,

declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 46:9-10

— for more, see Sequence of Prophecies for the Return of Israel

³⁰ And Moses spoke in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended: — and Moses spake; the words of this song; the exodus of Israel begins and ends with a song of Moses.

Deuteronomy 32

¹ “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

— Give ear, O ye heavens; hear, O earth; by appealing, in this solemn manner, to the heavens and the earth in the beginning of this song, Moses intended to signify heaven and earth are here for the inhabitants of both, angels and men: both will agree to justify God in his proceedings against Israel, and to declare his righteousness;

² My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. — of such importance throughout, he desired that the words should trickle down like rain and dew upon grass and herb.

³ Because I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. — it is the name YEHOVAH that I utter; Give ye greatness to our God.

⁴ “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity; just and right is He. — He is the Rock, his work is perfect; or rather, the Rock, perfect is his work.

⁵ They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of His children; they are a perverse and crooked generation. — they have corrupted themselves; that is, the Israelites by their frequent lapses and their inveterate attachment to idolatry.

⁶ “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy father that hath bought thee? Hath He not made thee and established thee? — is not he thy Father, that hath bought thee? thus the Father is also the Rock; verse 4 above;

⁷ Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee. — the days of old, that is, the history and events of ancient days or former ages, and thou wilt find that I had a respect unto thee, not only in Abraham’s time, but long before it and also long after;

⁸ When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. — as the chosen people of God, the sons of Jacob were to be his messengers to the nations, the Gentiles; the LXX translate the latter half of Deuteronomy 32:8, “He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God”

— and here from the Targum of Jonathan in archaic English; “when by lot the Most High divided the world to the people that sprung from the sons of Noah:”

When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noach, in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division, He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations with whom is the revelation to oversee the city, even at that time He established the limits of the nations according to the sum of the number of the seventy souls of Israel who went down into Mizraim.

⁹ For the Lord’S portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. — the Lord’s portion is his people.’  Jacob is the lot of his inheritance; because they were his part, his portion, his inheritance, which he chose by lot for himself

— and from the Message Bible

When the High God gave the nations their stake,
    gave them their place on Earth,
He put each of the peoples within boundaries
    under the care of divine guardians.
But God himself took charge of his people,
    took Jacob on as his personal concern. The Message Bible Deuteronomy 32:8-9

¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. — he found him in a desert land; not by chance, but as it were looking out and seeking for him; he did, indeed, manifest himself to Israel in Egypt;

— as men use to keep the apple of their eye, that is, with singular care and diligence, this being, as a most tender, so a most useful part. What a striking idea does this give us of the care which God took of Israel.

¹¹ As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, — the eagle is observed by scientists to have a most tender affection to her young, and therefore the care of God over Israel is here well illustrated thereby.

¹² so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. — there was no strange god with him; no idolatry among them then;

— it signifies that the Lord alone was the leader of his people, and he had no assistant in that work, and therefore all the glory should be given to him: he is the leader of his people.

¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; — he made him ride on the high places; to conquer their strongest holds on the mountains, and their cities fenced with walls of the greatest height and strength;

— oil out of the flinty rocks; olive-trees growing and bearing fruit best in rocky or hilly places. The expressions are proverbial, and denote a most fertile land;

¹⁴ butter of cows and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. — the pure blood of the grape; this metaphor, as well as the preceding, is very elegant and natural, on account of the great resemblance between red wine and blood;

¹⁵ “But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; thou hast waxed fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

— then he forsook God which made him; the worship of God, as the Targum of Jonathan says, giving into idolatry in times past; and the written word of God, by giving heed to neighbouring traditions of surrounding nations;

¹⁶ They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations provoked they Him to anger. — they provoked him to jealousy with strange gods; they sacrificed to devils, which were not-God; to gods whom they knew not, to new ones that had lately come up, whom their fathers knew not;

¹⁷ They sacrificed unto devils, not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. — the devils; render unto idols or destroyers;

— whom your fathers feared not; paid no regard unto, put no trust or confidence in; or, as the Targum of Jonathan, “with whom your fathers had nothing to do.”

¹⁸ Of the Rock that begot thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. — that begat thee, that is, who hath adopted you to be his people, and hath showed as much care and kindness to you as if he had begotten you.

¹⁹ “And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them, because of the provoking of His sons and of His daughters. — when the Lord saw how they had departed from him to serve idols, he abhorred (rather, spurned or rejected) them in consequence of the provocation which their unworthy conduct israel had given to him;

²⁰ And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. — and he said, I will hide my face from them; to withdraw his favour and see what their end would be;

— I will see what their end will be; I will make them and others see what the fruit of such actions shall be; that their apostasy would bring nothing but evil and destruction;

²¹ They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. And I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. — they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; by vanities are meant the fictitious deities of the nations with whose worship the Israelites corrupted themselves;

²² For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. — and set on fire the foundations of the mountains; that is, subvert their strongest fortresses, yea, Jerusalem itself, now London, Paris and Washington DC; founded on the holy mountains, which was perfectly fulfilled in its destruction, first, by Titus.

²³ “‘I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them. — I will heap mischief upon them; I will send them one calamity upon another;

— I will spend mine arrows upon them; even empty my quiver, and send upon them all my plagues, which, like arrows (or missiles these days) shot by a skilful and strong hand, shall speedily reach, and certainly hit and mortally wound them.

²⁴ They shall be burned with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. — burned with hunger; from War, famine, pestilence; burning heat; with burning fevers, or carbuncles or other inflaming distempers;

— poison of serpents of the dust; could not escape falling into the hands of wild beasts, and of meeting with poisonous serpents that go upon their bellies, and feed on the dust of the earth;

²⁵ The sword without and terror within shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. — these are accompanied by the evils of war, which sweeps away the men outside in the slaughter itself by the sword, and the defenceless; all inclusive, the youths and maidens, sucklings and old men;

²⁶ I said I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, — I would scatter them into corners, or rather, I would utterly disperse them to the end of the world,;

— I would make the remembrance of them cease from among men; as of the Amalekites, Moabites, Midianites, Edomites, Chaldeans, and others, whose names as well as nations are no more;

²⁷ were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, “Our hand is high; and the Lord hath not done all this.”’ — the wrath of the enemy, that is their rage against me; their insolent and furious reproaches against my name, as if I were unnatural and cruel to my people, or unable to deliver them;

— and from MSG

I could have said, “I’ll hack them to pieces,
    wipe out all trace of them from the Earth,”
Except that I feared the enemy would grab the chance
    to take credit for all of it,
Crowing, “Look what we did!
    God had nothing to do with this.” Deuteronomy 32:26-27 MSG

²⁸ “For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. — for they are a nation void of counsel; instances of their ingratitude, folly, and for lack of counsel and understanding;

²⁹ O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! — Moses, under a spirit of prophecy, foresees the ignorance and stupidity of the Israelites in the latter days;

— that they would consider their latter end; either the latter days of this age; had they wisdom, they would understand and observe that the displeasure of God against them, and their destruction among the nations.

³⁰ How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?

— except their rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up; that is, unless the Lord, who was their rock and fortress, and in whom they should have trusted as such, had forsaken them, and given them up into their enemies’ hands;

— if Israel were wise, they could easily overcome all their foes through the help of the Almighty (Leviticus 26:8); but having forsaken him, they were left by him, and so came under the power of the enemy.

³¹ For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. — for their rock is not as our rock; that is, the gods of the heathens, the rock in which they trusted, are not like the God of Israel.

³² For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. — Sodom and Gomorrah; here, as elsewhere, and often in the prophets, emblems of utter depravity and destruction; as the cities whose destruction for their wickedness was proverbial doomed.

³³ Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. —their wine is the poison of dragons; of these creatures, both land and sea dragons;

— and from MSG

They are a nation of idiots,
    they don’t know enough to come in out of the rain.
If they had any sense at all, they’d know this;
    they would see what’s coming down the road.
How could one soldier chase a thousand enemies off,
    or two men run off two thousand,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
    unless God had given them away?
For their rock is nothing compared to our Rock;
    even our enemies say that.
They’re a vine that comes right out of Sodom,
    who they are is rooted in Gomorrah;
Their grapes are poison grapes,
    their grape-clusters bitter.
Their wine is rattlesnake venom,
    mixed with lethal cobra poison. Deuteronomy 32:28-33 MSG

³⁴ “‘Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures? — is not this laid up? “This” is generally taken to refer to what follows, but it is not clear. It may refer to the fact that “He looked for grapes, but the vine brought forth wild grapes” Isaiah 5:2

³⁵ To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.’ — a prophecy: their foot shall slide in due time; though not so soon as some may expect it, yet in at a latter time when it shall be most proper and seasonable, when they have filled up the measure of their sins.

³⁶ “For the Lord shall judge His people and repent for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left. — for the Lord shall judge his people; his chosen and covenant people;

— and there is none shut up or left; a phrase used to express the miserable state and condition of a people, when none are left, but all are carried off, or cut off, and destroyed, and there is none to help them;

³⁷ And He shall say: ’Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, — he shall ask: the Lord, before he deliver his people, will first convince them of their former folly in forsaking him and following idols; he will find an occasion from that miserable and hopeless condition into which their idols have brought them, to upbraid them with it;

³⁸ which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. — let them rise up and help you; their gods whom Israel had adopted from the Gentiles, upon whom judgment had fallen.

³⁹ “‘See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god besides Me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. — the repetition of “I” is emphatic: “I, even I, am He, I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal” is expressive of his existence, eternity, immutability, and sovereignty;

⁴⁰ For I lift up My hand to heaven and say: I live for ever. — for I lift up my hand; this is the form in taking an oath;

⁴¹ If I whet My glittering sword and Mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to Mine enemies and will reward them that hate Me. — as to say, “As I live forever, if I whet my lightning sword, and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and repay them that hate me.”

⁴² I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.’ — I will make mine arrows drunk with blood; signifying, that by various judgments he would bring upon them, which, like arrows, would come suddenly, fly swiftly, and pierce deeply, there would be a prodigious effusion of blood;

— and that with the blood of the slain, and of the captives; that is, his arrows should be drunk not only with the blood of these that were wounded and killed, but of the captives; who commonly are spared, but in this case should not, their blood should be shed;

⁴³ “Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful unto His land and to His people.” — rejoice, O ye nations, with his people; or, “rejoice, ye nations” who are “his” people; the Gentiles, who are the Lord’s chosen and covenant people, redeemed and called;

⁴⁴ And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. — Joshua, who is here joined with Moses in this action, because though Moses only spake the words, yet Joshua consented to them; and, it may be, afterwards repeated them;

⁴⁵ And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel, — such rehearsal, once more impressed upon the hearts of the people the importance of observing all the commandments of God;

⁴⁶ and he said unto them: “Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. — which ye shall command; or rather, that ye may command your children to observe to do all the words of this law.

⁴⁷ For it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.” — for it is not a vain thing for you; not too light a thing for you, not unworthy of your attention;

— the law was no light and trifling matter, because it is your life, but of great importance and consequence, obedience to it being attended with rewards, and disobedience with punishment;

⁴⁸ And the Lord spoke unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, — the selfsame day; on which he finished the reading of the law, and the above song, which was the seventh of Adar (twelveth month) around February; according to the Targum of Jonathan, the day he died on;

⁴⁹ “Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab that is opposite Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession. — unto Mount Nebo; where Moses was to die; which is in the land of Moab; it formerly belonged to it, but was taken from the Moabites by Sihon, and now possessed by Israel;

⁵⁰ And die on the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered unto his people, — as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people; of which Moses was an eyewitness; and which is observed, because there was a great likeness in their death;

⁵¹ because ye trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the children of Israel. — because ye trespassed; God reminds him of the sin he had committed long before, and this Moses records as an acknowledgment, made at his death, of God’s justice, and a warning to all people not to distrust or disobey the voice of God.

⁵² Yet thou shalt see the land before thee, but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.” — but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel; the land of Canaan was a gift of God to Israel.

~ by Japheth on June 15, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses