Bible Commentaries

These [are] the ^a words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in ^b Horeb.

(a) That is, the articles, or conditions.

(b) At the first giving of the law, which was forty years earlier.

The ^c great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:

(c) The proofs of my power.

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

(d) He shows that it is not in man's power to understand the mysteries of God if it is not given to him from above.

Ye have not eaten ^e bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I [am] the LORD your God.

(e) Made by man's art, but manna, which is called the bread of angels.

Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your ^f God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, [with] all the men of Israel,

(f) Who knows your hearts, and therefore you may not think to conceal from him.

That thou shouldest ^g enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:

(g) Alluding to them, that when they made a sure covenant, divided a beast in two, and past between the parts divided, (Genesis 15:10).

But with [him] that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with [him] ^h that [is] not here with us this day:

(h) Meaning, their posterity.

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go [and] serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you ⁱ a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

(i) Such sin, as the bitter fruit of it might choke and destroy you.

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

(k) For as he that is thirsty desires to drink much so he that follows his appetites seeks by all means and yet cannot be satisfied.

So that the ^l generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

(l) God's plagues on those who rebel against him will be so strong, that all ages will be astonished.

The ^m secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God: but those [things which are] revealed [belong] unto us and to our children for ever, that [we] may do all the words of this law.

(m) Moses by this proves their curiosity, who seek those things that are only known to God: and their negligence who do not regard that which God has revealed to them, as the law.