Bible Commentaries

Hear, O Israel: Thou [art] to pass over Jordan ^a this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,

(a) Meaning shortly.

A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and [of whom] thou hast ^b heard [say], Who can stand before the children of Anak!

(b) By the report of the spies. (Numbers 13:26).

Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God [is] he which ^c goeth over before thee; [as] a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.

(c) To guide you and govern you.

Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my ^d righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

(d) Man by himself deserves nothing but God's anger, and if God spares anyone it comes from his great mercy.

Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou [art] a ^e stiffnecked people.

(e) Like stubborn oxen who will not endure their masters yoke.

Remember, [and] forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: ^f from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.

(f) He proves by the length of time, that their rebellion was great and intolerable.

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the ^g finger of God; and on them [was written] according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

(g) That is, miraculously, and not by the hand of men.

And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have ^h corrupted [themselves]; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

(h) As soon as man declines from the obedience of God, his ways are corrupt.

ⁱ Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

(i) Demonstrating that the prayers of the faithful are a bar to restrain God's anger so that he does not consume all.

And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, [and] had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the ^k way which the LORD had commanded you.

(k) That is, from the Law: in which he declares what the cause of our punishment is.

And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have ^l destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

(l) By which he shows the danger they are in who have authority and do not resist wickedness.

And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, [and] ground [it] very small, [even] until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the ^m mount.

(m) Horeb, or Sinai.

Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye ⁿ rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

(n) At the return of the spies.

Thus I fell down before the LORD ^o forty days and forty nights, as I fell down [at the first]; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

(o) By which is signified that God requires earnest continuance in prayer.

^p Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

(p) The godly in their prayers ground on God's promise, and confess their sins.