Exposition of the Whole Bible

HIS chapter begins with an intimation of another covenant the Lord was about to make with the people of J/rae/, ¥.1, and to prepare their minds to an attention to it, various things which the Lord had done for them are recited, ¥. 2—9. the perfons are particularly mentioned with whom the covenant would now be made, the fubftance of which is, that they fhould be his people, and he their God, ¥. 10—15. and fince they had feen the idols in Egypt and other countries, with which they might have been enfnared, they are cautioned again{t idolatry and idolaters, as being moft provoking to the Lord, ¥. 16—21. which would bring deftruétion not only on particular perfons, but upon their whole land, to the amazement of pofterity; who, enquiring the reafon of it, will be told, it was becaufe they forfook the covenant of God, and particularly were guilty of idolatry, which whether privately or openly committed, would be always punifhed, y. 22—29.

been made before, notonly refpecting the repenting’ and returning Iraelites, but the Gentiles alfo; for thiscovenant was made with the ftranger, as well as with J/rael, ¥. 11. and relates to the times of the Meffiah, the call of the Gentiles, the converfion of the Yerws, and their return to their own land in the latter day. ¥.2. Mofes called unto all lrael, &c.] He had been {oeaking before to the heads of them, and des livered at different times what is before reco: Jed; but now he fummoned the whole body of the people together, a folemn covenant being to be made between God and them; or fuch things being to be made known unto them, as were of univerfal concernment: and faid unto them, what is in this chapter; which is only a preparation or introduction to what he shad to declare unto them in the following: ye have feen all that the Lord did before |your éyes in the land of Egypt, the Targum of Jonathanis, © what the Word of the Lord did:” for jall the wonderful things there done in Zgypt were

¥. 1. Thefe are the words of the covenant, &c. Not what go before, but follow after, in the next chapters, to the end of the book s in which are various promifes of grace, and promifes of good things, both with re{pect to ews and Gentiles, intermixed with other things: which the Lord com-| manded Mofes to make with the children of Ifrael in the land of Moab 5 or to declare unto them, and acquaint them with, they being now in the plains of Moab, ready to enter into the land of Canaan:) done by the effential Word of God, Chrif, the Son of God; who.appeared to Mg/es in the buth, and fent him to Egypt, and by him and Aarow wrought the miracles there; which many now pre- {ent had feen, and were then old enough to take notice of, and could remember, though their fathers then in being were now dead: untoPharach gyd.unto all his fervants, and unto all his land; the plagues he inflicted on the perfon of Pharaoh, and on.all'his courtiers, and on all the people in Egypt, for they reached the whole land..

befides the covenant which be madewith them at Ho- ¥.3. The great temptations which thine eyes have reb;, or Sinai; which Farchi interprets, befides the curfesin Leviticus delivered on Sixai.; he feems Seen, &c.] Or ‘trials, the ten plagues which tri A: "? d? trie to_have refpectito Lev. xxvi. This covenant was different from that at Sinai, fpoken of Exod. xxiv. 8, being made not only at adifferent time, at the Egyptians, whether they uate let ya, and tried the J/raclites, whether they would believe near; inthe Lord, and truft in his‘almighty power to deliver them: ‘the figns and thofe great miracles; as forty years diftance, and at a different place, not ‘Sinai; but when J/rael were come nearer mount! the faid plagues were fuch as were beyond the and which only omni-

Sion, and were actually poffeffed of part.of their power of nature to produce, inheritance, the land of.promife, ‘that part of the potence could really effect, land of Moab which the twokings of the Amorites ¥. 4. Yet the Lord hath not had feized and dwelt in, whom Srael had difpoffeffed; and with different perfons, that generation given you an heart to perceive, &c.] They had fome of them feen the above miracles with their bodily eyes, but h being dead, excepting a very few, which were at Sinai: but it was different as to the fubftance and matter of it, it not only including that, and a renewal of it, as is generally thought; but containing fuch declarations of grace which had not difcerned with the eyes of tod winded power of God difplayed in th being God to them on we behalf choy aiid mtd in order to obtain their deliverance, and the vengeance of God on the Egyptians for detai

Ch.xxixs¥. §—12, DEUTERONOWNMY. 127 them 5 fo Yarchi interprets it of an heart to know them in’the wildernefs, the mercies of the Lord, and to cleave unto him: and eyes to fee, and ears to hear, unto this day; to fee and obferve the gracious dealings of God with them, and to hearken to his voice and obey it: fo the underftanding heart, the feeing eye, and hearing ear, in things fpiritual, are from the Lord, are {pecial gifts of his grace, which he beftows on fome, and not on others; fee Prov. xx. 12. The Targum of Fonathan is, ‘* the Word of the Lord g did not give you anheart, &c,.” and prudently, as in J y.8. And we took their land, &c.) Which belonged to the two kings, the lands of Fazer, Gilead, and Bafoan, fine countries for pafturage: and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manafeb, whol requefted it, and to whom it was granted on certain conditions, and they were now in poffeffion of tt: fee Numb. ch. xxxil. obedience tohim: > g. Keep therefore the words of this covenant and do them, &c.| To do which they were laid under great obligations, through the goodnefs of God to them, in giving them victory over the two kings, and delivering their countries into their hands, as well as by all the favours beftowed - lii. 13. hence the /eptuagint verfion is, that ye may underftand all that ye dos and fo the Ferufalem Targum.

¥. 5. And I have led you forty years in the wildernefs, &cc.] From the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day, which though not quitecompleat, is given as around number. Ewupolemus*, an heathen writer, confirms this date of the miniftry of Mofes among the J/raelites; he fays, Mo performed the office of a prophet forty years: your clothes are not waxen old upon you; were not worn out; ail thoie forty years they had been in the wildernefs, they had never wanted clothes fitting for them, according to their age and ftature, and which decayed not; fee the note on ch. viii. 4. and thy foe is not waxen old upon thy foot; which were neceffary to wear in travelling, efpecially in a rugged wildernefs; and yet though they had been always in ufe during fo long a time, were not worn out, which was really miraculous; fee the note on’the place before referred to.

y¥. 10. Ye ftand this day all of you before the Lord your God, &c.] Being gathered together at the doorof the tabernacle, at the fummons of Mofs. es| Aben Ezra interprets it round about the ark, which was the fymbol of the divine prefence: your captains of your tribes 4 the heads and rulers of them: your elders and your officers, with al! the men of Z/rae/; not the 70 elders only, but their elders in their feveral tribes, cities, and families, men of gravity and prudence, as well as of age, and who were in fome place of power and authority or anandjother; and the officers may defign fuch who attended the judges, and ‘executed their orders; fee ch. xvi. 18. and with them were the common people, the males, who were grown perfons. ben zra thinks they ftood in the order, in which madejthey here are mentioned, which is not impro< bable; next to Mo/es the princes, then the elders, and after them the officers, and next every manof J/rael, the males; and then the little ones withthe males; after them the women, and laft of conftancy; [all the profelytes.

y. 6. Ye have not eaten bread, &c.] Bread of corn, common bread, of their own preparing, made by the labour of their own hands; but manna, the food of angels, the bread of heaven: meither have you drank wine, nor flrong drink; only water out of the rock, at teaft chiefly, and for though it may be when they were onthe borders of other countries, as of the Edomites, they might obtain fome wine for their money: that ye might know that 1 am the Lord your God; who was both able and willing to provide food, drink, and raiment for them, and fupply them with all good things, and fupport them without the ufe of the common ~ neceffaries of life; which were abundant proofs of his power and goodnefs. was made, has refpect to y. 11. Your little ones, your wives, &c.] Who are fcarce ever mentioned in any fpecial law or folemn tranfaction: and thy Stranger that is in thy camp; not only the profelyte of tighteoufnefs, who embraced the Fewi/h religion entirely, but the. profelyte of the gate, who was admitted to dwell among them, having renounced idolatry. Thefe i{tanding with the J/raelites, when this covenant the Gentiles, who as well as the Fews have an intereft in the covenant of grace made with Chrift; in whom there is neither '7ew nor Gentile, any difference between them: from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water; that hewed wood for firing and other ufes, and drew water for the camp; who were generally mean perfons, and perhaps fome that came out of Egypt with them are here intended; however mean and abject perfons are meant, and fignifies that none fhould be excluded from a concern in this folemn affair on account of their meannefs,; 12.That thou foouldeft enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, &e.] That is, they were all to appear and ftand in this order before the Lord, that they might folemnly avouch him to be their God, and hear him declaring them to be his people, and the many promifes and prophecies of go0od things he fhould deliver to them, as well as threatenings of wrath and vengeance in cafe of difor that thou fhouldeft pafse;

¥.7. And when ye came unto. this place, &c.] The borders of Moab, the wildernefs before it, to which joined the plains they were now in; fee Numb. xxi. 13, 20. Deut. ii. 26. Sihon king of Hefhbon, and Og king of Bajban, came out againjt us unto battle; not together, but one after the other, and that very quickly; as foon almoft as they had fought with the one, and conquered him, the other came out againft them: and they fmote them; killed them and their armies, and the inhabitants of their countries; the hiftory of which fee in Numb. xxi. 23—35. ¥.

which fome think is an allufion to the manner of making covenants, by flaying a creature, and cutting it in pieces, and paffing between them, as in Fer. xxxiv. 18. fo Farchi and Aben Ezra: and into bis oath; annexed to his covenant and promife, onJto fhew the immutability and certain fulfilment of

Where they were fufficiently fupplied with food, drink, and raiment; all which is made ufe of as a motive and argument to engage them to obferve and keep the covenant the Lord made with them: that ye may profper in ail that ye do; in all their occupations and bufinefits of life, in their manufactures and commerce, in the culture of their fields and vineyards, and in whatfoever they were employed in a\lawful way; the word ufed has fometimes the fignification of acting wifely iton his part; and may fignify not only the oath he fwore that they fhould be his people, but the oath he gave them, and they took, that he fhould be their God: which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; which refers both ‘to the covenant and the oath, or the covenant confirmed by an oath, even the covenant now made in the plains of Moab, diftin& from that at Hored or Sinai.

¥.14. Neither with you only dol make this covenant and this oath 3} That’ is, Mofes; for he was ordered to’ make this covenant with them in’ the name of the Lord; what promifes of good things. or declarations of his mind and will, God would make, Mofes was to deliver to them; and what was required of them he would inform them of. Aben Ezra interprets. it, not only you, but thofe that will come. after you, your-fons and your fons ited with gold and filver. Now thefe being fee by them as they pafled along, they might run in their minds, or be ealled to remembrance by them, — and fo they be in danger of being drawn afide to make the like; and worfhip them.

y. 18. Left there fhould be among you man or woman, or family, or tribe, &c.] Thele words ftand in connexion with y. 1, the 16th and 17th verfes being in a parenthefis, as may be obferved, and {hew the defign of this folemn appearance of the people, and their entering afrefh into covenant; which was to prevent their falling into idolatry, tol and preferve them from it, whether a fingle perfon of either fex, or a whole family, or even a tribe, of being infected with it, and fo all the people: whofe heart turneth sway this day from the Lord our God, to go and ferve the gods of ¢ho/e nations; whole heart is enticed ané drawn afide at the remembrance of the idols he has feen worthipped by others; and is looking off from the Lord God, his faith in him being weakened, his fear of him removed, and his affections for him lef- /ened; and is looking towards the idols of the na+ tions, with a hankering mind to ferve and worthip

¥.13. That he may eftablifh thee this day for a people unto himfelf, and that be may be unto thee a God, &c.] Which contains the fum and fubftance of the covenant; fee fer. xxxil. 38. as be hath faid unto thee, andas he bath fworn unto thy fathers, Abraham, to Ifaac, and to Facob; ch. xxvi. 17, 18. and xxviii. g. ~ | which might be in danger

fons. them: Jeff there should be among you a root that bear-

¥.15. But with him that flandeth here with us this day before the Lord our God;

before fpecified according to their dignity, age, and ftation of life; or rather, dut as with bim that frandeth, 8c. and fo with him that isnot here with us this day, detained at home by illnefs and indifpofition of body, or by one providence or another; fo that they could not come out of their tents, and make their appearance before the tabernacle; tho’ ‘Farchi interprets this of the people of future eth gall and wormwood, the word Rofh, which we ren- &c.} Who arejder gall, fignifies according to Farchi a bitter herb, ¢x, which better fuits with a root chan gall, and is elfewhere by us rendered hemlock, Hof. x. 4. and is by him very rightly interpreted of a wicked man among them; for nota principle of immorality, or herefly rooted in the mind, produétive of bitter fruits, or evil actions, is meant; but a bad man, particularly an idolater, who is rooted in idolatry, and is guilty gene Jof, and commits abominable a¢tions; the iffue of rations. y¥.16. For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, &c.] How long they and their fathers had dwelt there, the number of years they had been intheland, asthe Targum of fonathan, which was upwards of 200 years; and beinga country the inhabitants of which were much given to idolatry, they had feen many of their idols, and much of their idolatrous worfhip; andtheir hearts had been apt to beenfnared by it, andthe minds of fome tinctured with it, and the remembrance thereof might make ill impreffions on them; to remove or prevent which this covenant was made: and how we came through ‘the nations which ye paffed by; as the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Midianites, as Aben Ezra obferves, through whofe borders ed; which agrees with what the apoftle fays, Hed. xii. 15. who manifeftly alludes to this paflage; fee t Maccab. 1. 11. and is confirmed by what fol-: lows.

¥.19. And it cometh to pafs when he heareth the words of this curfe, &c.| That is, the man before compared to a root bearing bitter herbs, when he fhould hear the curfes pronounced by the law againft heart; inwardly pronounce himfelf bleffed, thinking himfelf fecure from the curfe of thelaw, and flattering himfelf it will never reach him nor come upon him: faying, I foall have peace, all happinefs and profperity; in foul, body, and eftate; inward peace of mind now, and eternal peace herethey came, as they pafléd by their countries in journeys in the wildernefs.

minable to’ God, and ought to be fo to men: the word for idols has the ‘fignification of dung, and may be rendered dunghil-gods, either referring to fuch that were ‘bred and lived in dung, as the,beetle worfhipped by the Egyptians, as bifhop Patrick obferves; or which ‘were as much to be lothed and abhorred as the dung of any creature: wood and fone, filver and gold; thefe are the materials of which the idols they had feen in the feveral countries they had been in, or pafféd through, were made of; fome of wood, others of ‘ftone cut out of thefe and carved; others more rich and coftly were made of maffy gold ard filver, and were molten ones; or the images of wood were theirjafter: though I walk in the imagination of my heart 5 om in worfhipping idols, which he vainly and wicked ly imagined to be gods; to the worfhip of which his wicked heart prompted him, and he was refolutely and ftubbornly bent upon, and in which he continued: to add drunkenne/s to thirft, as a thir man to quench his thirft drinks, and adds to that, becaufe they are abo-jor drinks yet more and more until he is drunken; fo a man inclined to idolatry, that has a fecret de~ fire after it, thirfts after fuch ftolen or forbidden waters, and drinks’ of them, adds thereunto, drinks again and again until he is drunk with the wine of fornication, or idolatry, as it is called Rev. xvii. 2. fo the Targums of Onkelos and Fo athan underftand the words of adding fin to fin, p larly of adding fins of ignorance to pride, or’ prefumptuous ones. Wicked men; pitceia: an deceived, always grow worfe and worfe, increafine to more ungodlinefs, and yet promife themfelves peaceand impunity, 1 Thef.v.3.. pee

¥. 17. And ye have feen their abominations and their idols, 8cc.| Or, their abominations, even their idols; for the fame are meant by both: it is common in fcripture ‘to call the idols of the Gentiles abominations, without any other explanation of them’; fee 1 Kings xi. 5, 7.

y. 20. Then the Lord will not Spare Bim, | 3 Have no mercy upon him, nor forgiye him,)

which will be bitternefs and death, if not recover~ - fuch perfons as himfelf: that he ble/s bimfelf in bis © an hatd-hearted, impenitent, ftubborn, and obftinate finner, as'well as guilty of the groffeft and moft provoking fin, as idolatry is: dur then the anger of the Lord, and bis jealoufy, foall finoke againft that man, or, the noje of the Lord fall fmoke* alluding to an angry, wrathful, furious ‘man, whofe brain being heated, and his paffions enflamed, his breath fteams through his noftrils like fmoke 5 it denotes the vehement anger, the greatnefsrof God’s wrath and indignation againit fuch a perfon, and his burning zeal or jealoufy for his own honour and glory injured by the idolater: and all the curfes that are written in this book foall he upon him; for as he that offends in one point is guilty of all, and efpecially in fuch a principal point as this, which concerns the being and worfhip of God; fo he makes himfelf liable to all the curfes of the law, which fhall not only come upon him, but abide on him; and there is no being clear of them but by redemption through Chriji, who by being madea curfe for his people, has redeemed them from the: curle of the law: and the Lord fhall blot out bis name from under heaven; he fhall have no name in Jjrael, not in the church, and among the people of God, from whom he is to be excommunicated; fhall have no name and place in the earth, being cut off from the land of the living; and fhall have no name orfame after his death, his memory rot and perifh; and he fhall appear to have no name in the book of life; fee Pf Ixix. 28. Rev. ili. 5. y. 24. Even all nations fhall fay, &c. y¥. 21. And the Lord fhall feparate bim unto evil, out of all the tribes of Ijrael, &c.\ Unto the evil of punifhment, devote and confign him to it, make him a vifible and diftinguifhed mark of his ‘difpleafure and vengeance. So fome men are righteoufly feparated from others, and pre-ordained unto condemnation, being wicked and ungodly men; ‘for fach God has made or appointed for the day of evil; fee Prov. xvi. 4. Fude ver. 4. the curfes of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; the evil of punifhment he fhall be parated unto fhall be according to them, or include “themall; the fenfe is, that the wrath of God, and the whole curfe of the law due to him for his fin, fhall come upon him; fee ch. xxviii. 16, 17, or any kind of fruit grow: which the Lord overthrew in bis anger and in his wrath; the T arguin of Yonathan is, “* which the Word of the Lord overthrew;” and it was Jehovah, the Word, or Son of God, who rained from Febovah the father, out of heaven, fire and brimftone on Sodom and Gofhailjmerrah, and the reft of the cities; fee Gen. xix. 24. and the note there, in which chapter is the hiftory of this fatal overthrow.

For the deftruction of this land, and the people of ir, would be, as it has been, fo very great and awful, andjand fo very remarkable and furprizing, that the fame of it would be heard among all the nations of the world, as it has been; who upon hearing the fad report of it, would afk the following queftions: wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land 2 fo diftinguifhed from all others for the fruitfulnefs according to all) and pleafantnefs of it; the people, the inhabitants of which he chofe, above all others, to be a fpecial e+} and peculiar people; and where he had a temple built for him, and where he had his refidence, and worfhip ufed to be given unto him: what meaneth the heat of this great anger 2? what is the reafon of his ftirring up his fierce wrath, and caufing os ae. it to burn in fo furious a manner? furely it muft be

¥. 22. So that the generation to come of your cbildren that fall rife up after you, &c.] Not the next generation, but in future times, in ages to come, at a great diftance, even after the deftruction of Fudea by the Romans; to which the following verfe feems to refer: and the firanger that foall come from a far land; on trade and bufinefs, or for the fake of “travelling, his road either lying through it, curiofity leading him to fee it: hall fay, when they fee the plagues of the land, cities and towns in fields lie uncultivated, and the whole land depopujated, and all become a barren wildernefS, which was once a fruitful country, a Jand flowing with milk and honey: and the fickneffes which the Lot hath laid upon it, upon the inhabitants of it, as the peftilence and other difeafes, which fhall have fwept “the land of them; fee ch. xxviii. 22, 27, 35 This cafe fuppofes a general departure from the ~ ‘worfhip of God to the fervice of idols; fingle individuals are punifhed in their own ‘as in the preceding verfes.

¥.'23. And the whole land thereof is Drimftone “and falt, and burning, &c.| That is, is become ‘ceeding barren, as all fuch land is where there fomething very horrible and provoking indeed | |

¥. 25. Then men fhall fay, &c.] The anfwer that will be returned to the above queftions will be this: Decaufe they have forfaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fatbers; breakers of covenants with men are always reckoned among the worlt of men, fee Rom. i, 31. and efpecially breakers of covenant -or his with God, and with fuch a God as the God of J/- racl was, {fo good, fo kind and gracious and of ‘ruins, fuch a covenant he made, with them, in which fo many good things were promifed unto them, on condition of their obedience;. as the continuance in fuch a land they dwelt in, with an abundance of privileges, civil and religious: and this Covenant- God of theirs was the God of their fathers alfo; ’ and it was‘always reckoned an heinous. fin among the heathens, to forfake the Gods of their anceftors; fee Jer. ii. 11. which he made with them otherwife when he brought them out of the land of Egypt; perfons, which is another aggravation of their breach of | the covenant the Lord made with them it being made with them by that God, and at thar, time, ex- when he in fo wonderful a manner, with fuch are mighty power, and a ftretched-out arm, and in fulphureotis mines, of falt pits, or burning mountains; not that this would be, or has been the cafe of the land of ‘fudea in a ftrict literal fenfe, only thefe are expreffions made ufe of to fhew the barrennefs of it, which is its cafe at this day, not through the nature of its foil being changed, but through the flothfulnefs of the inhabitants of it 5 to which time it better agrees than to the time of its falling into the hands of the Chaldeans, who left men init for hufbandmen and vine+dreffers, Aben Ezra underftands this as a prayer to God, that the land might be burnt up; that is, for the fins of the people: that it is not fown, nor beareth, nor any grafs groweth therein 5 not being fown, it would bear and produce no corn for men; and not being manured, no grafs would fpring up for the cattle: and fo would be like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboims which indeed are ftrictly {peaking become a fulphureous and bituminous lake, called the falt fea, and the lake Afphaltites, and where no green grafs or corn;

great kindnefs and tendernefs to them, brought, them out of hard bondage, and moft wretched flavery in Egypt. the Fews underftand this of the y. 26. For they went and ferved other gods, and worfhipped them, &c.| As did all Jfael, in times of Solomon, and the ten tribes under Jerdboam, and other fucceeding kings of Jfraeé; and the two tribes in the times of Ahaz, and efpecially of Manaffeh, when they worthipped all the boft of heaven; fee 1 Kings xi. 33. and xii. 28. 2 Kings xvi. 4. and xxi. 3. Gods whom they knew not; to whom they, as well as their fathers before them were ftrangers, and approved not of them; and of whofe power and goodnefs they had no experience, and of which there never were any inftances; yet fuch was their ftupidity, as to leave their God, the only true God, of whom they had many proofs in both refpeéts, and worfhip thefe idols, which had never been profitable and ferviceable to them on any account: amd whom be hath not given them; which verfion feems not to afford a fenfe; for to what people foever has God, the true God, given other gods to worfhip, which this feems to imply, though he had not given or allowed any to them? Onkelos paraphrales it, did not do tice of as very remarkable; and 4infworth thinks it is to obferve the greatnels of the punifhment; and cafting away of the ten tribes: and they gather from hence, that the theften tribes fhall not return, though about it they are divided; for fo they fay in the Mi/nab*, ** the - ten tribes fhall not return, as it is faid, and ca/t them into another land, as this day, as the day goes and does not return, fo they go and return not; thefe are the words of R. Akiba. R. Ehezer fays; as the day brings on darknefs and light, fo the ten tribes who are now dark fhall be enlightened.”

y. 29. The Jecret things belong unto the Lord our God, &c.| Refpecting the people of J/rae/, and the providential dealings of God with them, and efpecially the final rejection of them; with refpect to which the apoitle’s exclamation agrees with this, Rom. xi. 33. and though the Lord had revealed many things which fhould befal them, there were untojothers ftill fecret with him, and the reafons of goodlothers; and particularly the times and feafons of their accomplifhment, which he retains in his own power, 4ési.6. ‘Phere are many fecret things im nature, which can’t be found out and accounted for by men, which the Lord only knows; and there them good, which Yarchi explains, the gods they chofe them did not impart to them any inheritance, or any portion; for the word uled fignifies to divide, or part a portion or inheritance; now the Lord God did divide to I/rae/ the land of Canaan for an inheritance, but thefe idols had never divided any thing to them, and had been in no in- {tance profitable or advantageous to them; and therefore i¢ was madnefs and folly in them to worfhip them, as well as great ingratitude to the Lord theit God, who had done fuch great and good things for them; for fo the words may be rendered, and did not impart or divide to them * any thing; that is, not any one of them did; forthe verb is fingular.

y.27. And the anger of the Lord was kindled againft this land, &c.} For this their idolatry and bafe ingratitude: to bring upon it all the curfes that are written in this book; in this book of Deuteronomy, and particularly ch. xxviii. 16. to the end; fee Dan. ix. 11.

¥.28. And the Lord rooted them out of the land, &c.] Which was true both at the Babylonifh captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, and at their prefent one by the Romans; and efpecially the Jatter, by whom they have been fo rooted out, as that they have not been able to return to it thefe 1700 years, nor to have any inheritance or poffeffion in it; whereas at the endof 70 years, they returned from the Babylonifh captivity to their land again: and which was done in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation; which were moft abundantly fhown in the utter deftruction of their land, city, and temple by the Romans: and caft them into another land, as itis this day, the ten tribes were caft into 4 fpria, and from thence into the cities of the Medes, the two tribes into the land of Chaldea, and now into all lands; and none their own, but another, a ftrange and foreign country. The word caf denotes the vehemence of the divine difpleafure at them, expreffed by the,removal of them out of tifed.

their own land into another. In the Hebrew word are many things in providence, which are unfearchable, and paft finding out by finite minds, efpecially the true caufes and reafons of them; and there are many things relating to God himfelf, which remain fecret with him, notwith{tanding the revelation he has made of himfelf, for not only fome of his perfeCtions, as eternity, immenfity, ec. are beyond our comprehenfion; but the mode of fubfiftence of the three divine perfons in the godhead, the paternity of the one, the generation of the other, and the proceflion of the Spirit from them both; the ~ union of the two natures, divine and human, in the perfon of Chriff; the thoughts, purpofes, and decrees of God within himfelf, until brought into execution; and fo there are many things relating to his creatures, as the particular perfons predefti- nated unto eternal life, what becomes of fuch who die in infancy, what will befal us in life, when we fhall die, where and in what manner, and alfo the day and hour of the laft judgment. The Fews generally interpret this and what follows of the fins of men, and punifhment for them, and particu- cularly idolatry; take 4ben Exra’s fenfe inftead of many, ‘* he that commits idolatry fecretly, his punifhment is by the hand of heaven (from God immediately); he that commits it openly, it lies upon us and upon our children to do as is written - in the law:” but thofe things which are revealed

belong to us and to our children for ever; the thin

of nature and providence, which are plain and manifeft, are for our ufe and inftruétion; and efpecially the word and ordinances of God, which are the revelation of his will, the doétrines and promifes contained in the fcriptures, the feveral duties of religion, and the commandments of God, fuch as are of eternal obligation, which may be chiefly defigned, becaufe it follows: shat we may do all the words of this law, for the end of this revelation is practice; hearing and reading the word will be of no avail, unlefs what is heard and read is prac-

Some render the words', ** the fecret things of the Lord our God are revealed to us and for caft a middle letter in it is greater than ufual; to our children;” but neither the conftruét

‘o the reafon of which perhaps is, that this dealing the words in the original, nor the Hebrew peat of God with them might be obferved and taken no-! will admit of fuch a verfion; otherwife it would. - afunaith ra f=) pon by qui nihil impertitus eft cis, Pagninus; & quorum nullus impertitus fuerat eis quidquem, Picathergi wlan arty eft ipfis, Cocceius; » Sanhedrin, ¢. 11. §. 3. * So fome¢ in Fagivs and Va. tabius,