The commandment is manifest.

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b Chap. 28. 11.

c Rom. 6. 10, &c.

we may hear it, and do it?

Death and life

7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

b

9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:

10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

11 ¶ For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us

13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

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19 d I call heaven and earth to re- d Chap. 4. 26. cord this day against you, that I have

7.-will put all these curses upon thine enemies,] We have examples of this in Nebuchadnezzar, in Belshazzar, and in Antiochus Epiphanes, who were the three most remarkable oppressors of the Jewish nation. Pyle. Jacob in his prophecy figuratively foretold the retaliation of Divine vengeance upon the persecutors of the Jews, Gen. xlix. 11; Balaam concisely foretold it in his last prophecy, Numb. xxiv. 24; and Moses more plainly in this passage; but it was reserved for the ensuing ode to describe these judgments in all their terrours. See chap. xxxii. 36, and following verses. Dr.

Hales.

11.—this commandment which I command thee &c.] Those moral commands of the love of God, and of your neighbour, and of sobriety with respect to yourselves, which are, even now, the main and substantial points of your law, and which God intends hereafter to improve and make the only conditions of your salvation, under the more perfect dispensation of Jesus Christ, your Messiah, are things no way difficult and burdensome. Pyle. They are not "hidden," that is, abstruse and hard to be understood; nor "far off," that is, out of thy reach, so that thou canst pretend, thou canst not attain to them. They are not "in heaven," that is, locked up there as a secret, but revealed from thence: nor "beyond the sea,' that is, at such a distance as will expose men to great danger to arrive at them. But they are very nigh" thee indeed, as that which thou ownest with "thy mouth," and dost with "thy mind" assent to. Bp. Kidder. The word was brought "very nigh unto them," even to their very doors, by Moses the servant of God, who now delivered to them the Divine will; as the Son of God

دو

them and it was made so familiar to them, that they might always have it in their common discourse, to teach it their children; and it had now been so often repeated, that it might well be laid up in their memory, never to be forgotten. Bp. Patrick.

Since God Himself pronounces his "commandment" so easy to be observed, because it was "not hidden from them, neither far off," it must have been the Israelites' own inexcusable fault, and a voluntary rejection, if, having life and death set before them, they would not choose life, it being absolutely in their own choice: and our task is yet so much more easy than theirs was, besides our being freed from the ceremonial law, in that we have no temptation to that crying sin of idolatry, which was their destruction. Lord Clarendon.

14.-that thou mayest do it.] The duties of life are so obvious and familiar, and so agreeable to the nature of all reasonable minds, that God can no sooner enjoin them, but we must needs apprehend and approve them, and have nothing to do but honestly and sincerely to perform them. Pyle. To co-operate with outward means of instruction, God hath placed a faithful witness and monitor of his truths in every breast; and therefore the want of outward helps can never justify transgressors. What Moses said in God's name to the Jews is true in its relation to all men: "The commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off; but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." And what Isaiah said of Christianity, holds in proportion of natural conscience, "An highway shall be there; and it shall be called The way of holiness; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," Isa. xxxv. 8.

are set before them.

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Moses encourageth the people.

unto all Israel.

20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD Sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

CHAP. XXXI.

1 Moses encourageth the people. 7 He encourageth Joshua. 9 He delivereth the law unto the priests to read it in the seventh year to the people. 14 God giveth a charge to Joshua, 19 and a song to testify against the people. 24 Moses delivereth the book of the law to the Levites to keep. 28 He maketh a protestation to the elders.

The duties of mankind are not so intricate and perplexed, but that a good heart, without a very sagacious head, may easily find its way through them. Abp. Secker.

19.therefore choose life,] The same term is employed by Joshua, chap. xxiv. 22, "Ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him :" and by the Apostle to the Hebrews, "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, &c." chap. xi. 25, and by our Saviour, "One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part," Luke x. 42. Our ability and "sufficiency" to please God by works of piety and goodness are most undeniably "of God." But it rests with us, whether or not we will make use of the aids and powers which He graciously affords us; whether we will, or will not, "receive his grace in vain." The question is not, what God can do? but, what He will do? He can, if He pleases, "raise up children out of the stones" of the street. He can compel the vilest sinners to be obedient and happy. But this is not the manner in which He deals with the sons of Adam. He invites, but does not force us into his service. "He has shewed us what is good," and enabled us to perform it, so far as is consistent with this state of frailty and imperfection. He has "set before us," as He set before the Israelites, "life and death, blessing and cursing :" it remains for us to "choose" whether we will obey and be saved, or disobey and perish. Waldo.

Though speaking of his absolute power, God can compel and necessitate the will of man, and so we do not make him stronger than God, as is very weakly concluded by some; yet He will not, because He will not violate that order, which He hath set in our creation. He made man after his own image, invested him with a reasonable soul, having the use of understanding and the freedom of will: He endowed him with a power to consider and deliberate, to consult and choose, and so by consequence He gave him dominion over himself and his own actions: that being made lord of the whole world, he might not be a slave to himself, but might first exercise his sovereignty in the free possession of his own mind. To force his will were to destroy the nature of his creature, which grace is not designed to do, but only to heal and assist it; and therefore God deals with man, as a free agent, by instructions and commands, by promises and threatenings, by allurements and reproofs, by rewards and punishments. So true is the saying of

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2 And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, a Thou shalt not go over this a Numb. 20. Jordan.

12.

chap. 3. 27.

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 Numb. 27. LORD hath said.

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 them, whom he destroyed.

21.

5 And the LORD shall give them e Chap. 7. 2. up before your face, that ye may do

Tertullian, "No man is made good against his will.” Bp. Womack.

Chap. XXXI. ver. 2. I can no more go out and come in:] I can no longer discharge the office of your governour and leader, Numb. xxvii. 17. This was not because he wanted vigour, either of body or of mind, for his strength and faculties were not decayed, chap. xxxiv. 7, but because God had decreed and declared that he should not conduct them into Canaan. Bp. Patrick, Pyle. the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.] Moses speaks of himself with the same impartiality which he used towards the people. Though he mentions that he was highly favoured of God, yet he more than once owns that he was near forfeiting this blessing. He confesses his diffidence and want of faith, and his neglect of some essential duties, by which he grievously offended the Deity. He tells us, that the consequence was fatal, as he was not, on account of these offences, permitted to enter the land of promise; but, like the rest, died by the way, having had only a distant view. He scruples not to disclose the failings of his brother, and of his sister Miriam, and the rebellion of others, He writes in the to whom he was nearly related. spirit of truth, without the least prejudice or partiality, suppressing nothing that was necessary to be known, though to his own prejudice and discredit. And when he has afforded a just history of the people's ingratitude and disobedience while he survived, he proceeds to anticipate what is to come, and gives strong intimation of their future apostacy and rebellion: "I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, &c." chap. xxxi. 29. And he farther assures them of the vengeance that should ensue: "Cursed shalt thou be, &c." chap. xxviii. 19. 25. 37. He denounces many other evils, which were to come upon this rebellious nation; and which did come as he foretold, but many of them ages afterwards: to the principal of which the Jews at this day remain a living testimony. And what the Prophet says upon these occasions is not attended with resentment and bitterness; on the contrary, he shews the most affecting tenderness and concern for them, and a true zeal for their welfare. We may therefore be assured, that things must have happened as he describes them; and nothing but duty and conviction could have made him transmit these truths. Bryant.

and a song.

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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.

19 Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

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

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

† Heb. do.

66

Moses' protestation.

25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

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.

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?

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.

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.

30 And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.

CHAP. XXXII.

1 Moses' song, which setteth forth God's mercy and vengeance. 46 He exhorteth them to set their hearts upon it. 48 God sendeth him up to mount Nebo, to see the land, and die.

G will speak; and hear, O earth, IVE ear, O ye heavens, and I

the words of my mouth.

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the Lord, "it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed." Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel, by whom it is still rehearsed, above three thousand years since, and shall be so to the end of time. Dr. Hales.

30. And Moses spake-the words of this song, &c.] The historical prophecies of Moses grow clearer and brighter towards the close of his life, and are crowned by a poetical composition of the most transcendant excellence, worthy indeed of its Author, the God of Israel, who dictated it to Moses, shortly before his death, and commanded him to teach it to the children of Israel, "that it might be a witness for him against them," in future times, "when many evils and troubles should befall them, for breaking his covenant:" "for," added

and structure is regular, easy, and adapted to the nature of the subject, in an order nearly historical. It embraces an incredible variety of the most important topicks; the truth and justice of God, his fatherly affection and most unwearied loving-kindness towards his chosen people; the ungrateful and rebellious disposition of that people in return; then the heat of the Divine displeasure, and its most alarming menaces, delivered, in a noble personification, equal in grandeur to any thing which exists in the choicest treasures of poetry; at the same time it represents these very tides of indig

Moses' song.

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+ Heb. He hath corrupted to himself.

2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto 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.

5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children, his children: they are a perverse and

Il Or, that they are not

that is, their blot.

crooked generation.

nation occasionally moderated by mildness and compassion, and terminated at length in promises and in consolation. Not to dwell on the loftiness of the sentiments, the impetuosity of the passions, and the force of the figures and the language, such is the nature of the subject, that it imitates much of the style and colouring of the prophetical poetry, so that to all the vigour, and animation, and spirited boldness of the Ode, it unites that distinguished variety and grandeur of imagery, which is peculiar to the prophetical manner. Bp. Lowth.

This majestick vindication of the tutelar God of Israel with his chosen people and with their persecutors, consists of six parts. The first opens with an animated summons to the inhabitants of heaven and earth, to angels and men, or the whole rational creation, to listen to the Prophet's wholesome and refreshing discourse, contrasting the veracity and justice of God with the iniquity and ingratitude of his people. This forms the prefatory introduction to the whole poem, from the first to the end of the fifth verse. Dr. Hales.

2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain,] The counsels which I give, and the things which I foretel, are as fitted to produce religious wisdom and obedience in the minds of men, as the most seasonable dews and showers are to fructify the earth, Isa. lv. 10, 11; 1 Cor. iii. 6-8. Bp. Kidder.

4. He is the Rock,] The original word usually signifies "a rock," and is figuratively applied to God as expressing his stability and immutability, and the security of those who are under his protection, as in the 15th and 37th verses, so finely expressed by Isaiah, chap. xxvi. 4, "Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of ages," according to the marginal rendering. Dr. Hales.

5. They have corrupted themselves,] They have sinned; and have been so far from imitating God, "whose work is perfect, &c." that they have been most unlike Him: their crimes being of so high a nature, that they speak them not to be his peculiar people, but a perverse and crooked generation. Bp. Kidder.

The sudden and frequent change of persons in this Ode is remarkable. Moses, having celebrated the truth and justice of God, proceeds to inveigh against the perfidy and wickedness of the people. He first speaks of them, as if they were absent, "They have corrupted themselves, &c." Then immediately he addresses them: "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? &c." Afterwards, he beautifully amplifies God's indulgence and more than fatherly affection towards the Israelites, in words not directed to them: whence, again filled with indignation at the stupidity of this ungrateful and impious people, he thus breaks forth:

Moses' song.

"But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, &c." ver. 15. Where, in one short sentence, the discourse being abruptly turned to the Israelites, and then immediately from them, has great force. It is fervid, vehement, pointed, and full of indignation. The Hebrew poetry abounds with instances of this sudden change of persons, which often adds great beauty, and is always to be carefully observed. Bp. Lowth.

6. Do ye thus requite the Lord,] The second part, reaching to the end of ver. 14, recapitulates God's parental care and fostering protection of the Israelites, from their earliest origin to their complete settlement in the rich and fertile land of promise. Dr. Hales.

that hath bought thee?] That hath redeemed thee out of Egypt. See Exod. xv. 16. To this purpose the Psalmist says, "Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed," Ps. lxxiv. 2. This was a great aggravation of their sin, that "they denied the Lord which bought them," 2 Pet. ii. 1. Compare Isa. i. 3, and 1 Cor. vi. 20. Bp. Kidder.

made thee,] Or advanced thee (for so the Hebrew word may be translated) to be a great and mighty people. God's creating them is implied in what was said before, that He was their "Father." Bp. Kidder.

8.- he set the bounds of the people &c.] When the Lord scattered mankind into several parts of the earth, and separated them into diverse nations by confounding their language, He had then the children of Israel in his mind, before they were a nation; and made such a distribution to other people, particularly to the seven nations of Canaan, within such bounds and limits, that there might be sufficient room for so numerous a people as the Israelites, when they should come to take possession of Canaan. Bp. Patrick.

The passage may be rendered, "He assigned the boundaries of the peoples (of Israel) according to the number of the sons of Israel." This insertion of the words, (of Israel,) derived from the succeeding verse, furnishes a plain and rational sense of one of the most embarrassed and most contested passages in the whole poem; signifying, that the promised land was allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel, as being descended from his twelve sons: each of which, from their extraordinary population, might be considered as "a people" in itself; (and so the Ephraimites and Manassites represented themselves to Joshua, chap. xvii. 14—17;) while the aggregate composed "his people," the most highly favoured of all the nations of the earth, with whom they are contrasted. Dr. Hales.