Deuteronomy 4:25 Komentář

In this chapter we have, I. A most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable (v. 1-40). II. The appointing of the cities of refuge on that side Jordan (Deu 4:41-43). III. The particular description of the place where Moses delivered the following repetition of the law (Deu 4:44, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 4 This chapter contains an exhortation to Israel to keep the commands, statutes, and judgments of God, urged from the superior excellency of them to those of all other nations, Deu 4:1, from the manner in which they were delivered, out of the midst of fire, by a voice of words, but no similitude seen, Deu 4:9, and particularly the Israelites are cautioned against idolatry, from the consideration of the goodness of God to them, in bringing them out of Egypt, Deu 4:16, and the rather Moses is urgent upon them to be diligent in their obedience to the laws of God, because he should quickly be removed from them, Deu 4:21, and should they be disobedient to them, it would provoke the Lord to destroy them, or to carry them captive into other lands, Deu 4:25 though even then, if they repented and sought the Lord, and became obedient, he would be merciful to them, and not forsake them, Deu 4:29 and they are put in mind again of the amazing things God had done for them, in speaking to them out of fire, and they alive; in bringing them out of another nation, and driving out other nations to make room for them; all which he improves, as so many arguments to move them to obedience to the divine commands, Deu 4:32 and then notice is taken of the three cities of refuge, separated on this side Jordan, Deu 4:41, and the chapter is concluded with observing, that this is the law, and these the testimonies, Moses declared and repeated to the children of Israel in the country of Sihon and Og, who were delivered into their hands, and their lands possessed by them, which laid them under fresh obligations to yield obedience to God, Deu 4:44.

When thou shall beget children, and children's children,.... Children and grandchildren, and several ages and generations have passed: and shalt have remained long in the land; many years and even ages, or have grown old (h) in it: now they were in their infancy, and as such they were about to enter into it; during the times of the judges, they were in their childhood, or youth; in the times of David and Solomon, they were in their manhood; after that, in their decline; and in the times of Jeconiah and his brethren in their old age, when for their sins they were carried captive: and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything; See Gill on Deu 25:16. and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger; that sin of idolatry, that God provoking sin, is chiefly intended. (h) "inveteraveritis", Montanus: "veteres facti fueritis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "senueritis", Vatablus.

AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu 4:1-13) hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you--By statutes were meant all ordinances respecting religion and the rites of divine worship; and by judgments, all enactments relative to civil matters. The two embraced the whole law of God.

Exhortation to a Faithful Observance of the Law - Deuteronomy 4:1-40 With the word ועתּה, "and now," Moses passes from a contemplation of what the Lord had done for Israel, to an exhortation to keep the law of the Lord. The divine manifestations of grace laid Israel under the obligation to a conscientious observance of the law, that they might continue to enjoy the blessings of the covenant. The exhortation commences with the appeal, to hear and keep the commandments and rights of the Lord, without adding to them or taking from them; for not only were life and death suspended upon their observance, but it was in this that the wisdom and greatness of Israel before all the nations consisted (Deu 4:1-8). It then proceeds to a warning, not to forget the events at Horeb (Deu 4:9-14) and so fall into idolatry, the worship of images or idol deities (Deu 4:15-24); and it closes with a threat of dispersion among the heathen as the punishment of apostasy, and with a promise of restoration as the consequence of repentance and sincere conversion (Deu 4:25-31), and also with a reason for this threat and promise drawn from the history of the immediate past (Deu 4:32-34), for the purpose of fortifying the nation in its fidelity to its God, the sole author of its salvation (Deu 4:35-40).

To give emphasis to this warning, Moses holds up the future dispersion of the nation among the heathen as the punishment of apostasy from the Lord. Deu 4:25-26 If the Israelites should beget children and children's children, and grow old in the land, and then should make images of God, and do that which was displeasing to God to provoke Him; in that case Moses called upon heaven and earth as witnesses against them, that they should be quickly destroyed out of the land. "Growing old in the land" involved forgetfulness of the former manifestations of grace on the part of the Lord, but not necessarily becoming voluptuous through the enjoyment of the riches of the land, although this might also lead to forgetfulness of God and the manifestations of His grace (cf. Deu 6:10., Deu 32:15). The apodosis commences with Deu 4:26. העיד, with בּ and the accusative, to take or summon as a witness against a person. Heaven and earth do not stand here for the rational beings dwelling in them, but are personified, represented as living, and capable of sensation and speech, and mentioned as witnesses who would raise up against Israel, not to proclaim its guilt, but to bear witness that God, the Lord of heaven and earth, had warned the people, and, as it is described in the parallel passage in Deu 30:19, had set before them the choice of life and death, and therefore was just in punishing them for their unfaithfulness (cf. Psa 50:6; Psa 51:6). "Prolong days," as in Exo 20:12. Deu 4:27 Jehovah would scatter them among the nations, where they would perish through want and suffering, and only a few (מספּר מתי, Gen 34:30) would be left. "Whither" refers to the nations whose land is thought of (cf. Deu 12:29; Deu 30:3). For the thing intended, see Lev 26:33, Lev 26:36, Lev 26:38-39, and Deu 28:64., from which it is evident that the author had not "the fate of the nation in the time of the Assyrians in his mind" (Knobel), but rather all the dispersions which would come upon the rebellious nation in future times, even down to the dispersion under the Romans, which continues still; so that Moses contemplated the punishment in its fullest extent. Deu 4:28 There among the heathen they would be obliged to serve gods that were the work of men's hands, gods of wood and stone, that could neither hear, nor eat, nor smell, i.e., possessed no senses, showed no sign of life. What Moses threatens here, follows from the eternal laws of the divine government. The more refined idolatry of image-worship leads to coarser and coarser forms, in which the whole nature of idol-worship is manifested in all its pitiableness. "When once the God of revelation is forsaken, the God of reason and imagination must also soon be given up and make way for still lower powers, that perfectly accord with the I exalted upon the throne, and in the time of pretended 'illumination' to atheism and materialism also" (Schultz). Deu 4:29 From thence Israel would come to itself again in the time of deepest misery, like the prodigal son in the gospel (Luk 15:17), would seek the Lord its God, and would also find Him if it sought with all its heart and soul (cf. Deu 6:5; Deu 10:12). Deu 4:30-31 "In tribulation to thee (in thy trouble), all these things (the threatened punishments and sufferings) will befall thee; at the end of the days (see at Gen 49:1) thou wilt turn to Jehovah thy God, and hearken to His voice." With this comprehensive thought Moses brings his picture of the future to a close. (On the subject-matter, vid., Lev 26:39-40.) Returning to the Lord and hearkening to His voice presuppose that the Lord will be found by those who earnestly seek Him; "for (Deu 4:31) He is a merciful God, who does not let His people go, nor destroy them, and who does not forget the covenant with the fathers" (cf. Lev 26:42 and Lev 26:45). הרפּה, to let loose, to withdraw the hand from a person (Jos 10:6).