1 Moses exhorts them to obedience, by the memory of the works they have seen. 10 All are presented before the Lord to enter his covenant. 18 The great wrath on him that flatters himself in his wickedness. 29 Secret things belong unto God.
Deu 29:1 These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.
These are the terms. In the Hebrew this is ch. 28:69. The text, however, may be applied as well to what follows. In the land of Moab. Israel was still encamped at the same spot mentioned in ch. 1:5.
The covenant. Not another covenant in addition to that made at Sinai, but rather a reaffirmation of it. At Sinai the covenant had been set forth and ratified by blood (see Ex. 24).
Deu 29:2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.
Deu 29:3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders.
Great trials. Better, “tests” (see chs. 4:34; 7:19), that is, trying experiences through which God ordained that they should develop character.
Eyes saw. Compare ch. 10:21. The natural, physical sight may be excellent, and the spiritual discernment almost negligible. Spiritual sight is a gift from God; without this gift, a man is dull of understanding (Eze. 20:49; Ps. 106:7).
Deu 29:4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.
Not given a mind that understands. Otherwise, the senses would have been attuned to perceive God’s will, and the will devoted to carrying it out. The man who senses the need of spiritual discernment and seeks it will receive it (see Ps. 25:9, 12, 14; 119:18).
Compare the contrast Jesus Christ drew between the Jews and His disciples (see Matt. 13:10–17; see also John 7:17). The mind of the unregenerate does not have the capacity to appreciate and understand spiritual values. But when a man turns sincerely to God, his spiritual eyesight will be restored (see John 6:45; 1 Cor. 2:12–16; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:17).
Deu 29:5 Yet the LORD says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.
Deu 29:6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.”
Bread. Compare ch. 8:3. Aside from such purchases as they were able to make from the people of the surrounding countryside, the Israelites were dependent upon God, who constantly exercised miraculous power in their behalf.
They neither sowed nor reaped and therefore received no harvest.
Deu 29:7 When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.
Deu 29:8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Deu 29:9 Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.
Prosper. Literally, “show oneself attentive to,” “act circumspectly,” “manifest prudence.” It refers more to wise management, to showing oneself skilful in all one’s personal affairs (see Deut. 32:29; Joshua 1:8; Ps. 101:2; Dan. 12:3).
Deu 29:10 All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel,
Chief man. Captains. Literally, “heads.”
Elders. Probably the 70 elders spoken of in Num. 11:16 and the judges (see Deut. 19:12, 18; 21:2, 4, 6; 25:8).
Officials. The civil officers, who executed the sentences passed down by the judges (see ch. 16:18).
Deu 29:11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.
Foreigners. Referring principally to the Egyptians who came out of Egypt with them (see chs. 5:14; 24:14; 31:12).
Chop your wood. Perhaps better, “the gatherer of your firewood,” in harmony with the use of the same root in Arabic.
Deu 29:12 You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day and sealing with an oath,
Sealing with an oath. The first occurrence of the word thus translated, in Deuteronomy. It is used in the sense of a covenant sealed with an oath, with the suggestion of curses upon failure to abide by the terms of the covenant. See this same Hebrew word in Num. 5:21.
Deu 29:13 to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deu 29:14 I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you
Deu 29:15 who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God but also with those who are not here today.
Not here. The covenant was to include all future generations.
Deu 29:16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here.
Egypt. They were fully acquainted by personal experience with life in Egypt, with all its idolatry and attendant immorality.
The countries. Referring to the Amalekites, Edomites, Midianites, Ammonites, and Moabites.
Deu 29:17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.
Detestable images. That is, all things pertaining to heathen worship and customs.
Deu 29:18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
Bitter poison. The word translated “wormwood” is similarly translated in all other texts except Amos 6:12, where it is given as “hemlock.” These terms are suggestive of the bitter consequences of idolatry.
Deu 29:19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.
Blessings on themselves. That is, seek to convince himself through a process of rationalization that none of the curses would fall upon him, but that he would enjoy the good things of life.
This was probably a proverbial expression implying the destruction of many who had been wrongly influenced by others.
Deu 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the LORD will blot out their names from under heaven.
Their names. That is themselves. They and their posterity were to be destroyed (see chs. 7:24; 9:14; 25:19).
Deu 29:21 The LORD will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
Deu 29:22 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it.
Future generations of the people of the land, and also visitors, would remark in astonishment about the calamities that God visited upon the rebellious people.
Deu 29:23 The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger.
Sodom, and Gomorrah. Symbols of destruction resulting from great wickedness (see Gen. 18:20; 19:24, 25; cf. Job 18:15; for contrast, see Isa. 61:11).
Deu 29:24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
Deu 29:25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.
Forsaken the covenant. See 1 Kings 19:10, 14; Jer. 22:9.
For hundreds of years the land of Palestine has been spread before all men as a witness to the curse of God. Much of the country has long been a barren wilderness.
This came upon the land because of the apostasy of the Jewish nation in forsaking the covenant.
Deu 29:27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.
The Lord’s anger. Compare Jer. 21:5; 32:37. The word translated “anger” is sometimes rendered “nostrils” (see Gen. 2:7; Ex. 15:8; Num. 11:20; 2 Sam. 22:9, 16; Job 4:9; 27:3; Ps. 18:8; etc.).
It often implies quick breathing through the nose as an indication of emotion.
Deu 29:28 In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
Uprooted them out. Literally, “plucked them out.” The eventual loss of Canaan was not the result of a set of circumstances that merely happened. They were “plucked out” by God Himself.
Deu 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
The secret things. Many commentators, including Jewish, have applied these words to secret sins, known only to God, as in Ps. 19:12. The parallel expression, however, “those things which are revealed,” that is, “unto us,” implies that the “secret things” are things God has not seen fit to reveal.
Man cannot fathom the inner counsels of the Almighty. They are His. The things He has revealed, of law and life, are ours to contemplate. In the Scriptures we have the revealed will of God; it is all ours.