8 At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.
Then the priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near; for they have been marked out by the Lord your God to be his servants and to give blessings in the name of the Lord; and by their decision every argument and every blow is to be judged:
For he, and his sons after him for ever, have been marked out by the Lord your God from all your tribes, to do the work of priests in the name of the Lord.
Make the tribe of Levi come near, and put them before Aaron the priest, to be his helpers,
And after the holy place and all its vessels have been covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for fear of death.
Say to Aaron and his sons, These are the words of blessing which are to be used by you in blessing the children of Israel; say to them, May the Lord send his blessing on you and keep you: May the light of the Lord's face be shining on you in grace: May the Lord's approval be resting on you and may he give you peace.
Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy place of God in heaven.
You did not take me for yourselves, but I took you for myself; and I gave you the work of going about and producing fruit which will be for ever; so that whatever request you make to the Father in my name he may give it to you.
But when it was the good pleasure of God, by whom I was marked out even from my mother's body, through his grace,
For which cause, Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and let no unclean thing come near you; and I will take you for myself,
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, an Apostle by the selection of God, given authority as a preacher of the good news,
And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me.
But as for the priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of my holy place when the children of Israel were turned away from me, they are to come near me to do my work, they will take their places before me, offering to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord;
But they may be caretakers in my holy place, and overseers at the doors of the house, doing the work of the house: they will put to death the burned offering and the beasts offered for the people, and they will take their place before them as their servants.
For this cause the Lord has said, If you will come back, then I will again let you take your place before me; and if you give out what is of value and not that which has no value, you will be as my mouth: let them come back to you, but do not go back to them.
And on his head he put the head-dress, and in front of the head-dress the plate of gold, the holy crown, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.
But the Levites, of the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them. For the Lord said to Moses, Only the tribe of Levi is not to be numbered among the children of Israel, But to them you are to give the care of the Tent of meeting with its vessels and everything in it: they are to take up the Tent, and be responsible for everything to do with it, and put up their tents round it. And when the Tent of meeting goes forward, the Levites are to take it down; and when it is to be put up, they are to do it: any strange person who comes near it is to be put to death. The children of Israel are to put up their tents, every man in his tent-circle round his flag. But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites.
Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses on Mount Sinai. These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the oldest, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests, on whom the holy oil was put, who were marked out as priests. And Nadab and Abihu were put to death before the Lord when they made an offering of strange fire before the Lord, in the waste land of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests before Aaron their father.
In their care are the ark, and the table, and the lights, and the altars, and all the vessels used in the holy place, and the veil, and all they are used for.
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, When you put the lights in their places, the seven lights will give light in front of the support. And Aaron did so; he put the lights in their places so that they gave light in front of the support, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. The support for the lights was of hammered gold work, from its base to its flowers it was of hammered work; from the design which the Lord had given to Moses, he made the support for the lights. And the Lord said to Moses, Take the Levites out from among the children of Israel and make them clean. And this is how you are to make them clean: let the holy water which takes away sin be put on them, and let the hair all over their bodies be cut off with a sharp blade, and let their clothing be washed and their bodies made clean. Then let them take a young ox and its meal offering, crushed grain mixed with oil, and take another ox for a sin-offering. And make the Levites come forward in front of the Tent of meeting, and let all the children of Israel come together: And you are to take the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel are to put their hands on them: And Aaron is to give the Levites to the Lord as a wave offering from the children of Israel, so that they may do the Lord's work. And the Levites are to put their hands on the heads of the oxen, and one of the oxen is to be offered for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to the Lord to take away the sin of the Levites. Then the Levites are to be put before Aaron and his sons, to be offered as a wave offering to the Lord. So you are to make the Levites separate from the children of Israel, and the Levites will be mine. After that, the Levites will go in to do whatever has to be done in the Tent of meeting; you are to make them clean and give them as a wave offering. For they have been given to me from among the children of Israel; in place of every mother's first son, the first to come to birth in Israel, I have taken them for myself. For every mother's first son among the children of Israel is mine, the first male birth of man or beast: on the day when I sent death on all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I made them mine. And in place of the first sons among the children of Israel, I have taken the Levites. And I have given them to Aaron and to his sons, from among the children of Israel, to undertake for them all the work of the Tent of meeting, and to take away sin from the children of Israel so that no evil may come on them when they come near the holy place. All these things Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel did to the Levites; as the Lord gave orders to Moses about the Levites, so the children of Israel did. And the Levites were made clean from sin, and their clothing was washed, and Aaron gave them for a wave offering before the Lord; and Aaron took away their sin and made them clean. And then the Levites went in to do their work in the Tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons: all the orders which the Lord had given Moses about the Levites were put into effect. And the Lord said to Moses, This is the rule for the Levites: those of twenty-five years old and over are to go in and do the work of the Tent of meeting; But after they are fifty years old, they are to give up their work and do no more; But be with their brothers in the Tent of meeting, taking care of it but doing no work. This is what you are to do in connection with the Levites and their work.
Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them; Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests?
And the Lord said to Aaron, You and your sons and your father's family are to be responsible for all wrongdoing in relation to the holy place: and you and your sons are to be responsible for the errors which come about in your work as priests. Let your brothers, the family of Levi, come near with you, so that they may be joined with you and be your servants: but you and your sons with you are to go in before the ark of witness. They are to do your orders and be responsible for the work of the Tent; but they may not come near the vessels of the holy place or the altar, so that death may not overtake them or you. They are to be joined with you in the care of the Tent of meeting, doing whatever is needed for the Tent: and no one of any other family may come near you. You are to be responsible for the holy place and the altar, so that wrath may never again come on the children of Israel. Now, see, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel: they are given to you and to the Lord, to do the work of the Tent of meeting. And you and your sons with you are to be responsible as priests for the altar and everything on it, and everything inside the veil; you are to do the work of priests; I have given you your position as priests; and any other man who comes near will be put to death. And the Lord said to Aaron, See, I have given into your care my lifted offerings; even all the holy things of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons as your right for ever, because you have been marked with the holy oil. This is to be yours of the most holy things, out of the fire offerings; every offering of theirs, every meal offering and sin-offering, and every offering which they make on account of error, is to be most holy for you and your sons. As most holy things they are to be your food: let every male have them for food; it is to be holy to you. And this is yours: the lifted offering which they give and all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as your right for ever: everyone in your house who is clean may have them for food. All the best of the oil and the wine and the grain, the first-fruits of them which they give to the Lord, to you have I given them. The earliest produce from their land which they take to the Lord is to be yours; everyone in your house who is clean may have it for his food. Everything given by oath to the Lord in Israel is to be yours. The first birth of every living thing which is offered to the Lord, of man or beast, is to be yours; but for the first sons of man payment is to be made, and for the first young of unclean beasts. Payment is to be made for these when they are a month old, at the value fixed by you, a price of five shekels by the scale of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel. But no such payment may be made for the first birth of an ox or a sheep or a goat; these are holy: their blood is to be dropped on the altar, and their fat burned for an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord. Their flesh is to be yours; like the breast of the wave offering and the right leg, it is to be yours. All the lifted offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel give to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as a right for ever. This is an agreement made with salt before the Lord, to you and to your seed for ever. And the Lord said to Aaron, You will have no heritage in their land, or any part among them; I am your part and your heritage among the children of Israel. And to the children of Levi I have given as their heritage all the tenths offered in Israel, as payment for the work they do, the work of the Tent of meeting. In future the children of Israel are not to come near the Tent of meeting, so that death may not come to them because of sin. But the Levites are to do the work of the Tent of meeting, and be responsible for errors in connection with it: this is a law for ever through all your generations; and among the children of Israel they will have no heritage. For the tenths which the children of Israel give as a lifted offering to the Lord I have given to the Levites as their heritage. and so I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they will have no heritage. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the Levites, When you take from the children of Israel the tenth which I have given to you from them as your heritage, a tenth part of that tenth is to be offered as an offering lifted up before the Lord. And this lifted offering is to be put to your credit as if it was grain from the grain-floor and wine from the vines. So you are to make an offering lifted up to the Lord from all the tenths which you get from the children of Israel, giving out of it the Lord's lifted offering to Aaron the priest. From everything given to you, let the best of it, the holy part of it, be offered as a lifted offering to the Lord. Say to them, then, When the best of it is lifted up on high, it is to be put to the account of the Levites as the increase of the grain-floor and of the place where the grapes are crushed. It is to be your food, for you and your families in every place: it is your reward for your work in the Tent of meeting. And no sin will be yours on account of it, when the best of it has been lifted up on high; you are not to make a wrong use of the holy things of the children of Israel, so that death may not overtake you.
And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil from Israel.
This is what you are to do to make them holy, to do the work of priests to me: Take one young ox and two male sheep, without any mark on them, And unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes on which oil has been put, made of the best bread-meal; Put these in a basket and take them, with the ox and the two sheep. And let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting, and there let them be washed with water. Take the robes, and put the coat and the dress and the ephod and the priest's bag on Aaron; put the band of needlework round him, And let the head-dress be placed on his head and the holy crown on the head-dress. Then take the oil and put it on his head. And take his sons and put their robes on them; And put the linen bands round Aaron and his sons, and the head-dresses on them, to make them priests by my order for ever: so you are to make Aaron and his sons holy to me. Then let the ox be taken in front of the Tent of meeting: and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head. And you are to put the ox to death before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting. Then take some of the blood of the ox, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, draining out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. And take all the fat covering the inside of the ox, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and let them be burned on the altar; But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-offering. Then take one of the sheep, and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head. Then let it be put to death, so that the sides of the altar are marked with its blood. Then the sheep is to be cut up into its parts, and after washing its legs and its inside parts, you are to put them with the parts and the head, And let them all be burned on the altar as a burned offering to the Lord: a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. Then take the other sheep; and after Aaron and his sons have put their hands on its head, You are to put the sheep to death, and take some of its blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear, and of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet, dropping the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar. Then take some of the blood on the altar, and the oil, and put it on Aaron and his robes and on his sons and on their robes, so that he and his robes and his sons and their robes may be made holy. Then take the fat of the sheep, the fat tail, the fat covering the insides, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and the right leg; for by the offering of this sheep they are to be marked out as priests: And take one bit of bread and one cake of oiled bread and one thin cake out of the basket of unleavened bread which is before the Lord: And put them all on the hands of Aaron and of his sons, to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. Then take them from their hands, and let them be burned on the burned offering on the altar, a sweet smell before the Lord, an offering made by fire to the Lord. Then take the breast of Aaron's sheep, waving it before the Lord; and it is to be your part of the offering. So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons; And it will be their part as a right for ever from the children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering lifted up to the Lord. And Aaron's holy robes will be used by his sons after him; they will put them on when they are made priests. For seven days the son who becomes priest in his place will put them on when he comes into the Tent of meeting to do the work of the holy place. Then take the sheep of the wave offering and let its flesh be cooked in water in a holy place. And let Aaron and his sons make a meal of it, with the bread in the basket, at the door of the Tent of meeting. All those things which were used as offerings to take away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for they are holy food. And if any of the flesh of the offering or of the bread is over till the morning, let it be burned with fire; it is not to be used for food, for it is holy. All these things you are to do to Aaron and his sons as I have given you orders: for seven days the work of making them priests is to go on. Every day an ox is to be offered as a sin-offering, to take away sins: and by this offering on it, you will make the altar clean from sin; and you are to put oil on it and make it holy. For seven days you are to make offerings for the altar and make it holy, so that it may become completely holy, and anything touching it will become holy.
And the priests took the ark of the agreement of the Lord and put it in its place in the inner room of the house, in the most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones.
And said to them, You are the heads of the families of the Levites: make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so that you may take the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place which I have made ready for it. For because you did not take it at the first, the Lord our God sent punishment on us, because we did not get directions from him in the right way. So the priests and the Levites made themselves holy to take up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the sons of the Levites took up the ark of God, lifting it by its rods, as the Lord had said to Moses.
And from now, there will be no need for the House of the Lord, and the vessels used in it, to be moved about by the Levites.
All the responsible men of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. They took up the ark and the Tent of meeting and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests, the Levites, took up.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » John Gill's Exposition of the Bible » Commentary on Deuteronomy 10
Commentary on Deuteronomy 10 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 10
In this chapter an account is given of an order to Moses to hew two tables of stone, on which the Lord would write the words that were on the first, and to make an ark and put them into it, all which was accordingly done, Deuteronomy 10:1 and of some of the journeys of the children of Israel, Deuteronomy 10:6 and of the separation of the tribe of Levi to the service of the sanctuary, Deuteronomy 10:8 and of Moses's stay in the mount forty days and nights, and his success there, and the direction he had to lead on the people of Israel towards Canaan's land, Deuteronomy 10:10 and who by various arguments are exhorted to fear the Lord, and serve him, and keep his commands, Deuteronomy 10:12.
At that time the Lord said unto me,.... On the fortieth day, mentioned in the preceding chapter, as Aben Ezra, or at the end of forty days, as Jarchi; not of the first forty, for then were given him the first two tables of stone, with the law written on them, which he broke when he came down; but at the end of the second forty days, as some think, when he had fallen before the Lord, and entreated him for the people, and, as a token of his reconciliation to them, gave the following order:
hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, &c. Of the same sort of stone, of the same size and form with those God gave him in the mount the first time he was there, and which he broke in his descent from thence; they were the work of God, but these were to be hewed by Moses: the order seems to be given between the request Moses made to see the glory of the Lord, and the proclamation made of it, see Exodus 34:1, and come up unto me into the mount; Mount Sinai; this was certainly the third time of his going up there, and where he continued forty days and nights; but whether he continued there so long the second time may be a matter of question, though he certainly did the third time; see Exodus 32:30.
and make thee an ark of wood; Jarchi thinks this was not the ark Bezaleel made, but made after, and is that which went out to battle; and some take it to be a temporary ark, made for the present purpose till that was finished; but Aben Ezra is of opinion it is the same that Bezaleel made: and it may be said to be made by Moses, because he was not only ordered to make it, but it was by his orders and the direction he gave to Bezaleel that it was made; and this seems the more probable, because there the tables remained, Deuteronomy 10:5.
And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest,....F1See a Sermon of mine on this text, called, "The Law in the Hand of Christ." Though they were hewn by Moses, the writing on them was the Lord's; and the very same laws, in the same words, without any alteration or variation, were written by him on these as on the former; partly to show the authenticity of them, that they were of God and not Moses, of a divine original and not human; and partly to show the invariableness of them, that no change had been made in them, though they had been broken by the people; of which Moses's breaking the tables was a representation:
and thou shall put them in the ark; which being a type of Christ may signify the fulfilment of the law by him, who is the end, the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness to every believer; and that as this was in his heart to fulfil it, so it is in his hand as a rule of faith and conversation to his people.
And I made an ark of shittim wood,.... That is, ordered it to be made, and it was made by Bezaleel, and that of shittim wood: so the ark that was put into the holy of holies was made of this wood; see See Gill on Exodus 25:10; see Gill on Exodus 37:1,
and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; two marble ones, as the Targum of Jonathan; that is, he ordered them to be hewed, and took care that they should be exactly made as the former were, of which he had perfect knowledge, having received them of the Lord, and brought them with him down the mount:
and went up into the mount, having the two tables in my hand; in order to have the words of the law, the ten commands, written on them, these being only hewn stones, without anything on them: they were very probably marble, of which great quantities were near at hand.
And he wrote on the tables according to the first writing,.... The same laws, in the same letters:
the ten commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mount; in Mount Sinai, on which he descended, and from whence he delivered the decalogue by word of mouth in an audible manner, that all the people could hear it:
out of the midst of the fire; in which he descended, and where he continued, and from whence he spake, so that it was indeed a fiery law:
in the day of the assembly; when all the people of Israel were assembled together at the bottom of the mount to hear it:
and the Lord gave them unto me; the two tables, when he had wrote upon them the ten commands.
And I turned myself,.... From the Lord, out of whose hands he had received the tables:
and came down from the mount; with the two tables in his hand as before, one in one hand, and the other in the other hand:
and put the tables in the ark which I had made; or ordered to be made:
and there they be, as the Lord commanded me; there they were when Moses rehearsed what is contained in this book, on the plains of Moab, about thirty eight years after the putting them, into it; and there they continued to be when the ark was brought into Solomon's temple, 1 Kings 8:9 and there they were as long as the ark was in being; which may denote the continuance of the law in the hands of Christ under the Gospel dispensation as a rule of walk and conversation to his people.
And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan,.... Not when or soon after they removed from Sinai; for if this place is the same with Benejaakan, as is generally supposed, they had a great many journeys, mansions, and stations before they came to it; see Numbers 33:31 and besides, since Aaron, according to this account, died at their next station from hence, that was thirty eight years after their departure from Mount Sinai; and it is hard to say what should be the reason of making mention of these two or three journeys here; and whereas they are here said to journey front the place here mentioned
to Mosera; on the contrary in Numbers 33:31 they are said to depart from Mosera, and pitch in Benejaakan; which is accounted for by their going backwards and forwards, and so both may be true. Aben Ezra is of opinion, that Beeroth Benejaakan, or the wells of the children of Jaakan, is not the same with Bene Jaakan, nor Mosera the same with Moseroth; but Beeroth is Kadesh, and Mosera is the name of the desert of Mount Hor; and it is certain that Moseroth was the twenty seventh station, and Mosera, or the desert of Mount Hor, where Aaron died, was the thirty fourth, and therefore must be distant; see Numbers 33:30, which seems to agree with what follows:
there Aaron died, and there he was buried; it is certain that Aaron died on Mount Hor, Numbers 20:23, or there died and was buried when in the desert of Mosera:
and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his stead; so that though the high priest died, the office continued, and the law of it remained in force, and the tribe of Levi was separated for the service of the sanctuary, as afterwards expressed.
From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah,.... Which Jarchi takes to be the same with Horhagidgad, and so do most; see Numbers 33:32, but Aben Ezra says it is not, but is a general name, including Zalmonah, Punon, and Oboth, places the Israelites came to after they removed from Mount Hor, where Aaron died; see Numbers 33:41.
and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters; which the above writer takes to be the same with Beer, the well, Numbers 21:16 and by this description of it, it was a place where there was much water.
At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi,.... Not at the time that Moses came down from the mount with the tables of the law, but some considerable time after, even after the tabernacle was erected; nor at the time that Aaron died, and Eleazar succeeded him, but many years before that; unless there was a fresh separation of them, or a renewal of it when Eleazar became high priest in his father's stead; and so that being mentioned is the reason of its being repeated here:
to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord; even that into which the law, sometimes called the covenant, was put, and therefore here called the ark of the covenant: when this was carried from place to place, as it was especially in the wilderness, it was the business of the Levites to bear it, particularly the Kohathites; Numbers 3:31,
to stand before the Lord to minister unto him; that is, to his priests, in the tabernacle, and to keep and guard that:
and to bless in his name unto this day; not to bless the people, which was the work of the priest, but to sing praise in the name of the Lord, to give thanks unto him, and bless and praise him.
Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren,.... In the division of the land of Canaan, because being separated to the service of the sanctuary, he had no leisure to plough and sow, as Jarchi observes:
the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord thy God promised him; not in a spiritual sense, for so the Lord was an inheritance and portion of other Israelites; though these being taken off of worldly employments, and devoted to sanctuary service, might have more communion with God than others; but in a temporal sense, provision being made particularly by tithes, which were the Lord's, for their maintenance; and so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrase the words;"gifts which the Lord gave him are his inheritance;'see Numbers 18:20.
And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights,.... Which is to be connected with Deuteronomy 10:6 and relates what passed before he came down from the mount with the two tables; as that he stayed there as long as he did when he received the first tables, and fasted also as long as he did then; see Exodus 34:28.
and the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also; to his prayer on the behalf of the people:
and the Lord would not destroy thee; though he had threatened it, and their sin had deserved it.
And the Lord said unto me, arise, take thy journey before the people,.... Here Moses goes on with his relation of things at Mount Sinai, how that upon his supplication for the people, on account of the destruction they were threatened with for their idolatry, the Lord was graciously pleased not only to hear him and forgive the people, but ordered him to go before them, and lead them on towards the land of Canaan he had promised them, Exodus 32:34,
that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them; and which had it not been for their later murmurings and rebellions, they had been in the possession of it in a little time, especially after their departure from Sinai.
And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee,.... For all these favours bestowed upon them, the forgiveness of their sins, and a fresh intimation of their possession of the land of Canaan, and the renewal of the promise of it made to their fathers:
but to fear the Lord thy God; to fear him with a filial fear, to fear him and his goodness, and him for his goodness sake, and particularly for his pardoning grace and mercy vouchsafed to them; see Psalm 130:4,
to walk in all his ways; prescribed and directed to by him, every path of duty, whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial:
and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; for that is the best service which springs from love, and love constrains unto, and which is hearty and sincere, as that is, and is performed in the best manner such are capable of.
To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes,.... Both the ten commands and all others:
which I command thee this day for thy good; promises of temporal good things, introduction into the land of Canaan, possession of it, and continuance in it, being made to obedience to them.
Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, are the Lord's thy God,.... Made and possessed by him; the airy and starry heaven, the third heaven, which is the heaven of heavens, the seat of the divine Majesty, the habitation of angels and glorified saints:
the earth also, with all that therein is; that is his property, and at his disposal, being made by him, and all that is upon it, or contained in it, even whatsoever is on or in the whole terraqueous globe; see Psalm 115:15.
Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them,.... Though the heavens and the earth, and all the inhabitants of them are the Lord's by creation, yet he had a special regard unto, and a peculiar complacency in, the fathers of the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; from whence arose some particular expressions of love to them, signified by various acts of kindness done them, and promises made unto them:
and he chose their seed after them, even you above all the people, as it is this day; to be a special people to him, to enjoy civil and religious privileges greater than any other; and particularly to have his law given to them, his tabernacle and worship set up among them, which were at this time, and which gave them the preference to all other nations; see Deuteronomy 4:7.
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart,.... Content not yourselves with, nor put your confidence in outward circumcision of the flesh, but be concerned for the circumcision of the heart; for removing from that whatever is disagreeable to the Lord, even all carnality, sensuality, hypocrisy, and superfluity of naughtiness, and for having that put there which is well pleasing in his sight; and which though it is the work of God, and he only can do it and has promised it, yet such an exhortation is made to bring men to a sense of their need of it, and of the importance of it, and to show how agreeable it is to the Lord, and so to stir them up to seek unto him for it; see Deuteronomy 30:6.
and be no more stiffnecked; froward, obstinate, and disobedient, as they had been hitherto; Deuteronomy 9:6.
For the Lord your God is God of gods,.... Of angels and civil magistrates, who are sometimes so called: these are his creatures, act for him and under him, and are accountable to him:
the Lord of lords; of the kings and princes of the earth, who have their crowns, sceptres, and kingdoms from him, and hold them of him, by and under whom they reign and decree judgment, and who are subject to his authority and control:
a great God; as the perfections of his nature, the works of his hands, the blessings of his providence and grace, and the extensiveness of his dominion in heaven, earth, and hell, show him to be:
a mighty and a terrible; mighty and powerful to help, protect, and defend his people; terrible to his and their enemies, even to the kings of the earth:
which regardeth not persons; but bestows his favours, whether in a way of providence or grace, according to his sovereign will and pleasure, without regard to the works and merits of men, their characters or circumstances:
nor taketh reward; or bribes, to avert threatened and deserved judgments; see Job 36:18.
He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow,.... Who have none to help them, and whose patron and defender he is, and will do them justice himself, and take care that it is done them by others, or avenge their injuries, for he is a Father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widow, in his holy habitation; Psalm 68:5.
and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment; one that is in a foreign country, at a distance from his native land, and destitute of friends; such God in his providence takes care of, and expresses his love and kindness to, by giving them the necessaries of life, food, and raiment.
Love ye therefore the stranger,.... Because the Lord loves him; and another reason follows, particularly binding on the Israelites:
for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; and therefore should sympathize with such, and show them compassion, relieve them in distress, and afford them whatever they want, and is in the power of their hands to communicate to them; remembering their own condition in Egypt, and how welcome such a treatment would have been to them then, as well as the kind and careful providence of God towards them at that time.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God,.... Which includes the whole worship of him, external and internal:
him shalt thou serve; heartily and sincerely, according to his revealed will, and him only:
and to him shall thou cleave; and not turn aside to follow other gods, and worship them:
and swear by his name; and his only, whenever it is necessary to take an oath, which should not be done rashly or on trivial accounts; and never by any creature, but by the living God; see Deuteronomy 6:13.
He is thy praise,.... The object and matter of it, who deserves the praises of all his creatures, because of his perfections, works, and blessings of goodness; for all mercies temporal and spiritual come from him, and therefore he is greatly to be praised for them: praise is his due, and it is comely in his people to give it to him; see Jeremiah 17:14.
and he is thy God which hath done for thee these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen; which were done upon the Egyptians for their sakes, both in the land of Egypt and at the Red sea; and also what he had done for them in the wilderness, to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, Psalm 106:22.
Thy fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons,.... That is, in all; for there were not seventy besides Jacob and the patriarchs his sons, but with them; see Genesis 46:26 and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude; as he promised they should be, Genesis 15:5.