Deuteronomy 4:19

lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven Change to Sg., confirmed by Sam. and LXX.

and when thou seest the sun, etc.] Deuteronomy 17:3: sun, moon or any of the host of heaven. Unlike the warnings against idolatry this one is not found in JE or P. The host of heavenwas the dominant influence in Babylonian religion, and though there are traces of astral worship from the earliest times in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem (cp. Bit-Ninib in the Tell-el-Amarna Letters, Beth-shemesh, etc.), it first became an active danger to Israel, when under Ahaz Assyrian example began to tempt the people of Jehovah, and in the last days of N. Israel, 2 Kings 17:16, and in Judah under Manasseh, 2 Kings 21:3; 2 Kings 21:5; 2 Kings 23:4-5; 2 Kings 23:11, Assyria imposed on her tributaries the forms of Babyl. culture. Cp. the pre-exilic prophets Zephaniah 1:5; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 8:2; Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 44:17; Ezekiel 8:16. These show that the worship was both national, in the temple, and domestic. On the temptations in Jerusalem to the worship of the heavenly host see Jerusalem, ii. 186 f. The natural seductiveness of the worship is well indicated by the successive verbs used here.

thou be drawn away Rather reflexive, let thyself be drawn, Deuteronomy 30:4; Deuteronomy 30:17; cp. the active form, Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 13:10; Deuteronomy 13:13 [Hebrews 6:11; Hebrews 6:14].

worship them, and serve them,] Rather, bow down to them and worship them. Cp. Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy 11:16; Deuteronomy 17:3; Deuteronomy 29:26 (25), Deuteronomy 30:17, and the addition to E, Exodus 20:5.

which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all the peoples Distributed, or allotted. An interesting attempt by the writer to reconcile his great truth that Jehovah is God alone with the fact that the other nations worship other gods (cp. Deuteronomy 29:26). This is part of His supreme Providence. Some find also in the words the feeling that such cults preserved the Gentiles from utter ignorance of God, and cite Clem. Alex. (Strom. vi. 14, 110 f.): the stars have been assigned to them, ἵνα μὴ τέλεον ἄθεοι γενόμενοι τελέως καὶ διαφάρωσιν, and as a guide to God Himself, ὁδὸς γὰρ αὕτη δοθεῖσα τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀνακῦψαι πρὸς θεόν.

The coincidence of the change of address to the Sg. with the change of subject leads some to take the verse as an intrusion by a later hand. But it may be a later addition by the author of the context himself on consideration of Deuteronomy 17:3, and as this is in the Sg. form it would account for his change to the Sg. here. But note the parallel under the whole heavenwith Deuteronomy 2:25. In any case there is no need to take the passage as post-exilic; the danger it would avert was, as the passages cited show, especially strong before the exile.