Deuteronomy 4:25

When thou shalt beget … and ye shall have been Read, ye shall beget. The sentence illustrates the difficulties raised by the variant forms of address. So quick a change from Sg. to Pl., confirmed by LXX (though Sam. has Pl. for both verbs), is logically possible (thou= the mother nation; ye= the nation and its children). Yet the Sg. is more probably due to the attraction of the previous Sg., a copyist naturally continuing the latter till the changed form arrested him. For thy Godboth Sam. and LXX read your God. Thus the Pl. is complete throughout 25 28. The word for begetonly here, Deuteronomy 27:1 and in P.

ye shall have been long Or grown oldor stale, used of oldcorn, Leviticus 26:10, and inveterate leprosy, Deuteronomy 13:11, Here not merely living long in the land, but growing aged in spirit, losing spiritual freshness. Similarly the prophets judged the wilderness days to have been the ideal period of Israel's history, the subsequent ages decadent.

corrupt yourselves See on Deuteronomy 4:16; graven image, etc., ibid.

do evil in the eyes of the Lord Deuteronomy 9:18; Deuteronomy 17:2; Deuteronomy 31:29, and P, Numbers 32:13; or good, Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 12:28.

to provoke him Deuteronomy 9:18; Deuteronomy 31:29; Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 32:21, also in deuteronomic passages in Kings and in Jeremiah.