2._Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. _Those who think that there was cruelty in this command, usurp too great authority in respect to Him who is the judge of all. The objection is specious that the people of God were unreasonably imbued with inhumanity, so that, advancing with murderou... [ Continue Reading ]
6._For thou art a holy people. _He explains more distinctly what we have lately seen respecting God’s gratuitous love; for the comparison of the fewness of the people with the whole world and all nations, illustrates in no trifling degree the greatness of God’s grace; and this subject is considerabl... [ Continue Reading ]
7._The Lord did not set his love upon you. _He proves it to be of God’s gratuitous favor, that He has exalted them to such high honor, because He had passed over all other nations, and deigned to embrace them alone. For an equal distribution of God’s gifts generally casts obscurity upon them in our... [ Continue Reading ]
8._Because he would keep the oath. _The love of God is here referred back from the children to the fathers; for he addressed the men of his own generation, when he said that they were therefore God’s treasure, because He loved them; now he adds that God had not just begun to love them for the first... [ Continue Reading ]
9._Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God_. The verb (220) might have been as properly translated in the future tense; and, if this be preferred, an experimental knowledge, as it is called, is referred to, as if he had said that God would practically manifest how faithful a rewarder He is o... [ Continue Reading ]
10._And repayeth them that hate him_. There is no mention here made of the vengeance “unto the third and fourth generation? (222) Those who expound the passage that God confers kindnesses on the wicked, whilst they are living in this world, (223) that He may at length destroy them in final perdition... [ Continue Reading ]
12._Wherefore it shall come to pass_. God appears so to act according to agreement, as to leave (His people) no hope of His favor, unless they perform their part of it; and undoubtedly this is the usual form of expression in the Law, in which the condition is inserted, that God will do good to His p... [ Continue Reading ]
16._And thou shalt consume all the people. _It is plain from the second part of the verse wherefore He commands the people of Canaan to be destroyed, when He forbids their gods to be worshipped. This precept, therefore, corresponds with the others, where He dooms in like manner these nations to utte... [ Continue Reading ]
17_If thou shalt say in thine heart. _Since it was a matter of great difficulty to destroy such a multitude of men, and despair itself would drive them to madness, so that it would be frivolous for the Israelites to cut off all hope of mercy, God anticipates their fear, and exhorts them to the stren... [ Continue Reading ]
20._Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet. _Since the destruction of their enemies might seem long, if they were only to be slain by their hands and weapons, and again, because it was scarcely credible that, without defending themselves, they would voluntarily stretch forth their own throa... [ Continue Reading ]
25._The graven images of their gods. _He again impresses upon them the object of the destruction of the nations, but he goes further than before. He had before forbidden them to worship their gods. He now commands them to consume their graven images with fire, for since the people were prone to supe... [ Continue Reading ]