_A.M. 2553. B.C. 1451._ The preface, fixing the time and place, Deuteronomy 1:1. Israel commanded to march, Deuteronomy 1:6. Judges provided 9-13. They come to Kadesh-barnea, Deuteronomy 1:19. Spies sent, their report, the people's murmuring, Deuteronomy 1:22. The sentence passed upon them, Deutero... [ Continue Reading ]
_These be the words which Moses spake_ In the last encampment of the Israelites, which was in the plains of Moab, there being now but two months before the death of Moses, and their passage into the land of Canaan. Moses spent this last part of his time in laying before them an account of their trav... [ Continue Reading ]
_There are eleven days' journey_ This is added, to show that the reason why the Israelites in so many years were advanced no farther from Horeb than to these plains, was not the distance of the places, but because of their rebellions. _Kadesh-barnea_ Which was not far from the borders of Canaan.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The eleventh month_ Which was but a little before his death. _All that the Lord had given him in command_ Which shows not only that what he now delivered was in substance the same with what had formerly been commanded, but that God now commanded him to repeat it. He gave this rehearsal and exhortat... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount_ They had stayed at mount Sinai, or Horeb, almost a year, receiving the law, erecting the tabernacle, numbering the people, ranking them under their standards, &c. And so, being fitted for an orderly march, they were commanded to depart thence, and proceed to... [ Continue Reading ]
_To the mount of the Amorites_ That is, to the mountainous country on the south part of Canaan, inhabited chiefly by the Amorites, Deuteronomy 1:19; Deuteronomy 1:44. The country to which Moses directed the spies to go up, Numbers 13:17. This order is not mentioned in the book of Numbers, nor a grea... [ Continue Reading ]
_I spake unto you_ Unto your fathers, who were alive at the time here referred to, but now dead, Numbers 26:64. _At that time_ That is, about that time, a little before their coming to Horeb. See Exodus 18. This was by the advice of Jethro, his father-in-law.... [ Continue Reading ]
_How can I alone bear your burden?_ The trouble of ruling and managing so perverse a people. _Your strife_ Your contentions among yourselves, for the determination whereof the elders were appointed. _Take ye wise men and understanding_ Persons of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. _Known among your... [ Continue Reading ]
_So I took the chief_ Not in authority, but in endowments for governing. _And officers_ Inferior officers, that were to attend upon the superior magistrates, and to execute their decrees.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The stranger_ That converseth or dealeth with him. To such God would have justice equally administered as to his own people, partly for the honour of religion, and partly for the interest which every man hath in matters of common right.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Respect persons_ Hebrew, _not know_, or _acknowledge faces;_ that is, not give sentence according to the outward qualities of the person, as he is poor or rich, your friend or enemy, but purely according to the merit of the cause. For which reason some of the Grecian lawgivers ordered that the judg... [ Continue Reading ]
_I commanded you_, &c. I instructed you in your duty, by delivering to you, and especially to your judges, the laws, statutes, and judgments revealed unto me by the Lord in Horeb.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Great and terrible wilderness_ Great, because it extended a great way; and terrible, because mostly desolate, or only inhabited by wild beasts. _By the way of the mountain of the Amorites_ All the way you went toward that mountain.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eshcol_ That is, _grapes_, so called from the goodly cluster of grapes which they brought from thence. _It is a good land_ So they said unanimously, Numbers 13:27. Only they added, that they were not a match for the inhabitants of it, as is intimated Deuteronomy 1:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because the Lord hated us_ This shows what dishonourable and unworthy thoughts they had entertained of God, to imagine him capable of being actuated by hatred to his own creatures. Their sins, indeed, he could not but view with hatred; just as every good and wise parent must dislike all evil dispos... [ Continue Reading ]
_The people is greater_ In number, and strength, and valour. _The cities are great, and walled up to heaven_ An hyperbole, signifying that their cities were fenced with very high walls, which Moses himself allows to be true, Deuteronomy 9:1. But, however strong they were, the Israelites had no reaso... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall fight for you according to all that he did in Egypt_ This was one of the strongest arguments possible to beget in them a firm reliance on the protection and help of God; since they could not but own that the same power which had redeemed them out of Egypt, was no less able to bring them into... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bare thee_ Or _carried thee_, as a father carries his weak and tender child in his arms, through difficulties and dangers, gently leading you according as you were able to go, and sustaining you by his power and goodness. _Ye did not believe the Lord_ So they _could not enter in, because of unbelie... [ Continue Reading ]
_Save Caleb_ Under whom Joshua is comprehended, though not here expressed, because he was not now to be one of the people, but to be set over them as a chief governor: we are also to except Eleazar and some other Levites. _For your sakes_ Upon occasion of your wickedness and perverseness, by which y... [ Continue Reading ]
_As bees_ As bees, which, being provoked, come out of their hives in great numbers, and with great fury pursue their adversary and disturber.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord would not hearken to you_ Your sorrow not proceeding from a penitent mind, or from a concern that God was displeased with you, but from this, that you yourselves could not do as you desired, God would not listen to your cry, as he always doth to the cry of those who pray to him in sincerit... [ Continue Reading ]