_A.M. 2553. B.C. 1451._ A command to destroy the Canaanites, with all pertaining to their idols, Deuteronomy 7:1; and to obey God, considering their relation to him, Deuteronomy 7:6. Promises to the obedient, Deuteronomy 7:12. A repetition of the command utterly to destroy the Canaanites, with all... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seven nations_ Ten are mentioned, Genesis 15:19; but this being some hundreds of years after, it is not strange if three of them were either destroyed by foreign or domestic wars, or by cohabitation and marriage united with and swallowed up in the rest.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt smite and utterly destroy them_ That is, in case they continued obstinate in their idolatry, they were to be destroyed, as nations, or bodies politic. But if they forsook their idolatry, and became sincere proselytes to the true religion, they would then be proper objects of forgiveness,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither shalt thou make marriages with them_ From this prohibition it has been justly inferred that the Canaanites, as individuals, might be spared upon their repentance and reformation from idolatry. For on the supposition that nothing that breathed was to be saved alive, but that all were to be u... [ Continue Reading ]
_To serve other gods_ That is, there is manifest danger of apostacy and idolatry from such matches. Which reason doth both limit the prohibition to such of these as were unconverted, (otherwise Salmon married Rachab, Matthew 1:5,) and also enlarges it to other idolatrous nations, as appears from 1 K... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their groves_ Which idolaters planted about the temples and altars of their gods. Hereby God designed to take away whatsoever might bring their idolatry to remembrance, or occasion the reviving of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The fewest_ To wit, at that time, when God first declared his choice of you for his peculiar people, which was done to Abraham. For Abraham had but one son concerned in this choice and covenant, namely, Isaac, and that was not till he was in his hundredth year; and Isaac was sixty years old ere he... [ Continue Reading ]
_Them that hate him_ Not only those who hate him directly and properly, (for so did few or none of the Israelites to whom he here speaks,) but those who hate him by implication and consequence; those who hate and oppose his people and word; those who wilfully persist in the breach of his commandment... [ Continue Reading ]
_The covenant and the mercy_ That is, the covenant of mercy, which he, out of his own mere grace, made with them. _He will love thee_ He will continue to love thee, and to manifest his love to thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The diseases of Egypt_ Such as the Egyptians were infected with, either commonly, or miraculously. It seems to refer not only to the plagues of Egypt, but to some other epidemic diseases, which they remembered to have prevailed among the Egyptians, and by which God had chastised them for their nati... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt remember what the Lord thy God did_ Frequently and considerately, for thy encouragement; for people are said to forget those things which they do not remember to good purpose. _The great temptations_ The trials and exercises of thy faith, and obedience to my commands.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou mayest not consume them at once_ Thou shalt not be able; I will not assist thee with my omnipotence, to crush them at one run of success and victory; for you are not yet numerous enough to people the whole country at once. But I will bless thee in the use of ordinary means, and thou shalt dest... [ Continue Reading ]
_No man shall stand before thee_ This promise was conditional; they were to be obedient and perform their duty, and then it would be fulfilled; but if they neglected to do this, they would justly lose the benefit of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The silver or the gold_ Wherewith the idols were covered or adorned, nor consequently any other of their ornaments. This God commanded, to show his utter detestation of idolatry, and to cut off all occasions of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lest thou be a cursed thing_ Hebrew, חרם, _cherem_, devoted to utter destruction, as that and every thing was that had been employed to an idolatrous use.... [ Continue Reading ]