ELDERS] Elsewhere the elders are addressed along with the people. Here they are associated with Moses in exhorting the people to obedience. 2, 3. The plaster was intended to make a smooth surface, on which the inscription may have been painted in accordance with the Egyptian custom. Or the writing... [ Continue Reading ]
CEREMONIES TO BE OBSERVED ON REACHING CANAAN This chapter has probably been misplaced, as it seems to break the connexion between Deuteronomy 26 and Deuteronomy 28. It ordains four ceremonies to be observed after the people have entered Canaan: the Law to be written on stones on Mt. Ebal: an altar... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Exodus 20:24 and notes there. 9, 10. The Levites are addressed here because it was their duty to pronounce the blessings and the curses, to which the people responded with 'Amen.' 11-13. On EBAL and GERIZIM see Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 11:30. It need not be supposed that six tribes spoke... [ Continue Reading ]
TO BLESS] The words of the blessings are not given but may be inferred from the nature of the curses: cp. Deuteronomy 11:26.... [ Continue Reading ]
CURSED _be_ THE MAN] There is no verb in the Hebrew, and it might be more correct to say 'cursed is the man.' The words are a declaration of fact rather than an imprecation. The seeming harshness of many expressions in the Psalms e.g. may be exprained in this way. The speaker does not always utter h... [ Continue Reading ]
To take advantage of a neighbour's ignorance or credulity is sin: cp. Leviticus 19:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Galatians 3:26. As no mere man is able perfectly to keep the whole law, St. Paul argues that part at least of the purpose of the Mosaic Law was to teach men to despair of obtaining righteousness 'by the works of the law,' and to drive them, as it were, to seek a righteousness imputed by God on c... [ Continue Reading ]