Deuteronomy 10:3

_AND I MADE AN ARK OF SHITTIM WOOD, AND HEWED TWO TABLES OF STONE LIKE UNTO THE FIRST, AND WENT UP INTO THE MOUNT, HAVING THE TWO TABLES IN MINE HAND._ I made an ark of shittim wood. It appears, however, from Exodus 37:1, that the ark was not framed until his return from the mount; or, most probably, he gave instructions to Bezeleel, the artist employed on the work, before he ascended the mount, that on his descent it might be finished, and ready to receive the precious deposit....

1-11 Moses reminded the Israelites of God's great mercy to them, notwithstanding their provocations. There were four things in and by which the Lord showed himself reconciled to Israel. God gave them his law. Thus God has intrusted us with Bibles, sabbaths, and sacraments, as tokens of his presence and favour. God led them forward toward Canaan. He appointed a standing ministry among them for holy things. And now, under the gospel, when the pouring forth of the Spirit is more plentiful and powerful, the succession is kept up by the Spirit's work on men's hearts, qualifying and making some willing for that work in every age. God accepted Moses as an advocate or intercessor for them, and therefore appointed him to be their prince and leader. Moses was a type of Christ, who ever lives, pleading for us, and has all power in heaven and in earth....

Verse Deuteronomy 10:3. _SHITTIM WOOD_] Exodus 25:5, Exodus 25:5, and succeeding verses, and on the parallel places in the margin....

These verses are closely connected with the preceding chapter, and state very briefly the results of the intercession of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 9:25. The people are reminded that all their blessings and privileges, forfeited by apostasy as soon as bestowed, were only now their own by a new and most unmerited act of grace on the part of God, won from Him by the self-sacrificing mediation of Moses himself Deuteronomy 10:10. Deuteronomy 10:1. The order for making the ark and tabernacle was evidently given before the apostasy of the people (Exo. 25ff); but the tables were not put in the ark until the completion and dedication of the ta

EXPOSITION RENEWED EXHORTATIONS TO OBEDIENCE. DEUTERONOMY 10:1 _Moses_'_ intercession and its results_. DEUTERONOMY 10:1 AT THAT TIME. When Moses thus interceded, God commanded him to prepare two new tables of stone, and to construct an ark in which to keep them (cf. Exodus 34:1, etc.). Directions had been given for the construction of the ark before the apostasy of the people, and it was not made till after the tabernacle had been erected, nor were the tables placed in it till the tabernacle had been consecrated (cf....

AND I MADE AN ARK OF SHITTIM WOOD,.... That is, ordered it to be made, and it was made by Bezaleel, and that of shittim wood: so the ark that was put into the holy of holies was made of this wood; see Exodus 25:10, Exodus 37:1, AND HEWED TWO TABLES OF STONE LIKE UNTO THE FIRST; two marble ones, as the Targum of Jonathan; that is, he ordered them to be hewed, and took care that they should be exactly made as the former were, of which he had perfect knowledge, having received them of the Lord, and brought them with him down the mount: AND WENT UP INTO THE MOUNT, HAVING THE TWO TABLES IN MY HAND; in order to have the words of the law, the ten commands, written on them, these being only hewn stones, without anything on them: they were very probably ma

SHITTIM That is, acacia....

5. WARNING AGAINST SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THEIR PREVIOUS FAILURES Chapter S 9:1-10:11 _ 1. The warning (Deuteronomy 9:1)_ 2. The failures of the past (Deuteronomy 9:7) 3. The intercession of Moses (Deuteronomy 9:25) 4. The results of the intercession (Deuteronomy 10:1) This chapter and the first eleven verses of the tenth are aimed against the spirit of self righteousness. First there is the warning. This is followed by their shameful history of the past, which showed that a boast of being righteous, or having any righteousness had to be positively excluded in their

DEUTERONOMY 9:7_ b -_ DEUTERONOMY 10:11 (or DEUTERONOMY 10:9). Narrative of the legislation on Mount Horeb; for the purpose apparently of illustrating Deuteronomy 9:7_ a._ This historical survey suddenly thrust into a hortatory context closely resembles Deuteronomy 1-3, and is thought by Horst and Bertholet to be by the same author. They agree with Steuernagel (who, however, says its closest affinities are with Deuteronomy 5) in holding it to be an interpolation here. But surely the history in this section is didactic and therefore hortatory....

_So I made an ark of acacia wood_ Not now in JE, see above. P, Exodus 25:10; Exodus 37:1, _Beṣal'el made the ark of acacia wood_. _acacia wood planks of shiṭṭim_, the plur. of the tree _shiṭṭah_= _shinṭah_, Ar. -sant," a name given to several species of the thorny acacia; in Egypt to -A. (mimosa) Nilotica" (Lane, _Ar. Eng. Lex._); and by the Arabs of the Desert of the wanderings of Israel to the -A. tortilis" and -A. laeta" (Hart, _Fauna and Flora of Sinai, Petra and W. Araba_, 52). More probably the former, an upright tree, 10 or 15 feet high, with a thick trunk and occasionally very numerous (e.g. a grove of acacias, chiefly -tortilis," ten miles long in the Arabah, _id._31, cp. 8, 12, 92, and found on W. el Ithm, by which Israel probably passed to the Edomite plateau); t