Deuteronomy 18:9

_WHEN THOU ART COME INTO THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE, THOU SHALT NOT LEARN TO DO AFTER THE ABOMINATIONS OF THOSE NATIONS._ Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations - [see the note at Leviticus 18:21, where the Septuagint renders, 'Let not any of thy seed pass through ... to Molech,' kai apo tou spermatos sou ou dooseis latreuein archonti; whereas in the passage before us it renders the same words, perikathairoon ton huion autou ... en puri.]...

9._When thou art come. _It is too well known from experience how eagerly the human race lays hold of bad examples, and how prone it is to imitate them. Especially those who come into a foreign land, accustom themselves readily to its manners and customs. This is the reason why God expressly commands the Israelites to beware, lest, when they come into the land of Canaan, they should catch any infection from its inhabitants. The doctrine, indeed, is universal in its application; but there was a necessity for providing against the danger which immediately impended. Moreover, Moses explains clearly in this passage what it is to have other gods, viz., to mix up the worship of God with things profane, since its purity is only thus maintained by banishing from it all uncongenial superstitions. The sum, therefore, is, that the people of God should abstain from all the inventions of men, whereby...

9-14 Was it possible that a people so blessed with Divine institutions, should ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives? They were in danger; therefore, after many like cautions, they are charged not to do after the abominations of the nations of Canaan. All reckoning of lucky or unlucky days, all charms for diseases, all amulets or spells to prevent evil, fortune-telling, etc. are here forbidden. These are so wicked as to be a chief cause of the rooting out of the Canaanites. It is amazing to think that there should be any pretenders of this kind in such a land, and day of light, as we live in. They are mere impostors who blind and cheat their followers....

EXPOSITION RIGHTS OF THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. THE ARTS OF DIVINATION OF THE HEATHEN TO BE AVOIDED. PROPHETS PROMISED WHOM ISRAEL MUST HEAR. THE FALSE AND PRESUMPTUOUS PROPHET TO BE PUT TO DEATH. DEUTERONOMY 18:1 After the ruling powers, the judges and the king, come the priests and the

WHEN THOU ART COME INTO THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE,.... The land of Canaan, often thus described, to express the goodness of God in bestowing it on them, as a mere favour of his, without any desert of theirs; and so typical of the heavenly Canaan, or eternal life, which is the free gift of God through Christ: THOU SHALL NOT LEARN TO DO AFTER THE ABOMINATIONS OF THESE NATIONS; the seven nations which before inhabited it; they might learn, as Jarchi observes, to know how corrupt their works were, and to show to their children, that they might not do so; but they were not to learn them so as to practise them, but to have them in the utmost abhorrence, as being abominable to God, and which should be so to them; some of which are as follow....

14. THE RIGHTS OF THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES, THE TRUE AND THE FALSE PROPHET CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The rights of the priests and Levites (Deuteronomy 18:1)_ 2. Forbidden things (Deuteronomy 18:9) kite hate is stirred up in his wicked heart, and he became full of wrath. An unseen being, he who is the murderer from the beginning, told him to make this occasion for destroying all the Jews in the Persian Empire. Esther 3:7. And now Haman waits on his unseen master, the devil. They cast the lot before Haman, from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. He wanted to find out the month which would be best suited for the execution of his wicke

CONCERNING THE PROPHET. The Israelites are to consult Yahweh through His accredited messenger the prophet, and not through diviners who seek oracles by heathen methods. There is no parallel law in JE because about 800 B.C. and earlier the religious community was simple and undifferentiated: nor in P, where the priest is everything. For the several technical terms in Deuteronomy 18:10 f. (all denoting diviners of various kinds), see EBi. 1117, 2895, and especially later and longer articles on Divination and Magic in _International Standard Bible Encyclopæ dia.___ Deuteronomy 18:10. maketh. fire, etc.: read (with Geiger) that burneth. in the fire (transposing two consonants). The reference is to child-sacrifice (common among the Phœ nicians, etc.) practised as a means

ABOMINATIONS. See App-42....

_When thou art come into the land_ Characteristic of the Sg.; cp. Deuteronomy 9:5. _which the Lord thy God_ IS TO GIVE _thee_ Peculiar to D; see on Deuteronomy 1:20; Deuteronomy 4:21 f. _learn to do_ Only here. _abominations_ See on Deuteronomy 7:25, and cp. Deuteronomy 12:31....

LESSON FOURTEEN DEUTERONOMY 16:18-20; DEUTERONOMY 17:2 TO DEUTERONOMY 18:22 e. THE LEADERS OF GOD'S PEOPLE (Deuteronomy 16:18-20; Deuteronomy 17:2 to Deuteronomy 18:22) (Laws concerning Judges, kings, priests, and prophets) (1) JUDGES (Deuteronomy 16:18-20;...