Deuteronomy 8:4

_THY RAIMENT WAXED NOT OLD UPON THEE, NEITHER DID THY FOOT SWELL, THESE FORTY YEARS._ Thy raiment waxed not old ... neither did thy foot swell. What a striking miracle was this! No doubt the Israelites might have brought from Egypt more clothes than they wore at their outset; they might also have obtained supplies of various articles of food and raiment in barter with the neighbouring tribes for the fleeces and skins of their sheep and goats; and in furnishing them with such opportunities care of Providence appeared. But the strong and pointed terms which Moses here uses (see also Deuteronomy 29:5) indicate a special or miraculous interposition of their loving Guardian in preserving them amid the tear and wear of their nomadic life in the desert. This same view, we think, must be taken of the fact that their feet did not swell, or rather were not blistered, by their

1-9 Obedience must be, 1. Careful, observe to do; 2. Universal, to do all the commandments; and 3. From a good principle, with a regard to God as the Lord, and their God, and with a holy fear of him. To engage them to this obedience. Moses directs them to look back. It is good to remember all the ways, both of God's providence and grace, by which he has led us through this wilderness, that we may cheerfully serve him and trust in him. They must remember the straits they were sometimes brought into, for mortifying their pride, and manifesting their perverseness; to prove them, that they and others might know all that was in their heart, and that all might see that God chose them, not for any thing in them which might recommend them to his favour. They must remember the miraculous supplies of food and raiment granted them. Let none of God's children distrust their Father, nor take any sin...

Verse Deuteronomy 8:4. _THY RAIMENT WAXED NOT OLD, C._] The plain meaning of this much-tortured text appears to me to be this: "God so amply provided for them all the necessaries of life, that they never were obliged to wear tattered garments, nor were their feet injured for lack of shoes or sandals." If they had carvers, engravers, silversmiths, and jewellers among them, as plainly appears from the account we have of the tabernacle and its utensils, is it to be wondered at if they also had _habit_ and _sandal makers_, c., c., as we are certain they had _weavers_, _embroiderers_, and such like? And the traffic which we may suppose they carried on with the Moabites, or with travelling hordes of Arabians, doubtless supplied them with the _materials_ though, as they had abundance of sheep and neat cattle, they must have had much of the materials within them...

They had clothes, it would seem, in abundance (compare Exodus 12:34) at the beginning of the 40 years; and during those years they had many sheep and oxen, and so must have had much material for clothing always at command. No doubt also they carried on a traffic in these, as in other commodities, with the Moabites and the nomadic tribes of the desert. Such ordinary supplies must not be shut out of consideration, even if they were on occasions supplemented by extraordinary providences of God, as was undoubtedly the case with their food....

EXPOSITION FURTHER EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE, ENFORCED BY A REVIEW OF GOD'S DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS. DEUTERONOMY 8:1 That they might be induced the more faithfully to observe all the commandments which had been enjoined upon them so as to go on and prosper, they are called to remember the experiences of the forty years in the wilderness, when God guided them and disciplined them for their good. He humbled them that he might test the state of their heart and affections towards him, using the distress and privations to which they were subjected as means of bringing out what was in

THY RAIMENT WAXED NOT OLD UPON THEE, c] They wanted not clothes all the forty years they were in the wilderness which some account for by the rising generation being supplied with the clothes of those that died in the wilderness, and with the spoils they took from Amalek, Exodus 17:1 and others, as Aben Ezra observes, remark that they brought much clothes with them out of Egypt, which no doubt they did; see Exodus 12:35 and he adds, as worthy of notice, that the manna they lived upon did not produce sweat, which is prejudicial to clothes; but be it so, that they were sufficiently provided with clothes, it must be miraculous that these clothes they wore should not wax old. This, in a spiritual sense, may denote the righteousness of Christ, which is often compared to raiment, the property of which is, that it neve

4. THOU SHALT REMEMBER! PROVISION AND WARNING CHAPTER 8 _ 1. Remember the forty years and Jehovah's care (Deuteronomy 8:1)_ 2. The gracious provision in the land (Deuteronomy 8:7) 3. Warning against forgetting Jehovah (Deuteronomy 8:11) Admonition to obedience begins this chapter. Disobedience and what will result from it closes it. Between the first and last verses we find extremely precious words. They are called upon to remember the experiences of the wilderness. It was Jehovah, who led them and watched over them. The wilderness experience was made a blessing to them. It taught them the blessed lessons of humility and brought out all that was in their hearts. And

DEUTERONOMY 8. Israel's duty to be faithful and obedient to Yahweh enforced by a recital of His loving treatment of them in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:1). Unless they are faithful they will perish as the Canaanites did (Deuteronomy 8:18). Deuteronomy 8:2. prove: Deuteronomy 6:16 * (tempt, same Heb. verb). Deuteronomy 8:3. manna: Exodus 16:14;...

THY RAIMENT. Compare Deuteronomy 29:5.Nehemiah 9:20; Nehemiah 9:21. Not mentioned in Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers....

_Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee_ Similarly Deuteronomy 29:5, Pl.; Nehemiah 9:21. On _raiment_see Deuteronomy 24:13. _neither did thy fool swell_ or _rise in blisters_, only here and Nehemiah 9:21. Rhetorically applied to the nation as a whole; the Pl. passages dwell more on the damage to the nation and the destruction of one whole generation of them during the forty years, cp. Deuteronomy 2:14....