Deuteronomy 11:25

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Deuteronomy 25:1 INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 25 Several laws are contained in this chapter, as concerning beating such whose crimes required it, Deuteronomy 25:1; of not muzzling the ox in treading out the corn, Deuteronomy 25:4; of marrying a deceased brother's wife, when there was no issue, and of the disgrace of such that refused it, Deuteronomy 25:5; of the punishment of an immodest woman, Deuteronomy 25:11; and against bad weights and measures, Deuteronomy 25:13; and for the utter destruction of Amalek, Deuteronomy 25:17. Ver. 1. If there be a controversy between men,.... Between two or more: and they come unto judgment; into a court of judicature, bring their cause thither: that [the judges] may judge them; who were never less than three; the great sanhedrim at Jerusalem consisted of seventy one, the lesser court was of twenty three, and the least of all three only: then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked: acquit the one, whose cause is good, and condemn the other to punishment, who is guilty of a crime, and as that deserves; which is to do righteous judgment; the contrary to this is an abomination to the Lord, Proverbs 17:15. Deuteronomy 25:2 Ver. 2. And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten,....

11:18-25 Let all be directed by the three rules here given. 1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God. There will not be good practices in the life, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God, having constant regard to it as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work, Ps 119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Nor will any thing do more to cause prosperity, and keeping up religion in a nation, than the good education of children.

There shall be no man able to stand before you,.... Meaning not a single man, such an one as Og, or any of the sons of Anak, the giants; because it could never be thought, imagined, or feared, that one man only should be able to stand against 600,000 fighting men, but any people or nation, though greater and mightier than they: for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you, and the dread of you, upon all the land that ye shall tread upon: that is, upon all the land of Canaan, and the inhabitants of it; who should hear what wonderful things had been done for them in Egypt, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; and what they had done to Sihon and Og, and to their countries, and which accordingly was fulfilled, Joshua 2:9. as he hath said unto you; had promised them, Deuteronomy 2:25 and which was prophesied of in the prophetic song at the Red sea; see Exodus 15:14.

(25) The fear of you and the dread of you. —Rashi says: “The fear of you on those that are near, and the dread upon those that are far off.” It is a very far-reaching prophecy, for it may be read, “upon all the earth that ye shall tread upon.” (See Esther 8:2-3 , where it was fulfilled throughout the whole Persian Empire.}

24. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours—not as if the Jews should be lords of the world, but of every place within the promised land. It should be granted to them and possessed by them, on conditions of obedience: from the wilderness—the Arabah on the south; Lebanon—the northern limit; Euphrates—their boundary on the east. Their grant of dominion extended so far, and the right was fulfilled to Solomon. even unto the uttermost sea—the Mediterranean.

But if, on the other hand, their heart was foolish to turn away from the Lord and serve other gods, the wrath of the Lord would burn against them, and God would shut up the heaven, that no rain should fall and the earth should yield no produce, and they would speedily perish (cf. Leviticus 26:19-20 , and Deuteronomy 28:23-24 ). Let them therefore impress the words now set before them very deeply upon themselves and their children ( Deuteronomy 11:18-21 , in which there is in part a verbal repetition of Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ). The words, "as the days of the heaven above the earth," i.e., as long as the heaven continues above the earth, - in other words, to all eternity (cf. Psalm 89:30 ; Job. Deu 14:12), - belong to the main sentence, "that your days may be multiplied," etc. ( Deuteronomy 11:21 ). "The promise to give the land to Israel for ever was not made unconditionally; an unconditional promise is precluded by the words, 'that your days may be multiplied'" (Schultz). (For further remarks, see at Deuteronomy 30:3-5 .) For ( Deuteronomy 11:22-25 ) if they adhered faithfully to the Lord, He would drive out before them all the nations that dwelt in the land, and would give them the land upon which they trod in all its length and breadth, and so fill the Canaanites with fear and terror before them, that no one should be able to stand against them. (On Deuteronomy 11:23 , cf.

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 ; Deuteronomy 9:1 , and Deuteronomy 1:28 .) The words, "every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours," are defined more precisely, and restricted to the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan by the boundaries which follow: "from the desert (of Arabia on the south), and Lebanon (on the north), and from the river Euphrates (on the east) to the hinder sea" (the Mediterranean on the west; see Numbers 34:6 ). The Euphrates is given as the eastern boundary, as in Deuteronomy 1:7 , according to the promise in Genesis 15:18 . (On Deuteronomy 11:25 , cf. Deuteronomy 7:24 ; Deuteronomy 2:25 , and Exodus 23:27 .)

25 . But if in the field the man find , etc.] So the emphatic Heb. order. Field here in its wider and probably earlier sense, of the uncultivated, therefore uninhabited, land. So Deuteronomy 22:27 , Deuteronomy 21:1 . force ] Rather, seize , lay hold of , as in Deuteronomy 25:11 . Deuteronomy 22:25