Deuteronomy 11:8

11:8-17 Moses sets before them, for the future, life and death, the blessing and the curse, according as they did or did not keep God's commandment. Sin tends to shorten the days of all men, and to shorten the days of a people's prosperity. God will bless them with an abundance of all good things, if they would love him and serve him. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil. Revolt from God to idols would certainly be their ruin. Take heed that your hearts be not deceived. All who forsake God to set their affection upon any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived, to their own destruction; and this will make it worse, that it was for want of taking heed.

Therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day,.... For the reasons before suggested, as well as for what follow: that ye may be strong; healthful in body, and courageous in mind, for sin tends to weaken both; whereas observance of the commands of God contributes to the health and strength of the body, and the rigour of the mind; both which were necessary to the present expedition they were going upon: and go in and possess the land whither ye go to possess it; the land of Canaan, they were marching towards in order to possess it; and nothing would more inspire them with courage, and cause them to enter it manfully without fear of their enemies, than obedience to the commands of God; whose presence being promised them on that account, they might expect it, and so had nothing to fear from the inhabitants of the land.

2-9. I speak not with your children which have not known … But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did—Moses is here giving a brief summary of the marvels and miracles of awful judgment which God had wrought in effecting their release from the tyranny of Pharaoh, as well as those which had taken place in the wilderness. He knew that he might dwell upon these, for he was addressing many who had been witnesses of those appalling incidents. For it will be remembered that the divine threatening that they should die in the wilderness, and its execution, extended only to males from twenty years and upward, who were able to go forth to war. No males under twenty years of age, no females, and none of the tribe of Levi, were objects of the denunciation (see Nu 14:28-30; 16:49). There might, therefore, have been many thousands of the Israelites at that time of whom Moses could say, "Your eyes have seen all the great acts which He did"; and with regard to those the historic review of Moses was well calculated to stir up their minds to the duty and advantages of obedience.

8 . On such recognition ( Deuteronomy 11:2 But know ye ) of the awful discipline of God the discourse now bases another of its many appeals to the people to observe the Law, with the usual promise of consequent benefits. That the appeal and promise are composed in the usual deuteronomic phrases is no ground, by itself, for considering that the verse is an editorial addition. (So Steuern., who finds the immediate continuation of Deuteronomy 11:7 in Deuteronomy 11:16 .) Nor are the phrases all repetitions; that ye may be strong is new. keep all the commandment ] Again the Miṣwah of Deuteronomy 11:31 q.v. , Deuteronomy 6:1 and Deuteronomy 7:11 . which I command thee this day ] The one Sg. clause in the section. Sam. and LXX codd. A etc. have Pl., LXX cod. Vat. agrees with the Heb. Sg. It is a good illustration of how many are the possible explanations of these smaller and sporadic changes of address. Either the Sg. is a clerical error which has slipped into the Heb. text and is to be corrected by the Versions; or it is original, and the readings of these are harmonistic, as in A.V. Or, if the Sg. is the correct reading it may be either a mere inadvertence on the part of the original writer, or the clause may have been inserted by an editor with the echo of Deuteronomy 7:11 in his ear. This last seems to the present writer the most probable explanation. But any of the others is possible. that ye may be strong, and go in ] only here; cp.

And this knowledge was to impel them to keep the law, that they might be strong, i.e., spiritually strong ( Deuteronomy 1:38 ), and not only go into the promised land, but also live long therein (cf. Deuteronomy 4:26 ; Deuteronomy 6:3 ). - In Deuteronomy 11:10-12 Moses adduces a fresh motive for his admonition to keep the law with fidelity, founded upon the peculiar nature of the land. Canaan was a land the fertility of which was not dependent, like that of Egypt, upon its being watered by the hand of man, but was kept up by the rain of heaven which was sent down by God the Lord, so that it depended entirely upon the Lord how long its inhabitants should live therein. Egypt is described by Moses as a land which Israel sowed with seed, and watered with its foot like a garden of herbs. In Egypt there is hardly any rain at all (cf. Herod. ii. 4, Diod. Sic. i. 41, and other evidence in Hengstenberg's Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 217ff.).

The watering of the land, which produces its fertility, is dependent upon the annual overflowing of the Nile, and, as this only lasts for about 100 days, upon the way in which this is made available for the whole year, namely, by the construction of canals and ponds throughout the land, to which the water is conducted from the Nile by forcing machines, or by actually carrying it in vessels up to the fields and plantations. (Note: Upon the ancient monuments we find not only the draw-well with the long rope, which is now called Shaduf, depicted in various ways (see Wilkinson, i. p. 35, ii. 4); but at Beni-Hassan there is a representation of two men carrying a water-vessel upon a pole on their shoulders, which they fill from a draw-well or pond, and then carry to the field (cf. Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 220-1).) The expression, "with thy foot," probably refers to the large pumping wheels still in use there, which are worked by the feet, and over which a long endless rope passes with pails attached, for drawing up the water (cf. Niebuhr, Reise, i. 149), the identity of which with the ἕλιξ described by Philo as ὑδρηλὸν ὄργανον (de confus. ling. i. 410) cannot possibly be called in question; provided, that is to say, we do not confound this ἕλιξ with the Archimedean water-screw mentioned by Diod.