Deuteronomy 18:13

18:9-14 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, &c. 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.

Deuteronomy 18:13-14 . Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God — Sincerely and wholly his, seeking him and cleaving to him, and to his word alone, and therefore abhorring all commerce and conversations with devils. Hath not suffered thee so to do — Hath not suffered thee to follow these superstitious and diabolical practices, as he hath suffered other nations to do, but hath instructed thee better by his word and Spirit, and will more fully instruct thee by a great Prophet.

(13) Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. —Rashi’s note on this is worth preserving: “Thou shalt walk with Him in sincerity, and wait for Him. And thou shalt not pry into the future. But whatsoever cometh upon thee, take it with simplicity, and then thou shalt be with Him, and be His portion.”

Verse 13. - Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God . The word translated "per-feet" properly means entire , whole , answering to the Latin integer ; it is used only in a moral sense, and is best rendered by "upright;" the Israelites were to be upright and sincere with, i . e . in relation with, Jehovah their God. Deuteronomy 18:13

De 18:9-14. The Abominations of the Nations Are to Be Avoided. 9-14. thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations—(See on [152]Le 18:21; [153]Le 19:26; [154]Le 19:31; [155]Le 20:4). In spite of this express command, the people of Canaan, especially the Philistines, were a constant snare and stumbling block to the Israelites, on account of their divinations and superstitious practices.

13 . perfect ] blameless ; not elsewhere in D, but twice in P in this moral sense ( Genesis 6:9 of Noah, Deuteronomy 17:1 required of Abraham as the condition of God granting him His covenant) and frequent in a physical sense, Leviticus 1:3 ; Leviticus 1:10 ; Leviticus 3:1 , etc. The sense of the incompatibility of magic and necromancy with loyalty to the God of Israel is traceable from at least Saul’s time onward, and is very articulate in the great prophets. The instinct was sound. That such practices divert men from the rational and ethical elements of religion and weaken both the judgement and will of those who resort to them is notorious in the history of modern spiritualism. Cp. Luke 16:31 : if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead . Let other nations hearken to soothsayers and diviners, God does not grant such to His people ( Deuteronomy 18:14 ). For them the living word of the living God is the thing! ( Isaiah 8:19 ), to which this law now therefore naturally turns.

1 . Hear, O Israel ] Deuteronomy 6:4 . thou art to pass over Jordan this day ] Similarly Deuteronomy 30:18 (and cp. Deuteronomy 2:18 ), Sg.; Deuteronomy 4:14 ; Deuteronomy 4:26 ; Deuteronomy 11:31 ; Deuteronomy 31:13 , Pl., but apparently editorial. to possess ] or dispossess . Deuteronomy 2:12 ; Deuteronomy 2:21 f., Deuteronomy 11:23 , Deuteronomy 12:2 ; Deuteronomy 12:29 , Deuteronomy 18:14 , Deuteronomy 19:1 , Deuteronomy 31:3 , with personal object as here. For another form of same vb. see on Deuteronomy 4:38 . nations greater and mightier than thyself ] So Deuteronomy 4:38 also Sg.; Deuteronomy 11:23 , Pl.: cp. Joshua 23:9 . cities … fenced , etc.] See on Deuteronomy 1:28 .

Israel, on the other hand, was to be blameless with Jehovah (עם, in its intercourse with the Lord). Though the heathen whom they exterminated before them hearkened to conjurers and soothsayers, Jehovah their God had not allowed anything of the kind to them. ואתּה is placed first as a nominative absolute, for the sake of emphasis: "but thou, so far as thou art concerned, not so." כּן, thus, just so, such things (cf. Exodus 10:14 ). נתן, to grant, to allow (as in Genesis 20:6 , etc.).