Deuteronomy 26:15

26:12-15 How should the earth yield its increase, or, if it does, what comfort can we take in it, unless therewith our God gives us his blessing? All this represented the covenant relation between a reconciled God and every true believer, and the privileges and duties belonging to it. We must be watchful, and show that according to the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus, the Lord is our God, and we are his people, waiting in his appointed way for the performance of his gracious promises.

Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven,.... This is a prayer of the person that makes the above declaration annexed to it, desiring that God would vouchsafe to look with an eye of love, complacency, and delight, upon him and upon all his people, from heaven his holy habitation, though they were on earth, and unholy persons in themselves, and especially if compared with him; see Isaiah 57:15 , and bless thy people Israel; with blessings temporal and spiritual: and the land which thou hast given us; with fertility and plenty of all good things, that it might be as thou swarest to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey; See Gill on Deuteronomy 26:9.

Deuteronomy 26:15 . Look down from thy holy habitation — Though God was pleased to dwell among them, by a glorious symbol of his presence, yet Moses well knew, and hereby teaches the Israelites to acknowledge, that he dwelt in more transcendent glory in the heavens, which all nations have believed to be the throne and peculiar habitation of the omnipresent God. And bless thy people — Thus, after that solemn profession of their obedience to God’s commands, they were taught to pray for God’s blessing; whereby they were instructed how vain and ineffectual the prayers of unrighteous or disobedient persons are.

Verse 15. - (Cf. Isaiah 63:15 ; Isaiah 66:1 .) Vers. 16-19. - Moses winds up his address by a solemn admonition to the people to keep and observe the laws and commandments which the Lord by him had laid upon them, reminding them that they had entered into covenant with God, and had thereby pledged themselves to obedience to all that he had enjoined, as he on his part had pledged himself to be their Benefactor, who would fulfill to them all his gracious promises, and would exalt them above all the nations of the earth. Deuteronomy 26:15

Verses 15-20. - Moses concludes by solemnly adjuring the people, as he had set before them, in his proclamation of the Law and in his preaching, good and evil, life and death, to choose the former and eschew the latter, to love and serve the Lord which is life, and to shun apostasy and disobedience which are death (cf. Deuteronomy 11:26, 27 ). Ver. 17. - (Cf. Deuteronomy 4:19 .) Ver. 19. - (Cf. Deuteronomy 4:26 .) Deuteronomy 30:15

I have not eaten thereof in my mourning - When the Israelite would be unclean (compare the marginal references). Nor given ought thereof for the dead - The reference is not so much to the superstitious custom of placing food on or in tombs as to the funeral expenses, and more especially the usual feast for the mourners (compare Jeremiah 16:7; Ezekiel 24:17; Hosea 9:4; Tobit 4:17). The dedicated things were to be employed in glad and holy feasting, not therefore for funeral banquets; for death and all associated with it was regarded as unclean.

14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning—in a season of sorrow, which brought defilement on sacred things; under a pretense of poverty, and grudging to give any away to the poor. neither … for any unclean use—that is, any common purpose, different from what God had appointed and which would have been a desecration of it. nor given ought thereof for the dead—on any funeral service, or, to an idol, which is a dead thing.

15 . Look down , etc.] Cp. Isaiah 63:15 ; thy holy habitation , Jeremiah 25:30 , Zechariah 2:13 . and bless , etc.] with such care and gifts as are described in Deuteronomy 7:13 ff., Deuteronomy 11:12 ; Deuteronomy 11:14 ff. as thou swarest , etc.] See on Deuteronomy 1:8 , Deuteronomy 6:3 .

15 . Only ] Heb. raḳ . The use of this restrictive adverb with disjunctive force—a sharp word with the sound of a wrench in it—is found in many O.T. writings, but is particularly frequent in Deut., occurring no less than 20 times, and in deuteronomic passages elsewhere. It is prefixed to clauses which limit, qualify, condition, or offer contrasts to, what has preceded them. The exact meaning varies according to the context, and therefore it is transl. by different English adverbs or conjunctions in R.V. It introduces exceptions to, or reservations upon statements of fact, only or but ( Deuteronomy 2:28 ; Deuteronomy 2:35 ; Deuteronomy 2:37 , Deuteronomy 3:11 ; Deuteronomy 3:19 ), or laws, notwithstanding, only (better, saving that ), but ( Deuteronomy 12:15-16 ; Deuteronomy 12:23 ; Deuteronomy 12:26 , Deuteronomy 15:23 , Deuteronomy 17:16 , Deuteronomy 20:14 ; Deuteronomy 20:20 ); or a different law for different circumstances, but ( Deuteronomy 20:16 ); or an indispensable condition to a command or promise, only, if only ( Deuteronomy 4:9 , Deuteronomy 15:5 ); or an antithesis to what precedes, only (= nevertheless, as here); or a purely assertive statement, as if singling out the fact asserted and putting it beyond doubt, surely, only ( Deuteronomy 4:6 , Deuteronomy 28:13 ; Deuteronomy 28:33 ). had a delight in ] See on Deuteronomy 7:7 , set his love upon you . to love ] See on Deuteronomy 6:5 . chose ] See on Deuteronomy 7:6 . even you ] The only Pl. in this section, 12–15

"I have not eaten thereof in my sorrow." אני, from און, tribulation, distress, signifies here in all probability mourning, and judging from what follows, mourning for the dead, equivalent to "in a mourning condition," i.e., in a state of legal (Levitical) uncleanness; so that בּאני really corresponded to the בּטמא which follows, except that טמא includes every kind of legal uncleanness. "I have removed nothing thereof as unclean," i.e., while in the state of an unclean person. Not only not eaten of any, but not removed any of it from the house, carried it away in an unclean state, in which they were forbidden to touch the holy gifts ( Leviticus 22:3 ). "And not given (any) of it on account of the dead." This most probably refers to the custom of sending provisions into a house of mourning, to prepare meals for the mourners ( 2 Samuel 3:25 ; Jeremiah 16:7 ; Hosea 9:4 ; Tobit 4:17). A house of mourning, with its inhabitants, was regarded as unclean; consequently nothing could be carried into it of that which was sanctified. There is no good ground for thinking of idolatrous customs, or of any special superstition attached to the bread of mourning; nor is there any ground for understanding the words as referring to the later Jewish custom of putting provisions into the grave along with the corpse, to which the Septuagint rendering, οὐκ ἔδωκα ἀπ αὐτῶν τῷ τεθνηκότι, points. (On Deuteronomy 26:15 , see Isaiah 63:15 .)