Deuteronomy 26:18

26:16-19 Moses here enforces the precepts. They are God's laws, therefore thou shalt do them, to that end were they given thee; do them, and dispute them not; do them, and draw not back; do them, not carelessly and hypocritically, but with thy heart and soul, thy whole heart and thy whole soul. We forswear ourselves, and break the most sacred engagement, if, when we have taken the Lord to be our God, we do not make conscience of obeying his commands. We are elected to obedience, 1Pe 1:2; chosen that we should be holy, Eph 1:4; purified a peculiar people, that we might not only do good works, but be zealous in them, Tit 2:14. Holiness is true honour, and the only way to everlasting honour.

And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people,.... Affirmed and declared them to be his special people, above all people on the face of the earth, and that they were looked upon and considered by him as his jewels, his peculiar treasure: as he hath promised thee; on condition of their obedience to him, as he did in Exodus 19:5, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; at the same time declared this as his will, that they should observe all his precepts, to which they were laid under obligation by the special favour and peculiar privileges he bestowed upon them, Deuteronomy 7:6. The Targums interpret both these verses of the people of Israel choosing and making the Lord their King, and of his being made King over them; and so it respects their peculiar form of civil government, being a theocracy. The Lord's people in Christ are a peculiar people; they are distinct from all people, and are peculiarly regarded by him; they are the objects of his peculiar love, and receive peculiar favours from him; and whom having chosen and redeemed, he calls by his special grace, and witnesses their special relation to him by his Spirit; which grace obliges and excites them to a cheerful obedience to his commands.

Verse 18. - So, on the other hand, God had given Israel occasion to say that they were his special people, his treasured possession (cf. Exodus 19:5, 6 ), whose it was, as such, to keep all his commandments, and to whom he would be faithful to fulfill all that he had promised. Deuteronomy 26:18

Hath owned thee for such before all the world by eminent and glorious communications and manifestations of his power and grace and favour in time and for thee, by a solemn entering into covenant with thee, and giving peculiar laws, promises, and privileges to thee above all mankind. That thou shouldest keep all his commandments; which is here mentioned as an act of God’s, because though this be man’s duty, yet it is the work of’ God’s grace, that he will vouchsafe to give us such commands, that he doth require and will accept of our obedience to them, and that we have any power or will to obey them, Ezekiel 36:26,27 .

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.

18 . and Jehovah hath caused thee to say this day that thou wilt be unto him a peculiar people … and wilt keep all his commandments ] Elsewhere in D the singular relation of Israel to Jehovah is stated as His promise and act, Deuteronomy 7:6 , q.v. , Deuteronomy 14:2 ; cp. Deuteronomy 27:9 , Deuteronomy 29:13 (12). Here is the converse, the people’s engagement to be such, as in 2 Kings 11:17 . Israel becomes His peculiar people by keeping all His commandments ; that is the main thing! The phrase, as he hath said to thee , though unnecessary, is not the ‘senseless addition,’ which Steuern, alleges.

At the same time, Jehovah had caused the people to be told that they were His treasured people of possession, as He had said in Exodus 19:5-6 ; and that if they kept all His commandments, He would set them highest above all nations whom He had created, "for praise, and for a name, and for glory," i.e., make them an object of praise, and renown, and glorification of God, the Lord and Creator of Israel, among all nations (vid., Jeremiah 33:9 and Jeremiah 13:11 ; Jeremiah 3:19-20 ). "And that it should become a holy people unto the Lord," as He had already said in Exodus 19:6 . The sanctification of Israel was the design and end of its divine election, and would be accomplished in the glory to which the people of God were to be exalted (see the commentary on Exodus 19:5-6 ). The Hiphil האמיר, which is only found here, has no other meaning than this, "to cause a person to say," or "give him occasion to say;" and this is perfectly appropriate here, whereas the other meaning suggested, "to exalt," has no tenable support either in the paraphrastic rendering of these verses in the ancient versions, or in the Hithpael in Psalm 94:4 , and moreover is altogether unsuitable in Deuteronomy 26:17 .

Deuteronomy 12:18 ; Deuteronomy 14:27 ; Deuteronomy 16:11 , Deuteronomy 16:14 ; Deuteronomy 18:6 ; Deuteronomy 26:12 ) does not assume that they were homeless, which would be at variance with the allotment of towns for them to dwell in ( Numbers 35 ); but simply implies what is frequently added in explanation, that the Levites had "no part nor inheritance," no share of the land as their hereditary property, and in this respect resembled strangers ( Deuteronomy 14:21 , Deuteronomy 14:29 ; Deuteronomy 16:11 , etc.). (Note: The explanation given by De Wette, and adopted by Riehm, of the expression, "the Levite that is within thy gates," is perfectly arbitrary and unfounded: viz., that "the Levites did not live any longer in the towns assigned them by the earlier laws, but were scattered about in the different towns of the other tribes.") And the repeated injunction to invite the Levites to the sacrificial meals is not at variance with Numbers 18:21, where the tithes are assigned to the tribe of Levi for their maintenance.