Deuteronomy 4:22

4:1-23 The power and love of God to Israel are here made the ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord their God had imparted to all nations. It is absurd to worship them; shall we serve those that were made to serve us? Take heed lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God. We must take heed lest at any time we forget our religion. Care, caution, and watchfulness, are helps against a bad memory.

But I must die in this land,.... The land of Moab, in a mountain in it he died, and in a valley there he was buried, Deuteronomy 32:50 , I must not go over Jordan; this he repeats, as lying near his heart; he had earnestly solicited to go over, but was denied it: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land; this he firmly believed and assures them of, relying on the promise and faithfulness of God.

20. But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace—that is, furnace for smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is round, sometimes thirty feet deep, and requiring the highest intensity of heat. Such is the tremendous image chosen to represent the bondage and affliction of the Israelites [Rosenmuller]. to be unto him a people of inheritance—His peculiar possession from age to age; and therefore for you to abandon His worship for that of idols, especially the gross and debasing system of idolatry that prevails among the Egyptians, would be the greatest folly—the blackest ingratitude.

The bringing of Israel out of Egypt reminds Moses of the end, viz., Canaan, and leads him to mention again how the Lord had refused him permission to enter into this good land; and to this he adds the renewed warning not to forget the covenant or make any image of God, since Jehovah, as a jealous God, would never tolerate this. The swearing attributed to God in Deuteronomy 4:21 is neither mentioned in Numbers 20 nor at the announcement of Moses' death in Numbers 27:12 .; but it is not to be called in question on that account, as Knobel supposes. It is perfectly obvious from Deuteronomy 3:23 . that all the details are not given in the historical account of the event referred to. כּל תּמוּנת פּסל, "image of a form of all that Jehovah has commanded," sc., not to be made ( Deuteronomy 4:16-18 ). "A consuming fire" ( Deuteronomy 4:24 ): this epithet is applied to God with special reference to the manifestation of His glory in burning fire ( Exodus 24:17 ). On the symbolical meaning of this mode of revelation, see at Exodus 3:2 . "A jealous God:" see at Exodus 20:5 .

Of Dishonouring an Unbetrothed Virgin ( Deuteronomy 22:28 f.); while the 6th forbids Marriage with a Father’s Wife (30 [ Deuteronomy 23:1 ]). Of the first five each opens similarly to each of the group Deuteronomy 21:15-23 , i.e. with an if , and differently from those of the group Deuteronomy 22:1-12 , and they share with the former group and with Deuteronomy 19:1-13 , and other laws, these marks:— the elders are the public authority, Deuteronomy 22:15 ff., cp. Deuteronomy 19:12 , Deuteronomy 21:3 ; Deuteronomy 21:19 f.; neighbour (not brother , characteristic of the Sg. passages) is used, Deuteronomy 22:24; Deuteronomy 22:26 , cp. Deuteronomy 19:4 f., Deuteronomy 19:11; Deu 19:14 ; field ( sadeh ) in its wider sense, Deuteronomy 22:25; Deuteronomy 22:27 , cp. Deuteronomy 21:1 ; and sin worthy of death ( ḥeṭ’-maweth ), Deuteronomy 22:26 , cp. Deuteronomy 19:6 , Deuteronomy 21:22 . The direct address to Israel is seldom used, and the form varies. In the closing formulas, Deuteronomy 22:21-22; Deuteronomy 22:24 , it is Sg. and Sg. also in the body of the 4th law, Deuteronomy 22:24 (unless this be editorial), but Sam. LXX have Pl. In the body of the 3rd law, Deuteronomy 22:24 , it is Pl. In considering these plain-spoken laws it is just to remember that with all their imperfections they represent an advance in social ethics; an upward stage in the struggle against debasing practices and the animal passions of men.

13 . sleep in his garment ] Heb. salmah ( Deuteronomy 29:4 and E, Exodus 22), transp. from the more frequent simlah ( Deuteronomy 8:4 , Deuteronomy 10:18 , Deuteronomy 21:13 , Deuteronomy 22:3 ; Deuteronomy 22:17 ), the large outer robe which the peasant can dispense with by day while at work, but which he almost invariably sleeps in; cp. Amos 2:8 , Job 22:6 , Proverbs 20:16 . and it shall be righteousness unto thee ] Characteristic of D (cp. Deuteronomy 6:25 ). E, Exodus 22:27 (26): when he crieth unto me I will hear; for I am gracious . Deuteronomy 24:13