Deuteronomy 4:47

4:41-49 Here is the introduction to another discourse, or sermon, Moses preached to Israel, which we have in the following chapters. He sets the law before them, as the rule they were to work by, the way they were to walk in. He sets it before them, as the glass in which they were to see their natural face, that, looking into this perfect law of liberty, they might continue therein. These are the laws, given when Israel was newly come out of Egypt; and they were now repeated. Moses gave these laws in charge, while they encamped over against Beth-peor, an idol place of the Moabites. Their present triumphs were a powerful argument for obedience. And we should understand our own situation as sinners, and the nature of that gracious covenant to which we are invited. Therein greater things are shown to us than ever Israel saw from mount Sinai; greater mercies are given to us than they experienced in the wilderness, or in Canaan. One speaks to us, who is of infinitely greater dignity than Moses; who bare our sins upon the cross; and pleads with us by His dying love.

And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan,.... Seized upon them, and took them as their own, and divided them for an inheritance among two of their tribes and half another: two kings of the Amorites; which is more than once observed, that it might be taken notice of that these were of the nations of the Canaanites Israel were to root out, and possess their land: which were on this side Jordan, toward the sun rising; which lands and kingdoms lay to the east of Jordan, on that side of it on which were the plains of Moab, where Moses and Israel now were.

These verses would be more properly assigned to the next chapter. They are intended to serve as the announcement and introduction of the address now to be commenced. Deuteronomy 4:44 gives a kind of general title to the whole of the weighty address, including in fact the central part and substance of the book, which now follows in 22 chapters, divided into two groups: (a) Deuteronomy 5-11, (b) Deuteronomy 12-26. The address was delivered when they had already received the first-fruits of those promises Deuteronomy 4:46, the full fruition of which was to be consequent on their fulfillment of that covenant now again about to be rehearsed to them in its leading features.

46. Beth-peor—that is, "house" or "temple of Peor." It is probable that a temple of this Moabite idol stood in full view of the Hebrew camp, while Moses was urging the exclusive claims of God to their worship, and this allusion would be very significant if it were the temple where so many of the Israelites had grievously offended.

Announcement of the Discourse upon the Law. - First of all, in Deuteronomy 4:44 , we have the general notice in the form of a heading: "This is the Thorah which Moses set before the children of Israel;" and then, in Deuteronomy 4:45 , Deuteronomy 4:46 , a fuller description of the Thorah according to its leading features, "testimonies, statutes, and rights" (see at Deuteronomy 4:1 ), together with a notice of the place and time at which Moses delivered this address. "On their coming out of Egypt," i.e., not "after they had come out," but during the march, before they had reached the goal of their journeyings, viz., ( Deuteronomy 4:46 ) when they were still on the other side of the Jordan. "In the valley," as in Deuteronomy 3:29 . "In the land of Sihon," and therefore already upon ground which the Lord had given them for a possession. The importance of this possession as the first-fruit and pledge of the fulfilment of the further promises of God, led Moses to mention again, though briefly, the defeat of the two kings of the Amorites, together with the conquest of their land, just as he had done before in Deuteronomy 2:32-36 and Deuteronomy 3:1-17 . On Deuteronomy 4:48 , cf. Deuteronomy 3:9 , Deuteronomy 3:12-17 . Sion, for Hermon (see at Deuteronomy 3:9 ).