Deuteronomy 6:24

Deuteronomy 24:1 INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 24 This chapter contains various laws concerning divorces, Deuteronomy 24:1; the discharge of a newly married man from war and business, Deuteronomy 24:5; about taking pledges, Deuteronomy 24:6; man stealing, Deuteronomy 24:7; the plague of leprosy, Deuteronomy 24:8; and giving servants their hire in due time, Deuteronomy 24:14; concerning doing justice in capital cases, and towards the stranger, fatherless, and widow, Deuteronomy 24:16; and of charity to the poor, in allowing them the forgotten sheaf, and the gleanings of their oliveyards and vineyards, Deuteronomy 24:19. Ver. 1. When a man hath taken a wife and married her,....

6:17-25 Moses gives charge to keep God's commandments. Negligence will ruin us; but we cannot be saved without diligence. It is our interest, as well as our duty, to be religious. It will be our life. Godliness has the promise of the continuance and comfort of the life that now is, as far as it is for God's glory. It will be our righteousness. It is only through the Mediator we can be righteous before God. The knowledge of the spirituality and excellency of the holy law of God, is suited to show sinful man his need of a Saviour, and to prepare his heart to welcome a free salvation. The gospel honours the law, not only in the perfect obedience of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ; but in that it is a plan for bringing back apostate rebels and enemies, by repentance, faith, forgiveness, and renewing grace, to love God above all things, even in this world; and in the world above, to love him perfectly, even as angels love him.

And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes,.... Some of which were designed on purpose to commemorate the wonderful deliverance out of Egypt, as particularly the passover; and all of them they were obliged in gratitude to obey, in consideration of such great favours bestowed upon them: to fear the Lord our God, for our good always: as it is always for the good of men, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, to fear the Lord; for there is no want to them that fear him, nor will the Lord withhold good things from them; see Psalm 34:9, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day; in bodily health and strength, and in the enjoyment of the good land, and all the blessings and benefits of it.

The command "to swear by His Name" is not inconsistent with the Lord's injunction Matthew 5:34 , "Swear not at all." Moses refers to legal swearing, our Lord to swearing in common conversation. It is not the purpose of Moses to encourage the practice of taking oaths, but to forbid that, when taken, they should be taken in any other name than that of Israel's God. The oath involves an invocation of Deity, and so a solemn recognition of Him whose Name is made use of in it. Hence, it comes especially within the scope of the commandment Moses is enforcing.

24 . Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes ] This phrase is natural to the time and standpoint assumed throughout Deuteronomy 6:20-25 , viz. those of the later generation before which the statutes will already have been published. Notice, too, how naturally Jehovah is used instead of the deuteronomic Jehovah thy God ; for here we have, not Moses addressing Israel, but Moses quoting what Israel are to say to their children; so, too, Jehovah our God (thrice) is to be explained. Thus two of Steuernagel’s reasons for counting the passage as secondary (that Sg. does not elsewhere in the introductory discourses take the laws as already published and that Jehovah our God does not elsewhere occur in the Sg.) are disposed of. He has missed the standpoint of the speakers whom Moses quotes. Steuernagel’s third reason for the secondariness of the passage—that it interrupts by its emphasis on obedience the Sg. course of thought, which before and after it warns against the worship of other gods—is insufficient. might preserve us alive ] Sustain the national existence which He had begun by the redemption from Egypt ( Deuteronomy 6:21 ). The Law is given to preserve the life born in that deed of grace. See above. alive, as at this day ] ‘It deserves attention that this points to the composition [of the passage] as pre-exilic, for the Exile was felt as death’ (Bertholet).

In Deuteronomy 6:20-25 , the teaching to the children, which is only briefly hinted at in Deuteronomy 6:7 , is more fully explained. The Israelites were to instruct their children and descendants as to the nature, meaning, and object of the commandments of the Lord; and in reply to the inquiries of their sons, to teach them what the Lord had done for the redemption of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, and how He had brought them into the promised land, and thus to awaken in the younger generation love to the Lord and to His commandments. The "great and sore miracles" ( Deuteronomy 6:22 ) were the Egyptian plagues, like מפתּים, in Deuteronomy 4:34 . - "To fear," etc., i.e., that we might fear the Lord.

[Reformed Biblical] A free-will offering; which though thou didst freely make, yet being made, thou art no longer free, but obliged to perform it. ## Ver. 24. Thou mayest eat grapes thy fill; which was allowed in those parts, because of the great plenty and fruitfulness of vines there. Ver. 25. No text from Poole on this verse. ## Of the woman that was dismissed by her husband with a bill of divorcement, #Deuteronomy 24:1-4 . The liberty of the new-married man, #Deuteronomy 24:5 . Pawns and pledges, #Deuteronomy 24:6 . Man-stealers, #Deuteronomy 24:7 . Leprosy, #Deuteronomy 24:8 . And again of pawns or pledges, #Deuteronomy 24:10- 13 . Of day wages, #Deuteronomy 24:14,15 . Prone to be punished for another’s offence, #Deuteronomy 24:16 . Of justice and love towards widows, fatherless, and strangers, #Deuteronomy 24:17-22 . ## Ver. 1. That she find no favour in his eyes, i.e. he dislike and loathe her. It is a figure called meiosis , whereby more is understood than is expressed, as #Proverbs 10:2 17:21 24:23 . Uncleanness; Heb. nakedness , or shamefulness , or filthiness of a thing , i.e. some filthy or hateful thing, some loathsome distemper of body or quality of mind, not observed before marriage; or some light and unchaste carriage, as this or the like phrase commonly signifies, but not amounting to adultery, which was not punished with divorce, but with death.