Deuteronomy 7:10

7:1-11 Here is a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God, must have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. Limiting the orders to destroy, to the nations here mentioned, plainly shows that after ages were not to draw this into a precedent. A proper understanding of the evil of sin, and of the mystery of a crucified Saviour, will enable us to perceive the justice of God in all his punishments, temporal and eternal. We must deal decidedly with our lusts that war against our souls; let us not show them any mercy, but mortify, and crucify, and utterly destroy them. Thousands in the world that now is, have been undone by ungodly marriages; for there is more likelihood that the good will be perverted, than that the bad will be converted. Those who, in choosing yoke-fellows, keep not within the bounds of a profession of religion, cannot promise themselves helps meet for them.

And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them,.... Openly, publicly, and at once, they not being able to make any resistance. Onkelos interprets it in their lifetime, and so Jarchi which agrees with the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem: "or to his face"; (f) the face of God; that is, he will punish them that hate him to his face, who are audacious, bold, impudent sinners; sinners before the Lord, as the men of Sodom were, Genesis 13:13 , he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face; not defer the execution of his judgment and vengeance, which may seem to slumber and linger, but will quickly and openly bring it upon the sinner; this also the Chaldee paraphrases explain as before. (f) "in faciem ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Fagius; so Ainsworth.

Deuteronomy 7:10 . Them that hate him — Not only those who hate him directly and properly, (for so did few or none of the Israelites to whom he here speaks,) but those who hate him by implication and consequence; those who hate and oppose his people and word; those who wilfully persist in the breach of his commandments. To their face — That is, openly, and so as they shall see it, and not be able to avoid it. Slack — So as to delay it beyond the fit time or season for vengeance, yet withal he is long-suffering, and slow to anger.

Verse 10. - And repayeth them that hate him to their face. The phrase, "to their face "( אל פָנָיו , to their faces), has been variously explained. It has been taken as meaning, instantly, statim , hand cunctanter (Vulgate, Gesenius); openly, manifestly, palam (Grotius, Calvin, Michaelis); during life, in hac vita (Targum, Vatab.); in their presence, in their own sight (LXX., κατὰ πρόσωπον : Rosenmüller). The last seems the best. פָנֶהּ signifies properly, front, and אֶל פָנִים , to the front, before, in presence (cf. Leviticus 9:5 ; Exodus 23:17 ). The hater of God should be repaid, so that the man should himself see and feel that he had been smitten of God (cf. Isaiah 65:6 ; Job 34:11 ; Psalm 62:13 [ Psalm 62:12 ] ). And this retribution should come speedily: He will not be slack to him that hateth him; i . e . he will not delay to repay him. Deuteronomy 7:10

Them that hate him; not only those who hate him directly and properly, (for so did few or none of the Israelites, to whom he here speaks,) but those who hate him by construction and consequence; those who hate and oppose his people, and word, and image, those who presumptuously and wilfully persist in the breach of God’s commandments, as appears from Deu 7:9 , where the love of God, to which this hatred is opposite, is described and expressed by the keeping of his commandments. To their face , i.e. openly, and so as they shall see it, and not be able to avoid it. He will not be slack, to wit, so as some men count slackness , 2 Peter 3:9 , so as to delay it beyond the fit time or season for vengeance; yet withal he is long-suffering, and slow to anger, as that and other places inform us.

6-10. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God—that is, set apart to the service of God, or chosen to execute the important purposes of His providence. Their selection to this high destiny was neither on account of their numerical amount (for, till after the death of Joseph, they were but a handful of people); nor because of their extraordinary merits (for they had often pursued a most perverse and unworthy conduct); but it was in consequence of the covenant or promise made with their pious forefathers; and the motives that led to that special act were such as tended not only to vindicate God's wisdom, but to illustrate His glory in diffusing the best and most precious blessings to all mankind.

By this was Israel to know that Jehovah their God was the true God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant, showing mercy to those who love Him, even to the thousandth generation, but repaying those who hate Him to the face. This development of the nature of God Moses introduces from Exodus 20:5-6 , as a light warning not to forfeit the mercy of God, or draw upon themselves His holy wrath by falling into idolatry. To this end He emphatically carries out still further the thought of retribution, by adding להאבידו, "to destroy him" (the hater), and וגו יאהר לא, "He delays not to His hater (sc., to repay him); He will repay him to his face." "To the face of every one of them," i.e., that they may see and feel that they are smitten by God (Rosenmller).

Hengstenberg (Dissertations, vol. ii. pp. 351-2) has since pointed out briefly, but very conclusively, the connection of thought between Deuteronomy 10:6, Deuteronomy 10:7, and what goes before and follows. "Moses," he says, "points out to the people how the Lord had continued unchangeable in His mercy notwithstanding all their sins. Although they had rendered themselves unworthy of such goodness by their worship of the calf, He gave them the ark of the covenant with the new tables of the law in it (Deuteronomy 10:1-5). He followed up this gift of His grace by instituting the high-priesthood, and when Aaron died He caused it to be transferred to his son Eleazar (Deuteronomy 10:6, Deuteronomy 10:7). He set apart the tribe of Levi to serve Him and bless the people in His name, and thus to be the mediators of His mercy (Deuteronomy 10:8, Deuteronomy 10:9). In short, He omitted nothing that was requisite to place Israel in full possession of the dignity of a people of God." There is no ground for regarding Deuteronomy 10:6, Deuteronomy 10:7, as a gloss, as Capellus, Dathe, and Rosenmller do, or Deuteronomy 10:6-9 as "an interpolation of a historical statement concerning the bearers of the ark of the covenant and the holy persons generally, which has no connection with Moses' address," as Knobel maintains.