Deuteronomy 7:13

7:12-26 We are in danger of having fellowship with the works of darkness if we take pleasure in fellowship with those who do such works. Whatever brings us into a snare, brings us under a curse. Let us be constant to our duty, and we cannot question the constancy of God's mercy. Diseases are God's servants; they go where he sends them, and do what he bids them. It is therefore good for the health of our bodies, thoroughly to mortify the sin of our souls; which is our rule of duty. Yet sin is never totally destroyed in this world; and it actually prevails in us much more than it would do, if we were watchful and diligent. In all this the Lord acts according to the counsel of his own will; but that counsel being hid from us, forms no excuse for our sloth and negligence, of which it is in no degree the cause. We must not think, that because the deliverance of the church, and the destruction of the enemies of the soul, are not done immediately, therefore they will never be done. God will do his own work in his own method and time; and we may be sure that they are always the best. Thus corruption is driven out of the hearts of believers by little and little. The work of sanctification is carried on gradually; but at length there will be a complete victory. Pride, security, and other sins that are common effects of prosperity, are enemies more dangerous than beasts of the field, and more apt to increase upon us.

And he will love thee,.... As he has done, and rest in his love, and give further instances and proofs of it: and bless thee, and multiply thee; that is bless thee with a multiplication of offspring, which was what was often promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that their seed should be as the stars of heaven, the dust of the earth, and the sand of the sea: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb; not only give strength to conceive, but carry on the pregnancy, preserve the foetus, and prevent miscarrying: and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil; which were the principal produce of it: the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep: their larger and lesser cattle, oxen and sheep: in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee; the land of Canaan, given in promise, and that established by an oath.

Verse 13. - This favor would take effect in a blessing on the fruit of the womb, the produce of the field, and the increase of their flocks and herds (comp. Exodus 23:25-27 ). Thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. These comprise the fruitful products of the soil, and in their combination express general fertility and abundance. By corn ( דִנָן ) is undoubtedly to be understood the cereal products generally used for food. It may be doubted if tirosh ( תִרושׂ ), properly means wine. The word is often rendered in the Authorized Version by new wine, and this is the meaning generally given in the lexicons. As, however, it is almost constantly joined with corn and oil, the immediate products of the soil - at least as unchanged by any process or manufacture - it is rather to be regarded as designating ripe grapes than wine. That, moreover, which was to be gathered ( Deuteronomy 11:14 ), which might be tithed ( Deuteronomy 12:17 ; Deuteronomy 14:23 ), which might be described as fruit ( 2 Chronicles 31:5 ), as being in the cluster ( Isaiah 65:8 ), and as capable of being dried up or parched ( Joel 1:10 ), and trodden ( Micah 7:15 ), could not be a fluid like fermented nine. As the grape juice, however, was that from which wine was elicited, tirosh is sometimes used tropically for wine ( Isaiah 62:8 ; Hosea 4:11 ), Just as corn is used for bread ( Lamentations 2:12 ; Hosea 7:14 ).

The oil here mentioned, and elsewhere joined with dagan and tirosh , is the pure fresh olive oil ( יִצְהָר , from צָהַר , to shine), obtained by pressure from the berries of the olive, and used for food as well as for other purposes by the Jews (see notes on Deuteronomy 8:8). Flocks of thy sheep. The Hebrew is very peculiar here; the same expression occurs only in this book ( Deuteronomy 28:4, 18, 51 ). Literally rendered, it is the Astartes (Ashtaroth) of thy sheep . Kimchi says it means "the females of the sheep" ( נקבות הצאן ), and this Gesenius adopts, rendering the phrase by "ewes." Astarte ('Ash-toreth, plu. 'Ashtaroth) was the Phoenician Venus, and it is supposed that the females of the flock were called Astartes orVenuses, as propagating the flock. There is, however, another way of explaining the word as here used, by referring it to a root ' ashar ( עָשַׁר ), signifying to be multiplied, to be rich; whence the name given to the females as the multipliers of the flock, without any reference to Astarte. Deuteronomy 7:13

Flocks of thy sheep - Render it instead: "the ewes of thy sheep." The phrase is unique to Deuteronomy. The Hebrew word for "ewes" is the plural form of Ashtoreth, the well-known name of the "goddess of the Zidonians" 1 Kings 11:5 . This goddess, called by the Classical writers "Astarte," and identified with "Venus," represented the fruitfulness of nature.

11-26. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day—In the covenant into which God entered with Israel, He promised to bestow upon them a variety of blessings so long as they continued obedient to Him as their heavenly King. He pledged His veracity that His infinite perfections would be exerted for this purpose, as well as for delivering them from every evil to which, as a people, they would be exposed. That people accordingly were truly happy as a nation, and found every promise which the faithful God made to them amply fulfilled, so long as they adhered to that obedience which was required of them. See a beautiful illustration of this in Ps 144:12-15.

13 . love … bless … and multiply thee ] Cp. Genesis 22:17 (E?), Genesis 26:24 (J), bless and multiply ; note the characteristic addition love by D. The blessings which follow are material; similarly but varied in Deuteronomy 28:4 ; Deuteronomy 28:11 ; Deuteronomy 28:18 ; Deuteronomy 28:51 , Deuteronomy 30:9 , all Sg. Note the interesting differences in Hosea’s similar lists: bread, water, wool, flax, oil, drink, corn, wine, oil ( Hosea 2:5 ; Hosea 2:8 f., Hosea 2:15; Hos 2:22 ). Hosea, writing for the N. kingdom, gives flax, which D omits; all the rest are characteristic of Judah. Hosea’s treatment of the subject is more spiritual; he gives the moral blessings of the relation of Jehovah and Israel in greater, the material in less, detail than D. fruit of thy body ] womb , as in A.V.; Genesis 30:2 (E). corn … wine … oil ] Deuteronomy 11:14 , Deuteronomy 12:17 , Deuteronomy 14:23 , Deuteronomy 28:51 . The terms used denote these products in a less manufactured slate. Wine is tîrôsh not yain , corn dagan not ḥiṭṭim , oil yiṣhar not shemen.

Tîrôsh , though not entirely unfermented or harmless ( Hosea 4:11 ), was nevertheless a much fresher extract of the grape than yain , it is new wine or must; dagan is corn which has been threshed out ( Numbers 18:27 ); and yiṣhar is fresh oil (abb. from Driver in loco and on pp. xx f. of his 3rd ed.). the increase of thy kine ] Deuteronomy 28:4 ; Deuteronomy 28:18 ; Deuteronomy 28:51 : what drops from or is cast by , an animal; Exodus 13:12 (J) that cometh of a beast . Nowhere else. Kine , rather cattle , the noun is masc. the young of thy flock ] Lit. the ‘Ashtoreths . ‘A phrase like this, which has descended from religion into ordinary life, and is preserved among the monotheistic Hebrews, is very old evidence for the association of Astarte with the sheep.’ (W. R. Smith, Rel. of the Semites , 458.) in the land , etc.] See Deuteronomy 6:10 : after sware , Sam. and LXX read Jehovah .

This mercy flowed from the love of God to Israel, and the love was manifested in blessing and multiplying the people. The blessing is then particularized, by a further expansion of Exodus 23:25-27 , as a blessing upon the fruit of the body, the fruits of the field and soil, and the rearing of cattle. שׁגר, see Exodus 13:12 . צאן עשׁתּרת only occurs again in Deuteronomy 28:4 , Deuteronomy 28:18 , Deuteronomy 28:51 , and certainly signifies the young increase of the flocks. It is probably a Canaanitish word, derived from Ashtoreth (Astharte), the female deity of the Canaanites, which was regarded as the conceiving and birth-giving principle of nature, literally Veneres, i.e., amores gregis, hence soboles (Ges.); just as the Latin poets employ the name Ceres to signify the corn, Venus for love and sexual intercourse, and Lucina for birth. On Deuteronomy 7:14 and Deuteronomy 7:15 , see Exodus 23:26 . In Deuteronomy 7:15 , the promise of the preservation of Israel from all diseases ( Exodus 15:26 , and Exodus 23:25 ) is strengthened by the addition of the clause, "all the evil diseases of Egypt," by which, according to Deuteronomy 28:27 , we are probably to understand chiefly the malignant species of leprosy called elephantiasis, and possibly also the plague and other malignant forms of disease. In Egypt, diseases for the most part readily assume a very dangerous character.