51 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Deuteronomy 4 This chapter contains an exhortation to Israel to keep the commands, statutes, and judgments of God, urged from the superior excellency of them to those of all other nations, Deuteronomy 4:1, from the manner in which they were delivered, out of the midst of fire, by a voice of words, but no similitude seen,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments,.... The laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which they are exhorted to attend to and obey, in consideration of the great and good things the Lord had done for them, ever since they came from Horeb, where they were given them; such as providing for them, and...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. A most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable, ver. 1-40. II. The appointing of the cities of refuge on...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, nether shall you diminish ought from it,.... Neither make new laws of their own, and join them to the law of God, and set them upon a level with it, or prefer them before it; as the Scribes and Pharisees did in Christ's time, who by their traditions made the word of God of none effect, as do the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor,.... Because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshipping that idol, being drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication; which led them to the other sin, and both highly provoking to God. The Targums...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God,.... To the worship of the Lord your God, as the Targum of Jonathan; attended the service of the sanctuary, were observant of the laws of God, and walked in his statutes and judgments; did not apostatize from him by idolatry or otherwise, but kept close unto him, and followed him fully: are alive...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me,.... He had faithfully delivered them, without adding them, or diminishing from them, and had diligently instructed the Israelites in them, had taken pains to lead them into a thorough knowledge and understanding them: that ye should do so in the land whither ye...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Keep therefore and do them,..... Observe them, take notice of what is expressed by them, and perform them, both as to matter and manner, as they require: for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations; that is, their wisdom and understanding would appear to other nations by their observance of the commands of God: which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ver. 7 For what nation is there so great,.... Not so much for their number, for they were the fewest of all people; nor for the largeness of their territories, for the land they were going to possess was but a small country; nor for their wealth and riches, and warlike exploits, though they were not contemptible in either; but for their happy...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous,.... Founded in justice and equity, and so agreeable to right reason, and so well calculated and adapted to lead persons in the ways of righteousness and truth, and keep them from doing any injury to each other's persons and properties, and to maintain good order,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Only take heed to thyself,.... To walk according to this law, and not swerve from it: and keep thy soul diligently; from the transgressions and breaches of it: lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen; either the statutes and judgments set before them, and the circumstances of the delivery of them; or the punishment inflicted on the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord in Horeb,.... Above all things Moses would have them take care not to forget the day the law was given from Mount Sinai, which was so awful and solemn, when they saw the fire, the smoke, the lightning, and heard the thunder and the sound of the trumpet; all which were very shocking and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye came near and stood under the mountain,.... At the foot of it, in the lower part of the mountain, as the Targum of Jonathan, and agrees with Exodus 19:17 and the mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven; the flame and smoke went up into the middle of the air: with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness; which thick darkness was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire,.... For the Lord descended on Mount Sinai in a cloud, in fire, and was in the thick darkness, from whence he delivered out the ten commands: ye heard the voice of the words; distinctly and plainly, not only the sound of them, but the words themselves, and so as to understand what was meant...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he declared unto you his covenant,.... So the law was called, because it contained, on the part of God, things which he would have done or avoided, to which were annexed promises of long life and happiness in the land he gave them; and they, on their part, agreed to hearken to it, and obey it, Exodus 24:3, which he commanded you to perform,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord commanded me at that time,.... When the ten commandments were delivered on Mount Sinai, and Moses was ordered to come up to God in the mount: to teach you statutes and judgments; laws ceremonial and judicial, besides the ten commands given them: that ye may do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it; the land of Canaan,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves,.... As to keep all the laws given them, so particularly to avoid idolatry: for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; and therefore, as they had nothing that directed and led them, so they had nothing that could be a temptation to them,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Lest ye corrupt yourselves,.... And not themselves only, but the word and worship of God, by idolatry, than which nothing is more corrupting and defiling, nor more abominable to God: and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure; a graven image, in the likeness of any figure, an idea of which they had formed in their minds; the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The likeness of any beast that is on the earth,.... As there are scarce any but the likeness of them has been made and worshipped, or the creatures themselves, as the ox by the Egyptians, the sheep by the Thebans, the goat by the Mendesians, and others by different people: the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air; as the hawk, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,.... As serpents by many; and indeed that creature is introduced into almost all the idolatries of the Heathens, which seems to take its rise from the serpent Satan made use of to deceive our first parents: the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; as the crocodile and...