32 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now, therefore, write ye this song for you,.... Which was now dictated by the Lord, and given to Moses and Joshua to write, which is recorded in Deuteronomy 32:1: and teach it the children of Israel; teach them by it, instructing them in the meaning of it: thus it was usual in ancient times to write things in verses, that they might be the more...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers,.... To give it to them, and put them into the possession of it, even the land of Canaan, often thus described, and as it is by the following character: that floweth with milk and honey; aboundeth with all good things; see Exodus 3:8; and they shall have eaten and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them,.... As did in the times of the judges, in the Babylonish captivity, and do now in their present exile: that this song shall testify against them as a witness; which so clearly points at their sins, with all their aggravated circumstances, and describes so fully their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Moses therefore wrote this song the same day,.... The same day it was dictated to him by divine inspiration; he wrote it, as Josephus says (d), "in hexameter verse, which he left in the holy Bible or book (the Pentateuch), containing (as he adds) a prophecy of things future, according to which all things have been done, and are done; and in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge,.... It may be a question who gave this charge, the Lord or Moses; according to the connection of the words with the preceding, it seems to be the latter; for the immediate antecedent to the relative he is Moses, and so the Septuagint interpreters understand it; but then they are obliged to read some...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book,.... In this book of Deuteronomy, and which concluded the Pentateuch: until they were finished; all the words of the law, and the whole five books of Moses, excepting some few verses, Deuteronomy 34:1, which were added by another hand, Joshua or Ezra.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That Moses commanded the Levites,.... These were not the common Levites, but the priests who were also Levites, to whom the law was given, Deuteronomy 31:9; and none but they might touch the ark, or go so near it as, they are bid to do, to put the law on the side of it; so Aben Ezra; it follows, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord; as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Take this book of the law,.... Not Deuteronomy only, but the whole Pentateuch: and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; not in the ark, for there were nothing there but the two tables of stone with the ten commands on them, 1 Kings 8:9; but on one side of it; the Targum of Jonathan says, it was "put in a chest (or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck,.... How rebellious they were against the Lord and his laws, and how unwilling they were to admit the yoke of his commandments to be put upon them, and submit to it; this he had an experience of for forty years past: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers,.... The heads of the tribes, the princes, and all other inferior magistrates: that I may speak these words in their ears; not the words of the law, but of the song which he was ordered to write, and is recorded in the following chapter: and call heaven and earth to record against...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For I know that after my death,.... Which was just at hand, some time after that, not immediately; this he knew by a spirit of prophecy, namely, what follows: ye will utterly corrupt [yourselves]; their ways, works, and manners, and so themselves; corrupt the worship of God by making idols, and serving them, which is the corruption chiefly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel,.... Not in the hearing of the whole body of the people, and every individual thereof; no man could be able to speak to such a numerous congregation, as that they should hear him; but in the hearing of their heads and representatives, the elders of their tribes and officers, ordered to...