For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord,.... Not that do all these things, but whoever does any of them, as Jarchi notes; all such persons that use such unlawful methods, or any of them, to gain knowledge; and likewise all those that consult them, and make use of them; and especially it must be very abominable in the people of...
Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. Sincerely serve and worship him, faithfully adhere to his word, laws, statutes, and ordinances, and walk uprightly before him.
For those nations which thou shall possess hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners,.... Such as are before mentioned, and did as they directed them: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do; or, "but thou not so" (m) thou shouldest not do so, not hearken to such persons, but to the Lord thy God, and to his law...
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet,.... Not Joshua, as Aben Ezra, not Jeremiah, as Baal Haturim, nor David (o), as others; nor a succession of prophets, as Jarchi; for a single person is only spoken of; and there is a dissimilitude between Moses and anyone of the prophets, and all of them in succession, Deuteronomy 34:10, but the...
According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God at Horeb,.... This was promised them, in answer to their request at Horeb or Mount Sinai, when the law was delivered to them in the terrible manner it was: in the day of the assembly; in which the tribes were gathered together to receive the law, when they were assembled at the foot of the...
And the Lord said unto me,.... Unto Moses, who carried the above request to the Lord: they have well spoken that which they have spoken; see Deuteronomy 5:28.
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee,.... So that it seems this promise or prophecy was first made at Mount Sinai, but now renewed and repeated, and which is nowhere else recorded; see Deuteronomy 18:15 when they were not only made easy for the present by appointing Moses to receive from the Lord all further...
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words,.... To the doctrines of the Gospel, but slight and despise them: which he shall speak in my name; in whose name he came, and whose words or doctrines he declared them to be; not as his own, but his Father's, John 5:43. I will require it of him; or, as the Targums of Onkelos...
But the prophet which shall presume to speak in my name,.... Pretending a mission and commission from God, and yet was never sent by him, like the prophets in Jeremiah 23:21, which I have not commanded him to speak; which though true was not to be spoken in a public manner, by assuming a public office, without a divine authority or a commission...
And if thou say in thine heart, &c] Such a thought arises in the mind, and it appears to be a difficulty, and a query is made upon it, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? What marks, signs, and criterions are those by which it may be known that it is not a word that comes from the Lord?
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord,.... Says he comes from God, is sent by him, and has a commission from him to say so: if the thing follow not, nor come to pass; as the prophecy of Hananiah, Jeremiah 28:3 that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken; or otherwise it would have come to pass, unless when a condition is either...
INTRODUCTION TO Deuteronomy 19 This chapter contains an order to separate three cities of refuge in the land of Canaan, for such that killed a man unawares to flee to, of which those who were guilty of murder purposely were to have no benefit, Deuteronomy 19:1, a law is given against removing landmarks, Deuteronomy 19:14, and others concerning...
When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee,.... The seven nations of the land of Canaan, whose destruction was of the Lord for their sins, and whose land was a gift of him that had a right to dispose of it to the children of Israel; see Deuteronomy 12:29 and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their...
Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land,.... From the cities they took possession of and dwelt in; and indeed from the cities of the Levites, which were given to them to inhabit; three were before ordered to be separated from those inhabited by the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, Deuteronomy...
Thou shalt prepare thee a way,.... A road, an highway to those cities: on the first of Adar, or February, the magistrates used to meet, and proclaimed, or ordered to be proclaimed, that the ways be repaired (r), particularly those leading to the cities of refuge; which was done by making them smooth and plain, so that there was not an hill or dale...
And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live,.... It was not any slayer that might have protection in these cities, but such who were thus and thus circumstanced, or whose case was as follows: whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly; without intention, as the Targum of Jonathan, did not design it, but was done by...
As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood,.... A wood is a place common to men, and cutting down wood a business which any man might do; whereas a private place, where a man had no right to be, and doing what he had no business with, rendered a case suspicious, and such a man was liable to be taken up when any affair...
Lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer,.... These words are to be connected with Deuteronomy 19:3, where it is ordered to prepare the way to the cities of refuge, and to divide the land into three parts, for the convenience of the slayer to flee thither, lest he that was next of kin, and incensed against the slayer, and determined to avenge...
Wherefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt separate three cities for thee. This was to be done immediately, as soon as they were settled in the land of Canaan, and established in the possession of it, the inhabitants being cut off, or driven out, or however subdued.
And if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast,.... Extend it further than it was upon their first settlement, even carry it as far as the river Euphrates, as in the times of Solomon, 1 Kings 4:21. Jarchi interprets it of such an enlargement as to give them the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites and Kadmonites: (as he hath sworn unto thy fathers), and...