Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

“I took the two tables, . . . and broke them before your eyes--not in the heat of intemperate passion, but in righteous indignation, from zeal to vindicate the unsullied honor of God, and by the suggestion of His Spirit to intimate that the covenant…”

And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire.

“I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount--that is, "the smitten rock" (El Leja) which was probably contiguous to, or a part of, Sinai.”

So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

“But on a comparison of this passage with Nu 14:5, the subject and language of this prayer show that only the second act of intercession (De 9:18) is now described in fuller detail.”

At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

“At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first--It was when God had been pacified through the intercessions of Moses with the people who had so greatly offended Him by the worship of the golden calf.”

So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

“JOSEPHUS says that each of the tables contained five precepts. But the tradition generally received, both among Jewish and Christian writers is, that one table contained four precepts, the other six.”

The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

“But it is found in the most ancient Hebrew manuscripts, and, believing that all contained in this book was given by inspiration and is entitled to profound respect, we must receive it as it stands, although acknowledging our inability to explain the insertion of these…”

I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

“Moses here resumes his address, and having made a passing allusion to the principal events in their history, concludes by exhorting them to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully.”

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart--Here he teaches them the true and spiritual meaning of that rite, as was afterwards more strongly urged by Paul (Ro 2:25, 29), and should be applied by us to our baptism, which is "not the putting away of…”

You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

“Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge--The reason for the frequent repetition of the same or similar counsels is to be traced to the infantine character and state of the church, which required line upon line and precept upon precept.”

Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

“And ye shall overthrow their altars--piles of turf or small stones. and break their pillars--Before the art of sculpture was known, the statues of idols were only rude blocks of colored stones.”

Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

“It was admirably calculated to prevent the corruption which would otherwise have crept in from their frequenting groves and high hills--to preserve uniformity of worship and keep alive their faith in Him to whom all their sacrifices pointed.”

Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

“Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so shalt thou eat them, &c.--Game when procured in the wilderness had not been required to be brought to the door of the tabernacle.”

Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.

“It is manifest that what was done in secret could not be legally proved by a single informer; and hence Jewish writers say that spies were set in some private part of the house, to hear the conversation and watch the conduct of a person…”

then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,

“Then shalt thou inquire--that is, the magistrate, to whom it officially belonged to make the necessary investigation. In the event of the report proving true, the most summary proceedings were to be commenced against the apostate inhabitants.”

the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

“The hart--(see on De 12:15). fallow deer--The Hebrew word (Jachmur) so rendered, does not represent the fallow deer, which is unknown in Western Asia, but an antelope (Oryx leucoryx), called by the Arabs, jazmar.”

There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an…

“Save when there shall be no poor man among you--Apparently a qualifying clause added to limit the application of the foregoing statement [De 15:3]; so that "the brother" to be released pointed to a poor borrower, whereas it is implied that if he were rich…”

For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor…

“For the poor shall never cease out of the land--Although every Israelite on the conquest of Canaan became the owner of property, yet in the providence of God who foresaw the event, it was permitted, partly as a punishment of disobedience and partly for the…”

You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

“Judges and officers shalt thou make--These last meant heralds or bailiffs, employed in executing the sentence of their superiors. in all thy gates--The gate was the place of public resort among the Israelites and other Eastern people, where business was transacted and causes decided.”

and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

“Neither shalt thou set thee up any image--erroneously rendered so for "pillar"; pillars of various kinds, and materials of wood or stone were erected in the neighborhood of altars.”

He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

“The mischievous effects resulting from the breach of this condition were exemplified in the history of Solomon and other princes, who, by trampling on the restrictive law, corrupted themselves as well as the nation. neither shall he greatly multiply . . .”

This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and…

“Here "the two cheeks" or head and "the maw" or stomach, deemed anciently a great dainty, are specified. But whether this is a new injunction, or a repetition of the old with the supplement of more details, it is not easy to determine.”

Now if a Levite moves from any town of residence throughout Israel and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, then he shall serve in the…

“At the same time, while every facility was afforded for the admission of such a zealous and self-denying officer, this admission was to be in an orderly manner: he was to minister "as all his brethren"--that is, a Gershonite with Gershonites; a Merarite with Merarites…”

then you are to set apart for yourselves three cities within the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

“Thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land--Goelism, or the duty of the nearest kinsmen to avenge the death of a slaughtered relative, being the customary law of that age (as it still is among the Arabs and other people…”

You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God…

“Though gardens and vineyards are surrounded by dry-stone walls or hedges of prickly pear, the boundaries of arable fields are marked by nothing but by a little trench, a small cairn, or a single erect stone, placed at certain intervals.”

Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it?

“And the officers shall speak unto the people--literally, Shoterim, who are called "scribes" or "overseers" (Ex 5:6). They might be keepers of the muster-roll, or perhaps rather military heralds, whose duty it was to announce the orders of the generals (2Ch 26:11).”