Deuteronomychapter 29
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses opens his third address with this chapter, still on the plains of Moab, and calls the people together to enter a covenant. He sets it beside the covenant made at Horeb forty years before. The whole nation stands present, and the chapter reaches past them to people who were not there. Listen for the roll of those standing before him and for the evidence he asks them to remember. Notice the picture of a ruined land and the question the nations ask about it. The chapter closes on a limit to what can be known.
Context
- Who
- Every Israelite present, from the tribal captains to the woodcutter and the water carrier, and the generations not yet born
- What
- The making of the covenant in Moab, with a review of the wilderness years and a warning against the one who turns away in secret.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, with the whole nation drawn up in ranks before Moses
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date of the Exodus, after the defeat of Sihon and Og recorded in Numbers 21:21-35.
- Why
- To bind every Israelite present, and the generations to come, to the LORD by oath before they entered the land.
Historical context
The chapter is Moses speaking in the fortieth year, in the land of Moab, calling what follows a covenant made there beside the covenant made at Horeb. The occasion is the ratification itself, and the roll of who stands present is deliberately complete. It runs from the captains of the tribes down to the hewer of thy wood and the drawer of thy water, and takes in little ones, wives and the stranger in the camp. A first hearer knew that covenant ceremonies in that world were witnessed by the whole community, and that naming the lowest labourers was a way of leaving nobody outside the oath. He also knew the idiom behind the phrase for entering a covenant. Adam Clarke observes that the verb rendered enter into is the verb for passing through, as the divided pieces at Genesis 15:17 were passed between. The evidence offered is the people's own memory, forty years in which clothing did not wear out, no bread and no wine, and the two kings east of the Jordan beaten within living memory. The picture of judgment at verse 23 is the country south of the Dead Sea, and travellers on that road saw the sulphur deposits and salt flats for themselves.
Significance
The oath bound the men standing there and those absent from it, which is how family and clan obligation already worked in their world. Rashi and Ibn Ezra read the absent party of verse 15 as the generations not yet born, and Jewish tradition carried that reading. For the first hearers the covenant was therefore something their grandchildren would be inside without ever having sworn it. Verse 29 then set a limit on how much of God's dealing they could expect to be told, and handed them a duty instead.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
A seam falls inside this chapter, and the corpus marks it. The Ramban text on 29:5 ends with the name of the section that opens at 29:9 (Ramban on Deuteronomy 29:5:1, Chavel translation, CC-BY). That section is read in the days before the Jewish new year. This is the site's reading of where Deuteronomy meets the Jewish year, recorded at scripts/data/book-facts/deuteronomy.json. It is marked there as the writer's reading rather than as a claim taken from the corpus.
What the chapter itself describes is a standing assembly. Rashi says Moses gathered the whole people before God on the day of his death, in order to bring them into a covenant (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:9:1). He reads the wording of 29:11 as the people passing into the covenant themselves rather than being made to pass into it (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:11:1). Rashi also reads the list of those present as wider than Israel. The woodcutters and water drawers at the edge of the assembly are Canaanites who came to Moses to join Israel (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:10:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 2). The Gibeonites later came to Joshua in the same way.
How it is read
The covenant of this chapter is read as binding people who were not there. Rashi holds that the words about the one who is absent cannot mean anyone missing from the gathering (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:14:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 3). The text has already said that all of them were standing there. They must mean the generations still to come.
The oath is explained by what Israel had already seen. They had watched the conduct of the nations they passed among, and one heart among them might be drawn after it, so Moses put them under oath (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:15:1). The man the oath is aimed at is drawn exactly. He blesses himself inwardly, telling himself that the curses will pass him by and he will have peace (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:18:1).
Two of Rashi's notes here show how closely the classical reading works. On the smoking of God's anger he says plainly that the image belongs to human bodies. Scripture speaks in the way the human ear is able to take in (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:19:1). The phrase about the book of this law changes gender between this verse and Deuteronomy 28:61. Rashi settles it by the placing of the accents, which join the words differently in the two places (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:20:1).
Ramban reads the statement that Israel ate no bread in the wilderness as a statement about their sustenance rather than an absolute. The text elsewhere has them buying food from Esau and Moab, and the rabbis record traders bringing food into the desert (Ramban on Deuteronomy 29:5:1, citing Yoma 75b). The corpus also holds Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 29:1:1, 29:4:1, 29:8:1, 29:13:1, 29:21:1 and 29:22:1 without a text that may be kept here. It holds Malbim on Deuteronomy 29:2:1, 29:7:1 and 29:24:1, and Sforno on Deuteronomy 29:23:1, the same way. All are cited without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis found a reason in this chapter for the forty years. Rashi carries their teaching that no student fathoms the mind of his teacher, or the depth of his teaching, until forty years under him (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:6:1, citing Avodah Zarah 5b). God therefore dealt gently with Israel until this day, and would deal strictly from here on.
Rashi reads the heart God had withheld as the understanding of his loving kindness and the will to cleave to him (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:3:1). He reads the verse about coming to this place as a warning against pride after the victories over Sihon and Og (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:6:1). The rabbis also held that God takes the trouble of a second covenant so that he may keep Israel as a people in his presence (Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:12:1).
The corpus carries more locators on this chapter, given for a reader to follow. Devarim Rabbah 7:8 and Devarim Rabbah 7:9 stand at 29:1. Avodah Zarah 5b:2 and Devarim Rabbah 7:10 stand at 29:3. Devarim Rabbah 7:11 and Devarim Rabbah 7:12 stand at 29:4, Avodah Zarah 19b:7 at 29:8. Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 8:9 stands at 29:10. Bamidbar Rabbah 14:6 and Bamidbar Rabbah 9:47 stand at 29:11. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Nitzavim 8:1 stands at 29:12, Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 22:2 at 29:14. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 41:12 stands at 29:15, Avodah Zarah 51b:10 at 29:16. Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:5 stands at 29:23, Avot DeRabbi Natan 36:4 at 29:27, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:5 at 29:28. Sifrei Devarim 104:8 stands across 28:69 to 30:20.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:3 to 29:20, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929-1934; Ramban, Ramban on Deuteronomy 29:5:1, Chavel translation, Shilo Pub. House, CC-BY, 1971-1976; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 29:1:1, 29:4:1, 29:8:1, 29:13:1, 29:21:1 and 29:22:1, cited without text; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 29:2:1, 29:7:1 and 29:24:1, cited without text; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 29:23:1, cited without text; MannaFest, the Deuteronomy book facts, at scripts/data/book-facts/deuteronomy.json, where the new year reading is recorded as the writer's reading, 2026; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/29.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Your clothes did not wear out on you
Deuteronomy 29:1-3
the words of the covenant: Hebrew Bibles number verse 1 as the last verse of chapter 28, where it closes the curses. The covenant made in Moab stands “in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb”, a fresh ratification of the same agreement. Verses 2 and 3 appeal to what the hearers saw in Egypt, though Numbers 14:29-30 has that generation dead, since the book addresses the nation as one body.
Deuteronomy 29:1
“It does not lie in the power of ministers to fix the terms of the covenant; they are only to dispense the seals of it. This is said to be besides the covenant made in Horeb; for, though the covenant was the same, yet it was a new promulgation and ratification of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Henry reads the chapter as a covenant deed, which opens the way the indentures of his day did, with a recital of what one party had already done for the other. He adds that their own eyes made the facts beyond dispute.
Deuteronomy 29:2
“The amazing signs and miracles by which Pharaoh was plagued and compelled to dismiss them, and Israel was tried (for they are called temptations ) whether they would trust God to secure them from, and save them by, those plagues.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 29:2
“Their experience of this extraordinary goodness and care, together with their remembrance of the brilliant successes by which, with little exertion or loss on their part, God enabled them to acquire the valuable territory on which they stood, is mentioned again to enforce a faithful adherence to the covenant, as the direct and sure means of obtaining its promised blessings.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The great trials are the ten plagues, and John Gill reads them as a test on both sides. They tried the Egyptians, whether they would let Israel go, and they tried Israel, whether it would trust the LORD to deliver it. The King James calls them temptations.
Deuteronomy 29:3
“The great temptations which thine eyes have seen,.... Or trials, the ten plagues which tried the Egyptians, whether they would let Israel go; and tried the Israelites, whether they would believe in the Lord, and trust in his almighty power to deliver them: the signs and those great miracles: as the said plagues were such as were beyond the power of nature to produce, and which only Omnipotence could really effect.”
The failure of forty years is set inside God's own giving, since the LORD has not given “a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear”. Clarke reports readers who take the verse as a question, while Keil and Delitzsch take it as a statement of what was withheld. Paul uses the same three organs at Romans 11:8 for Israel's hardening, joined to Isaiah 29:10.
Deuteronomy 29:4
“The Lord hath not given you a heart, etc. - Some critics read this verse interrogatively: And hath not God given you a heart, etc.? because they suppose that God could not reprehend them for the non-performance of a duty, when he had neither given them a mind to perceive the obligation of it, nor strength to perform it, had that obligation been known.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 29:5-6
The clothes and sandals that did not wear out were named at 8:4, and Nehemiah 9:21 recites them. Verse 6 gives the other half, no bread and no wine or strong drink, which leaves manna and water from the rock as the whole diet. The purpose is knowledge, “that you might know that I am the LORD your God”, so the lesson was who supplied it.
Deuteronomy 29:5
“And I have led you forty years in the wilderness,.... From the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day, which though not quite complete, is given as a round number.”
Henry notes that bread strengthens the heart and wine gladdens it, and Israel had neither for forty years. Still they reached Moab fit for war. Wesley reads the name the LORD here as the God who was enough for them without the help of any creature.
Deuteronomy 29:6
“Ye have not eaten bread - Common bread purchased by your own money, or made by your own hands, but heavenly and angelical bread. Neither drank wine - But only water out of the rock. The Lord - Omnipotent and all-sufficient for your provision without the help of any creatures, and your God in covenant with you who hath a true affection to you, and fatherly care of you.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 29:7-9
Sihon and Og are the last events this generation took part in, so the retelling stops there. Numbers 21:21-35 gives the battles and Numbers 32 the grant of that land to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Barnes notes that the word rendered “prosper” in verse 9 also means acting wisely, so keeping the covenant and doing well share one Hebrew word.
Deuteronomy 29:7
“And when ye came unto this place,.... The borders of Moab, the wilderness before it, to which joined the plains they were now in; see Num 21:13, Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle; not together, but one after the other, and that very quickly; as soon almost as they had fought with the one, and conquered him, the other came out against them: and we smote them; killed them and their armies, and the inhabitants of their countries; the history of which see in Num 21:23.”
we took their land: John Gill names the land taken from Sihon and Og as Jazer, Gilead and Bashan, good country for pasture. The Reubenites, the Gadites and half of Manasseh asked for it and received it as an inheritance on conditions, which Numbers 32 records. Henry calls fresh mercies a spur to obedience.
Deuteronomy 29:8
“And we took their land,.... Which belonged to the two kings, the lands of Jazer, Gilead, and Bashan, fine countries for pasturage: and gave it for an inheritances unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh; who requested it, and to whom it was granted on certain conditions, and they were now in possession of it; see Num 32:1.”
So draws the charge to keep and follow the covenant out of verses 2 to 8. Henry says the people's own eyes proved the facts and their own reason could judge the inference. Gratitude binds them as much as duty, he adds.
Deuteronomy 29:9
“That ye may prosper - literally, “that ye may act wisely.” The connection of the two ideas of wisdom in conduct and prosperity in circumstances is noteworthy.”
All of you stand here today
Deuteronomy 29:10-11
The roll runs from the leaders of the tribes down to those “who cut your wood and draw your water”, with children, wives and foreigners. Joshua 9:21 later gives that pair of tasks to the Gibeonites, the lowest place an outsider held. Henry and Barnes read the children's presence as ground for bringing children into covenant, and Barnes attaches Acts 2:39, a text the older commentators used for infant baptism.
Deuteronomy 29:10
“Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God,.... Being gathered together at the door of the tabernacle, at the summons of Moses.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 29:10
“Ye stand - all of you before the Lord - They were about to enter into a covenant with God; and as a covenant implies two parties contracting, God is represented as being present, and they and all their families, old and young, come before him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 29:10
“It was of the greatest consequence to impress all with the strong and abiding conviction, that while the covenant of grace had special blessings belonging to it, it at the same time had curses in reserve for transgressors, the infliction of which would be as certain, as lasting and severe. This was the advantage contemplated in the law being rehearsed a second time.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Gill observes that wives and children are scarcely ever named in a solemn act of the law, and here both stand in the assembly. He takes the foreigners in your camps to include the proselyte of the gate, a resident who had renounced idols. Henry reads it as early favour to the Gentiles.
Deuteronomy 29:11
“Your little ones, your wives,.... Who are scarce ever mentioned in any special law or solemn transaction: and thy stranger that is in thy camp; not only the proselyte of righteousness, who embraced the Jewish religion entirely, but the proselyte of the gate, who was admitted to dwell among them, having renounced idolatry.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 29:11
“The covenant was national, and therefore embraced all the elements which make up the nation. The “little ones” would of course be represented by their parents or guardians; the absent Deu 29:15 by those present; nor were the servants and proselytes to be excluded (compare Act 2:39). The text is fairly alleged in justification of the Church’s practice of admitting little ones into covenant with God by Baptism, and accepting promises made on their behalf by sponsors.”
Deuteronomy 29:12-13
Two words carry the one act, covenant and oath, and Clarke observes that the verb for entering is the verb for passing through, as the pieces at Genesis 15:17 were passed between. Verse 13 states the covenant's purpose as a relation, that God may establish Israel “as His people” and be their God. Its ground is the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, older than any of its terms.
Deuteronomy 29:12
“That thou shouldest enter - לעבר leaber, to pass through, that is, between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice. See Gen 15:18 (note). And into his oath - Thus we find that in a covenant were these seven particulars: 1. The parties about to contract were considered as being hitherto separated. 2. They now agree to enter into a state of close and permanent amity. 3. They meet together in a solemn manner for this purpose. 4. A sacrifice is offered to God on the occasion, for the whole is a religious act.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Wesley calls this verse the summary of the covenant, with every precept and promise included in the relation it names. Henry adds that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are named as examples of piety for their heirs to imitate. Wesley asks whether a covenant like that refers to nothing eternal.
Deuteronomy 29:13
“The principal design of the renewing of this covenant at this time was to fortify them against temptations to idolatry. Though other sins will be the sinner's ruin, yet this was the sin that was likely to be their ruin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 29:14-15
The covenant includes “those who are not here today”, and readers take the absent two ways. Gill allows some kept in their tents by sickness, while Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Barnes read the generations not yet born, bound by what their fathers swore. Jewish tradition carried the second reading, and Acts 2:39 has the same reach when Peter says the promise is for you and your children.
Deuteronomy 29:14
“Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath. That is, Moses; for he was ordered to make this covenant with them in the name of the Lord; what promises of good things, or declarations of his mind and will, God would make, Moses was to deliver to them; and what was required of them he would inform them of. Aben Ezra interprets it, not only you, but those that will come after you, your sons and your sons' sons.”
Wesley compares the covenant to a king's grant of an estate to a subject and his heirs, who hold it on the same conditions. One of the Aramaic paraphrases, cited by Henry and Wesley, has every generation of the world standing here today before the LORD. The absent are bound.
Deuteronomy 29:15
“But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God,.... Who are before specified according to their dignity, age, sex, and station of life; or rather, "but as with him that standeth", &c. and so with him that is not here with us this day; detained at home by illness and indisposition of body, or by one providence or another; so that they could not come out of their tents, and make their appearance before the tabernacle; though Jarchi interprets this of the people of future generations.”
A root that bears gall and wormwood
Deuteronomy 29:16-17
The King James sets these two verses in parentheses, and they give the reason for the warning that follows. The people know by sight Egypt, the nations on the way, and idols “of wood and stone, of silver and gold”. The same materials stand at 4:28, and the Hebrew word for idols here is a term of contempt Ezekiel uses throughout his book.
Deuteronomy 29:16
“The danger they were in if they yielded to the temptation. He gives them fair warning: it was at their peril if they forsook God to serve idols. If they would not be bound and held by the precepts of the covenant, they would find that the curses of the covenant would be strong enough to bind and hold them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Wesley points to the golden calf as proof that Israel had learned too much in Egypt. Henry says some in the camp had seen these idols and liked them, preferring a god of wood they could see to an infinite Spirit they had never seen. Sight led to desire, as with Achan at Joshua 7:21.
Deuteronomy 29:17
“Idols - See the margin, “dungy gods;” i. e. clods or stocks which can be rolled about (compare Lev 26:30).”
Deuteronomy 29:18-19
The danger is named at every scale, man, woman, clan or tribe. The root bearing “poisonous and bitter fruit” is taken up at Hebrews 12:15 as a root of bitterness, following the Greek of the Septuagint, and Acts 8:23 applies the bitterness to Simon. Verse 19 quotes the man, “I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart”, which Barnes sets beside Jeremiah 23:17.
Deuteronomy 29:18
“A root that beareth gall and wormwood - That is, as the apostle expresses it, Heb 3:12, An evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God; for to this place he evidently refers. It may also signify false doctrines, or idolatrous persons among themselves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Wesley explains that the oath carried a curse on the man who broke it, and this man hears that curse and flatters himself anyway. Albert Barnes reads the close through Job 15:16, a man who drinks iniquity like water and draws in others already thirsting for it. Henry links it to idol feasts, 1 Peter 4:3.
Deuteronomy 29:19
“To add drunkenness to thirst - The words may be rendered, to add thirst to drunkenness, and so the sense may be, that when he hath multiplied his sins, and made himself as it were drunk with them, yet he is not satisfied therewith, but still whets his appetite, and provokes his thirst after more, as drunkards often use means to make themselves thirst after more drink.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 29:19
“Compare on the thought Jer 23:17. The secret and presumptuous sinner is meant who flatters himself that all is well and will be well with him, since he follows his own devices and prospers. Compare Psa 73:11 ff. To add drunkenness to thirst - The sense is probably: “Himself, drinking iniquity like water, Job 15:16, he corrupts and destroys others who are thirsting for it or prone to it.” The sense of the whole passage from Deu 29:16 onward to Deu 29:20 may be exhibited thus: “Ye have seen the abominations of idolatry among the pagan.”
Deuteronomy 29:20-21
The covenant was made with a nation, and this sentence falls on one man. To “blot out his name from under heaven” is the sentence on Amalek at Exodus 17:14 and 25:19, so an Israelite who turns to other gods is judged as the enemy was. The verb for singling him out in verse 21 sets Levi apart at 10:8, and here it marks a man for disaster.
Deuteronomy 29:20
“And ( lastly ) All this according to the curses of the covenant, which are the most fearful curses, being the just revenges of abused grace. (2.) Idolatry would be the ruin of their nation; it would bring plagues upon the land that connived at this root of bitterness and received the infection; as far as the sin spread, the judgment should spread likewise. [1.] The ruin is described.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Wesley reads single him out for disaster as a plague made an example, so that one man becomes a monument of God's displeasure to the whole land. Henry calls separation to evil the truest definition of a curse. The curses of the covenant weigh most, he adds, being the penalty of grace abused.
Deuteronomy 29:21
“And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel,.... Unto the evil of punishment, devote and consign him to it, and make him a visible and distinguished mark of his displeasure and vengeance.”
Why has the LORD done this to the land?
Deuteronomy 29:22-24
The scene jumps to a ruined land and two sets of onlookers, the children to come and a foreigner from far away. Admah and Zeboiim are the other cities of the plain at Genesis 14:2, and Hosea 11:8 names them when God asks how he can give Ephraim up. The question of verse 24 is asked again at 1 Kings 9:8 and Jeremiah 22:8, over the temple and the city.
Albert Barnes takes the sulfur and salt from the country around the Dead Sea, where the valley of Siddim had once been well watered, as Genesis 13:10 describes it. Henry notes that this ruined plain lay on Israel's own border as a standing warning. A garden became a salt waste.
Deuteronomy 29:23
“The description is borrowed from the local features of the Dead Sea and its vicinity. The towns of the vale of Siddim were fertile and well watered (compare Gen 13:10) until devastated by the wrath of God Gen 19:24-25. The ruin of Israel and its land should be of the like sort (compare Lev 26:31-32; Psa 107:34; Zep 2:9). The desolate state of Palestine at present, and the traces of former fertility and prosperity, are attested by every traveler.”
Henry puts the weight of the question on this land, the good land flowing with milk and honey where God was known and worshipped. He sets beside it Amos 3:2, where the LORD punishes Israel as the one family He had known. Nearness brought the heavier judgment.
Deuteronomy 29:24
“A thousand pities that such a good land as this should be made desolate, but this is not all; it is this holy land, the land of Israel, a people in covenant with God; it is Immanuel's land, a land where God was known and worshipped, and yet thus wasted. It is no new thing for God to bring desolating judgments upon a people that in profession are near to him, Amos iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 29:25-28
The nations' answer names the covenant made when God brought Israel out of Egypt. Clarke reads “gods that the LORD had not given to them” through the Hebrew word for an allotted portion, so these gods were never Israel's share. Verse 28 speaks of the uprooting as past, “where they are today”, and Daniel 9:11-14 prays these verses back to God from inside the exile.
Deuteronomy 29:25
“Note, God never forsakes any till they first forsake him. But those that desert the God of their fathers are justly cast out of the inheritance of their fathers.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Wesley reads the gods the LORD had not given to them as the sun, moon and stars, which 4:19 says God allotted to all nations for their use. Henry draws the rule that the creatures were given to serve people, and the Creator alone is to be served. Israel inverted the order.
Deuteronomy 29:26
“Whom God had not given to them - For their worship, but hath divided them unto all nations, for their use and service. So he speaks here of the sun and moon and stars, which were the principal gods worshipped by the neighbouring nations.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 29:26
“Gods - whom he had not given unto them - This is an unhappy translation. Houbigant renders the original words ולו חלק להם velo chalak lahem, et quibuscum nulla eis societas, “And with whom they had no society;” and falls unmercifully on Le Clerc because he had translated it, From whom they had received no benefits. I must differ from both these great men, because I think they differ from the text. חלק chalak signifies a portion, lot, inheritance, and God is frequently represented in Scripture as the portion or inheritance of his people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill reads every curse written in this book as the curses of chapter 28, beginning at 28:16. The land itself receives the anger, as it had received the rain of blessing at 28:12. Henry calls the LORD righteous in the whole desolation.
Deuteronomy 29:27
“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land,.... For this their idolatry and base ingratitude: to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book; in this book of Deuteronomy, and particularly Deu 28:16; see Dan 9:11.”
Henry quotes Ainsworth, who set this uprooting beside Amos 9:15, where God plants Israel in its land never again to be uprooted. In Ainsworth's words the law leaves the sinner rooted out, and the grace of Christ plants the penitent again. Judgment's verb returns as a promise.
Deuteronomy 29:28
“So that, how dreadful soever the desolation was, the Lord was righteous in it, which is acknowledged, Dan. ix. "Thus" (says Mr. Ainsworth) "the law of Moses leaves sinners under the curse, and rooted out of the Lord's land; but the grace of Christ towards penitent believing sinners plants them again upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up, being kept by the power of God," Amos ix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Masoretic scribes set dots above the words for “to us and to our children”, the only one of the fifteen dotted places that falls in Deuteronomy. The hidden stays with God, and the revealed is given “so that we may follow all the words of this law”. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as an answer to hearers shaken by the curses, Barnes of timing God keeps.
Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God - This verse seems to be added as a solemn admonition on the part of Moses, in order to close the series of blessings and curses which he has delivered. The sense seems to be this: “The future, when and how these good and evil things will take effect, it lies with the Lord our God to determine; it pertains not to man’s sphere and duty. God’s revealed will is that which we must carry out.” The 17th of our Articles of Religion concludes with much the same sentiment.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 29:29
“But if any ask further why God would be at such a vast expense of miracles to form such a people, whose apostasy and ruin he plainly foresaw, why he did not by his almighty grace prevent it, or what he intends yet to do with them, let such know that these are questions which cannot be answered, and therefore are not fit to be asked.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong unto the Lord--This verse has no apparent connection with the thread of discourse. It is thought to have been said in answer to the looks of astonishment or the words of inquiry as to whether they would be ever so wicked as to deserve such punishments.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Connectionsgematria
How this psalm is built
The form: A covenant ratification address, opening the third of the book's three addresses, as Craigie classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Ye stand this day, all of you | Verses 10 and 11 run a roll of everyone present, from the captains of the tribes down to the hewer of thy wood and the drawer of thy water. It takes in little ones, wives and the stranger in the camp. Joshua 9:21 later hands that exact pair of trades to the Gibeonites, which fixes it as the lowest standing an outsider held in Israel.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 29:10. | Deuteronomy 29:10, Deuteronomy 29:11 |
| With him that is not here this day | Verses 14 and 15 set two parties side by side, him that standeth here with us this day and him that is not here with us this day. Readers have taken the absent man two ways. John Gill allows that some were kept in their tents by sickness, while Rashi and Ibn Ezra, and Albert Barnes after them, read the phrase of the generations not yet born.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 29:15. | Deuteronomy 29:14, Deuteronomy 29:15 |
| Man, or woman, or family, or tribe | Verse 18 names the danger at every scale, so no unit is too small or too large to carry it. The root that beareth gall and wormwood is taken up at Hebrews 12:15 as a root of bitterness springing up and troubling many, following the Greek of the Septuagint. Acts 8:23 uses the gall half of the pair to Simon.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 29:18. | Deuteronomy 29:18, Deuteronomy 29:19 |
| Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land | Verses 22 to 28 leave the assembly and stage a scene in the future. The children of the generation to come and a stranger out of a far country look at a ruined land and ask a question. The answer at verses 25 to 28 is put in their mouths. The same question is asked in the same words at 1 Kings 9:8 and Jeremiah 22:8.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 29:24. | Deuteronomy 29:22, Deuteronomy 29:24, Deuteronomy 29:25 |
The two words for one act
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 12 uses covenant and oath together for the single act of ratification. Adam Clarke observes that the verb rendered enter into is the verb for passing through, as the divided pieces at Genesis 15:17 were passed between. Verse 13 then states what the covenant is for as a relation rather than a code, that he may establish thee for a people unto himself and be unto thee a God.
The ground older than the terms
The reason given at verse 13 reaches back past the law to the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The covenant made in Moab therefore rests on a promise older than any of its stipulations.
The heart not yet given
Verse 4 says the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. Adam Clarke reports that some read the verse as a question, and hath not God given you a heart. Their ground is that God would not charge a duty on men he had not equipped for it. Keil and Delitzsch take it as a statement of what was withheld. Paul reaches for the same three organs at Romans 11:8 for Israel's hardening in his own day, joining this language to Isaiah 29:10.
The sentence on one man
The covenant was made with a whole nation standing together, and the sentence at verses 20 and 21 falls on one man out of all the tribes of Israel. To blot out his name from under heaven is the sentence passed on Amalek at Exodus 17:14 and repeated at Deuteronomy 25:19. An Israelite who turns to other gods is therefore put under the judgment held for the nation's enemy. The verb rendered separate in verse 21 is the one used at 10:8 for setting Levi apart to the LORD, and here it sets a man apart unto evil.
The cities named in the ruin
Verse 23 names Sodom and Gomorrah with Admah and Zeboim, the two other cities of the plain that Genesis 14:2 lists and that Genesis 19 leaves unnamed at the overthrow. Hosea 11:8 reaches for the same two cities when God asks how he shall give Ephraim up.
The dotted words of verse 29
The Masoretic scribes set dots above the words unto us and to our children in verse 29. It is the only one of the fifteen marked places in the Hebrew Bible that falls in Deuteronomy, and what the mark was meant to flag has been argued over since. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the verse as an answer to hearers astonished at the curses. Albert Barnes reads it of the timing of these things, which God keeps in his own hand, and Acts 1:7 draws the same line when the risen Christ answers a question about the kingdom.
Keep studying
Studies5
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 29:1; Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1976 and The dispensational tradition, which names it the Palestinian or Land Covenant, Carried with its holders in src/components/book/dossier-content/deuteronomy.ts, with a door to /featured/land-covenant.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.