Deuteronomychapter 4
49 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
It stands in Our God is a consuming fire, verses 15 to 24.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The exhortation. ‘Hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments … ye shall not add unto the word which I command you’. The LORD spoke out of the midst of the fire; no form was seen. Therefore no graven image, no bowing to the host of heaven. Scattering and restoration foretold for Israel. ‘Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?’ Three cities of refuge east of Jordan appointed by Moses. Bezer, Ramoth, Golan. The chapter closes the first sermon with a double warning and a double grace. Remember what you have seen; the LORD is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 4The history
Moses is the speaker and this is the end of his first address. He speaks as the man who stood on the mountain, who received the ten words, and who has just told the people three times that he will not cross the river with them.
The place is named in the heading at verses 44 to 46, the valley opposite Beth-peor in the land Sihon had held. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that a temple of that idol probably stood in full view of the camp while Moses pressed the exclusive claims of God on Israel's worship, which is the ground of the plague named at verse 3.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
A first hearer knew what the warning at verse 2 was. A clause forbidding anyone to add to a document or take from it is a standing feature of second millennium treaty texts, which is part of the correspondence Meredith G. Kline and Kenneth A. Kitchen build on. Copies were deposited and read, and altering the text called the curses of the agreement down on the one who did it.
A first hearer also knew what an image was for. Every nation around Israel housed its gods in carved form. Adam Clarke names Baal-peor and Astarte for the likeness of male and female, the Egyptian Apis worshipped as a white bull, the ibis and the hawk among the birds, serpents and the crocodile among the creeping things, and John Gill adds Dagon and Derceto among the Phoenicians. The image was where the god was thought to be present and fed. Israel heard a voice out of fire and was given no shape to keep.
The iron furnace of verse 20 is a working object. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that it means a furnace for smelting iron, round, sometimes thirty feet deep and needing the highest intensity of heat, which is the picture Egypt is given.
The three cities at the end were sanctuaries for a man who killed someone by accident, protection from the relative whose duty it was to avenge the death before any trial could be held. Bezer stood on the Reubenite plateau, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan in Bashan.
What it meant to them
Their neighbours would ask an obvious question, where the statue of their God was and what it looked like. This chapter gives them the answer to give, no form and only a voice, together with a law the nations would call wise.
The scattering it foretells was spoken before they had crossed the river, and it named the end of idolatry in advance. The promise attached to it is the one Jeremiah 29:13 repeats to exiles in almost the same words, that they would seek and find when they searched with all their heart.
Sources cited
- Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament , 2003
- Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy , 1963
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible , 1832, on Deuteronomy 4:16 and 4:17
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible , 1871, on Deuteronomy 4:20 and 4:46
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions , 1961
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 4 falls in First sermon, retrospective (chapters 1–4). Moses rehearses the wilderness: Horeb, the spies, the forty years, the defeat of Sihon and Og. ‘Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves.’
After it: Second sermon, the law restated, chapters 5–26.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
People1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. What nation has statutes like these?
1. (vv. 1-2)
Deuteronomy 4:1
“The statutes - The laws which concern the worship and service of God. The judgments - The laws concerning your duties to men. So these two comprehend both tables, and the whole law of God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:2
“The Jews understand it as prohibiting the alteration of the text or letter of the law, even in the least jot or tittle; and to their great care and exactness herein we are very much indebted, under God, for the purity and integrity of the Hebrew code.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Verse 2 forbids adding to the word or taking from it, and Moses repeats the clause at 12:32. Proverbs 30:6 sets the same guard over the words of God, and Revelation 22:18-19 sets it over the book of the prophecy. A prohibition on altering the document is a standing feature of second millennium treaty texts, which is part of what Meredith Kline in Treaty of the Great King and Kenneth Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament build on when they read Deuteronomy on that pattern. The dating that follows from the correspondence is held one way by those two and another by readers who place the book in the seventh century.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Deuteronomy 4:3
“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.”
Deuteronomy 4:4
“But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God,....”
Your eyes have seen what the LORD did: The event appealed to is Numbers 25, where Israel joined itself to the Baal of Peor at Shittim and twenty and four thousand died in the plague. Moses picks it because it is the most recent thing that happened to the people standing in front of him, so the evidence he asks them to weigh is their own memory rather than a report. Verse 4 divides the same crowd by one word, they that did cleave, and the mark of the survivors is that they are alive every one of you this day.
3. (vv. 5-6)
Deuteronomy 4:5
“Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me,....”
Deuteronomy 4:6
“Keep - and do them; for this is your wisdom - There was no mode of worship at this time on the face or the earth that was not wicked, obscene, puerile, foolish, or ridiculous, except that established by God himself among the Israelites. And every part of this, taken in its connection and reference, may be truly called a wise and reasonable service.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:6
“In keeping God's commandments, [1.] They would act wisely for themselves; It is not only agreeable to right reason, but highly conducive to our true interest; this is one of the first and most ancient maxims of divine revelation. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, Job xxviii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 4:6
“And particularly the old Heathen oracle expressly said, that the Chaldeans or Hebrew, who worshipped the uncreated God, were the only wise men.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:6
“Keep therefore and do them,.....”
Moses gives the law an audience outside Israel. Keeping the statutes is called your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, so the watching heathen are expected to draw a conclusion about the people from the way the people live. The verdict is put in their mouths in advance, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people, and 1 Kings 10:6-9 has the queen of Sheba saying something close to it over Solomon's house.
4. (vv. 7-8)
Deuteronomy 4:7
“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 constitution in church and state, being directed and governed in both by laws which came immediately from God himself; for their knowledge of divine things, and for spiritual blessings and privileges they were favoured with, of which a special instance is given: who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is, in all things that we call upon him for?”
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:7
“The former, their national advantages, are described (De 4:7, 8), and they were twofold: 1. God's readiness to hear and aid them at all times; and 2. the excellence of that religion in which they were instructed, set forth in the "statutes and judgments so righteous" which the law of Moses contained.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 4:7
“Secondly, Those that call upon God shall certainly find him within call, and ready to give an answer of peace to every prayer of faith; see Isa. lviii. 9 , " Thou shalt cry, as the child for a nurse, and he shall say, Here I am, what does my dear child cry for?" Thirdly, This is a privilege which makes the Israel of God truly great and honourable.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 4:7
“So nigh - By glorious miracles, by the pledges of his special presence, by the operations of his grace, and particularly by his readiness to hear our prayers, and to give us those succors which we call upon him for.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:8
“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, peace, and concord among them: as all this law which I set before you this day? which he then repeated, afresh declared, explained and instructed them in; for otherwise it had been delivered to them near forty years ago.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:8
“This also was the grandeur of Israel above any people. What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous? Observe, First, That all these statutes and judgments of the divine law are infinitely just and righteous, above the statutes and judgments of any of the nations.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 4:8
“So righteous - Whereby he implies that the true greatness of a nation doth not consist in pomp or power, or largeness of empire, as commonly men think, but in the righteousness of its laws.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Two questions carry the argument and both open with what nation is there so great. The first answer is nearness, God so nigh unto them in all things that we call upon him for, which makes access rather than power the thing Israel has and the nations do not. The second answer is the law itself, statutes and judgments so righteous, so the content of the code is offered as evidence about the God who gave it.
B. You saw no form, you only heard a voice
1. (vv. 9-10)
Deuteronomy 4:9
“A full stop should end Deu 4:9; and Deu 4:10 begin, At the time that thou stoodest, etc. Deu 4:11 then ye came near, etc. Moses, exhorting to heedful observance of the Law, strives to renew the impressions of that tremendous scene which attended its promulgation at Sinai.”
Deuteronomy 4:10
“Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord in Horeb,....”
Verse 9 is the first of the nine times Deuteronomy says forget, and what stands at risk is the things which thine eyes have seen. The guard against losing them is teaching, and the reach is stated to two generations, thy sons and thy sons' sons, the same span chapter 6 opens with. Verse 10 fixes the day being remembered as Horeb, and the purpose God stated there was that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live, and that they may teach their children.
2. (vv. 11-12)
Deuteronomy 4:11
“And ye came near and stood under the mountain,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:11
“Fires in the night are the most frightful, and the fire made the darkness that surrounded it look the more awful; for it must needs be a strong darkness which such a fire did not disperse. In allusion to this appearance upon Mount Sinai, God is said to show himself for his people, and against his and their enemies, in fire and darkness together, Ps. xviii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 4:12
“And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire,....”
What they saw was fire and darkness, and the mountain burned unto the midst of heaven. What they did not see is the weight of the sentence, ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, and the same denial returns at verse 15 as the ground of the whole argument against images. Exodus 19:16-19 gives the scene from the other side, with the thunders, the thick cloud and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud.
3. (vv. 13-14)
Deuteronomy 4:13
“And he declared unto you his covenant,....”
Deuteronomy 4:14
“And the Lord commanded me at that time,....”
The King James renders the Hebrew ten words as ten commandments, and the phrase falls three times in the Old Testament, here and at Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 10:4. Verse 13 marks off what God spoke and wrote himself on two tables of stone from what verse 14 says he commanded Moses to teach. The ten are set apart from the statutes and judgments by who delivered them, and chapter 5 repeats them in full.
C. Our God is a consuming fire
1. (vv. 15-18)
Deuteronomy 4:15
“Ye saw no manner of similitude - Howsoever God chose to appear or manifest himself, he took care never to assume any describable form. He would have no image worship, because he is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. These outward things tend to draw the mind out of itself, and diffuse it on sensible, if not sensual, objects; and thus spiritual worship is prevented, and the Holy Ghost grieved. Persons acting in this way can never know much of the religion of the heart.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:16
“The likeness of male or female - Such as Baal-peor and the Roman Priapus, Ashtaroth or Astarte, and the Greek and Roman Venus; after whom most nations of the world literally went a whoring.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:16
“This was particularly the case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against whose superstitious practices the caution, no doubt, was chiefly directed. The former worshipped Baal and Astarte, the latter Osiris and Isis, under the figure of a male and a female.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 4:17
“The likeness of any beast, etc. - Such as the Egyptian god Apis, who was worshipped under the form of a white bull; the ibis and hawk, among the fowls, had also Divine honors paid to them; serpents and the crocodile among reptiles; besides monkeys, dogs, cats, the scarabaeus, leeks, and onions! See this explained at large, Exo 20:4 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:18
“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 hippopotamus, or river horse, by the Egyptians; and Dagon and Derceto, supposed to be figures in the form of a fish, among the Phoenicians.”
Verse 15 turns the absence of a form into an argument. Because ye saw no manner of similitude, an image would be a likeness of something God did not show, and the list runs downward from male and female through beast, fowl, creeping thing and fish, back along the order Genesis 1 built up. Paul works the same descent at Romans 1:23, where the glory of the uncorruptible God is changed into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
2. (vv. 19-20)
Deuteronomy 4:19
“It is clear then that since those who live according to the law reverence the One who made the heaven, they do not reverence the heaven as if God. Furthermore, none of those who serve the Mosaic law worship the angels in heaven. And in the same way that they do not worship the sun, moon, and stars and "the world of heaven." They avoid worshiping heaven as such or the angels in it.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· AGAINST CELSUS 5.6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:19
“It is absurd to worship them, for they are man's servants, were made and ordained to give light on earth; and shall we serve those that were made to serve us? The sun, in Hebrew is called shemesh, which signifies a servant, for it is the minister-general of this visible world, and holds the candle to all mankind; let it not then be worshipped as a lord.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 4:20
“But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace--that is, furnace for smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is round, sometimes thirty feet deep, and requiring the highest intensity of heat.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The sun, moon and stars are handled differently from the images of verses 16 to 18, because verse 19 says the Lord thy God hath divided them unto all nations under the whole heaven. What the division means is argued. Some read it as God appointing the lights to all nations for their use, marking seasons and times as Genesis 1:14 has them do, and others read it beside 32:8 as an allotment of the nations themselves to other powers, which Michael Heiser is the best known recent advocate of. Verse 20 states what Israel was given instead, taken out of the iron furnace to be a people of inheritance, a phrase 1 Kings 8:51 and Jeremiah 11:4 both carry.
3. (vv. 21-22)
Deuteronomy 4:21
“Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes,.... See Deu 3:26, and sware that I should not go over Jordan; this circumstance of swearing is nowhere else expressed: and that I should not go in unto that good land; the land of Canaan; he might see it, as he did from Pisgah, but not enter into it: which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; to them and to their children after them.”
Deuteronomy 4:22
“But I must die in this land,.... The land of Moab, in a mountain in it he died, and in a valley there he was buried, Deu 32:50, I must not go over Jordan; this he repeats, as lying near his heart; he had earnestly solicited to go over, but was denied it: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land; this he firmly believed and assures them of, relying on the promise and faithfulness of God.”
This is the third time in four chapters that Moses gives the reason he cannot cross, after 1:37 and 3:26, and all three say the Lord was angry with me for your sakes. Numbers 20:12 gives the reason from the other side, because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Both accounts stand in the canon and neither book reconciles them. Verse 22 states the outcome without softening it, I must die in this land, and the sentence turns at once to what the people will do after him.
4. (vv. 23-24)
Deuteronomy 4:23
“But, upon the whole, it is evident that religion has reason on its side, the powerful charms of which all that are irreligious wilfully stop their ears against. (1.) He urges the greatness, glory, and goodness, of God. Did we consider what a God he is with whom we have to do, we should surely make conscience of our duty to him and not dare to sin against him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:23
“Take heed unto yourselves,....”
Deuteronomy 4:24
“So the prophets called him a burning fire, because in those three points we see more intensely the majesty of the Godhead. Since to sanctify is of the Godhead, to illuminate is the property of fire and light, and the Godhead is frequently pointed out or seen in the appearance of fire: "For our God is a consuming fire," as Moses said.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· On the Holy Spirit 1.14.140patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:24
“Thy God is a consuming fire - They had seen him on the mount as an unconsuming fire, while appearing to Moses, and giving the law; and they had seen him as a consuming fire in the case of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their company. They had, therefore, every good to expect from his approbation, and every evil to dread from his displeasure.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Forget returns at verse 23, and the thing to be forgotten is the covenant itself. Hebrews 12:29 carries the clause of verse 24 over as it stands, for our God is a consuming fire, and places it at the end of an argument about a kingdom which cannot be moved. Jealous is the word God used of himself in the second commandment at Exodus 20:5, and the fire that spoke at Horeb in verse 12 is now said to be what he is.
D. Scattered, and yet found again
1. (vv. 25-26)
Deuteronomy 4:25
“When thou shall beget children, and children's children,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:25
“Compare with these verses Lev 26:33-40, and Deu 28:64 ff.”
Deuteronomy 4:26
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you - A most solemn method of adjuration, in use among all nations in the world.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:26
And not only Paul, but generally all those to whom is committed any ministry of the word, never cease from testifying, but call heaven and earth to witness on the ground that now every deed that is done is done within them, and that in the examination of all the actions of life they will be present with the judged. So it is said, "He shall call to the heavens above and to earth, that he may judge his people."
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· ON THE SPIRIT 13.30patristic
Moses summons heaven and earth as witnesses, which is what a treaty does when there is no higher court to appeal to, and he does it again at 30:19, 31:28 and 32:1. The offence he foresees is placed after long settlement, when thou shalt beget children and children's children and ye shall have remained long in the land, so the danger named belongs to security rather than to the wilderness. This day falls seventy times in the book, and it keeps the covenant in the present tense of whoever is hearing it read.
2. (vv. 27-28)
Deuteronomy 4:27
“The Lord shall scatter you among the nations - This was amply verified in their different captivities and dispersions.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:27
“And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations,....”
The sentence is exile, and verse 28 fits the punishment to the offence exactly. A people who wanted an image are given a country full of them, gods which are the work of men's hands, wood and stone. The four things those gods cannot do, see, hear, eat and smell, are the faculties an idol would need to be what its makers want of it, and Psalm 115:4-8 and Isaiah 44:9-20 work the same list out at length.
3. (vv. 29-31)
Deuteronomy 4:29
“If from thence thou seek the Lord - Whatever place we are in, we may from thence seek him. There is no part of the earth which has a gulf fixt between it and heaven.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:30
“When thou art in tribulation in the latter days - Are not these the times spoken of? And is there not still hope for Israel?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:30
“When thou art in tribulation,....”
Deuteronomy 4:31
“Shall we forsake a merciful God, who will never forsake us, as it follows here, if we be faithful unto him? Whither can we go to better ourselves? Shall we forget the covenant of our God, who will not forget the covenant of our fathers?”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:31
“For the Lord thy God is a merciful God,....”
The threat is not left as the last word. Seeking with all thy heart and with all thy soul is the language of 6:5, so what is held out to the scattered is the very thing the covenant asked for at the start. Jeremiah 29:13 repeats the promise to exiles in almost the same words, and Moses grounds it in verse 31 on what God is, a merciful God who will not forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. Latter days at verse 30 is the phrase Balaam uses at Numbers 24:14, and Deuteronomy takes it up again at 31:29.
E. Ask from the day God created man
1. (vv. 32-33)
Deuteronomy 4:32
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:32
“This singular honour done them called for singular obedience from them. It might justly be expected that they should do more for God than other people, since God had done so much more for them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 4:33
“Did ever people hear the voice of God - It seems to have been a general belief that if God appeared to men, it was for the purpose of destroying them; and indeed most of the extraordinary manifestations of God were in the way of judgment; but here it was different; God did appear in a sovereign and extraordinary manner; but it was for the deliverance and support of the people. 1. They heard his voice speaking with them in a distinct, articulate manner.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Moses puts the case as a question of evidence and sets no limit on the search, since the day that God created man upon the earth and from the one side of heaven unto the other. The claim being tested is narrow and checkable, that a whole people heard the voice of God out of the fire and lived. Exodus 20:19 records what they said about it while it was happening, speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die, and 5:24-26 repeats their words back to them.
2. (vv. 34-35)
Deuteronomy 4:34
“By temptations - Temptations is the general title, which is explained by the following particulars, signs, and wonders, &c. which are called temptations, because they were trials both to the Egyptians and Israelites, whether they would be induced to believe and obey God or no.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:34
“From the midst of another nation - This was a most extraordinary thing, that a whole people, consisting of upwards of 600,000 effective men, besides women and children, should, without striking a blow, be brought out of the midst of a very powerful nation, to the political welfare of which their services were so essential; that they should be brought out in so open and public a manner; that the sea itself should be supernaturally divided to afford this mighty host a passage; and that, in a desert utterly unfriendly to human life, they should be sustained for forty years.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 4:35
“Unto thee it was showed,.... What the Lord did in Egypt: that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God, there is none else besides him; that he is the one only living and true God, and there is no other: this phrase is often used by the Prophet Isaiah, to express the same great article of faith.”
The second question moves from hearing to rescue, a nation taken from the midst of another nation, and the means are counted out in seven terms ending at great terrors. Verse 35 states what the whole demonstration was for, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God, there is none else beside him. The signs are given a purpose beyond themselves, and 1 Kings 18:39 has the people on Carmel answering Elijah in the same words.
3. (vv. 36-38)
Deuteronomy 4:36
“Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee,....”
Deuteronomy 4:37
“And because he loved thy fathers,....”
Deuteronomy 4:38
“To drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 4:38
“If we rightly understand the matter, this is the statement of Moses at the beginning of his book: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." For this is the beginning of all creation; to this beginning the end and consummation of all things must be recalled, in order that this heaven and this earth may be the habitation and resting place of the pious. So all the holy ones and the meek obtain an inheritance in that land, since this is the teaching of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.8patristic
Deuteronomy 4:38
“Egyptians and Canaanites must both be sacrificed to Israel's honour and interest. Those that stand in Israel's light, in Israel's way, shall find it is at their peril. (7.) He urges God's righteous appearance against them sometimes for their sins.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Verse 36 joins the two halves of Horeb, a voice out of heaven and a great fire upon earth, and says what both were for, that he might instruct thee. Verse 37 puts the reason behind the exodus further back than the exodus, because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, so the choice is dated to the patriarchs rather than earned by the generation delivered. Verse 38 gives the direction of the whole action in three clauses, to drive out nations greater and mightier, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance.
4. (vv. 39-40)
Deuteronomy 4:40
“Thou shall keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments,....”
Verse 39 asks for more than assent, know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart, and it extends the claim over heaven above and the earth beneath. Jewish liturgy has closed the Aleinu prayer with this clause for many centuries, which is one measure of how the verse has been read. Verse 40 attaches the plain consequence, that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee, and it ends the address where verse 1 began it, on statutes and commandments to be kept.
F. Three cities of refuge east of Jordan
1. (vv. 41-43)
Deuteronomy 4:41
“These verses are inserted between two distinct and complete discourses for the reason to which they themselves call attention (“Then Moses severed three cities,” etc.); i. e., the fact narrated took place historically after Moses spoke the one discourse and before he delivered the other. In thus severing the three cities of refuge Moses carried out a previous command of God (see the marginal references); and so followed up his exhortations to obedience by setting a punctual example of it, as far as opportunity was given him.”
Deuteronomy 4:42
“That the slayer might flee thither,....”
Deuteronomy 4:43
“Bezer in the wilderness - As the cities of refuge are generally understood to be types of the salvation provided by Christ for sinners; so their names have been thought to express some attribute of the Redeemer of mankind. See them explained Jos 20:7-8 (note). I Suppose the last nine verses of this chapter to have been added by either Joshua or Ezra.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The address stops and a piece of narrative is set down. Moses acts on Numbers 35:9-15, which required six cities of refuge, by severing the three that lie east of Jordan in territory already taken, and Joshua 20:8 names the same three when the western three are added. The right protected is narrow and the text says so, the slayer which should kill his neighbour unawares and hated him not in times past. Bezer, Ramoth and Golan fall one to Reuben, one to Gad and one to Manasseh, which divides the east bank evenly among the tribes that hold it.
2. (vv. 44-46)
Deuteronomy 4:44
“And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. Not the law concerning the cities of refuge, but the law of the ten commands repeated in the following chapter; so Jarchi remarks,"this which he should set in order after this section;''as he does in the next chapter, where he repeats in order the ten precepts, and makes observations on the manner of the delivery of them, and urges obedience to them.”
Deuteronomy 4:45
“These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments,.... The laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, delivered in the following chapters; which are renewed, repeated, and explained: which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt; in the third month after they came from thence these laws were delivered to him at Mount Sinai, and he declared them to them; and now afresh, near forty years after, repeated them to them in the plains of Moab.”
Deuteronomy 4:46
“Beth-peor--that is, "house" or "temple of Peor." It is probable that a temple of this Moabite idol stood in full view of the Hebrew camp, while Moses was urging the exclusive claims of God to their worship, and this allusion would be very significant if it were the temple where so many of the Israelites had grievously offended.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
These verses are a heading rather than a speech, and they mark where the historical prologue ends and the stipulations begin. Testimonies, statutes and judgments is the threefold description the book keeps using of its own contents, and 6:20 puts the same words into a child's question. The place is given as the valley opposite Beth Peor, which is the ground of the plague named back at verse 3, so the law is delivered on the site of the last apostasy.
3. (vv. 47-49)
Deuteronomy 4:47
“And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan,....”
Deuteronomy 4:48
“From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon,.... A city of Moab, which was situated on the bank of the river Arnon, that was on the border of Moab, Deu 2:36, even unto Mount Sion, which is Hermon; the meaning is, that the lands of these two kings conquered by Israel reached from the city Aroer on the river Arnon to Mount Hermon, the one being the southern, the other the northern boundary of them.”
Deuteronomy 4:49
“And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward,.... The plains of Moab, on that side of Jordan to the east: even unto the sea of the plain; the sea of Sodom, the salt sea: under the springs of Pisgah; that rose from Mount Pisgah, the same with Ashdothpisgah, Deu 3:17.”
These verses record the first land Israel actually holds, the kingdoms of Sihon and Og taken in chapters 2 and 3. Og is the king 3:11 singles out as remaining of the remnant of giants, with a bedstead of iron nine cubits long by the cubit of a man. Verse 48 gives Hermon the name Sion, a different word from the Zion of Jerusalem, and 3:9 records that the Sidonians and the Amorites each had another name again for the same mountain.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.
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