Deuteronomy4chapter 4

Deuteronomy 4:9-10

Verse 9 warns Israel not to "forget the things your eyes have seen," and the guard is teaching "your children and grandchildren," the same span chapter 6 opens with. Verse 10 fixes the remembered day at Horeb. God's purpose there was that the people "may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children."

The day at Horeb is recalled as an assembly God called so that the people would hear his words. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that some of Moses' hearers had been present as children, and the rest were represented by their parents, who entered the covenant in their name. Matthew Henry holds that the attention compelled at Sinai should afterward be won by the worth of the words themselves.

Deuteronomy 4:11-12

What the people saw was fire and darkness, "a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens," and the weight falls on what they did not see. They "heard the sound of the words, but saw no form," and verse 15 makes that the ground of the argument against images. Exodus 19:16-19 tells the same scene with thunder, a thick cloud and the ram's horn growing louder.

The LORD spoke out of the fire, and what Israel carried away from the encounter was his words. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that articulate speech was heard while no shape appeared that could show God's nature in the way the heathen pictured their gods. Albert Barnes sets out the forms idolatry took, household images, animal figures and the stars, and finds each forbidden in verses 16 to 19.

Deuteronomy 4:13-14

The King James renders the Hebrew phrase ten words as ten commandments, and the phrase falls three times, here and at Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 10:4. Verse 13 marks off what God spoke and wrote himself "on two tablets of stone" from the statutes that verse 14 says Moses was to teach. The ten are set apart by who delivered them, and chapter 5 repeats them in full.

Moses states his commission here, and he names the land across the Jordan as the place where what he teaches is to be kept. The same pairing of statutes and ordinances opened the chapter at verse 1, where Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the statutes as the laws of worship and the ordinances as the civil laws.

Deuteronomy 4:15-18

Verse 15 argues from the absence of a form: the people "saw no form of any kind," so an image would picture something God did not show. The list runs down from "male or female" through beast, bird and crawling creature to fish, retracing the order of Genesis 1. Paul traces the same descent at Romans 1:23, "images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

Making an image is called acting corruptly, so the offence is reckoned as ruin to the one who makes it. Matthew Henry reasons that those who picture God form notions of him that open the way to every impiety, and he calls it spiritual adultery. Adam Clarke names the male and female deities of the neighbouring peoples, Baal-peor and Astarte among them.

The list moves from the human form of verse 16 to the animals of land and air, so no living creature is left as a lawful likeness of God. Adam Clarke names Apis, worshipped in Egypt as a white bull, and the ibis and hawk among birds. John Gill adds the sheep honoured at Thebes and the goat at Mendes.

The list ends with the creatures that crawl and the fish in the waters, which carries the prohibition from the ground to the depths. John Gill finds the serpent in almost every heathen worship and traces it to the serpent of Eden. He also names Dagon and Derceto, fish figures among the Phoenicians, and 1 Samuel 5 shows Dagon among the Philistines.

Deuteronomy 4:19-20

Verse 19 says the sun, moon and stars are "apportioned to all the nations," while verse 20 makes Israel "the people of His inheritance" instead. Some read the apportioning as God giving every nation the lights to mark seasons, as at Genesis 1:14. Others, with Michael Heiser the best known recent advocate, read it beside 32:8 as an allotment of the nations themselves to other powers.

out of the iron furnace: Verse 19 spoke of what the LORD apportioned to the nations, and this verse speaks of the people he took as his own inheritance, with the crowd before Moses as the proof. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain the furnace as a furnace for smelting iron, which required the highest heat. Adam Clarke infers from the phrase that Israel laboured at metalwork in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 4:21-22

This is the third time Moses gives the reason he cannot cross, after 1:37 and 3:26, each time saying the LORD was angry on the people's account. Numbers 20:12 gives the reason from the other side, "Because you did not trust Me," and neither book reconciles the two. Verse 22 states the outcome plainly, "I must die in this land," then turns to the people's future.

I must die in this land: Moses sets his own exclusion beside Israel's entry in one verse, and the contrast between I and you prepares the warning of verse 23. John Gill points ahead to 32:50, where Moses dies on a mountain in Moab, and reads the second half as his confidence in God's promise. Matthew Henry, on verse 21, thinks Moses spoke of it to see whether the people would grieve for their leader.

Deuteronomy 4:23-24

Forgetting returns at verse 23, and what could be forgotten is the covenant itself. 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 said to be what he is. Hebrews 12:29 closes an argument about "an unshakable kingdom" by carrying verse 24 over as "For our God is a consuming fire."

The verse grounds the warning of verse 23 in what God is, and it joins two titles, the fire that consumes and the jealousy that will share his worship with no image. Matthew Henry draws from the jealousy that Israel should keep a watchful jealousy over itself. Origen of Alexandria reads the fire as consuming human sins and purging them.

Deuteronomy 4:25-26

Moses calls "heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day," as a treaty does when no higher court exists, and he repeats the call at 30:19, 31:28 and 32:1. The offence he foresees comes when "you have been in the land a long time," so the danger belongs to security. The phrase this day falls seventy times in the book, keeping the covenant present for every hearer.

The threat reverses the promise that closes the chapter, since the land where verse 40 promises long life is the land where Israel would not live long. Basil of Caesarea reads the summons of heaven and earth as fitting, since every deed is done within them and they will be present at the judgment. Adam Clarke calls it a solemn form of oath used among all nations.

Deuteronomy 4:27-28

The sentence is exile, and verse 28 fits it to the offence: a people who wanted an image are sent to serve "man-made gods of wood and stone" in a country full of them. The four things those gods "cannot see or hear or eat or smell" are what an idol would need to be what its makers want. Psalm 115:4-8 and Isaiah 44:9-20 expand the same list.

Verse 19 warned against the stars, which God made, and here the gods are the work of human hands, a lower thing still. John Gill draws that comparison and calls the service of wood and stone more senseless than the worship of the heavens. John Wesley reads the verse as God giving men over to the sin they chose, so that one sin is punished by another.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31

A promise to the scattered follows the threat, "you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul," the language of 6:5. They are offered what the covenant asked at the start, and Jeremiah 29:13 repeats the promise to exiles. Verse 31 grounds it in God's character, "a merciful God" who will not "forget the covenant with your fathers."

The return is placed in distress, after all these things have happened, and it ends where Horeb began, with Israel listening to his voice. Matthew Henry holds that afflictions are sent to bring people back to God. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give two readings of the later days, the close of the captivities or the age of the Messiah, and leave both open.

a merciful God;): The hope of verse 30 rests on God's character, stated as three things he will never do: abandon Israel, destroy it, or forget the oath he swore to the fathers. Matthew Henry turns the verse back on the hearer and asks whether Israel will forsake a God who will never forsake them, or forget a covenant he keeps in mind.

Deuteronomy 4:32-33

Moses sets no limit on the search, reaching back to "the day that God created man on earth" and across "from one end of the heavens to the other" for evidence. The claim tested is narrow and checkable, that a whole people "heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire" and lived. Exodus 20:19 records their plea for Moses to speak instead, and 5:24-26 repeats it.

The weight of the question falls on its last words, and lived, since hearing God was expected to end in death. Adam Clarke reports the general belief that God appeared to men to destroy them, and sees this appearing as given for Israel's deliverance. John Gill counts it the stranger wonder that a people who feared being consumed were spared.

Deuteronomy 4:34-35

The second question moves from hearing to rescue, a nation taken "out of another nation" by seven means ending at "great terrors" in Egypt. Verse 35 states the purpose of the demonstration, that Israel "would know that the LORD is God" and that there is no other. The signs point beyond themselves, and at 1 Kings 18:39 the people on Carmel answer Elijah with the same confession.

The signs of verse 34 were shown to Israel so that Israel would know, which makes the people witnesses of what they saw. John Gill reads the verse as the confession that the LORD is the one living and true God, and notes that the Prophet Isaiah often uses the same phrase for the same article of faith. Isaiah 45:5 has it on God's own lips.

Deuteronomy 4:36-38

Verse 36 joins the voice "from heaven" and the "great fire" on earth, and gives "to discipline you" as their purpose. Verse 37 dates the choice to the patriarchs, "Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them," so the generation delivered did not earn it. Verse 38 names three aims: driving out greater nations, bringing Israel in, and giving it their land.

The words by His presence render a Hebrew phrase built on the word for face, and Exodus 33:14 uses the same word when God promises that his presence will go with Moses. Albert Barnes notes that the Hebrew reads his seed after him, and takes Moses to have Abraham in mind, whom James 2:23 calls the friend of God.

The closing words, as it is this day, point to the land east of the Jordan already taken from Sihon and Og, a first instalment of the promise. Matthew Henry observes that the Egyptians and the Canaanites alike had to give way to Israel, and that those who stood in Israel's way did so at their peril.

Deuteronomy 4:39-40

Verse 39 asks for more than assent, "Know therefore this day and take to heart," and names the LORD as God in heaven above and on earth below. Jewish liturgy has closed the Aleinu prayer with this clause for centuries. Verse 40 adds the consequence, "so that you and your children after you may prosper," and ends where verse 1 began, on statutes to be kept.

The address ends with a command and a promise bound together, and the land is said to be given for all time. Matthew Henry reads the condition plainly, that Israel's prosperity would depend on its piety and that God would keep his promises if they kept his precepts. He asks what laws are made for if they are never observed and obeyed.

Deuteronomy 4:41-43

The address pauses for narrative, as Moses sets aside the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan out of the six that Numbers 35:9-15 required. The protection is narrow, for one who killed "his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice," and Joshua 20:8 names the same three. Bezer, Ramoth and Golan fall to Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, one to each tribe of the east bank.

The refuge is for one who killed without intent and without earlier hatred, and its purpose is to save his life from the avenger of blood that Numbers 35:12 names. Albert Barnes, on verse 41, reads the setting apart of these cities as Moses following his exhortations to obedience with a punctual example of it.

Ramoth in Gilead: The three cities run from south to north, Bezer on the plateau of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead of Gad, and Golan in Bashan of Manasseh. Adam Clarke reports that the cities of refuge are commonly read as types of the salvation Christ provides for sinners. He also supposes that the last nine verses of the chapter were added by Joshua or Ezra.

Deuteronomy 4:44-46

These verses are a heading marking where the historical prologue ends and the stipulations begin. The threefold "testimonies, statutes, and ordinances" is the book's name for its contents, and 6:20 puts the list into a child's question. The place is "the valley across the Jordan facing Beth-peor," the ground of the plague at verse 3, so the law is given on the site of the last apostasy.

The heading dates the law by the exodus, since these words were proclaimed after Israel came out of Egypt. John Gill reads the testimonies, statutes and ordinances as the moral, ceremonial and judicial laws, first delivered at Sinai in the third month after the departure and now repeated almost forty years later on the plains of Moab.

The place is the conquered land of Sihon, so the law was delivered on ground Israel already held. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown think a temple of Peor probably stood in view of the camp while Moses pressed the LORD's sole claim to Israel's worship. John Gill notes that the defeat of Sihon had come only months before, near the end of forty years since Egypt.

Deuteronomy 4:47-49

These verses record the first land Israel actually holds, the kingdoms of Sihon and Og taken in chapters 2 and 3. At 3:11 Og alone "had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim," and his "bed of iron" was nine cubits long. Verse 48 calls Hermon "Mount Siyon," a name distinct from the Zion of Jerusalem, and 3:9 gives the Sidonian and Amorite names for it.

The verse gives the conquered territory its two ends, Aroer on the rim of the Arnon in the south and Hermon in the north. John Gill places Aroer on the border of Moab, as 2:36 does, and reads the two names as the southern and northern limits of the kingdoms of Sihon and Og.

The survey closes with the Jordan valley on the east side and the Sea of the Arabah, and it ends at Pisgah, the height from which Moses would see the land he was barred from entering. John Gill identifies the Sea of the Arabah as the Salt Sea and ties the slopes of Pisgah to 3:17.