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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
D E U T E R O N O M Y
CHAP. I.
The first part of Moses’s farewell sermon to Israel begins with this
chapter, and is continued to the latter end of the fourth chapter. In
the first five verses of this chapter we have the date of the sermon,
the place where it was preached
(ver. 1, 2, 5),
and the time when,
The narrative in this chapter reminds them,
I. Of the promise God made them of the land of Canaan,
II. Of the provision made of judges for them,
III. Of their unbelief and murmuring upon the report of the spies,
IV. Of the sentence passed upon them for it, and the ratification of
that sentence,
&c.
| Israel’s History Repeated. | B. C. 1451. |
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1 These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on
this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the
Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth,
and Dizahab.
2 (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of
mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.)
3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh
month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto
the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had
given him in commandment unto them;
4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which
dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at
Astaroth in Edrei:
5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to
declare this law, saying,
6 The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have
dwelt long enough in this mount:
7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the
Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain,
in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea
side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the
great river, the river Euphrates.
8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the
land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
We have here,
I. The date of this sermon which Moses preached to the people of
Israel. A great auditory, no question, he had, as many as could crowd
within hearing, and particularly all the elders and officers, the
representatives of the people; and, probably, it was on the sabbath day
that he delivered this to them.
1. The place were they were now encamped was in the plain, in the
land of Moab
(v. 1, 5),
where they were just ready to enter Canaan, and engage in a war with
the Canaanites. Yet he discourses not to them concerning military
affairs, the arts and stratagems of war, but concerning their duty to
God; for, if they kept themselves in his fear and favour, he would
secure to them the conquest of the land: their religion would be their
best policy.
2. The time was near the end of the fortieth year since they came out
of Egypt. So long God had borne their manners, and they had
borne their own iniquity
(Num. xiv. 34),
and now that a new and more pleasant scene was to be introduced, as a
token for good, Moses repeats the law to them. Thus, after God’s
controversy with them on account of the golden calf, the first and
surest sign of God’s being reconciled to them was the renewing of
the tables. There is no better evidence and earnest of God’s favour
than his putting his law in our hearts,
II. The discourse itself. In general, Moses spoke unto them all that
the Lord had given him in commandment
(v. 3),
which intimates, not only that what he now delivered was for substance
the same with what had formerly been commanded, but that it was what
God now commanded him to repeat. He gave them this rehearsal and
exhortation purely by divine direction; God appointed him to leave this
legacy to the church. He begins his narrative with their removal from
Mount Sinai
(v. 6),
and relates here,
1. The orders which God gave them to decamp, and proceed in their march
(v. 6, 7):
You have dwelt long enough in this mount. This was the mount
that burned with fire
(Heb. xii. 18),
and gendered to bondage,
Gal. iv. 24.
Thither God brought them to humble them, and by the terrors of the law
to prepare them for the land of promise. There he kept them about a
year, and then told them they had dwelt long enough there, they
must go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and
affliction, into spiritual trouble and affliction of mind, he knows
when they have dwelt long enough in it, and will certainly find a time,
the fittest time, to advance them from the terrors of the spirit of
adoption. See
2. The prospect which he gave them of a happy and early settlement in
Canaan: Go to the land of the Canaanites
(v. 7);
enter and take possession, it is all your own. Behold I have set the
land before you,
v. 8.
When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course he sets the
heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement.
| The Charge to Magistrates. | B. C. 1451. |
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9 And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to
bear you myself alone:
10 The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are
this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
11 (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so
many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden,
and your strife?
13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your
tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.
14 And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast
spoken is good for us to do.
15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and
made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains
over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens,
and officers among your tribes.
16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the
causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between
every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.
17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall
hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of
the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that
is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.
18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye
should do.
Moses here reminds them of the happy constitution of their government,
which was such as might make them all safe and easy if it was not their
own fault. When good laws were given them good men were entrusted with
the execution of them, which, as it was an instance of God’s goodness
to them, so it was of the care of Moses concerning them; and, it should
seem, he mentions it here to recommend himself to them as a man that
sincerely sought their welfare, and so to make way for what he was
about to say to them, wherein he aimed at nothing but their good. In
this part of his narrative he insinuates to them,
I. That he greatly rejoiced in the increase of their numbers. He owns
the accomplishment of God’s promise to Abraham
(v. 10):
You are as the stars of heaven for multitude; and prays for the
further accomplishment of it
(v. 11):
God make you a thousand times more. This prayer comes in in a
parenthesis, and a good prayer prudently put in cannot be impertinent
in any discourse of divine things, nor will a pious ejaculation break
the coherence, but rather strengthen and adorn it. But how greatly are
his desires enlarged when he prays that they might be made a thousand
times more than they were! We are not straitened in the power and
goodness of God, why should we be straitened in our own faith and hope,
which ought to be as large as the promise? larger they need not be. It
is from the promise that Moses here takes the measures of his prayer:
The Lord bless you as he hath promised you. And why might he not
hope that they might become a thousand times more than they were now
when they were now ten thousand times more than they were when they
went down into Egypt, about 250 years ago? Observe, When they were
under the government of Pharaoh the increase of their numbers was
envied, and complained of as a grievance
(Exod. i. 9);
but now, under the government of Moses, it was rejoiced in, and prayed
for as a blessing. The consideration of this might give them occasion
to reflect with shame upon their own folly when they had talked of
making a captain and returning to Egypt.
II. That he was not ambitious of monopolizing the honour of the
government, and ruling them himself alone, as an absolute monarch,
v. 9.
Though he was a man as well worthy of that honour, and as well
qualified for the business, as ever any man was, yet he was desirous
that others might be taken in as assistants to him in the business and
consequently sharers with him in the honour: I cannot myself alone
bear the burden,
v. 12.
Magistracy is a burden. Moses himself, though eminently gifted for it,
found it lay heavily on his shoulders; nay, the best magistrates
complain most of the burden, and are most desirous of help, and most
afraid of undertaking more than they can perform.
III. That he was not desirous to prefer his own creatures, or such as
should underhand have a dependence upon him; for he leaves it to the
people to choose their own judges, to whom he would grant commissions,
not durant bene placito–to be turned out when he pleased; but
quam diu se bene gesserint–to continue so long as they approved
themselves faithful. Take you wise men, that are known to be so among
your tribes, and I will make them rulers,
v. 13.
Thus the apostles directed the multitude to choose overseers of the
poor, and then they ordained them,.
He directs them to take wise men and understanding, whose
personal merit would recommend them. The rise and origin of this nation
were so late that none of them could pretend to antiquity of race, and
nobility of birth, above their brethren; and, having all lately come
out of slavery in Egypt, it is probable that one family was not much
richer than another; so that their choice must be directed purely by
the qualifications of wisdom, experience, and integrity. “Choose
those,” says Moses, “whose praise is in your tribes, and with all my
heart I will make them rulers.” We must not grudge that God’s
work be done by other hands than ours, provided it be done by good
hands.
IV. That he was in this matter very willing to please the people; and,
though he did not in any thing aim at their applause, yet in a thing of
this nature he would not act without their approbation. And they agreed
to the proposal: The thing which thou hast spoken is good,
v. 14.
This he mentions to aggravate the sin of their mutinies and discontents
after this, that the government they quarrelled with was what they
themselves had consented to; Moses would have pleased them if they
would have been pleased.
V. That he aimed to edify them as well as to gratify them; for,
1. He appointed men of good characters
(v. 15),
wise men and men known, men that would be faithful to their
trust and to the public interest.
2. He gave them a good charge,
Those that are advanced to honour must know that they are charged with
business, and must give account another day of their charge.
(1.) He charges them to be diligent and patient: Hear the
causes. Hear both sides, hear them fully, hear them carefully; for
nature has provided us with two ears, and he that answereth a matter
before he heareth it, it is folly and shame to him. The ear of the
learner is necessary to the tongue of the learned,
(2.) To be just and impartial: Judge righteously. Judgment must
be given according to the merits of the cause, without regard to the
quality of the parties. The natives must not be suffered to abuse the
strangers any more that the strangers to insult the natives or to
encroach upon them; the great must not be suffered to oppress the
small, nor to crush them, any more than the small, to rob the great, or
to affront them. No faces must be known in judgment, but unbribed
unbiased equity must always pass sentence.
(3.) To be resolute and courageous: “You shall not be afraid of the
face of man; be not overawed to do an ill thing, either by the
clamours of the crowd or by the menaces of those that have power in
their hands.” And he gave them a good reason to enforce this charge:
“For the judgment is God’s. You are God’s vicegerents, you act
for him, and therefore must act like him; you are his representatives,
but if you judge unrighteously, you misrepresent him. The judgment is
his, and therefore he will protect you in doing right, and will
certainly call you to account if you do wrong.”
3. He allowed them to bring all difficult cases to him, and he would
always be ready to hear and determine, and to make both the judges and
the people easy. Happy art thou. O Israel! in such praise as
Moses was.
| Israel’s Sin at Kadesh. | B. C. 1451. |
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19 And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that
great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the
mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and
we came to Kadesh-barnea.
20 And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the
Amorites, which the LORD our God doth give unto us.
21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go
up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said
unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
22 And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will
send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and
bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what
cities we shall come.
23 And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of
you, one of a tribe:
24 And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto
the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.
25 And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and
brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said,
It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us.
26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the
commandment of the LORD your God:
27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD
hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to
deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our
heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the
cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have
seen the sons of the Anakims there.
29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for
you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your
eyes;
31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the
LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the
way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,
33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to
pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way
ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
34 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth,
and sware, saying,
35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil
generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your
fathers,
36 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him
will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his
children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.
37 Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou
also shalt not go in thither.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he
shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to
inherit it.
39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey,
and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between
good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I
give it, and they shall possess it.
40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the
wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
41 Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against
the LORD, we will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD
our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his
weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill.
42 And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither
fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your
enemies.
43 So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled
against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up
into the hill.
44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out
against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in
Seir, even unto Hormah.
45 And ye returned and wept before the LORD; but the LORD would
not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you.
46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days
that ye abode there.
Moses here makes a large rehearsal of the fatal turn which was given to
their affairs by their own sins, and God’s wrath, when, from the very
borders of Canaan, the honour of conquering it, and the pleasure of
possessing it, the whole generation was hurried back into the
wilderness, and their carcases fell there. It was a memorable story; we
read it
but divers circumstances are found here which are not related
there.
I. He reminds them of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea
(v. 19),
through that great and terrible wilderness. This he takes notice
of,
1. To make them sensible of the great goodness of God to them, in
guiding them through so great a wilderness, and protecting them from
the mischiefs they were surrounded with in such a terrible wilderness.
The remembrance of our dangers should make us thankful for our
deliverances.
2. To aggravate the folly of those who, in their discontent, would have
gone back to Egypt through the wilderness, though they had forfeited,
and had no reason to expect, the divine guidance, in such a retrograde
motion.
II. He shows them how fair they stood for Canaan at that time,
He told them with triumph, the land is set before you, go up and
possess it. He lets them see how near they were to a happy
settlement when they put a bar in their own door, that their sin might
appear the more exceedingly sinful. It will aggravate the eternal ruin
of hypocrites that they were not far from the kingdom of God and
yet came short,
III. He lays the blame of sending the spies upon them, which did not
appear in Numbers, there it is said
that the Lord directed the sending of them, but here we find that the
people first desired it, and God, in permitting it, gave them up to
their counsels: You said, We will send men before us,
v. 22.
Moses had given them God’s word
(v. 20, 21),
but they could not find in their hearts to rely upon that: human policy
goes further with them than divine wisdom, and they will needs light a
candle to the sun. As if it were not enough that they were sure of a
God before them, they must send men before them.
IV. He repeats the report which the spies brought of the goodness of
the land which they were sent to survey,
The blessings which God has promised are truly valuable and desirable,
even the unbelievers themselves being judges: never any looked into the
holy land, but they must own it a good land. Yet they represented the
difficulties of conquering it as insuperable
(v. 28);
as if it were in vain to think of attacking them either by battle, “for
the people are taller than we,” or by siege, “for the cities are walled
up to heaven,” an hyperbole which they made use of to serve their ill
purpose, which was to dishearten the people, and perhaps they intended
to reflect on the God of heaven himself, as if they were able to defy
him, like the Babel-builders, the top of whose tower must reach to
heaven,
Those places only are walled up to heaven that are compassed with God’s
favour as with a shield.
V. He tells them what pains he took with them to encourage them, when
their brethren had said so much to discourage them
(v. 29):
Then I said unto you, Dread not. Moses suggested enough to have
stilled the tumult, and to have kept them with their faces towards
Canaan. He assured them that God was present with them, and president
among them, and would certainly fight for them,
v. 30.
And for proof of his power over their enemies he refers them to what
they had seen done in Egypt, where their enemies had all possible
advantages against them and yet were humbled and forced to yield,
And for proof of God’s goodwill to them, and the real kindness which he
intended them, he refers them to what they had seen in the
wilderness
(v. 31, 33),
through which they had been guided by the eye of divine wisdom in a
pillar of cloud and fire (which guided both their motions and their
rests), and had been carried in the arms of divine grace with as much
care and tenderness as were ever shown to any child borne in the arms
of a nursing father. And was there any room left to distrust this God?
Or were they not the most ungrateful people in the world, who, after
such sensible proofs of the divine goodness, hardened their hearts
in the day of temptation? Moses had complained once that God had
charged him to carry this people as a nursing father doth the
sucking child
(Num. xi. 12);
but here he owns that it was God that so carried them, and perhaps this
is alluded to
where he is said to bear them, or to suffer their
manners.
VI. He charges them with the sin which they were guilty of upon this
occasion. Though those to whom he was now speaking were a new
generation, yet he lays it upon them: You rebelled, and you
murmured; for many of these were then in being, though under twenty
years old, and perhaps were engaged in the riot; and the rest inherited
their fathers’ vices, and smarted for them. Observe what he lays to
their charge.
1. Disobedience and rebellion against God’s law: You would not go
up, but rebelled,
v. 26.
The rejecting of God’s favours is really a rebelling against his
authority.
2. Invidious reflections upon God’s goodness. They basely suggested:
Because the Lord hated us, he brought us out of Egypt,
v. 27.
What could have been more absurd, more disingenuous, and more
reproachful to God?
3. An unbelieving heart at the bottom of all this: You did not
believe the Lord your God,
v. 32.
All your disobedience to God’s laws, and distrust of his power and
goodness, flow from a disbelief of his word. A sad pass it has come to
with us when the God of eternal truth cannot be believed.
VII. He repeats the sentence passed upon them for this sin, which now
they had seen the execution of.
1. They were all condemned to die in the wilderness, and none of them
must be suffered to enter Canaan except Caleb and Joshua,
So long they must continue in their wanderings in the wilderness that
most of them would drop off of course, and the youngest of them should
be cut off. Thus they could not enter in because of unbelief. It
was not the breach of any of the commands of the law that shut them out
of Canaan, no, not the golden calf, but their disbelief of that promise
which was typical of gospel grace, to signify that no sin will ruin us
but unbelief, which is a sin against the remedy.
2. Moses himself afterwards fell under God’s displeasure for a hasty
word which they provoked him to speak: The Lord was angry with me
for your sakes,
v. 37.
Because all the old stock must go off, Moses himself must not stay
behind. Their unbelief let death into the camp, and, having entered,
even Moses falls within his commission.
3. Yet here is mercy mixed with wrath.
(1.) That, though Moses might not bring them into Canaan, Joshua should
(v. 38):
Encourage him; for he would be discouraged from taking up a
government which he saw Moses himself fall under the weight of; but let
him be assured that he shall accomplish that for which he is raised up:
He shall cause Israel to inherit it. Thus what the law could
not do, in that it was weak, Jesus, our Joshua, does by bringing in
the better hope.
(2.) That, though this generation should not enter into Canaan, the
next should,
As they had been chosen for their fathers’ sakes, so their children
might justly have been rejected for their sakes. But mercy rejoiceth
against judgement.
VIII. He reminds them of their foolish and fruitless attempt to get
this sentence reversed when it was too late.
1. They tried it by their reformation in this particular; whereas they
had refused to go up against the Canaanites, now they would go up, aye,
that they would, in all haste, and they girded on their weapons of war
for that purpose,
Thus, when the door is shut, and the day of grace is over, there will
be found those that stand without and knock. But this, which looked
like a reformation, proved but a further rebellion. God, by Moses,
prohibited the attempt
(v. 42):
yet they went presumptuously up to the hill
(v. 43),
acting now in contempt of the threatening, as before in contempt of the
promise, as if they were governed by a spirit of contradiction; and it
sped accordingly
(v. 44):
they were chased and destroyed; and, by this defeat which they suffered
when they provoked God to leave them, they were taught what success
they might have had if they had kept themselves in his love.
2. They tried by their prayers and tears to get the sentence reversed:
They returned and wept before the Lord,
v. 45.
While they were fretting and quarrelling, it is said
(Num. xiv. 1):
They wept that night; those were tears of rebellion
against God, these were tears of repentance and humiliation
before God. Note, Tears of discontent must be wept over again;
the sorrow of the world worketh death, and is to be repented of; it is
not so with godly sorrow, that will end in joy. But their
weeping was all to no purpose. The Lord would not harken to your
voice, because you would not harken to his; the decree had gone
forth, and, like Esau, they found no place of repentance, though they
sought it carefully with tears.
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