The Ultimate Commentary On Deuteronomy

CHAPTER ONE

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy Contents

DEUTERONOMY CONTENTS

Chapter Two - Albert Barnes

Chapter Three - John Calvin

Chapter Four - Adam Clarke

Chapter Five - Matthew Henry

Chapter Six - Charles H. Spurgeon

Chapter Seven - Sermons Of Spurgeon

Chapter Eight - John Wesley

Deuteronomy Contents

Bible Study Guide

Other Publications

Main Contents

CHAPTER TWO

Albert Barnes

Deuteronomy Contents

DEUTERONOMY CONTENTS

Deuteronomy Introduction

Deuteronomy Chapter 1

Deuteronomy Chapter 2

Deuteronomy Chapter 3

Deuteronomy Chapter 4

Deuteronomy Chapter 5

Deuteronomy Chapter 6

Deuteronomy Chapter 7

Deuteronomy Chapter 8

Deuteronomy Chapter 9

Deuteronomy Chapter 10

Deuteronomy Chapter 11

Deuteronomy Chapter 12

Deuteronomy Chapter 13

Deuteronomy Chapter 14

Deuteronomy Chapter 15

Deuteronomy Chapter 16

Deuteronomy Chapter 17

Deuteronomy Chapter 18

Deuteronomy Chapter 19

Deuteronomy Chapter 20

Deuteronomy Chapter 21

Deuteronomy Chapter 22

Deuteronomy Chapter 23

Deuteronomy Chapter 24

Deuteronomy Chapter 25

Deuteronomy Chapter 26

Deuteronomy Chapter 27

Deuteronomy Chapter 28

Deuteronomy Chapter 29

Deuteronomy Chapter 30

Deuteronomy Chapter 31

Deuteronomy Chapter 32

Deuteronomy Chapter 33

Deuteronomy Chapter 34

Deuteronomy Contents

Bible Study Guide

Other Publications

Main Contents

Deuteronomy Introduction

DEUTERONOMY INTRODUCTION

Introduction to Deuteronomy

The ordinary name of the book is derived, through the Septuagint and Vulgate from that sometimes employed by the Jews, repetition of the Law, and indicates correctly enough the character and contents of the book.

The bulk of Deuteronomy consists of addresses spoken within the space of 40 days, and beginning on the first day of the 11th month in the 40th year.

The speeches exhibit an unity of style and character which is strikingly consistent with such circumstances. They are pervaded by the same vein of thought, the same tone and tenor of feeling, the same peculiarities of conception and expression. They exhibit matter which is neither documentary nor traditional, but conveyed in the speaker‘s own words.

Their aim is strictly hortatory; their style is earnest, heart-stirring, and impressive. In some passages it is sublime, but rhetorical throughout. They keep constantly in view the circumstances present at that time and the crisis to which the fortunes of Israel had at last been brought throught. Moses had before him not the men to whom by God‘s command he delivered the law at Sinai, but the following generation which had grown up in the wilderness. Large portions of the Law necessarily stood in abeyance during the years of wandering; and of his present hearers many must have been strangers to various prescribed observances and ordinances. Now, however, upon their entry into settled homes in Canaan a thorough discharge of the various obligations laid on them by the covenant would become imperative; and it is to this state of things that Moses addresses himself. He speaks to hearers neither wholly ignorant of the Law, nor yet fully versed in it. Much is assumed and taken for granted in his speeches; but in other matters he goes into detail, knowing that instruction in them was needed. Sometimes little opportunity is taken of promulgating regulations which are supplementary or auxiliary to those of the preceding books; some few modifications arising out of different or altered circumstances are now made; and the whole Mosaic system is completed by the addition of several enactments in Deuteronomy 18:18 had no doubt its partial verifications in successive ages, but its terms are satisfied in none of them. The prospect opened by it advances continually until it finds its rest in the Messiah, who stands alone as the only complete counterpart of Moses, and as the greater than he. Romans 10:8; Romans 15:11 argues from it at some length, and expressly quotes it as written by Moses; Peter and Stephen Acts 3:22; Acts 7:37 refer to the promise of a prophet like unto Moses, and regard it as given, as it professes to be, by Moses himself; our Lord, wielding the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God against the open assaults of Satan, thrice resorts to Deuteronomy for the texts with which He repels the tempter, Matthew 4:4-10. To urge in reply that the inspiration of the apostles, and even the indwelling of the Spirit without measure in the Saviour, would not necessarily preserve them from mistakes on such subjects as the authorship of ancient writings, or to fortify such assertions by remarking that our Lord as the Son of Man was Himself ignorant of some things, is to overlook the important distinction between ignorance and error. To be conscious that much truth lies beyond the range of the intelligence is compatible with the perfection of the creature: but to be deceived by the fraud of others and to fall into error, is not so. To assert then that He who is the Truth believed Deuteronomy to be the work of Moses and quoted it expressly as such, though it was in fact a forgery introduced into the world seven or eight centuries after the Exodus, is in effect, even though not in intention, to impeach the perfection and sinlessness of His nature, and seems thus to gainsay the first principles of Christianity.

ALBERT BARNES COMMENTARY CONTENTS

Deuteronomy Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Verse 1-2

These verses are prefixed as a connecting link between the contents of the preceding books and that of Deuteronomy now to follow. The sense of the passage might be given thus: The discourses of Moses to the people up to the eleventh month of the fortieth year (compare Deuteronomy 1:3) have now been recorded. The proper names which follow seem to belong to places where words of remarkable importance were spoken. They are by the Jewish commentators referred to the spots which witnessed the more special sins of the people, and the mention of them here is construed as a pregnant rebuke. The Book of Deuteronomy is known among the Jews as the book of reproofs.

On this side of Jordan - Rather, beyond Jordan (as in Deuteronomy 3:20, Deuteronomy 3:25). The phrase was a standing designation for the district east of Jordan, and at times, when Greek became commonly spoken in the country, was exactly represented by the proper name Peraea.

In the wilderness, in the plain - The former term denotes the Desert of Arabia generally; the latter was the sterile tract (‹Arabah,‘ Numbers 21:4 note) which stretches along the lower Jordan to the Dead Sea, and is continued thence to the Gulf of Akaba.

Over against the Red Sea - Render it: over against Suph. Sea is not in the original text. Suph is either the pass Es Sufah near Ain-el-Weibeh (Numbers 13:26 note), or the name of the alluvial district (the Numbers 21:14 note).

Tophel is identified with Tufileh, the Tafyle of Burckhardt, still a considerable place - some little distance southeast of the Dead Sea. Paran is probably Mount Paran Deuteronomy 33:2; or a city of the same name near the mountain. Compare Genesis 14:6.

Laban is generally identified with Libnah Numbers 33:20, and Hazeroth with Ain Hadherah (Numbers 11:34 note); but the position of Dizahab is uncertain.

Deuteronomy 1:2

For Kadesh see Numbers 13:26 note; and for Horeb see Exodus 3:1.

Verse 4