Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy
Ver. 19. Service. How then could the nations give way to such stupidity, but because they had forgotten the design of God in creating the heavenly bodies, which Moses therefore takes care to inculcate? (Genesis i. 14.) Hebrew and Septuagint, "which God has divided unto all," &c.; whence some have falsely supposed, that God had tolerated the worship of the stars in other nations. See chap. xxix. 26. (Drusius) (Calmet)
Ver. 20. Furnace. This expression gives us some idea of the cruelties to which the Hebrews had been exposed, 3 Kings viii. 51. Iron and other metals were melted in furnaces: Hebrew cur, Ezechiel xxii. 20. In the countries of the East, workmen have them in the middle of their shops, and sit round them to work. (Bellon., iii. 45.) (Calmet)
Ver. 21. Words. The murmurs of the people occasioned the diffidence of Moses, and he often reminds them of it, that they may reflect how severely God will punish them, if they transgress, since he spares not his greatest favourites. (Calmet) --- Even venial faults must be punished. (Worthington)
Ver. 23. Made. Hebrew, "and make to thyself a sculpture, the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God commanded thee." He ordered them to abstain from idolatry. (Du Hamel)
Ver. 24. Fire. God often appeared in the midst of fire. All the land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, Sophonias i. 18., and iii. 8. (Calmet) --- By these expressions, we are exhorted not to do any thing which would excite the indignation of our true lover, nor ever be unfaithful to him. (Haydock) --- The pagans thought that fire was the fittest symbol of the divinity. (Porphyr. de Abstin.)
Ver. 26. And earth, or all their rational inhabitants. (St. Jerome and St. Basil in Isa. i. 2.) Moses conjures the Israelites, by all that is most sacred, to continue faithful. He speaks with the greatest earnestness, as he does again, chap. xxxii. 1. (Calmet) --- He makes use of a sort of oath, by the creatures, in which God shines forth. (Menochius) --- Destroy you. He will take from you that delightful country, though he will save a remnant of you out of the captivity of Babylon, and in the latter days, ver. 31. The Jews, in the promised land, were almost always prone to idolatry; till God severely chastised them by the hands of the Babylonians. Since that time, few of them have willingly yielded to the worship of idols, though some have fallen by compulsion, as we read, Daniel iii., and 1 Machabees i. 53., and ii. 16. Jeremias (v. 19) foretold that this would be the case. As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own. (Haydock)
Ver. 27. Nations. This prediction we see verified at the present day. They are despised by all. No one of their numerous masters embraces their religion. They are so few, as hardly to possess a single town. (Calmet)
Ver. 29. There. Hebrew, "thence" from the place of captivity, or returning from the love of idols to the services of the true God. --- Soul. Hebrew, "with all thy soul. (Ver. 30) In thy tribulation after," &c. (Calmet) --- God often sends chastisements as the most effectual means of salvation, to make his children enter into themselves. In this state, the soul is more at liberty to consider the folly of adhering to any thing in opposition to the sovereign Lord. Then she is forced to confess that her idols cannot afford her any protection. How, in effect, could any one fall into such an abyss of corruption and stupidity, as to imagine those things to be gods which have not even the dignity and advantages which they themselves possess? Their soul must first have been strangely blinded, and their heart corrupt. Even the more enlightened pagans acknowledged the folly of pretending to represent the Divinity under sensible forms. "God, says Empedocles, has no human members....He is a pure and ineffable spirit, who governs the world by his profound wisdom." Numa would not allow any picture of Him, conformably to the doctrine of Pythagoras; and, for the first 170 years of Rome, no representation of God was set up in the temples. (Plutarch) --- The ancient Phœnicians seemed to have acted on the same principle, as the temple of Hercules, at the Straits, had no image. It is well known that the Persians rejected both the statues and temples erected in honour of the gods; and the Germans esteemed it beneath the majesty of the heavenly Beings, to represent them under any human form. (Tacitus, Hist. v.) (Calmet) --- Yet these sages gave way to the folly of the people, and, against their better knowledge, adored the stupid and senseless idols. (Haydock)
Ver. 30. Voice, after the captivity of Babylon, or rather at the end of the world. The nation at large has not embraced the worship of idols since the former period. But it will not be perfectly converted, until the fulness of the Gentiles....come in.---And so all Israel....be saved, Romans xi. 25. (Calmet) --- St. Paul terms their present state a blindness in part, because, though few have embraced the revelation of God, made to all by his only Son, the far greater part have obstinately shut their eyes, so that, even while they read the clearest prophecies, they seem to have a veil on them. But, after they shall have been the sport of their passions and errors till the latter time, when the man of sin shall be fully revealed, they will see how wretchedly they have been deluded, and, the grace of God touching their hearts, they will remember the covenant, and embrace Christ, the end of all the law. Happy those who do not defer their conversion till that awful period! (Haydock)
Ver. 32. Heaven. To our senses the sky seems to rest upon the horizon. So Jesus says, Then he....shall gather....his elect....from the uttermost part of earth, to the uttermost part of heaven, Matthew xxiv. 31. Vatable translates, "from the east to the west." In no age or place did God ever declare his will, as he had done at Sinai. (Calmet)
Ver. 33. And lived. It was generally supposed, that those who had seen a vision of God, or of his angel, would instantly die. See Genesis xvi. 13. (Haydock) (Chap. v. 24.)
Ver. 34. Temptations. The Chaldean and Arabic understand this of the prodigies which God wrought in favour of his people; though they may also denote the trials to which the Patriarchs and the Hebrews had been exposed, that their virtue might shine more brightly. Many indeed lost courage under these trials, but they were of great service to form a perfect people; and those who continued to lead a virtuous life, received the reward of their labours. (Calmet) --- Visions, during the three days' darkness mentioned, Wisdom xvii. 9, 18, &c., (Menochius) or those terrible appearances on Sinai, ver. 33, 36., and chap. v. 22. (Calmet) Hebrew may be, "by great terrors." --- In Egypt. God himself fought for his people, when he brought them out of that country. He repeatedly made the king and his people feel the impressions of terror, but as they presently recovered their wonted insolence and pride, he at last miraculously divided the Red Sea, and buried vast multitudes in its waters. (Haydock)
Ver. 38. Day. They had already conquered the mighty kingdoms of Sehon and of Og. (Menochius)
Ver. 39. Other. The power of the true and only God is not confined to the sea, or to the land, &c., (Calmet) as the pagans believed that of their various idols was. (Haydock)
Ver. 41. Then, &c. This piece of history seems to be placed out of its natural order, by another hand. (Calmet) --- Yet if we attend to the method of Moses, in his other works, we shall not hastily conclude that it is an interpolation. He frequently repeats what has been already specified. He had received an order from God to appoint these three cities of refuge, (Numbers xxxv. 14,) after he had given the land to the tribes of Ruben, &c., Numbers xxxii. This he executes at the conclusion of this discourse; and hence takes occasion to mention how they had taken possession of this country. (Haydock)
Ver. 42. Before. The Rabbins say, when two people had refused to speak to one another for three days, it was a sufficient indication of their enmity. (Selden, Jur. iv. 2.)
Ver. 43. Wilderness, or plains of Moab, at the mouth of the Jordan. It is sometimes called Besor, and is very different from Bozra of Idumea, (Isaias lxiii. 1,) a very famous city, known to profane authors by the name of Bostra. --- Ramoth, one of the strongest towns of Galaad, 15 miles west of Philadelphia, (Eusebius) where Achab, king of Israel, received a mortal wound, 3 Kings xxii. 3. --- Golon, or Gaulan, gave its name to Gaulanitis, a part of Batanea, lying on the southern parts of the division of Gad, though the city belonged to Manasses. The lower Gaulanitis lay towards the lake of Genezareth, and had Gamala for its capital. (Cellarius) (Calmet)
Ver. 48. Sion begins here with s, being the northern boundary of the tribe of Manasses, east of the Jordan; whereas the famous Sion, on which the temple was built, is written with ts, and lay on the west side of the Jordan, (Haydock) in the tribe of Juda, chap. iii. 8. (Calmet)