Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter Twenty-nine
Moses goes on to urge the Hebrews to the law of God, partly by benefits and promises, partly by threats and terrors, and this from verse 18 to the end of the chapter.
1. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides that covenant which he made with them in Horeb. 2. And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all the things that the Lord hath done before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 3. the great temptations which thy eyes have seen, those signs and wonders so great: 4. and the Lord hath not given you an understanding heart, and eyes to see, and ears that can hear, unto this present day. 5. He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn out, neither are the shoes of your feet decayed with age. 6. You have not eaten bread, you have not drunk wine nor strong drink: that you might know that I am the Lord your God. 7. And you came to this place: and Sehon king of Hesebon, and Og king of Basan, came out against us to fight. And we slew them, 8. And took their land, and delivered it to be possessed by Ruben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses. 9. Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and fulfil them: that you may understand all that you do. 10. You all stand here today before the Lord your God, your princes, and tribes, and elders, and teachers, all the people of Israel, 11. Your children and your wives, and the stranger that abideth with thee in the camp, besides the hewers of wood, and them that bring water: 12. That thou mayest pass in the covenant of the Lord thy God, and in the oath which this day the Lord thy God maketh with thee: 13. That he may raise thee up to be a people to himself, and he may be thy God, as he hath said to thee, and as he swore to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14. Neither do I make this covenant with you only, and confirm these oaths, 15. But with all that are present, and with them that are absent. 16. For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we have passed through the midst of nations, whom when you had passed, 17. You saw their abominations and filth, that is, their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which they worshipped. 18. Lest perhaps there should be among you man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations: and there should be among you a root bringing forth gall and bitterness. 19. And when he shall have heard the words of this oath, he bless himself in his heart, saying: I shall have peace, and I will walk on in the naughtiness of my heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty, 20. And the Lord forgive him not, but then his wrath may smoke, and his jealousy against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book may sit upon him, and the Lord may blot out his name from under heaven, 21. And may consume him unto destruction out of all the tribes of Israel, according to the curses that are written in the book of this law and covenant. 22. And the following generation shall say, and the children that shall be born hereafter, and strangers that shall come from afar, seeing the plagues of that land, and the infirmities with which the Lord hath afflicted it, 23. Burning it with brimstone and the heat of salt, so that it can no more be sown, nor any green thing spring up, after the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath. 24. And all nations shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land? what is the meaning of this exceeding great wrath? 25. And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, which he made with their fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt: 26. And they have served strange gods, and adored them, whom they knew not, and to whom they had not been assigned: 27. Therefore the wrath of the Lord was angry against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28. And he cast them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into a strange land, as it is this day. 29. Secret things to the Lord our God: things manifest to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
1. THESE ARE THE WORDS OF THE COVENANT.—God made a covenant at Sinai with the Hebrews, Exodus xix, 4, giving them the Decalogue and other laws; here, after thirty-eight years, He renews that covenant with their posterity in the plains of Moab, on this condition, namely, that they keep His laws.
2. AND MOSES CALLED ALL ISRAEL.—Perhaps, then, the Israelites had already gone home, the discourse of Moses being interrupted; for this had been a long enough assembly up to this point; hence here they were called together anew, as if to renew the covenant with God. So Abulensis.
It may however be explained, secondly, more simply and plainly thus: he called, that is, he addressed, all Israel.
2 and 3. YOU HAVE SEEN, etc., THE GREAT TEMPTATIONS,—namely the great plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, by which God tried the minds of the Egyptians, drove and compelled them to let you go.
4. AND THE LORD HATH NOT GIVEN YOU AN UNDERSTANDING HEART, AND EYES TO SEE, AND EARS THAT CAN HEAR.—In the Hebrew, ears for hearing, or hearing, that is, that you might hear the wonders of God: not as though the Hebrews had no eyes, or had not seen the wonders and benefits bestowed on them by God, or had not heard of them; but that seeing and hearing them, they were as though they saw not and heard not, because they did not esteem them, nor rise from them to the love, obedience and praise of God the Creator and Giver. God therefore did not give them ears, a heart and eyes that see, because they themselves closed these against the illumination and grace of God, as one who shuts a window cannot be enlightened by it; as if to say: You were ever ungrateful for the so great benefits of God towards you, and though you beheld them with the body, with the heart and mind you did not see them, nor value them. Hence Rabanus: “In saying that God did not give them eyes or ears, he would in no way be accusing and rebuking, unless he meant it to be understood as pertaining to their fault (who were unworthy of the light and grace of God, and rebellious against Him).” So also Theodoret.
5. YOUR GARMENTS ARE NOT WORN OUT.—Abulensis asks here: Whence had so many thousands of little children, born in the desert, their garments? Some answer that the Hebrews bought them from the neighbouring nations. But these were almost hostile; wherefore the Hebrews scarcely had dealings with them. Secondly, Abulensis answers that the Hebrews carried them out with them from Egypt, and though those were larger and for grown men, yet they were supernaturally made smaller and contracted, and fitted to the little bodies of the children, and grew again with them as they grew. But this miracle is here introduced without necessity.
I say therefore, first, that the Hebrews at their departure spoiled Egypt, and carried away various garments thence, as is plain from Exodus xii, 35, which they afterwards unstitched and cut up, and measured and fitted to the bodies of the children. Secondly, the garments of those who died in the desert passed to those who were born and grew up. And almost as many died in the desert as were born, as is plain to one comparing chapter xii of Exodus, verse 37, with Numbers xxvi, 64. Thirdly, the Hebrews, men as well as women, were not idle for forty years in the desert, but worked wool and flax, and made cloths and garments for themselves from them. In like manner they made leather from the skins of their animals, and shoes from it, as Abulensis grants; and if this is so, why should they not likewise have made cloths and garments from wool and flax?
From this place Tertullian, in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chap. lviii, proves the resurrection thus: “These things,” he says, “were figures of ours, that we might believe the Lord more powerful than every law of bodies, and surely a preserver of the flesh, who protected even their garments and shoes.”
6. YOU HAVE NOT EATEN BREAD.—Because instead of bread they ate manna; yet they could eat flesh, eggs, fish, etc., and buy them from the neighbouring nations, as is said in Deuteronomy ii, 6 and 5; yet they hardly seem to have bought and eaten them, since in the manna they had every savour. So Abulensis.
10. YOU ALL STAND HERE TODAY.—It was fitting that all should assemble for the reception of the law and the covenant, because what touches all ought to be approved by all; and in this way the Roman laws were made: namely, the whole people being assembled, the magistrate asked in a loud voice whether such a law pleased them, and on the answer of the whole people it depended whether it was approved or rejected, as is plain in the Institutes, on natural right, § Lex est. So Abulensis.
12. THAT THOU MAYEST PASS IN THE COVENANT OF THE LORD THY GOD (that is, that thou mayest enter into a solemn covenant before and with God, by the consecration of the curses described in this chapter and the preceding; for the Hebrew alah signifies these, and the Greek ara).
18. LEST PERHAPS, etc., THERE SHOULD BE AMONG YOU A ROOT BRINGING FORTH GALL AND BITTERNESS,—or poison and wormwood, as the more recent translators render; the Chaldee renders, Lest there be among you one who thinks on sins and pride. Sin, then, and turning away from God is here called gall, bitterness, wormwood, poison; first, because it deadly wounds the soul; secondly, because it embitters it by remorse of conscience, and tears it; thirdly, because it renders it hateful and odious to God: for sin is the sole object of the wrath, indignation and vengeance of God. A like phrase is in Acts viii, 23; for Peter says to Simon Magus: “I see thee to be in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.”
Secondly, gall here may signify the bile of God, as if He said, says Hieronymus Prado on Ezechiel chap. vii, p. 117: Beware lest some hidden kind of idolatry be left among you, like a root under the earth, which afterwards shoots forth the most bitter wormwood of gall, which, namely, may kindle my bile, and make my gall boil over, so that there be no remission. For bile is followed by thirst, thirst by drunkenness and the outpouring of fury; and this is what follows: “And the drunken may consume the thirsty;” that is, drunkenness may follow thirst, or rather, “the drunken may consume,” namely the soul, “the thirsty,” namely the soul, that is, the thirst of the soul, as if to say: that drunkenness may extinguish and consume the thirst of the soul. But of this phrase I shall speak presently.
19. AND WHEN HE SHALL HAVE HEARD THE WORDS OF THIS OATH (that is, of this curse and execration, as I said in verse 12, despising and mocking it), HE BLESS HIMSELF IN HIS HEART,—flatter himself, promising himself impunity, and peace, that is, prosperity, even if he should violate these my laws; this is plain from what follows.
AND THE DRUNKEN MAY CONSUME (so it is to be read with the Roman and Royal editions, not “assume,” as the Plantin editions have) THE THIRSTY.—The Hebrew is, that the drunken be added to the thirsty, namely in the punishment, as well as in the guilt. Hence the Septuagint clearly renders, that the sinner may destroy the innocent along with himself. For the word not, which the Septuagint add, saying “let him not destroy,” is not in the Hebrew, and was added by the Septuagint only as a prohibition; wherefore it is better and plainer to omit it. The Chaldee also alludes to this, that to him be added sins of ignorance to sins of pride, as if to say, as Rabanus puts it: Beware lest thou, who art drunk with malice and presumption, seduce him who has the desire of learning the truth. There seems, moreover, to have been a proverb at that time: “The drunken leads the thirsty, or the sober” (as among us it is “the blind leads the blind”), that is, the impious and wicked man leads and seduces the simple and eager one, not so much of truth and wisdom, as Rabanus will have it, as of novelty and pleasure (for drunkenness and thirst are of the same thing), to his own wicked pleasures, errors and idolatries. Eugubinus explains this phrase otherwise, but less genuinely, as it seems, namely thus: “That the drunken be added to the thirsty, or drunkenness to thirst; as if he said: That they may most greedily drink in the worst errors, that the thirst of doing evil may become a kind of drunkenness, and they may be made drunk with evil deeds, which they before so greatly desired.”
Hence, symbolically, the drunken consumes the thirsty, when the lower part, ensnared and made drunk by pleasures, draws and swallows up the whole mind to itself (which is thirsty, because it is of itself void of the pleasure of bodily things); and then man becomes the slave of his own body: for the body and appetite dominate over reason, and subject it to themselves.
20. HIS WRATH MAY SMOKE,—that is, God may be most gravely angry and avenge.
AND MAY SIT,—that is, that these curses may cling to the sinner, as it were fixed and immovable, as one sitting clings to his seat.
23. BURNING IT WITH BRIMSTONE AND THE HEAT OF SALT,—namely your land. For “of the sun” read “of salt.” So the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Septuagint and the Roman text.
For salt strewn on the earth dries it, burns it, eats it away and makes it barren; hence Abimelech sowed salt in the field of Sichem, when he wished to make it wholly barren, Judges ix, 45.
That is, after the likeness of the overthrow of Sodom, as God overthrew Sodom; this is plain from the Hebrew.
the former, in the mouth of the wicked and luxurious man, expresses the nation in which he professes his own name, the latter designates a pious people, marked with this reproach from the disposition of the same profane man. Hence the sense arises: I shall have peace, when I walk by the instinct of my secret heart, because the watered is to be shaved together with the thirsty; as if he said: Let us keep merry-making, let us indulge our genius; let us leave to his angry God and evil genius those dry ones, wasted with fasting thirst, who vainly mortify themselves and weary themselves with fear of the judgment to come, since the watered together with the thirsty is to be shaved, and wrapped up. Schultens thinks the adage was drawn from a flock that has drunk and is watered, which, in the feminine, absolutely, was called ravah, in the style of the Arabs, and likewise from a flock exhausted by weariness and thirst, which might be called tsemeah: so that, when they wished to indicate that all things were utterly destroyed, extinguished, overturned and laid waste to extermination, they would say, the watered together with the thirsty is shaved, or is consumed.
26. AND THEY SERVED STRANGE GODS, etc., TO WHOM THEY HAD NOT BEEN ASSIGNED.—(In Hebrew: whom none divided to them, that is, who were not divided and assigned to them. For the Hebrews often use the active for the passive, as in the niphal, as if to say: The Hebrews were not given to strange gods for guard and service, but to the true God, and from of old were His inheritance; wherefore they sacrilegiously stole themselves from Him and subjected themselves to strange gods), AS IT IS THIS DAY,—namely when these things which are here foretold shall have come to pass in later times; for Moses speaks of future time: for these are the words of the Gentiles, wondering at the desolation of the Jews.
29. SECRET THINGS TO THE LORD OUR GOD; THINGS MANIFEST TO US AND TO OUR CHILDREN.—The Chaldee, Aben-Ezra and the Rabbis explain it thus: “Things that are hidden are before the Lord,” that is, it belongs to the Lord to punish hidden sins; “but things manifest to us,” namely it is fitting for us to punish them. But better do we refer this to the law of God, or rather to the curses and scourges of God which are here threatened by Him for transgressions, as if to say: These future scourges, foreseen and decreed by God, are hidden, and are among the secret judgments of God, which yet He has made manifest to us, that through fear of them we may keep His law. So Cajetan. For Abulensis explains it thus: The scourges of God are manifest to us, because they have already been sent upon us, because we feel and experience them; this does not agree with what follows, for it follows: “For ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”