Ver. 1. Went and spake,] i.e., Went on to speak, setting things in order before his death.
Ver. 2. I am a hundred and twenty, &c.] And so might well bespeak them, as Augustus once did his army, and pacified them thereby when they were in a mutiny; Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt. Suetonius.
Ver. 3. And Joshua.] Called Jesus. (Hebrews 4:8) A clear type of Jesus Christ. What Moses could not do because of the people’s unbelief—viz., to bring them to Canaan, Joshua did. So what Moses’s law could not do—viz., to bring us to heaven, because of the infirmity of our flesh, Christ by his gospel hath done for us. (Romans 8:3)
Ver. 4. And the Lord shall do unto them.] Every former mercy is a pledge of a future.
Ver. 5. According to all the command,] sc., To root them out utterly. (Deuteronomy 20:16,17)
Ver. 6. He will not fall thee.] Five times in holy Scriptures is this precious promise repeated; and in Hebrews 13:5, made common to all believers, with a very deep asseveration.
Ver. 7. For thou must go with this people.] As a worthy guide, to lead them to their rest temporal; so doth Christ all his to their rest eternal.
Ver. 8. He will not fail thee.] See on Deuteronomy 31:6.
Ver. 9. Unto the priests.] God’s library-keepers, his depositaries. Unto all the elders of Israel.] As to the keepers of both tables.
Ver. 11. Thou shalt read this law.] Which was nevertheless “read in their synagogues every Sabbath day.” (Acts 15:21) And by this reading, at the feast of Tabernacles, every seventh year, the original copy written by Moses, they might perceive that those copies that they had amongst them were right and authentic. It was ill ordered in our English Bibles of the new translation, that between the printers’ haste and correctors’ oversight, such foul errors have been lately committed, as Judas printed for Jesus in the great Bible. The Turkish Koran is written and to be read in Arabic, under pain of death not to mistake a letter, which is as easily done in this tongue as in any. Lightfoot’s Miscellanies.
Ver. 13. That they may hear, and that they may learn.] Hearing and seeing are by the philosopher called the learned senses. Faith also comes by hearing, (Romans 10:17) and the Spirit. (Galatians 3:2)
Ver. 14. In the tabernacle,] i.e., Before the door of it; and this was before the Lord himself. (Deuteronomy 31:11)
Ver. 17. And many evils and troubles.] As it befell Samson and Saul, when God was gone; πονος πονω πονον φερει, all miseries came trooping and treading one in the heels of another. So Ezekiel 9:10,11. God makes many moves, and as he goes out, some judgment comes in upon the land.
Ver. 18. Hide my face,] i.e., Withdraw my favour, and therewith all good.
Ver. 19. Put it in their mouths.] That out of their own mouths I may judge them; things made up in metre are better remembered. Before the knowledge of letters and writing, among the ancients it was a custom to sing their laws, lest they might forget them; used in the days of Aristotle, by the Agathyrsi, a people near to the Scythians.
Ver. 20. Then they will turn to other gods.] A bee is quickly drowned if she gets into a pot of honey. “Prosperity slayeth the foolish.”
Ver. 21. For I know their imagination.] As a man that knows what roots he hath in his garden; though there be not a flower appears, yet he can say, when the spring comes, this and this will come up, because he knows the garden, and knows what roots are there: so the Lord knows our thoughts afar off, because he knows the principles that are within, and knows what they will do when occasion serves; he is privy to that root that beareth gall and wormwood. (Deuteronomy 29:18)
Ver. 22. And taught it the children.] “ Metra parant animos, pristina cornmemorant. ”
Ver. 23. I will be with thee.] This must needs put mettle into him; for “if God be with us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) [See Trapp on “Ro 8:31”]
Ver. 26. In the side of the ark.] That it might be heard and regarded as the very law of God, though penned by Moses. And indeed the Jews at this day show exceeding great respect to the law; no man may touch it but with the right hand, and without a kiss of reverence, nor carry it behind him, but lay it next to his heart in his travel; if it but fall to the ground, they institute a fast for it, &c. The very Turks have so high an esteem of Moses, that if they find any piece of his writings, be it but a torn paper, lying on the ground, they presently take it up and kiss it. That it may be therefor a witness.] Hence haply the ark was called “the ark of the testimony.” The law might be called the Doomsday Book; such a book there is in our common law, so called, saith Matthew Paris, because it spares no man. Schicard. Weemse. Pareus, Prol. in Genes.
Ver. 29. To provoke him to anger.] Which is the greatest folly that can be; for are we stronger than he? Can we imagine to make our party good with him? Surely as Ulysses’s companions told him, when he would needs provoke Polydamus, Σχετλιε, πιπτ εθελεις ερεθιζεμεν αγριον ανδρα; May not we much more say so to them that will needs provoke the Lord, It is good for men to meddle with their equals, and not contend with him that is mightier than they?