18 thou art not afraid of them; thou dost surely remember that which Jehovah thy God hath done to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt,
Who smote the first-born of Egypt, From man unto beast. He sent tokens and wonders into thy midst, O Egypt, On Pharaoh and on all his servants. Who smote many nations, and slew strong kings,
And He remembereth the days of old, Moses -- his people. Where `is' He who is bringing them up from the sea, The shepherd of his flock? Where `is' He who is putting in its midst His Holy Spirit? Leading by the right hand of Moses, the arm of His glory, Cleaving waters from before them, To make to Himself a name age-during. Leading them through the depths, As a horse in a plain they stumble not. As a beast into a valley goeth down, The Spirit of Jehovah causeth him to rest, So hast Thou led Thy people, To make to Thyself a glorious name. Look attentively from the heavens, And see from Thy holy and beauteous habitation, Where `is' Thy zeal and Thy might? The multitude of Thy bowels and Thy mercies Towards me have refrained themselves.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah, Awake, as `in' days of old, generations of the ages, Art not Thou it that is hewing down Rahab, Piercing a dragon! Art not Thou it that is drying up a sea, Waters of a great deep? That hath made deep places of a sea A way for the passing of the redeemed?
Be not afraid, for with thee I `am', Look not around, for I `am' thy God, I have strengthened thee, Yea, I have helped thee, yea, I upheld thee, With the right hand of My righteousness. Lo, all those displeased with thee, They are ashamed and blush, They are as nothing, yea, perish Do the men who strive with thee. Thou seekest them, and findest them not, The men who debate with thee, They are as nothing, yea, as nothing, The men who war with thee. For I, Jehovah thy God, Am strengthening thy right hand, He who is saying to thee, `Fear not, I have helped thee.' Fear not, O worm Jacob, ye men of Israel, I helped thee, an affirmation of Jehovah, Even thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
To Him smiting Egypt in their first-born, For to the age `is' His kindness. And bringing forth Israel from their midst, For to the age `is' His kindness. By a strong hand, and a stretched-out-arm, For to the age `is' His kindness. To Him cutting the sea of Suph into parts, For to the age `is' His kindness, And caused Israel to pass through its midst, For to the age `is' His kindness, And shook out Pharaoh and his force in the sea of Suph, For to the age `is' His kindness.
And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `See, I have given thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother is thy prophet; thou -- thou dost speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother doth speak unto Pharaoh, and he hath sent the sons of Israel out of his land. `And I harden the heart of Pharaoh, and have multiplied My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh doth not hearken, and I have put My hand on Egypt, and have brought out My hosts, My people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments; and the Egyptians have known that I `am' Jehovah, in My stretching out My hand against Egypt; and I have brought out the sons of Israel from their midst.' And Moses doth -- Aaron also -- as Jehovah commanded them; so have they done; and Moses `is' a son of eighty years, and Aaron `is' a son of eighty and three years, in their speaking unto Pharaoh. And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, `When Pharaoh speaketh unto you, saying, Give for yourselves a wonder; then thou hast said unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast before Pharaoh -- it becometh a monster.' And Moses goeth in -- Aaron also -- unto Pharaoh, and they do so as Jehovah hath commanded; and Aaron casteth his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it becometh a monster. And Pharaoh also calleth for wise men, and for sorcerers; and the scribes of Egypt, they also, with their flashings, do so, and they cast down each his rod, and they become monsters, and the rod of Aaron swalloweth their rods; and the heart of Pharaoh is strong, and he hath not hearkened unto them, as Jehovah hath spoken. And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `The heart of Pharaoh hath been hard, he hath refused to send the people away;
He hath sent Moses His servant, Aaron whom He had fixed on. They have set among them the matters of His signs, And wonders in the land of Ham. He hath sent darkness, and it is dark, And they have not provoked His word. He hath turned their waters to blood, And putteth to death their fish. Teemed hath their land `with' frogs, In the inner chambers of their kings. He hath said, and the beetle cometh, Lice into all their border. He hath made their showers hail, A flaming fire `is' in their land. And He smiteth their vine and their fig, And shivereth the trees of their border. He hath said, and the locust cometh, And the cankerworm -- innumerable, And it consumeth every herb in their land, And it consumeth the fruit of their ground. And He smiteth every first-born in their land, The first-fruit of all their strength,
They have not remembered His hand The day He ransomed them from the adversary. When He set His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan, And He turneth to blood their streams, And their floods they drink not. He sendeth among them the beetle, and it consumeth them, And the frog, and it destroyeth them, And giveth to the caterpillar their increase, And their labour to the locust. He destroyeth with hail their vine, And their sycamores with frost, And delivereth up to the hail their beasts, And their cattle to the burning flames. He sendeth on them the fury of His anger, Wrath, and indignation, and distress -- A discharge of evil messengers. He pondereth a path for His anger, He kept not back their soul from death, Yea, their life to the pestilence He delivered up. And He smiteth every first-born in Egypt, The first-fruit of the strong in tents of Ham.
To the Overseer. -- By sons of Korah. `For the Virgins.' -- A song. God `is' to us a refuge and strength, A help in adversities found most surely. Therefore we fear not in the changing of earth, And in the slipping of mountains Into the heart of the seas.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Deuteronomy 7
Commentary on Deuteronomy 7 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 7
De 7:1-26. All Communion with the Nations Forbidden.
1. the Hittites—This people were descended from Heth, the second son of Canaan (Ge 10:15), and occupied the mountainous region about Hebron, in the south of Palestine.
the Girgashites—supposed by some to be the same as the Gergesenes (Mt 8:28), who lay to the east of Lake Gennesareth; but they are placed on the west of Jordan (Jos 24:11), and others take them for a branch of the large family of the Hivites, as they are omitted in nine out of ten places where the tribes of Canaan are enumerated; in the tenth they are mentioned, while the Hivites are not.
the Amorites—descended from the fourth son of Canaan. They occupied, besides their conquest on the Moabite territory, extensive settlements west of the Dead Sea, in the mountains.
the Canaanites—located in Phœnicia, particularly about Tyre and Sidon, and being sprung from the oldest branch of the family of Canaan, bore his name.
the Perizzites—that is, villagers, a tribe who were dispersed throughout the country and lived in unwalled towns.
the Hivites—who dwelt about Ebal and Gerizim, extending towards Hermon. They are supposed to be the same as the Avims.
the Jebusites—resided about Jerusalem and the adjacent country.
seven nations greater and mightier than thou—Ten were formerly mentioned (Ge 15:19-21). But in the lapse of near five hundred years, it cannot be surprising that some of them had been extinguished in the many intestine feuds that prevailed among those warlike tribes. It is more than probable that some, stationed on the east of Jordan, had fallen under the victorious arms of the Israelites.
2-6. thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them—This relentless doom of extermination which God denounced against those tribes of Canaan cannot be reconciled with the attributes of the divine character, except on the assumption that their gross idolatry and enormous wickedness left no reasonable hope of their repentance and amendment. If they were to be swept away like the antediluvians or the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, as incorrigible sinners who had filled up the measure of their iniquities, it mattered not to them in what way the judgment was inflicted; and God, as the Sovereign Disposer, had a right to employ any instruments that pleased Him for executing His judgments. Some think that they were to be exterminated as unprincipled usurpers of a country which God had assigned to the posterity of Eber and which had been occupied ages before by wandering shepherds of that race, till, on the migration of Jacob's family into Egypt through the pressure of famine, the Canaanites overspread the whole land, though they had no legitimate claim to it, and endeavored to retain possession of it by force. In this view their expulsion was just and proper. The strict prohibition against contracting any alliances with such infamous idolaters was a prudential rule, founded on the experience that "evil communications corrupt good manners" [1Co 15:33], and its importance or necessity was attested by the unhappy examples of Solomon and others in the subsequent history of Israel.
5. thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, &c.—The removal of the temples, altars, and everything that had been enlisted in the service, or might tend to perpetuate the remembrance, of Canaanite idolatry, was likewise highly expedient for preserving the Israelites from all risk of contamination. It was imitated by the Scottish Reformers, and although many ardent lovers of architecture and the fine arts have anathematized their proceedings as vandalism, yet there was profound wisdom in the favorite maxim of Knox—"pull down the nests, and the rooks will disappear."
6-10. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God—that is, set apart to the service of God, or chosen to execute the important purposes of His providence. Their selection to this high destiny was neither on account of their numerical amount (for, till after the death of Joseph, they were but a handful of people); nor because of their extraordinary merits (for they had often pursued a most perverse and unworthy conduct); but it was in consequence of the covenant or promise made with their pious forefathers; and the motives that led to that special act were such as tended not only to vindicate God's wisdom, but to illustrate His glory in diffusing the best and most precious blessings to all mankind.
11-26. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day—In the covenant into which God entered with Israel, He promised to bestow upon them a variety of blessings so long as they continued obedient to Him as their heavenly King. He pledged His veracity that His infinite perfections would be exerted for this purpose, as well as for delivering them from every evil to which, as a people, they would be exposed. That people accordingly were truly happy as a nation, and found every promise which the faithful God made to them amply fulfilled, so long as they adhered to that obedience which was required of them. See a beautiful illustration of this in Ps 144:12-15.
15. the evil diseases of Egypt—(See Ex 15:26). Besides those with which Pharaoh and his subjects were visited, Egypt has always been dreadfully scourged with diseases. The testimony of Moses is confirmed by the reports of many modern writers, who tell us that, notwithstanding its equal temperature and sereneness, that country has some indigenous maladies which are very malignant, such as ophthalmia, dysentery, smallpox, and the plague.
20. Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them—(See on Jos 24:12 [and Ex 23:28]).
22. lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee—(See on Ex 23:29). The omnipotence of their Almighty Ruler could have given them possession of the promised land at once. But, the unburied corpses of the enemy and the portions of the country that might have been left desolate for a while, would have drawn an influx of dangerous beasts. This evil would be prevented by a progressive conquest and by the use of ordinary means, which God would bless.