--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 194 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/194/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 194. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/194/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 194. Deuteronomy · 9 of 29 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/194/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/194/#p-N ### Verse 15 [¶1] Who led thee through that - terrible wilderness - See the account of their journeying in the notes, [Exo 16:1] (note), etc.; Numbers 21 (note), etc. [¶2] Fiery serpents - Serpents whose bite occasioned a most violent inflammation, accompanied with an unquenchable thirst, and which terminated in death. See on [Num 21:6] (note). ### Verse 16 [¶4] Who fed thee - with manna - See this miracle described in [Exo 16:13] (note), etc. ### Verse 18 [¶6] God - giveth thee power to get wealth - Who among the rich and wealthy believes this saying? Who gives wisdom, understanding, skill, bodily strength, and health? Is it not God? And without these, how can wealth be acquired? Whose is providence? Who gives fertility to the earth? And who brings every proper purpose to a right issue? Is it not God? And without these also can wealth be acquired? No. Then the proposition in the text is self-evident: it is God that giveth power to get wealth, and to God the wealthy man must account for the manner in which he has expended the riches which God hath given him. ### Introduction [¶8] The people are informed that they shall shortly pass over Jordan, and that God shall go over before them, to expel the ancient inhabitants, [Deu 9:1-3]. They are cautioned not to suppose that it is on account of their righteousness that God is to give them that land, [Deu 9:4-6]. They are exhorted to remember their various provocations of the Divine Majesty, especially at Horeb, [Deu 9:7-14]; and how Moses interceded for them, and destroyed the golden calf, [Deu 9:15-21]. How they murmured at Taberah, [Deu 9:22]; and rebelled at Kadesh-barnea, [Deu 9:23]; and had been perverse from the beginning, [Deu 9:24]. An account of the intercession of Moses in their behalf, [Deu 9:25-29]. ### Verse 1 [¶10] Thou art to pass over Jordan this day - היום haiyom, this time; they had come thirty-eight years before this nearly to the verge of the promised land, but were not permitted at that day or time to pass over, because of their rebellions; but this time they shall certainly pass over. This was spoken about the eleventh month of the fortieth year of their journeying, and it was on the first month of the following year they passed over; and during this interim Moses died. ### Verse 5 [¶12] For the wickedness of these nations - So then it was not by any sovereign act of God that these people were cast out, but for their wickedness; they had transgressed the law of their Creator; they had resisted his Spirit, and could no longer be tolerated. The Israelites were to possess their land, not because they deserved it, but first, because they were less wicked than the others; and secondly, because God thus chose to begin the great work of his salvation among men. Thus then the Canaanites were cut off, and the Israelites were grafted in; and the Israelites, because of their wickedness, were afterwards cut off and the Gentiles grafted in. Let the latter not be high-minded, but fear; if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee. But let it be remembered that this land was originally their own, and that the present possessors had no legal right to it. ### Verse 10 [¶14] Tables of stone - See the notes on [Exo 31:18], [Exo 32:15] (note), and [Exo 32:16]. ### Verse 12 [¶16] Thy people - have corrupted themselves - Debased themselves by making and worshipping an Egyptian idol. See on Exodus 32 (note). ### Verse 21 [¶18] I took your sin, the calf which ye had made - See this fully explained [Exo 32:20] (note). ### Verse 22 [¶20] At Kibroth-hattaavah - See the note on [Num 11:34]. ### Verse 27 [¶22] Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - As if he had said: "These are their descendants, and the covenant was made with those patriarchs in behalf of these." God bestows many blessings on comparatively worthless persons, either for the sake of their pious ancestors, or on account of the religious people with whom they are connected; therefore union with the Church of God is a blessing of no common magnitude. The reader will find the grand subject of this chapter explained at large in the notes on Exodus 31 and 32, to which he is particularly desired to refer. ### Introduction [¶24] Moses is commanded to make a second set of tables, [Deu 10:1], [Deu 10:2]. He makes an ark, prepares the two tables, God writes on them the ten commandments, and Moses lays them up in the ark, [Deu 10:3-5]. The Israelites journey from Beeroth to Mosera, where Aaron dies, [Deu 10:6]; and from thence to Gudgodah and Jotbath, [Deu 10:7]. At that time God separated the tribe of Levi for the service of the sanctuary, [Deu 10:8], [Deu 10:9]. How long Moses stayed the second time in the mount, [Deu 10:10], [Deu 10:11]. What God requires of the Israelites, [Deu 10:12-15]. Their heart must be circumcised, [Deu 10:16]. God's character and conduct, [Deu 10:17], [Deu 10:18]. They are commanded to love the stranger, [Deu 10:19]; to fear, love, and serve God, [Deu 10:20], because he had done such great things for them and their fathers, [Deu 10:21], [Deu 10:22]. ### Verse 1 [¶26] Hew thee two tables of stone - See the notes on [Exo 34:1]. ### Verse 3 [¶28] Shittim wood - See the note on [Exo 25:5], and succeeding verses, and on the parallel places in the margin. ### Verse 4 [¶30] Ten commandments - See the note on [Exo 20:1], etc. ### Verse 6 [¶32] And the children of Israel took their journey, etc. - On this and the three following verses see Kennicott's remarks at the end of this chapter. ### Verse 12 [¶34] Now, Israel, what doth the Lord - require of thee - An answer is immediately given. God requires, [¶35] 1. That ye fear him as Jehovah your God; him who made, preserves, and governs you. [¶36] 2. That ye walk in all his ways - that, having received his precepts, all of which are good and excellent, ye obey the whole; walking in God's ways, not your own, nor in the ways of the people of the land. [¶37] 3. That ye love him - have confidence in him as your father and friend, have recourse to him in all your necessities, and love him in return for his love. [¶38] 4. That you serve him - give him that worship which he requires, performing it with all your heart - the whole of your affections, and with all your soul - your will, understanding, and judgment. In a word, putting forth your whole strength and energy of body and soul in the sacred work. ### Verse 14 [¶40] Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens - All these words in the original are in the plural number: הן השמים ושמי השמים hen hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens. But what do they mean? To say that the first means the atmosphere, the second the planetary system, and the third the region of the blessed, is saying but very little in the way of explanation. The words were probably intended to point out the immensity of God's creation, in which we may readily conceive one system of heavenly bodies, and others beyond them, and others still in endless progression through the whole vortex of space, every star in the vast abyss of nature being a sun, with its peculiar and numerous attendant worlds! Thus there may be systems of systems in endless gradation up to the throne of God! ### Verse 16 [¶42] Circumcise - the foreskin of your heart - A plain proof from God himself that this precept pointed out spiritual things, and that it was not the cutting away a part of the flesh that was the object of the Divine commandment, but the purification of the soul, without which all forms and ceremonies are of no avail. Loving God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, the heart being circumcised to enable them to do it, was, from the beginning, the end, design, and fulfillment of the whole law. ### Verse 17 [¶44] God of gods, and Lord of lords - That is, He is the source whence all being and power proceed; every agent is finite but himself; and he can counteract, suspend, or destroy all the actions of all creatures whensoever he pleases. If he determine to save, none can destroy; if he purpose to destroy, none can save. How absolutely necessary to have such a God for our friend!