Verse 12
It is not in heaven - Shall not be communicated in that way in which the prophets received the living oracles; but the Word shall be made flesh, and dwell among you.
Verse 13
Neither is it beyond the sea - Ye shall not be obliged to travel for it to distant nations, because salvation is of the Jews.
Verse 14
But the word is very nigh unto thee - The doctrine of salvation preached by the apostles; in thy mouth, the promises of redemption made by the prophets forming a part of every Jew's creed; in thy heart - the power to believe with the heart unto righteousness, that the tongue may make confession unto salvation. In this way, it is evident, St. Paul understood these passages; see [Rom 10:6-8], etc.
Verse 15
Life and good - Present and future blessings.
Death and evil - Present and future miseries: termed, [Deu 30:19], Life and death, blessing and cursing. And why were these set before them?
1. That they might comprehend their import.
2. That they might feel their importance.
3. That they might choose life, and the path of believing, loving obedience, that led to it.
4. That they and their posterity, thus choosing life and refusing evil, might be the favourites of God in time and eternity.
Were there no such thing as free will in man, who could reconcile these sayings either with sincerity or common sense? God has made the human will free, and there is no power or influence either in heaven, earth, or hell, except the power of God, that can deprive it of its free volitions; of its power to will and nill, to choose and refuse, to act or not act or force it to sin against God. Hence man is accountable for his actions, because they are his; were he necessitated by fate, or sovereign constraint, they could not be his. Hence he is rewardable, hence he is punishable. God, in his creation, willed that the human creature should be free, and he formed his soul accordingly; and the Law and Gospel, the promise and precept, the denunciation of woe and the doctrine of eternal life, are all constructed on this ground; that is, they all necessarily suppose the freedom of the human will: nor could it be will if it were not free, because the principle of freedom or liberty is necessarily implied in the idea of volition. See on the [Deu 5:29] (note).
Verse 20
That thou mayest love the Lord - Without love there can be no obedience.
Obey his voice - Without obedience love is fruitless and dead.
And cleave unto him - Without close attachment and perseverance, temporary love, however sincere and fervent - temporary obedience, however disinterested, energetic, and pure while it lasts - will be ultimately ineffectual. He alone who endures to the end, shall be saved. Reader, how do matters stand between God and thy soul? He cannot persevere in the grace of God whose soul is not yet made a partaker of that grace. Many talk strenuously on the impossibility of falling from grace, who have not yet tasted that the Lord is gracious. How absurd to talk and dispute about the infallibility of arriving safely at the end of a way in which a man has never yet taken one hearty step! It is never among those that have the grace of God, but among those that have it not, that we find an overweening confidence.
Introduction
Moses, being one hundred and twenty years old and about to die, calls the people together, and exhorts them to courage and obedience, [Deu 31:1-6]. Delivers a charge to Joshua, [Deu 31:7], [Deu 31:8]. Delivers the law which he hod written to the priests, with a solemn charge that they should read it every seventh year, publicly to all the people, [Deu 31:9-13]. The Lord calls Moses and Joshua to the tabernacle, [Deu 31:14]. He appears to them, informs Moses of his approaching death, and delivers to him a prophetical and historical song, or poem, which he is to leave with Israel, for their instruction and reproof, [Deu 31:15-21]. Moses writes the song the same day, and teaches it to the Israelites, [Deu 31:22]; gives Joshua a charge, [Deu 31:23]; finishes writing the book of the law, [Deu 31:24]. Commands the Levites to lay it up in the side of the ark, [Deu 31:25], [Deu 31:26]. Predicts their rebellions, [Deu 31:27]. Orders the elders to be gathered together, and shows them what evils would befall the people in the latter days, [Deu 31:28], [Deu 31:29], and repeats the song to them, [Deu 31:30].
Verse 2
I am a hundred and twenty years old - The life of Moses, the great prophet of God and lawgiver of the Jews, was exactly the same in length as the time Noah employed in preaching righteousness to the antediluvian world. These one hundred and twenty years were divided into three remarkable periods: forty years he lived in Egypt, in Pharaoh's court, acquiring all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians; (see [Act 7:20], [Act 7:23]); forty years he sojourned in the land of Midian in a state of preparation for his great and important mission; ([Act 7:29], [Act 7:30]); and forty years he guided, led, and governed the Israelites under the express direction and authority of God: in all, one hundred and twenty years.
Verse 3
Joshua, he shall go over before thee - See on [Num 27:17] (note), etc.
Verse 6
Be strong - חזקו chizku, the same word that is used [Exo 4:21] (note), [Exo 9:15] (note), for hardening Pharaoh's heart. See the notes there. The Septuagint, in this and the following verse, have, Ανδριζου και ισχυε, Play the man, and be strong; and from this St. Paul seems to have borrowed his ideas, [1Cor 16:13] : Στηκετε εν τῃ πιστει· ανδριζεσθε, κρατιουσθε: Stand firm in the faith; play the man - act like heroes; be vigorous.
Verse 8
The Lord - doth go before thee - To prepare thy way, and to direct thee.
He will be with thee - Accompany thee in all thy journeys, and assist thee in all thy enterprises.
He will not fail thee - Thy expectation, however strong and extensive, shall never be disappointed: thou canst not expect too much from him.
Neither forsake thee - He knows that without him thou canst do nothing, and therefore he will continue with thee, and in such a manner too that the excellence of the power shall appear to be of him, and not of man.
Verse 9
Moses wrote this law - Not the whole Pentateuch, but either the discourses and precepts mentioned in the preceding chapters, or the book of Deuteronomy, which is most likely.
Some of the rabbins have pretended that Moses wrote thirteen copies of the whole Pentateuch; that he gave one to each of the twelve tribes, and the thirteenth was laid up by the ark. This opinion deserves little credit. Some think that he wrote two copies, one of which he gave to the priests and Levites for general use, according to what is said in this verse, the other to be laid up beside the ark as a standard copy for reference, and to be a witness against the people should they break it or become idolatrous. This second copy is supposed to be intended [Deu 31:26]. As the law was properly a covenant or contract between God and the people, it is natural to suppose there were two copies of it, that each of the contracting parties might have one: therefore one was laid up beside the ark, this was the Lord's copy; another was given to the priests and Levites, this was the people's copy.
Verse 10
At the end of every seven years - thou shalt read this law - Every seventh year was a year of release, [Deu 15:1], at which time the people's minds, being under a peculiar degree of solemnity, were better disposed to hear and profit by the words of God. I suppose on this ground also that the whole book of Deuteronomy is meant, as it alone contains an epitome of the whole Pentateuch. And in this way some of the chief Jewish rabbins understand this place.
It is strange that this commandment, relative to a public reading of the law every seven years, should have been rarely attended to. It does not appear that from the time mentioned [Jos 8:30], at which time this public reading first took place, till the reign of Jehoshaphat [2Chr 17:7], there was any public seventh year reading - a period of 530 years. The next seventh year reading was not till the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, [2Chr 34:30], a space of two hundred and eighty-two years. Nor do we find any other publicly mentioned from this time till the return from the Babylonish captivity, [Neh 8:2]. Nor is there any other on record from that time to the destruction of Jerusalem. See Dodd.
Verse 16
Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers - שכב shocheb, thou shalt lie down; it signifies to rest, take rest in sleep, and, metaphorically, to die. Much stress cannot be safely laid on this expression to prove the immortality of the soul, or that the people in the time of Moses had a distinct notion of its separate existence. It was, however, understood in this sense by Jonathan ben Uzziel, who in his Targum paraphrases the word thus: "Thou shalt lie down in the dust with thy fathers; and thy soul (נשמתך nishmethach) shall be laid up in the treasury of the life to come with thy fathers."
Verse 18
I will surely hide my face - Withdraw my approbation and my protection. This is a general meaning of the word in Scripture.
Verse 19
Write ye this song - The song which follows in the next chapter. Things which were of great importance and of common concern were, among the ancients, put into verse, as this was found the best method of keeping them in remembrance, especially in those times when writing was little practiced. Even prose was sometimes sung. The history of Herodotus was divided into Nine books, and each inscribed with the name of one of the Nine Muses, because these books were anciently sung. Homer is reported to have sung his poems through different Greek cities. Aristotle observes that anciently the people sung their laws. And Cicero observes that it was a custom among the ancient Romans to sing the praises of their heroes at the public festivals. This was the case among the northern inhabitants of Europe, particularly in Ireland and Scotland; hence the Gaelic poetry of Ossian and others. See Dodd; and see the note on [Exo 15:1], where the subject is largely treated.
Verse 21
This song shall testify against them - Because in it their general defection is predicted, but in such a way as to show them how to avoid the evil; and if they did not avoid the evil, and the threatened punishment should come upon them, then the song should testify against them, by showing that they had been sufficiently warned, and might have lived to God, and so escaped those disasters.