Nitzavim Vayelech 1st Portion
9 All
of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God [Moses
assembled them before the Holy One Blessed be he on the day of his death to
bring them into the covenant]—your leaders and chief men, your elders and
officials, and [in order of prominence, followed by] all the other men of
Israel,
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
In the presence of
the Lord your God—In his presence, who
sees your hearts and carriages; and before his tabernacle, where it is probable
they were now called together, and assembled for this work. See Deu 29:1.
Rashi’s Commentary
All of you are standing—This teaches that Moses assembled them in the presence of the
Omnipresent on the day of his death, in order to initiate them into a covenant
with him.
Your elders and officials—The more prominent were in front (i.e. they stood before the Lord
in the order of their rank), and afterwards: “all the . . . men of Israel.”
The Adam Clarke Commentary
All of you are standing . . . in the
presence of the Lord—They were about to enter
into a covenant with God; and as a covenant implies two parties contracting,
God is represented as being present, and they and all their families, old and
young, come before him.
Whedon’s Commentary on the Bible
Your leaders . . . elders . . .
officials, and all the . . . men of Israel—The
Hebrew is better rendered, your leaders and chief men, your elders and
officials, every man of Israel.
10 together
with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who
chop your wood and carry your water [these were Canaanites who came by
stratagem to convert in the days of Moses, as the Gibeonites did in the days of
Joshua (see Jos 9:4)].
Ellicott’s Commentary for English
Readers
Who chop your wood and carry your
water—From this Rashi infers that “there were
Canaanites who became proselytes in the time of Moses, in the same way as the
Gibeonites in the days of Joshua.” It may have been so. And we know that there
were many female captives of the Midianites who became slaves. (See Num 31)
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
Foreigners—Such foreigners as had embraced their religion.
11 You
are standing here in order to enter into a covenant [the makers of a covenant
would make a partition on both sides, through which they would pass] with
the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you
this day and sealing with an oath,
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Into . . . covenant and sealing with
an oath—Into . . . covenant, confirmed by a solemn
oath.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
Into . . . covenant and sealing with
an oath—i.e. into . . . covenant or agreement,
confirmed by a solemn oath.
12 [he is
doing all this] to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God
as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob [not
to exchange you for another nation, for which reason he binds you with these
oaths, so that you not provoke him].
Joseph Benson’s Commentary
To confirm you—Here is the summary of that covenant whereof Moses was the
mediator; and in the covenant relation between God and them, all the precepts
and promises of the covenant are included. That they should be established for
a people to him, to fear, love, obey, and be devoted to him, and that he should
be to them a God, to make them holy and happy; and a due sense of the relation
we stand in to God as our God, and the obligation we are under to him as his
people, is enough to bring us to all the duties and all the comforts of the
covenant. And does this covenant include nothing spiritual? nothing that refers
to eternity?
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
To confirm you—Here is the summary of that covenant whereof Moses was the
mediator, and in the covenant relation between God and them, all the precepts
and promises of the covenant are included. That they should be established for
a people to him, to fear, love, obey, and be devoted to him, and that he should
be to them a God, to make them holy and happy; and a due sense of the relation
we stand in to God as our God, and the obligation we are under to him as his
people, is enough to bring us to all the duties, and all the comforts of the
covenant. And does this covenant include nothing spiritual? nothing that refers
to eternity?
Rashi’s Commentary
To confirm you this day as his
people—He undertakes so much trouble (in making
another covenant with you) in order that he may keep you as his people.
13 I am
making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you
14 who
are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God
but also with those who are not here today [even the future generations].
Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible
With those who are not here—i. e. as the Jews explain, posterity; which throughout all
generations was to be taken as bound by the act and deed of those present and
living.
Rashi’s Commentary
But also with those who are
not here—i.e. with the generations that will be in
future (i.e. Moses is not referring to persons who happened to be absent from
the assembly, for it states, v. 10, that all were present: “All of you are
standing today in the presence of the Lord”) (Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim
3).
The Adam Clarke Commentary
Who are standing here—The present generation.
Those who are not here—All future generations of this people.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy
Bible
Also with those who are not here
today—That is, say the generality of interpreters,
“I renew this covenant with you, not only for yourselves who are here present,
but also for your posterity to latest ages.” But Houbigant is of opinion, that
these words of Moses are of the same import with those of St. Paul, Jews
and barbarians; or, the Jew first, and afterwards the Greek:
with us, signifying the Jewish nation; the other words, the Gentiles
with whom God entered into the same covenant which he made to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, because the Gentiles were hereafter to inherit the same faith; and
there can be no doubt, he says, that the words, those who are not here
today, plainly denote other men than the Jews themselves.
15 You
yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries
on the way here [and which some of you might be tempted to join].
Joseph Benson’s Commentary
We passed through the countries—With what hazard, if God had not appeared for us!
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Through the countries—With what hazard, if God had not appeared for us!
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
How we passed through the countries—i.e. with what hazards, if God had not appeared for us.
Rashi’s Commentary
You . . . know etc.—The meaning of these verses is: Because you have seen the
conduct of the other nations, and perhaps the heart of one of you might beguile
him to follow them, as it goes on to state, “Make sure there is no man or
woman, clan or tribe among you . . . ,” on this account I must place you under
an oath.
16 You
saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone [which were
open to view and idols] of silver and gold [which they kept with them in
secret, fearing that they would be stolen].
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
What sorry tools they are, what
senseless and ridiculous deities; so that you have great reason to value your
God, and to cleave to him in covenant, and to take heed of such abominable
idolatries.
Rashi’s Commentary
You saw . . . their detestable
images—Idols are so termed because they are
loathsome like unclean things that are held in abomination.
Idols—Thus
termed because they are detestable (lit., malodorous) and loathsome like dung (גָּלָל).
Wood and stone—Those of wood and stone you have seen exposed openly, because the
heathen was not afraid lest they might be stolen; those of silver and gold, however,
are with them, in the confines of their private treasure chambers (cf.
Rashi on Exo 8:12 whence he borrowed this expression), because they were afraid
they might be stolen (Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 3).
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Idols—Heb.
dungy gods.
17 Make
sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns
away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those
nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison [i.e.,
generating evil in your midst].
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Root—An
evil heart inclining you to such cursed idolatry, and bringing forth bitter
fruits.
Joseph Benson’s Commentary
Make sure there is no man or woman .
. . among you—These words are to be considered as
connected with Deu 29:13-14, and as signifying the end for which he engaged
them to renew their covenant with God, that none of them might revolt from him
to worship other gods.
Make sure there is no root—An evil heart inclining you to such cursed idolatry, and bringing
forth bitter fruits: or rather, some secret or subtle apostate from the true
God and his religion, secretly lurking and working as a root under ground, and
spreading his poison to the infection of others; for both the foregoing and
following words speak of some particular person.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
Bitter poison—i.e. which though for the present it may please your fancy, yet in
the end, assure yourselves, will produce bitter fruits, not only distasteful to
God, but also poisonful and destructive to yourselves.
Rashi’s Commentary
Whose heart turns away from accepting the covenant upon himself.
No root . . . that produces . . .
bitter poison—i.e. a root that brings forth herbs
bitter as wormwood-plants, which are very bitter. The meaning is: Lest there be
a man or woman or family or tribe that fruitfully produces and increases
wickedness in your midst.
18 When
such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on
themselves, thinking, [These curses will not come upon me, but] “I will be
safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on
the watered land as well as the dry.
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Of this oath—Of that oath where-in he swore he would keep covenant with God,
and that with a curse pronounced against himself if he did not perform it.
Invoke a blessing on themselves—Flatter himself in his own eyes, with vain hopes, as if God did
not mind such things, and either could not, or would not punish them.
Be safe—Safety
and prosperity.
My own way—Though I do not follow God’s command, but my own devices.
Joseph Benson’s Commentary
The words of this oath—This oath and execration, wherein he swore he would keep covenant
with God, and that with a curse pronounced against himself if he did not
perform it.
Invoke a blessing on themselves—Flatter himself in his own eyes with vain hopes, as if God did not
mind such things, and either could not, or would not punish them.
Be safe—Safety
and prosperity.
My own way—Though I do not follow God’s command, but my own devices.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
When such a person—i.e. that root or that man mentioned Deu 29:17.
Of this oath—i.e. of that oath mentioned Deu 29:11, wherein he swore that he
would keep covenant with God, and that with a curse pronounced against himself
if he did not perform it. Now if when he reads this again, or hears of it from
others.
Be safe—i.e.
safety and prosperity.
Rashi’s Commentary
And they invoke a blessing on
themselves—The word וְהִתְבָּרֵךְ has
the meaning of “blessing.” In his heart he will imagine for himself a blessing
of peace, saying, “These curses will not come upon me, I will be safe.”
They will bring disaster on the
watered land—In order that I may bring disaster for
him even for the sins he has committed until now inadvertently (for which the
figurative expression in this sentence is הָרָוָה, disaster: cf. the following passage in Rashi), and which I used to
overlook; but now he causes me to combine them with those committed with
premeditation and to exact punishment from him for everything. Onkelos, too, rendered
it in a similar sense: “they will bring disaster incurred for the sins
of inadvertence to those of premeditation,” which can only mean “That ‘I’ may bring
for him disaster incurred for the sins of inadvertence to those of
presumption.”
Disaster on the watered land figuratively describes
the condition of a drunk, one who acts inadvertently. The expression is an apt
one because he acts like a drunken man who does things unwittingly.
The dry
aptly describes the attitude of one who acts wittingly and out of desire.
The Adam Clarke Commentary
They will bring disaster on the
watered land as well as the dry—A proverbial
expression denoting the utmost indulgence in all sensual gratifications.
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
They will bring—A very forcible metaphor, denoting the natural progress and
increasing avidity of sinful passions and depraved inclinations; which lead men
to drink down iniquity as the drunkard does his liquor, without regard to the
consequences. Some render, “they will bring disaster on the dry land as well as
the watered;” and then it implies the insatiableness of men's sinful passions,
which hanker for more and more indulgence after the greatest excesses.
Disaster on the watered land as well
as the dry—Heb. the drunken to the thirsty.
Whedon’s Commentary on the Bible
They will bring disaster on the
watered land as well as the dry—The literal
translation is, so that satiety increases thirst. The whole
passage has almost baffled the ingenuity of commentators. We think the meaning
is, I will be safe, even though I do not keep the laws of God, even though I do
what is pleasing to myself and indulge my passions to satiety—even to a satiety
that produces greater longing for indulgence.
19 The Lord will
never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them.
All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and
the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.
Rashi’s Commentary
And zeal—This is a term denoting wrath, emportment in old French; it means:
retaining one’s hold on the “garment of vengeance,” and not forgoing one’s
right to punish.
20
The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for
disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of
the Law.
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on the
Whole Bible
For disaster—For some peculiar and exemplary plague; he will make him a
monument of his displeasure to the whole land.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
For disaster—i.e. unto some peculiar and exemplary plague; he will make him a
monument of his displeasure to the whole land.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy
Bible
The Lord will single them
out . . . for disaster—Such a presumptuous sinner
may think to escape in a crowd, and flatter himself that the blessings promised
to God’s people, among whom he lives, will be his portion; but he shall be
singled out, and set apart, as a striking monument of God’s displeasure, according
to all the curses of the covenant.
21 Your
children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from
distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the
diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory
on the Whole Bible—Unabridged
See the calamities that have fallen
on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it—The picture of a once rich and flourishing region blasted and
doomed in consequence of the sins of its inhabitants is very striking, and
calculated to awaken awe in every reflecting mind. Such is, and long has been,
the desolate state of Palestine.
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Which the Lord has
afflicted it—Heb. wherewith the Lord has made it
sick.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
The words following, Deu 29:23-24,
&c.
22 The
whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing
sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in
fierce anger.
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Salt and sulfur—Is burnt up and made barren, as with a burning waste of salt.
Whedon’s Commentary on the Bible
The whole land will be a burning
waste—The description is taken from the Dead Sea
and the destruction of the Cities of the Plain.
23 All
the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why
this fierce, burning anger?”
24 And
the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of
the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when
he brought them out of Egypt.
25 They
went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not
know [to be potent], gods he had not given them.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English
Readers
Gods he had not given—The latter clause may be a change from plural to singular. “They
went . . . and worshiped other gods, gods they did not know, none of whom gave
them any portion.”
E.W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible
Notes
Given—Divided.
Joseph Benson’s Commentary
Gods he had not given—For their worship, but had divided to all nations, for their use
and service. So he speaks here of the sun, and moon, and stars, which were the
principal gods worshiped by the neighbouring nations.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
Who had not given them—To wit, any thing: it is an ellipsis of the accusative, which is
very frequent: gods known to them by no benefits received from them, as they
had from their God, whom therefore it was the greater folly and ingratitude to
forsake.
Rashi’s Commentary
Gods they did not know—i.e. in whom they had never experienced any divine power.
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gods he had, etc.—Or, who had not given to them any portion.
Given—Heb.
divided.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy
Bible
Gods he had not given them—Houbigant renders this, and with whom they had no
society. Le Clerc reads, none of whom had given them any
thing. Most of the ancient versions, as well as the margin of our
Bibles, agree in the latter interpretation.
26
Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on
it all the curses written in this book.
27 In
furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their
land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
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