---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Deuteronomy 4"
description: "CHAPTER 4   :-. AN EXHORTATION
TO OBEDIENCE. 1. hearken, O Israel, unto the
statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you—By statutes
were meant all"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/deuteronomy/4"
---

CHAPTER 4

. AN EXHORTATION
TO OBEDIENCE.

**1. hearken, O Israel, unto the
statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you**—By statutes
were meant all ordinances respecting religion and the rites of divine
worship; and by judgments, all enactments relative to civil matters.
The two embraced the whole law of God.

**2. Ye shall not add unto the word
which I command you**—by the introduction of any heathen
superstition or forms of worship different from those which I have
appointed ([Deuteronomy 12:32](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/12/32); [Numbers 15:39](../../../kjv/numbers/15/39);
[Matthew 15:9](../../../kjv/matthew/15/9)).
**neither shall ye diminish
aught from it**—by the neglect or omission of any of the
observances, however trivial or irksome, which I have prescribed. The
character and provisions of the ancient dispensation were adapted
with divine wisdom to the instruction of that infant state of the
church. But it was only a temporary economy; and although God here
authorizes Moses to command that all its institutions should be
honored with unfailing observance, this did not prevent Him from
commissioning other prophets to alter or abrogate them when the end
of that dispensation was attained.

**3, 4. Your eyes have seen what the
Lord did because of Baal-peor . . . the Lord thy God hath destroyed
them from among you**—It appears that the pestilence and the
sword of justice overtook only the guilty in that affair () while the rest of the people were spared. The allusion to
that recent and appalling judgment was seasonably made as a powerful
dissuasive against idolatry, and the fact mentioned was calculated to
make a deep impression on people who knew and felt the truth of it.

**5, 6. this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these
statutes**—Moses predicted that the faithful observance of the
laws given them would raise their national character for intelligence
and wisdom. In point of fact it did do so; for although the heathen
world generally ridiculed the Hebrews for what they considered a
foolish and absurd exclusiveness, some of the most eminent
philosophers expressed the highest admiration of the fundamental
principle in the Jewish religion—the unity of God; and their
legislators borrowed some laws from the constitution of the Hebrews.

**7-9. what nation is there so
great**—Here he represents their privileges and their duty in
such significant and comprehensive terms, as were peculiarly
calculated to arrest their attention and engage their interest. The
former, their national advantages, are described ([Deuteronomy 4:7](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/4/7);
[Deuteronomy 4:8](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/4/8)), and they were twofold:
1. God's readiness to hear and aid them at all times; and 2. the
excellence of that religion in which they were instructed, set forth
in the "statutes and judgments so righteous" which the law
of Moses contained. Their duty corresponding to these pre-eminent
advantages as a people, was also twofold: 1. their own faithful
obedience to that law; and 2. their obligation to imbue the minds of
the young and rising generation with similar sentiments of reverence
and respect for it.

**10. the day that thou stoodest
before the Lord . . . in Horeb**—The delivery of the law from
Sinai was an era never to be forgotten in the history of Israel. Some
of those whom Moses was addressing had been present, though very
young; while the rest were federally represented by their parents,
who in their name and for their interest entered into the national
covenant.

**12. ye heard the voice of the words,
but saw no similitude**—Although articulate sounds were heard
emanating from the mount, no form or representation of the Divine
Being who spoke was seen to indicate His nature or properties
according to the notions of the heathen.
. A PARTICULAR
DISSUASIVE AGAINST
IDOLATRY.

**15. Take . . . good heed . . . for
ye saw no manner of similitude**—The extreme proneness of the
Israelites to idolatry, from their position in the midst of
surrounding nations already abandoned to its seductions, accounts for
their attention being repeatedly drawn to the fact that God did not
appear on Sinai in any visible form; and an earnest caution, founded
on that remarkable circumstance, is given to beware, not only of
making representations of false gods, but also any fancied
representation of the true God.

**16-19. Lest ye corrupt yourselves,
and make you a graven image**—The things are here specified of
which God prohibited any image or representation to be made for the
purposes of worship; and, from the variety of details entered into,
an idea may be formed of the extensive prevalence of idolatry in that
age. In whatever way idolatry originated, whether from an intention
to worship the true God through those things which seemed to afford
the strongest evidences of His power, or whether a divine principle
was supposed to reside in the things themselves, there was scarcely
an element or object of nature but was deified. This was particularly
the case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against whose
superstitious practices the caution, no doubt, was chiefly directed.
The former worshipped Baal and Astarte, the latter Osiris and Isis,
under the figure of a male and a female. It was in Egypt that
animal-worship most prevailed, for the natives of that country
deified among beasts the ox, the heifer, the sheep, and the goat, the
dog, the cat, and the ape; among birds, the ibis, the hawk, and the
crane; among reptiles, the crocodile, the frog, and the beetle; among
fishes, all the fish of the Nile; some of these, as Osiris and Isis,
were worshipped over all Egypt, the others only in particular
provinces. In addition they embraced the Zabian superstition, the
adoration of the Egyptians, in common with that of many other people,
extending to the whole starry host. The very circumstantial details
here given of the Canaanitish and Egyptian idolatry were owing to the
past and prospective familiarity of the Israelites with it in all
these forms.

**20. But the Lord hath taken you, and
brought you forth out of the iron furnace**—that is, furnace for
smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is round, sometimes thirty feet
deep, and requiring the highest intensity of heat. Such is the
tremendous image chosen to represent the bondage and affliction of
the Israelites [ROSENMULLER].
**to be unto him a people of
inheritance**—His peculiar possession from age to age; and
therefore for you to abandon His worship for that of idols,
especially the gross and debasing system of idolatry that prevails
among the Egyptians, would be the greatest folly—the blackest
ingratitude.

**26. I call heaven and earth to
witness against you**—This solemn form of adjuration has been
common in special circumstances among all people. It is used here
figuratively, or as in other parts of Scripture where inanimate
objects are called up as witnesses ([Deuteronomy 32:1](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/32/1);
[Isaiah 1:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/1/2)).

**28. there ye shall serve gods, the
work of men's hands**—The compulsory measures of their tyrannical
conquerors would force them into idolatry, so that their choice would
become their punishment.

**30. in the latter days, if thou turn
to the Lord thy God**—either towards the destined close of their
captivities, when they evinced a returning spirit of repentance and
faith, or in the age of Messiah, which is commonly called "the
latter days," and when the scattered tribes of Israel shall be
converted to the Gospel of Christ. The occurrence of this auspicious
event will be the most illustrious proof of the truth of the promise
made in [Deuteronomy 4:31](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/4/31).

**41-43. Then Moses severed three
cities on this side Jordan**—(See on ).

**44-49. this is the law which Moses
set before the children of Israel**—This is a preface to the
rehearsal of the law, which, with the addition of various explanatory
circumstances, the following chapters contain.

**46. Beth-peor**—that is, "house"
or "temple of Peor." It is probable that a temple of this
Moabite idol stood in full view of the Hebrew camp, while Moses was
urging the exclusive claims of God to their worship, and this
allusion would be very significant if it were the temple where so
many of the Israelites had grievously offended.

**44-49. this is the law which Moses
set before the children of Israel**—This is a preface to the
rehearsal of the law, which, with the addition of various explanatory
circumstances, the following chapters contain.

**49. The springs of Pisgah**—more
frequently, Ashdoth-pisgah ([Deuteronomy 3:17](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/17);
[Joshua 12:3](../../../kjv/joshua/12/3); [Joshua 13:20](../../../kjv/joshua/13/20)),
the roots or foot of the mountains east of the Jordan.

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