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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:1-40

This most lively and excellent discourse is so entire, and the particulars of it are so often repeated, that we must take it altogether in the exposition of it, and endeavour to digest it into proper heads, for we cannot divide it into paragraphs. I. In general, it is the use and application of the foregoing history; it comes in by way of inference from it: Now therefore harken, O Israel, Deut. 4:1. This use we should make of the review of God's providences concerning us, we should by them be... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:11

And ye came near and stood under the mountain ,.... At the foot of it, in the lower part of the mountain, as the Targum of Jonathan, and agrees with Exodus 19:17 . and the mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven ; the flame and smoke went up into the middle of the air: with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness; which thick darkness was occasioned partly by the smoke, which went up like the smoke of a furnace, and partly by the thick clouds, which were on the mount, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:12

And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire ,.... For the Lord descended on Mount Sinai in a cloud, in fire, and was in the thick darkness, from whence he delivered out the ten commands: ye heard the voice of the words ; distinctly and plainly, not only the sound of them, but the words themselves, and so as to understand what was meant by them: but saw no similitude ; not any likeness of the person speaking, by which they could form any idea of him in their minds, which... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 4:11

Verse 11 11And ye came near, and stood. This explanatory narrative is intended to prove the same thing, viz., that Moses was only the ambassador and minister of God, because the mountain burned in the sight of all the people, that God might be manifested, speaking from the midst of the fire. His statement that they only heard the voice, but saw no similitude, may be understood as a kind of admission, (concessionis.) Thus the two clauses would be read adversatively, “Although no similitude... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Deuteronomy 4:12

Verse 12 Deuteronomy 4:12.And the Lord spake unto you. It is a confirmation of the Second Commandment, that God manifested Himself to the Israelites by a voice, and not in a bodily form; whence it follows that those who are not contented with His voice, but seek His visible form, substitute imaginations and phantoms in His place. But here arises a difficult question, for God made Himself known to the patriarchs in other ways besides by His voice alone; thus Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:1-13

The sacredness of the Divine Law. Law, being the utterance of righteousness, is unalterable as righteousness itself, permanent amid all the mutations of human affairs. Its requirements are statutes, stable as the everlasting hills. I. LAW IS THE VERITABLE VOICE OF GOD ; the manifestation of his thought; the mirror of his mind. "The Lord spake unto you." "Out of the midst of the fire" the flame of holiness and zeal—issues every command. If man's moral nature has an... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:1-14

Obedience the secret of success. Moses here reminds Israel of the privilege it possesses as a nation in having the oracles of God committed unto it ( Romans 3:2 ). He urges obedience upon them as the one purpose for which they are to be introduced into the Promised Land. National prosperity depends upon this. And here we have to notice— I. DISOBEDIENCE HAS ALREADY PROVED FATAL . He recalls the terrible experience in connection with Dual-peer—how the people in large numbers... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:1-14

Obedience the secret of success. Moses here reminds Israel of the privilege it possesses as a nation in having the oracles of God committed unto it ( Romans 3:2 ). He urges obedience upon them as the one purpose for which they are to be introduced into the Promised Land. National prosperity depends upon this. And here we have to notice— I. DISOBEDIENCE HAS ALREADY PROVED FATAL . He recalls the terrible experience in connection with Dual-peer—how the people in large numbers... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:1-28

The curse of idolatry. Idolatry is the general bias of fallen humanity, the perversion of an innate principle, the misgrowth of the religious instinct. Men everywhere "feel after God, if haply they may find him." Absolute atheism cannot long endure anywhere. If men reject a personal Deity, they invent an inferior God, and practically worship that. The wildest atheist which the world has seen, must admit that there is some power or force in the world superior to himself. There is no... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 4:1-40

EXPOSITION ADMONITIONS AND EXHORTATIONS . Moses, having presented to the people certain facts in their recent history which had in them a specially animating and encouraging tendency, proceeds to direct his discourse to the inculcation of duties and exhortations to obedience to the Divine enactments. This portion also of his address is of an introductory character as well as what precedes. read more

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