Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Deuteronomy 26:16 - 26:16

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Deuteronomy 26:16 - 26:16


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

At the close of his discourse, Moses sums up the whole in the earnest admonition that Israel would give the Lord its God occasion to fulfil the promised glorification of His people, by keeping His commandments with all their heart and soul.

Deu 26:16-17

On this day the Lord commanded Israel to keep these laws and rights with all the heart and all the soul (cf. Deu 6:5; Deu 10:12.). There are two important points contained in this (Deu 26:17.). The acceptance of the laws laid before them on the part of the Israelites involved a practical declaration that the nation would accept Jehovah as its God, and walk in His way (Deu 26:17); and the giving of the law on the part of the Lord was a practical confirmation of His promise that Israel should be His people of possession, which He would glorify above all nations (Deu 26:18, Deu 26:19). “Thou hast let the Lord say to-day to be thy God,” i.e., hast given Him occasion to say to thee that He will be thy God, manifest Himself to thee as thy God. “And to walk in His ways, and to keep His laws,” etc., for “and that thou wouldst walk in His ways, and keep His laws.” The acceptance of Jehovah as its God involved eo ipso a willingness to walk in His ways.

Deu 26:18-19

At the same time, Jehovah had caused the people to be told that they were His treasured people of possession, as He had said in Exo 19:5-6; and that if they kept all His commandments, He would set them highest above all nations whom He had created, “for praise, and for a name, and for glory,” i.e., make them an object of praise, and renown, and glorification of God, the Lord and Creator of Israel, among all nations (vid., Jer 33:9 and Jer 13:11; Jer 3:19-20). “And that it should become a holy people unto the Lord,” as He had already said in Exo 19:6. The sanctification of Israel was the design and end of its divine election, and would be accomplished in the glory to which the people of God were to be exalted (see the commentary on Exo 19:5-6). The Hiphil הֶאֱמִיר, which is only found here, has no other meaning than this, “to cause a person to say,” or “give him occasion to say;” and this is perfectly appropriate here, whereas the other meaning suggested, “to exalt,” has no tenable support either in the paraphrastic rendering of these verses in the ancient versions, or in the Hithpael in Psa 94:4, and moreover is altogether unsuitable in Deu 26:17.