Deuteronomy 4:14

Deu 4:14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

Ver. 14. Statutes and judgments.] {See Trapp on "Deu 1:1"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu_4:14

That ye might do them.

Knowledge and practice

I. God is the one great source both of truth and of authority.

1. The office of every true teacher is to unfold the revelation of the Eternal, whether in nature, in history, or in the written Word.

2. The office of every true lawgiver and ruler is to expound and enforce the precepts and commandments of the Lord of lords. There is no sound knowledge, and no law worthy of reverence, which does not emanate from the Supreme.

II. True religion corresponds to the composite nature of man, as a being possessed of intelligence and endowed with will.

1. False religions are one-sided: they either embody certain theories and doctrines and neglect morality, or they prescribe certain services without basing them on eternal truth.

2. Judaism appealed to the understanding in its many statements regarding God and regarding human life; it appealed to the practical nature in its rigid prescriptions of duty, its rigid prohibitions of sin.

3. Christianity is the highest example of the combination of the doctrinal and the moral, laying a foundation of truth and love, and rearing upon it an edifice of obedience and holiness.

III. Acceptable obedience consists in at once receiving the Gospel and doing the will of Christ. An empty profession of faith and a soulless conformity of conduct are alike repugnant to a heart-searching God. The true Christian shows his faith by his works. (Family Churchman.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 4:14. To teach you statutes and judgments — This relates to the rest of the laws which God gave to Moses, immediately after he himself had delivered to them the ten commandments, (Exodus 21.,) it being the people’s desire that God would communicate to them the rest of his will by Moses.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. And the Lord commanded me at that time, etc.] Heb. emphasises me; these additional laws given through Moses appear, from the following phrase, to be the laws he is now about to publish, cp. Deu_4:5; yet the words at that time point to the inclusion with them of the laws at Ḥoreb, E, Exo_20:22 to Exo_23:33.

whither ye go over to possess it] A phrase peculiar to passages in the Pl. address. Contrast Deu_4:5. See on Deu_6:1.

Deu_4:13 f. form a slight digression from the main subject of 9–24, and are taken by some as a later intrusion. But this is to forget the general discursiveness of the author. See too next note.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord commanded me at that time,.... When the ten commandments were delivered on Mount Sinai, and Moses was ordered to come up to God in the mount:

to teach you statutes and judgments; laws ceremonial and judicial, besides the ten commands given them:

that ye may do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it; the land of Canaan, which was on the other side of Jordan, and over which they must go in order to possess it; and when they came there, they were to hold the possession of it by attending to those laws which forbad the sins for which the old inhabitants of it were expelled out of it; and besides these, there were also several laws, both ceremonial and judicial, which were to be peculiarly observed in the land, as well as others they were obliged to do while without it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Statutes and judgments, i.e. the ceremonial and judicial laws, which are here distinguished from the moral, or the ten commandments, Deu 4:13.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Statutes and judgments - The ceremonial and judicial laws which are here distinguished from the moral, or the ten commandments.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Warning Against Idolatry

v. 14. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it, namely, the precepts contained in the legislation beginning with Exodus 21.

v. 15. Take ye, therefore, good heed unto yourselves, every one was to watch carefully over his soul; for ye saw no manner of similitude, no form or outline which could be used as the basis for a picture, on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire;

v. 16. lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, either carved or hewn, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

v. 17. the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

v. 18. the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth, any statue or picture whatever which might be used for purposes of gross idolatry;

v. 19. and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even. all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, Rom 1:25, and serve them, which the Lord, thy God, hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. God’s original purpose was that the heavenly bodies should serve mankind, Gen 1:17-18. Since the heathen, however, carried away by the lure of the unknown, by the enticement of the light bodies, had given them divine honor, the Lord had permitted them to remain in their foolishness, as a punishment for turning from Him.

v. 20. But the Lord hath taken you and brought you forth out of their on furnace, a significant picture of the most severe misery and oppression, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day, Exo 19:5.

v. 21. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, Num 20:12, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee for an inheritance;

v. 22. but I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan; but ye shall go over and possess that good land. The wistful tone which Moses employs shows how deeply he was affected by the Lord’s ruling that excluded him from the Land of Promise.

v. 23. Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord, your God, which he made with you, and make you, a graven image or the likeness of anything which the Lord, thy God, hath forbidden thee.

v. 24. For the Lord, thy God, is a consuming fire, even a jealous God, whose righteous anger devours the children of disobedience. We should remember at all times that God will not be mocked, but that He resents every attack upon His holiness and righteousness and will punish all willful transgressors.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ואתי צוה, ה' ללמד אתכם AND THE LORD COMMANDED ME TO TEACH YOU, the Oral Law.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.