Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
In this chapter and the following ones up to XII, Moses, having repeated the Decalogue and certain laws, urges the people to observe them, especially by recalling the benefits God bestowed upon them; whence, throughout this entire chapter, he presses the benefit of the law given at Sinai, with fire and smoke: then in verse 41, he designates three cities of refuge, for accidental and involuntary homicides.
Vulgate Text: Deuteronomy 4:1-49
1. And now, Israel, hear the precepts and judgments which I teach you; that doing them, you may live, and entering in may possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers will give you. 2. You shall not add to the word which I speak to you, nor take away from it: keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3. Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did against Baal-Peor, how He destroyed all their worshipers from among you. 4. But you who cleave to the Lord your God are all alive to this day. 5. You know that I have taught you precepts and justices, as the Lord my God commanded me: so you shall do them in the land which you are about to possess, 6. and you shall observe and fulfill them in deed. For this is your wisdom and understanding before the peoples, that hearing all these precepts they may say: Behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation. 7. Neither is there any other nation so great, that has gods so near to it, as our God is present to all our supplications. 8. For what other nation is so renowned as to have ceremonies, and just judgments, and the whole law which I shall set before your eyes today? 9. Keep yourself therefore, and your soul carefully. Do not forget the words which your eyes have seen, and let them not fall from your heart all the days of your life. You shall teach them to your sons and grandsons, 10. from the day on which you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord spoke to me, saying: Gather the people to Me, that they may hear My words, and may learn to fear Me all the time that they live upon the earth, and may teach their children. 11. And you came to the foot of the mountain, which burned even to heaven: and there was in it darkness, and clouds, and thick darkness. 12. And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of fire. You heard the voice of His words, but you saw no form at all. 13. And He showed you His covenant, which He commanded you to do, and the ten words which He wrote on two tablets of stone. 14. And He commanded me at that time that I should teach you the ceremonies and judgments which you should do in the land which you are about to possess. 15. Keep therefore your souls carefully. You saw no likeness on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of fire: 16. lest being deceived you make for yourselves a graven likeness, or image of male or female, 17. the likeness of any beast that is upon the earth, or of birds that fly under heaven, 18. or of creeping things that move upon the earth, or of fishes that abide in the waters under the earth: 19. lest perhaps lifting up your eyes to heaven, you see the sun and moon and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error you adore them and serve them, which the Lord your God created for the service of all the nations that are under heaven. 20. But the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron furnace of Egypt, that He might have a people of inheritance, as it is to this day. 21. And the Lord was angry with me on your account, and He swore that I should not cross the Jordan, nor enter the excellent land which He will give you. 22. Behold, I die in this land; I shall not cross the Jordan: you shall cross over and possess that noble land. 23. Beware lest you ever forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven likeness of those things which the Lord has forbidden to be made: 24. because the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 25. If you shall beget sons and grandsons, and have dwelt in the land, and being deceived make for yourselves any likeness, committing evil before the Lord your God, so as to provoke Him to anger: 26. I call heaven and earth to witness this day that you will quickly perish from the land which, having crossed the Jordan, you are about to possess; you will not dwell in it for a long time; but the Lord will destroy you, 27. and scatter you among all nations, and you will remain few in number among the nations to which the Lord will lead you. 28. And there you will serve gods that were made by the hands of men, of wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29. And when you shall seek there the Lord your God, you shall find Him: if however you seek Him with your whole heart, and with the whole tribulation of your soul. 30. After all the things that have been foretold shall have come upon you, in the last time you will return to the Lord your God, and will hear His voice. 31. Because the Lord your God is a merciful God: He will not forsake you, nor altogether destroy you, nor forget the covenant in which He swore to your fathers. 32. Ask about the days of old, which were before you, from the day when God created man upon the earth, from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a thing done, or it has ever been known, 33. that a people should hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard and lived: 34. whether God ever did so as to go in and take to Himself a nation from the midst of nations, by trials, signs, and wonders, by fighting, and a strong hand, and outstretched arm, and horrible visions, according to all the things that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes: 35. that you might know that the Lord Himself is God, and there is no other besides Him. 36. From heaven He made you hear His voice, that He might teach you, and on earth He showed you His very great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of fire; 37. because He loved your fathers, and chose their seed after them. And He brought you out, going before you in His great power, from Egypt, 38. to destroy nations very great and stronger than you at your entering in; and to bring you in and give you their land as a possession, as you see in this present day. 39. Know therefore this day, and think in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath, and there is no other. 40. Keep His precepts and commandments which I command you: that it may be well with you and your children after you, and you may remain a long time upon the land which the Lord your God will give you. 41. Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the east, 42. that whoever killed his neighbor unwillingly, and was not his enemy a day or two before, might flee to them, and escaping to one of these cities might be safe: 43. Bezer in the wilderness, which is situated in the plains of the tribe of Reuben: and Ramoth in Gilead, which is in the tribe of Gad: and Golan in Bashan, which is in the tribe of Manasseh. 44. This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45. And these are the testimonies, and ceremonies, and judgments which he spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, 46. beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite the shrine of Peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, whom Moses struck. And the children of Israel having come out of Egypt 47. possessed his land and the land of Og the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun. 48. From Aroer, which is situated upon the bank of the torrent Arnon, to mount Sion, which is also Hermon, 49. all the plain beyond the Jordan to the east, to the sea of the wilderness, and to the foot of mount Pisgah.
Verse 1: That Doing Them You May Live
Verse 1. THAT DOING THEM YOU MAY LIVE, -- in the present life, a long and prosperous one. See what was said on Leviticus XVIII, 5.
Verse 2: You Shall Not Add to the Word
Verse 2. YOU SHALL NOT ADD TO THE WORD WHICH I SPEAK TO YOU, NOR TAKE AWAY FROM IT. -- Heretics take these words rigidly and absolutely universally, and from them infer that no traditions are to be admitted, nor canons of the Popes, nor ceremonies of the Church.
But they say this foolishly and absurdly; for first, if this is so, then Joshua, the Prophets, Christ, and the Apostles sinned against this law, who added many things to Moses and the Pentateuch.
Second, Moses does not say "what I write" but "what I speak": therefore heretics perversely twist this to the written word of God, in order to exclude what has been handed down by the living voice of the speaker, that is, by tradition.
Third, if Moses means what the heretics want, then Moses fights against himself. For in chapter XVII, verse 10, he commands under pain of death that the decree of the priest and pontiff be obeyed.
Fourth, otherwise all Kings, Emperors, Princes, and Magistrates would sin against this law of God; for they themselves have added many edicts to these laws and judgments of God.
Fifth, Calvin admits that the Apostles added certain rites and ceremonies, and therefore new ones can be added; indeed he himself with his followers instituted a new form of the Church, new rites, new ministers, a new manner of teaching, preaching, praying, governing, and administering the sacraments: so also his Ministers every year make and institute new constitutions in their Synods, which they certainly add to this word of God.
Sixth, Moses said these words to the Jews, not to Christians, and commands them to keep circumcision and the other sacred rites and Sacraments of the old law, and to add nothing to them: therefore this law is properly ceremonial, and does not bind Christians but Jews; otherwise the heretics would have to be circumcised, eat the Passover, wear fringes, etc.: for these are the words which Moses here speaks and commands.
Granted then that we concede to the heretics that these words are to be understood as they wish; they will conclude nothing from them for their opinion: for these things were said to the Jewish people, who were small and confined to a small region, and moreover rude and dull: whence a law was given to them, distinguished by so many and such varied precepts, that no others seemed necessary; it is different with the new law, which was to be spread throughout the whole world; whence in it Christ rightly, having handed down a few universal precepts, committed other things to be ordained by the Pastors and Rulers of the Church, as Gabriel Vasquez rightly observes, I-II, Question XCV, art. 1, disputation 152, chapter IV.
I say therefore: The meaning of this passage is, as if to say: To my precepts, which I in this chapter and the following ones am about to command you, O Jews, you shall not add anything, that is, anything repugnant and contrary to them, especially what would introduce the worship and religion of Baal-Peor, as follows, or of any other new deity or idol. For to exclude these new deities and new religion and rite of worship is the intent of Moses throughout this entire chapter and everywhere in Deuteronomy. Therefore, one who teaches that Baal, Ashtoreth, the sun, the moon, and other gods are to be worshiped adds something to the law of God, which commands that the one God is to be worshiped. The word "to" therefore has the same meaning as "against"; for thus al, that is "to," is taken for "against," Psalm II, 2, Numbers XIV, 2. So Paul, Galatians I, 8, pronounces anathema on those who preach another gospel besides what he himself preached: "besides," that is, "against"; for he is speaking of those who wanted to add Judaism to Christianity, and so were overturning Christianity. By these words therefore: "You shall not add, nor take away," God only commands that His law be kept whole, so that nothing from it by adding or diminishing be corrupted or mutilated; but that it may remain whole and entire and be observed, which in another phrase, chapter V, verse 32, he says elsewhere: "You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left." Yet this is not contradicted by one who additionally adds and observes the laws of parents or human magistrates; unless parents or magistrates should command something contrary to the law of God.
Therefore by these words, "you shall not add," etc., he does not mean to say: you shall observe nothing other than what I now command; but: in this which I command you shall change nothing, by adding or diminishing, but shall do it integrally, as I command, and not otherwise. So Bellarmine and others commonly.
Second, "you shall not add to the word which I speak to you" anything, namely, as though it were mine, or said or commanded by me; for no man is permitted to pass off his own writings or precepts as precepts dictated by God, or as Sacred Scriptures. A similar phrase is in Revelation, last chapter, verse 18: "I testify," he says, "to everyone hearing the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone shall add to these things, God shall add upon him the plagues written in this book." Otherwise, not only Christ and the Prophets, but the Jews themselves added many things to the law of God, such as engravings and all the ornaments of the temple, the feast of lots under Esther, the feast of the giving of fire, the feast of the dedication, etc. For these were sanctioned and instituted not by God but by the Jews. Finally, these are not additions but rather things included in the law of God, because the law of God commands obedience to parents, magistrates, pontiffs, and their laws.
Verse 3: Your Eyes Have Seen All That the Lord Did Against Baal-Peor
Verse 3. YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN ALL THAT THE LORD DID AGAINST BAAL-PEOR, -- concerning which I spoke in Numbers chapter XXV.
Verse 6: This Is Your Wisdom and Understanding
Verse 6. FOR THIS IS YOUR WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING. -- As if to say: The keeping of these laws will show you to be wise and prudent, and to have been most wisely, most holily, and most purely taught by the wisest lawgiver, God, and by Him to be governed, heard, and defended in all things.
"A wise man," says Saint Bernard, "is one to whom each thing tastes as it is," namely, divine things as divine, human things as human, eternal things as eternal, passing things as passing.
Plutarch relates in the Banquet of the Seven Sages that they debated among themselves which people and which republic would be the best and happiest. The first, he says, Solon, answered: That in which the author of an injury is dragged to court and punished no less by the uninjured than by the one who was injured. The second, Bias, said: That in which all fear the law as a tyrant. The third, Thales: Where the citizens are neither too rich nor too poor. The fourth, Anacharsis: That in which, while other things are held in esteem, yet a higher condition is given to virtue and a lower to vice. The fifth, Cleobulus: That in which the citizens fear reproof more than the law. The sixth, Pittacus: Where it is not permitted to the wicked to hold office, but it is to the good. The seventh, Chilon: That in which the laws are listened to most, and orators least. These are true, but truer still is Moses here: "That in which the people fears God and obeys God's laws and will." This is indeed the wisest and most blessed republic.
Verse 7: No Other Nation Has Gods So Near
Verse 7. NEITHER IS THERE ANY OTHER NATION SO GREAT (so distinguished, of such dignity), THAT HAS GODS SO NEAR TO IT, AS OUR GOD IS PRESENT TO ALL OUR SUPPLICATIONS. -- For God appeared to dwell with Moses and the Hebrews in the tabernacle, to converse and speak with them, to resolve all doubts, to go before them in a pillar of cloud, and to direct and protect them in all things. Much more is God present to Christians, especially in the Venerable Sacrament, in which He dwells with us corporally, really, and essentially -- not an angel, but Christ Himself, true God and true man.
Verse 9: Do Not Forget the Words Which Your Eyes Have Seen
Verse 9. DO NOT FORGET THE WORDS (that is, the things and wonders) WHICH YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN. -- So "word" is taken for "thing," metonymically as the sign for the thing signified, in Psalm XC, 3: "He delivered me from the snare of the hunters, and from the harsh word," that is, from the harsh and bitter thing; and Luke I, 37: "No word shall be impossible with God," that is, no thing.
Verse 11: The Mountain Burned Even to Heaven
Verse 11. YOU CAME TO THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN (SINAI) WHICH BURNED EVEN TO HEAVEN. -- In Hebrew, "even to the heart of heaven," that is, to the middle of heaven, that is, to heaven itself. Understand "heaven" here not as the starry heaven, but the aerial or ethereal one, in which there are clouds. By a similar Hebraism, Jonah, David, and others are said to have been in the middle of the sea, in the midst of the waves, that is, in the very great and vast sea, in the very vast waves.
Verse 13: He Showed You His Covenant
Verse 13. HE SHOWED YOU HIS COVENANT, -- that is, the law, which is the condition of the covenant established between you and God.
THE TEN WORDS, -- the ten precepts, which were as it were the ten conditions of the covenant. The Greeks call these ten words by the compound word dekalogon (Decalogue).
Verse 15: Keep Your Souls Carefully
Verse 15. KEEP THEREFORE YOUR SOULS CAREFULLY. -- The Hebrew, with Vatablus, you may translate more pregnantly: "Be careful therefore, as dear as your soul is to you," that is, lest you violate the law of God, but that you keep it: for whoever keeps it, keeps his soul.
YOU SAW NO LIKENESS, ETC., AT HOREB, -- as if to say: at Sinai you heard God speaking, but you did not see Him through His essence, nor through an image; therefore you cannot imitate, portray, or express that likeness by fashioning a statue of a male, female, or any other thing, thinking or imagining that God is such as is shown in that statue.
The same was seen by some Gentiles, among whom Statius thus sings:
But no image, no form of God committed to metal, He delights to dwell in minds and hearts.
Agesilaus, when people urged that a certain man who beautifully imitated the nightingale's voice should be heard, replied that he had heard the nightingale herself. The same thing was to be said by the Jews to the Gentiles inviting them to images of God, namely that they had heard God Himself at Sinai.
Verse 16: Lest You Make an Image of Male or Female
Verse 16. LEST BEING DECEIVED YOU MAKE, ETC., AN IMAGE OF MALE OR FEMALE, -- as the Gentiles had some gods male, others female. Indeed, Trismegistus in the Poimandres, chapters I, III, VII, calls God male-female; for he says: "God, male-female, being life and light, begot the Word, which produces another Mind (the Holy Spirit)."
But he calls God male-female not because He truly has the sex of male and female, but because in begetting the Word He did alone everything that in human generation male and female do together. For God the Father begot His Word as a father, and at the same time conceived as a mother: otherwise this expression is unusual and sounds bad.
Verse 19: Do Not Adore What God Created for the Service of Nations
Verse 19. DO NOT ADORE THOSE THINGS WHICH GOD CREATED FOR THE SERVICE OF ALL NATIONS. -- For "which God created," the Hebrew has "which God divided," that in turns and as it were in divided time they might serve each nation and province and provide light. See Genesis I, 14. So Rabanus. Hence the Jews fable that individual nations are governed by their own star, but they themselves by God.
Verse 20: He Brought You Out of the Iron Furnace of Egypt
Verse 20. BUT YOU, ETC., HE BROUGHT OUT OF THE IRON FURNACE OF EGYPT, -- that is, from the most harsh servitude, which afflicted you grievously, and which like a furnace burned you, and like iron enclosed you, so that no exit or escape was open. So in Isaiah XLVIII, 10, it is said: "I have chosen you in the furnace of poverty"; for the poor are afflicted and burned by poverty, as by a furnace. Second, Moses alludes here to the baking of bricks, which the Hebrews fashioned in Egypt and baked in brick kilns, from which God freed them, leading them out to Canaan.
Verse 24: The Lord Your God Is a Consuming Fire
Verse 24. BECAUSE THE LORD YOUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE, -- as if to say: God is the avenger of injury done to Him, and punishes it most severely, like a fire that devastates all things. See what was said on Exodus III, 2, and Hebrews XII, 29. Wherefore the Persians, considering the force, terror, and other extraordinary qualities of fire, worshiped it as a deity. Hear Maximus of Tyre: "The Persians worship their daily fire, the sign indeed of divinity, insatiable, voracious." When they sacrifice to it, offering it food, they say: "Eat, O fire, Lord." So fire was to them sacred and eternal, which wherever the king led his army, they carried before him like a great deity, placed on silver altars. So Pierius, Hieroglyphics 46, chapter XXXVIII.
Symbolically, Saint Gregory, homily 5 on Ezekiel: "God," he says, "is a consuming fire, because the mind which He fills, He makes pure from the rust of sins."
Saint Syncletica in the Lives of the Fathers, Book V, treatise On Compunction: "There is labor," she says, "and a great struggle for the impious who are converted to God, and afterward unspeakable joy. For just as those who wish to light a fire are first filled with smoke, and from the annoyance of the smoke they weep, and so they obtain what they want -- for it is written: 'Because our God is a consuming fire' -- so we too must kindle the divine fire within ourselves, with tears and labors."
A JEALOUS GOD, -- as if to say: God is zealous, He does not tolerate a rival, but alone He wills to be worshiped supremely: concerning which see chapter V, verse 9.
Verse 26: I Call Heaven and Earth to Witness
Verse 26. I CALL HEAVEN AND EARTH TO WITNESS THIS DAY THAT YOU WILL QUICKLY PERISH. -- Note: Moses and the Prophets, by prosopopoeia, attribute life, sense, and testimony to irrational creatures, and invoke them as witnesses or judges for a most solemn adjuration, by which to pierce and move the people; especially heaven and earth, because these threats and punishments extend to all future generations: whence Moses, for the memory of this prediction and threat, did not wish to call mortal witnesses, but heaven and earth, because they endure forever. These witnesses are therefore immortal and eternal, who will persevere through all future times, and with silent voices will tell God that these things are true, and will equally cry out to men (especially those reading these words of Moses) these divine precepts and threats.
For all creatures silently obey, consent to, and attest to their Creator and His law and ordinance. Hence Baruch, chapter III, verse 34, says: "The stars gave light in their watches and rejoiced; when called they said: Here we are; and they shone with cheerfulness for Him who made them." Consequently, the same things silently, as it were, applauded and attested to these words of Moses; for he was the herald of God the Creator, as if to say: I call heaven and earth to witness, so that heaven by giving us light, and earth by sustaining us, while I speak and proclaim these things, may in reality be mute witnesses that I have foretold these things to you. Furthermore, so that when the plagues which I here predict for you shall have come to pass, they may be witnesses that this prediction and these threats of mine were true, and at the same time may be avengers and cooperators of God, who will inflict these plagues upon you through heaven and earth. For, as the Wise Man says, chapter V, 21: "The whole world shall fight with Him against the senseless." So that if these witnesses had life and voice, or if by miracle God gave them a voice, as He sometimes did, they would all cry out with one voice and condemn the impious; but as long as they do not have it, they will cry out silently and with mute voice, and condemn the impious.
So Isaiah, chapter I, verse 1, when he says: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth," uses prosopopoeia to inanimate creatures, so that the speech may be more weighty and full of indignation, and this first, to signify that the Jews received all their goods from heaven and earth through God. Second, because the Jews worshiped the sun, moon, and stones, therefore he now invokes them as their judges. Third and most importantly, because since they themselves were unwilling to hear God, he invokes inanimate things, which always obey God, so that the complaint and reproach may be most grave; he invokes, I say, as mute witnesses, so that they may at some time be avengers of their Creator -- so that heaven, says Rupert, may show itself as bronze to the Jews, and earth may show itself as iron, but especially on the day of judgment, heaven may hurl thunderbolts against them, and earth may open up beneath them. Moses does the same here, and in Deuteronomy XXX, 19, and XXXI, 28, and XXXII, 1.
Second, when he invokes heaven and earth as witnesses, he invokes all things that are in heaven and on earth, by metonymy, and especially angels and men, who are properly called witnesses. So Theodoret. And so the Poet says:
You eternal fires, and you inviolable divine power, I call to witness.
For the Platonists believed the heavenly fires, that is, the stars, to be animated by their intelligences, or presiding angels, whom they worshiped as lesser gods.
In a similar manner, when we exorcize and adjure irrational creatures, the adjuration is not directed at them, because they do not understand it; but at the rational nature which presides over them and can move them, as Saint Thomas says. So water, salt, and a house are exorcized: for partly the divine power is invoked, that it may assist in the use of these things and restrain the devil's power; partly, by divine power, the devil is commanded to depart and do no harm in these things. So locusts, mice, frogs, hailstorms, tempests, etc. are exorcized, that God may avert their damage and the devil may not harm through them. See Dominic de Soto, Book VIII, On Justice, Question III, article 3.
Verse 29: You Shall Find Him If You Seek with Your Whole Heart
Verse 29. AND WHEN YOU SHALL SEEK THERE THE LORD YOUR GOD, YOU SHALL FIND HIM, IF HOWEVER YOU SEEK HIM WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART, AND WITH THE WHOLE TRIBULATION (that is, in true contrition and conversion) OF YOUR SOUL. -- In Hebrew it is "with your whole soul." He insinuates that true contrition, which reconciles the sinner to God, ought to proceed from the love of God above all things; for this is to seek God with the whole heart, and with the whole tribulation of the soul. So Suarez, Part III, Question LXXXV, article 1, disputation IV, section 2.
Verse 30: In the Last Time You Will Return to the Lord
Verse 30. AFTER ALL THINGS SHALL HAVE FOUND YOU (seized you: it is a Hebraism).
IN THE LAST TIME, -- that is, at the end of the time in which the punishment inflicted on you by God will be completed, as if to say: After the plagues sent by God, you will finally be wise and return to Him. So Vatablus, Abulensis, and others.
Verse 31: He Will Not Forget the Covenant
Verse 31. NOR WILL HE FORGET THE COVENANT, IN WHICH (that is, "which"; so the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Chaldean) HE SWORE TO YOUR FATHERS.
Verse 32: Ask About the Days of Old
Verse 32. ASK ABOUT THE DAYS OF OLD, -- that is, about the events which occurred in the days of old.
FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER. -- In Hebrew, "from the end of heaven to its end," that is, from east to west, as if to say: Inquire about those things which throughout the whole world have ever among men occurred anywhere. A similar phrase is Matthew XXIV, 31. So Vatablus.
Verse 33: As You Have Heard and Lived
Verse 33. AS YOU HAVE HEARD AND LIVED. -- So the Roman, the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint. The Plantin edition therefore incorrectly reads "and saw," as if to say: It was like a miracle that you heard the so terrible voice of God from Sinai and lived, concerning which again chapter V, 21.
Verse 34: Whether God Ever Did So as to Go In
Verse 34. WHETHER GOD EVER DID SO AS TO GO IN; -- not changing His place, but His operation, namely calling, freeing, and leading you out of Egypt.
AND HORRIBLE VISIONS, -- because in the three-day darkness of Egypt, God set before the Egyptians wondrous phantoms and struck them with terror, as I said on Exodus X, 22 and following.
Verse 36: On Earth He Showed His Very Great Fire
Verse 36. AND ON EARTH HE SHOWED HIS VERY GREAT FIRE, -- because the fire seemed to come forth from Sinai; but the voice upon it seemed to be formed and descend from heaven, that is, from the air.
Verse 37: Going Before in His Power
Verse 37. GOING BEFORE IN HIS POWER, -- through His angel, who went before the camp in a pillar of cloud, and who struck down and overthrew your enemies, Exodus chapter XXIII, verse 20.
Verse 42: Whoever Killed Unwillingly
Verse 42. WHOEVER KILLED UNWILLINGLY, -- that is, unknowingly, ignorantly, and inadvertently. So the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Septuagint.
Verse 48: To Mount Sion, Which Is Also Hermon
Verse 48. TO MOUNT SION, WHICH IS ALSO HERMON. -- This Sion is therefore different from the Sion of Jerusalem and the temple; for this Sion was on the other side of the Jordan, and in Hebrew is written with shin: whereas the Sion of the temple is written with tsade; see what was said about this Sion in chapter III, verse 8.
Verse 49: The Sea of the Wilderness
Verse 49. THE SEA OF THE WILDERNESS, -- the Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites.