Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Moses continues in his address, first, by frightening the Hebrews through the punishments inflicted on Pharaoh, and on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram for their sins; second, by enticing them with the promised goods of Canaan, which he prefers to Egypt; third, verse 26, by setting before them blessing and cursing.
Vulgate Text: Deuteronomy 11:1-32
1. Love therefore the Lord your God, and observe His precepts and ceremonies, judgments and commandments, at all times. 2. Know today what your children do not know, who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God, His great deeds and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm: 3. the signs and works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king and to all his land, 4. and to the whole army of the Egyptians, and to their horses and chariots: how the waters of the Red Sea covered them as they pursued you, and how the Lord destroyed them to this day; 5. and what He did for you in the wilderness, until you came to this place: 6. and to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, who was a son of Reuben: whom the earth, opening its mouth, swallowed up, with their houses and tents and all their substance that they had in the midst of Israel. 7. Your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which He has done, 8. that you may keep all His commandments which I command you today, and that you may enter and possess the land to which you are going, 9. and live long in it, which the Lord promised under oath to your fathers and their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10. For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came, where after sowing seed, water is led in channels as in gardens; 11. but it is a land of mountains and plains, awaiting rain from heaven. 12. Which the Lord your God always visits, and His eyes are upon it from the beginning of the year to its end. 13. If therefore you obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul: 14. He will give rain to your land, the early rain and the late rain, that you may gather your grain, wine, and oil, 15. and hay from the fields to feed your cattle, and that you yourselves may eat and be satisfied. 16. Beware lest your heart be deceived and you turn away from the Lord and serve foreign gods and worship them; 17. and the Lord in His anger close heaven, and the rains not descend, and the earth not yield its fruit, and you perish quickly from the excellent land which the Lord is about to give you. 18. Place these words of Mine in your hearts and souls, and hang them as a sign on your hands, and set them between your eyes. 19. Teach your children to meditate on them, when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20. Write them on the doorposts and gates of your house: 21. that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens hang over the earth. 22. For if you keep the commandments which I command you and do them — to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways, cleaving to Him — 23. the Lord will scatter all these nations before your face, and you will possess them, though they are greater and stronger than you. 24. Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours. From the desert and from Lebanon, from the great river Euphrates to the western sea shall your borders extend. 25. No one shall stand against you: the Lord your God will put the terror and dread of you upon all the land on which you shall tread, as He has spoken to you. 26. Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27. a blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; 28. a curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but have departed from the way which I now show you, and have walked after foreign gods whom you do not know. 29. And when the Lord your God shall have brought you into the land to which you are going to dwell, you shall place the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal: 30. which are across the Jordan, beyond the road that leads toward the setting of the sun, in the land of the Canaanite who dwells in the plains opposite Gilgal, which is near the valley extending and reaching far off. 31. For you shall cross the Jordan to possess the land which the Lord your God is about to give you, that you may have and possess it. 32. See therefore that you fulfill the ceremonies and judgments which I today set before you.
Verse 2: Know Today
2. KNOW -- that is, consider; it is a metalepsis.
DISCIPLINE. -- In Hebrew musar, that is "chastisement," by which God disciplined and formed you like children through various punishments and means, both in Egypt and after the departure from Egypt. So Vatablus.
Verse 4: He Destroyed Them to the Present Day
4. HOW, etc., HE DESTROYED THEM (the Egyptians) TO THE PRESENT DAY -- that is, He utterly destroyed them, so that now no one survives who might harm you.
Verse 6: Eliab, Who Was a Son of Reuben
6. ELIAB, WHO WAS A SON OF REUBEN -- not an immediate son, but a mediate one, that is, a grandson or great-grandson.
"With their houses" -- with their children and family. See six meanings of "house" in Abulensis here.
Verse 10: The Land of Egypt, Where Water Is Led in Channels
THE LAND OF EGYPT, etc., WHERE WATER IS LED IN CHANNELS. -- In Hebrew: "which you watered with your foot, like a garden." To water with the foot means to water by one's own labor and digging, namely by drawing water from the river Nile through ditches and channels, meaning: In Egypt you had water only in the fields, and only by your own labor, namely by cutting channels from the Nile into the fields, as is done in gardens; for in Egypt rains are rare or nonexistent. But in Canaan, the land -- both in the plains and on the mountains -- is abundantly irrigated without labor, from heaven and celestial rain, meaning: Therefore the land of Canaan, toward which you are heading, is far better than Egypt, from which you came.
Verse 11: Awaiting Rain from Heaven
11. AWAITING RAIN FROM HEAVEN. -- In Hebrew: "it drinks water from the rain of heaven," meaning: The land of Canaan is irrigated not by the water of the Nile, but by heavenly rain; hence God visits it, and the eyes of the Lord are upon it the whole year, because the Lord always takes care of it, providing at the appointed time rain, wind, heat, cold, etc., lest anything be lacking for producing and ripening fruits and crops.
Verse 14: The Early Rain and the Late Rain
14. THE EARLY RAIN AND THE LATE RAIN. -- The early rain is that which falls maturely and seasonably in the month of October, after the seeds have been sown in the ground, in Judea, and thus causes the seeds to germinate. The late rain is that which falls tardily in the month of April or May, and brings the crops and fruits to maturity. This phrase therefore signifies all timely rain beneficial to the crops. Hence the Prophets, such as Hosea 6:3 and Joel 2:23, compare Christ to the early and late rain: because the coming of Christ was most welcome and supremely opportune for the world and for the salvation of mankind. For these rains were both most welcome to all and much awaited and extremely necessary.
Allegorical Sense of the Rains
Allegorically, the early rain was the doctrine of the law given through Moses, by which the seeds sown by the fathers of the law of nature germinated. The doctrine of the new law is the late rain, by which the fruits ripen and are brought to perfection. "For the law brought nothing to perfection," as the Apostle says, because perfection and maturity were reserved for the Gospel. And this is what Zechariah says in chapter 10, verse 1: "Ask of the Lord rain in the latter season," that is, ask of God the doctrine of the Gospel, by which the dry land of the whole earth is irrigated, as St. Jerome explains.
The Fertility of the Promised Land
Hence it is clear that the promised land, of itself and by its own nature, before the entrance of the Hebrews, when it was inhabited by the Canaanites, was very fertile. Hence it is called a land flowing with milk and honey, and such it was found by the scouts, Numbers 13:28. Nevertheless, its chief abundance came from the influence of God and the religion of the people, as is clear from this passage, verse 13, and from Isaiah 1:19. Hence when the people sinned, God withdrew it, as He threatens here in verse 17, and that this indeed happened is clear from Haggai 1:19 and following, Amos 4:7 and following, Jeremiah 12:13, and throughout the Prophets. So the Pentapolis, which was once most fertile, as is clear from Genesis 13:10, was on account of the sins of the Sodomites turned into a most salty sea. Hence the words of Psalm 106:34: "He turned the fruitful land into a salt marsh, because of the wickedness of those dwelling in it."
Anagogically, the fertility of the promised land signified the abundance of spiritual goods in the land of the living, promised to the elect in heaven: on which subject see Procopius here.
Verse 18: Hang Them as a Sign
18. HANG THEM AS A SIGN -- continually setting them before yourselves; it is a catachresis; see what was said at chapter 6, verse 8. Abulensis explains it differently: By "hand," he says, "operation" is signified; by "eye," the consideration of the intellect, meaning: Let these precepts be bound to your hands, that is, in your actions, which are signified by the hand; and let them be between your eyes, that is, in the contemplation of your mind, so that you may constantly consider whether you are failing in anything.
Verse 21: As Long as the Heavens Hang over the Earth
21. AS LONG AS THE HEAVENS HANG OVER THE EARTH. -- In Hebrew: "according to the days of heaven over the earth," that is, as long as the heavens shall hang over the earth, namely forever; it is a hyperbole signifying to the very end of the world, or to the day of judgment. And so, had the Jews not sinned by abandoning God and rejecting the Messiah, they would have possessed the promised land to the end of the world. For this is what God promises them here.
Verse 22: His Ways
22. "His ways" -- His commandments, which are certain ways directing our actions toward the ultimate end, namely toward God and toward blessedness.
Verse 26: Blessing and Curse
26. BEHOLD, I SET BEFORE YOU TODAY A BLESSING AND A CURSE. -- This is a sharp spur toward God's law and fear. Do you wish to be blessed by God? Then fear God, obey God: for if you are disobedient to Him, He will curse you, that is, He will do evil to you, and will most severely punish you both in this life and in the next. With the same spur Moses urges the Hebrews in chapter 30:19, when he says: "I call heaven and earth to witness today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both you and your offspring may live."
Verse 29: Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal
29. YOU SHALL PLACE THE BLESSING UPON MOUNT GERIZIM AND THE CURSE UPON MOUNT EBAL -- meaning: You shall have the Levites proclaim the blessing from the mountain, or rather toward Mount Gerizim, upon those who observe the law of God, and the curse from the mountain, or rather toward Mount Ebal, upon transgressors of the law, with the people responding Amen. See these things explained more fully at chapter 28, near the end, and Joshua 8, near the end.
Verse 30: Near the Valley Extending Far Off
30. WHICH IS NEAR THE VALLEY EXTENDING AND REACHING FAR OFF. -- For "valley," the Hebrew has elon, a word meaning "holm oak" or a tree of the oak family, as the Septuagint and our translator commonly render it; but our translator here understood "oak grove" to signify, by synecdoche through the oaks, a valley -- namely, a valley full of oaks; for St. Jerome, who carefully surveyed the holy places, knew very well that it was a valley. Again, for "the valley extending," the Hebrew has elon more, that is, "oak grove" or "valley of the instructor," as Masius teaches on Joshua 24. Now the "valley of the instructor" is a valley that is extended, conspicuous, great, beautiful, and, as our translator renders it at Genesis 12:6, "illustrious." This valley is near Shechem, to which Abraham first came when traveling from Chaldea to Canaan. For Josephus, an eyewitness, teaches that these mountains Gerizim and Ebal are near Shechem, and he is to be believed rather than Eusebius: for the latter is the author of the book On Hebrew Places, which is falsely attributed to St. Jerome, as Masius proves from the facts themselves at Joshua 8:30.