Deuteronomy 26:15

Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven,.... This is a prayer of the person that makes the above declaration annexed to it, desiring that God would vouchsafe to look with an eye of love,

Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

After that solemn profession of their obedience to God’ s commands, they are taught to pray for God’ s blessing upon their land, whereby they are instructed how vain and ineffectual the prayers of unrighteous or disobedient persons are.

Deuteronomy 26:12-15. OF THE TITHE.(12) When thou hast made an end.—The time fixed for making the confession prescribed in Deuteronomy 26:13-15, according to Jewish usage, was the Passover-eve of the fourth year, i.e., the first feast after the completion of the year of tithing. It would seem that something was still to be gathered from the trees after the Feast of Tabernacles, and thus there would still be some produce untithed at that feast in any given year. But the tithe of the third year must be separated to the very last item before the Passover of the fourth. The third year, which is the year of tithing.—See Deuteronomy 14:28-29. In the third and sixth years, the second tithe, which in other years was eaten by the owners (in kind or value) at Jerusalem, was given to the poor, and was called the poor’s tithe. In Talmudical language, the Ma’aser ani took the place of Ma’aser shêni in these years. Thus the words “and hast given it unto the Levite,” are applied to the first tithe, which was never omitted, and which is prescribed by Numbers 18. The words that follow, “the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,” are interpreted of the poor’s tithe. The prescribed confession is not to be made until all the tithe has been given, both first and second, i.e., the annual tithe to the Levites, and the second, which was in these years devoted to the poor. That they may eat within thy gates, and be filled.—The quantity with which they were to be satisfied was duly prescribed by the Jewish scribes! (13) Thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away.—Literally, I have consumed, or burned out. It is the same strong word used so frequently in this book for “putting away” evil, and from which the name Taberah, “burning,” is derived. It is taken by Jewish commentators to include everything that could possibly be required as holy under any law, whether tithe, or firstfruit of trees not yet made common, or anything that from any cause had not been brought to Jerusalem during the three previous years. I . . . have given . . . unto the Levite (the first tithe), and unto the stranger. . . . (the poor’s tithe).—Rashi. According to all thy commandments—i.e., “giving everything in its due order” (Rashi). The following words are also taken to refer to the details of the law respecting these matters. (14) I have not eaten thereof in my mourning.—“When I was clean and they were unclean, or when they were clean and I was unclean” (Rashi). The tomb or presence of a dead body made both persons and things unclean (Numbers 19).

15. Look down, etc.] Cp. Isaiah 63:15; thy holy habitation, Jeremiah 25:30, Zechariah 2:13. and bless, etc.] with such care and gifts as are described in Deuteronomy 7:13 ff., Deuteronomy 11:12; Deuteronomy 11:14 ff. as thou swarest, etc.] See on Deuteronomy 1:8, Deuteronomy 6:3.