Deuteronomy 26:16

This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments,.... These are the words of Moses, as Aben Ezra rightly observes, and refer not only to the laws last mentioned, but

Deuteronomy 26:16-19. CLOSE OF THE .(16) This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.—These words are not to be taken as part of the service described in the previous verses, but as the words of Moses in bringing his exhortation to a close. Rashi says, “Every day these commandments shall be new before thine eyes, as though on that very day thou hadst received them.” Thou shalt therefore keep and do them.—It is a beautiful thought that the form of this command (as of many others) makes it prophetic of its own fulfilment. “It is the voice from heaven blessing thee,” says Rashi. (See also Deuteronomy 30:6; Deuteronomy 30:8.) (17, 18) Thou hast avouched . . . and the Lord hath avouched.—The Hebrew word is simply the ordinary word for “to say.” “Thou hast said,” and “He hath said.” There is no distinctive word for “to promise” in Hebrew. “To say” is sufficient. “Hath He said, and shall He not do it?” “Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay,” like His. But Rashi says there is no exact parallel to this use of the verb in the Old Testament, except, perhaps, in Psalms 94:4, where it means, “they boast themselves.” Let Israel boast in God, and God will boast Himself of them, as His peculiar people. (19) And to make thee high.—Literally, most high; Heb., ‘Elyôn, a well-known name of God. Here, and in Deuteronomy 28:1, it is (prophetically and in the Divine purpose) applied to Israel. “Thou shalt put my Name upon the children of Israel” was the law of blessing for the priests (Numbers 6:27). In praise, and in name, and in honour.—Perhaps, rather, to be a praise, and to be a name, and to be an honour, and to become a people of holiness to Jehovah. There is an allusion to this in Jeremiah 33:9, “And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before all the nations of the earth;” and in Isaiah 62:6-7, “Ye that make mention of the name of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” But if, as some would have us believe, the Book of Deuteronomy draws these things from the prophets, rather than the prophets from Moses, how is it that there is not the faintest allusion in Deuteronomy to Jerusalem, which in the days of the prophets had become the centre of all these hopes?

16–19. Concluding Exhortation The proclamation of these laws and the consequent duty of Israel to keep them (Deuteronomy 26:16) constitute a contract between Jehovah and Israel, by which He declares Himself their God, who shall exalt them above other nations, and they declare themselves His people, proper and holy to Him and obliged to obey His laws (Deuteronomy 26:17-19).—In D’s style and the Sg. address (LXX curiously diverges into the Pl. in the last clause of Deu 26:16). But the argument has been deranged (so all recent commentators; see esp. Cullen, p. 93) either by later additions inappropriately distributed through a misunderstanding of the legal form used, or through the fusion of different conclusions to the Code. See notes below. It is unnecessary to suppose that the passage originally followed Deuteronomy 27:9 f. or 28. Though the term covenant is not used, the law-giving is regarded as such, as it is implicitly in Deuteronomy 27:9 f. and explicitly in Deuteronomy 29:1 (Deuteronomy 28:69). This idea is also implicit in the Code, and is stated explicitly in Deuteronomy 8:18, Deuteronomy 17:3. So far then, there is no reason for doubting the original character of the passage. This is so far an answer to Steuern. who assigns the passage to a later deuteronomist. Wellh. indeed takes this day as that of the Covenant at Ḥ ?oreb, and infers that chs. 12–26 were originally understood as delivered there. On the other hand Berth, finds it probable that we have here the formula under which Josiah bound Israel to observe the Law (2 Kings 23:3, cp. Jeremiah 11:2 ff.). For neither of these hypotheses is there any real evidence; and this day is ostensibly the same as that frequently mentioned in the Code and the Introd. Addresses (see on Deuteronomy 26:16).

A brief and earnest exhortation by way of conclusion to the second and longest discourse of the book. Deuteronomy 26:17 Thou hast avouched - literally, “made to say:” so also in the next verse.

16. The Lord… hath commanded thee, etc. — Moses concludes this discourse with an earnest admonition to the people. Deuteronomy 26:16-19.