Deuteronomy 26:17

Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God,.... Said, affirmed, protested, and in the most solemn manner declared, that the Lord was their God, and him only; and that they would have no other

Avouched, or declared, or professed, or owned. This day, i.e. at this time, in this wilderness, where thou hast accepted and ratified God’ s covenant.

Deuteronomy 26:17 Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice:Ver. 17. Thou hast avouched.] This we do, when with highest estimation, most vigorous affections, and utmost endeavours we bestow ourselves upon God, giving up our names and hearts to the profession of truth. And this our choosing God for our God, is a sign he first chose us. Mary answers not "Rabboni," till Christ hath said "Mary" to her. It is he that brings us into the bonds of the covenant. He first cries out, Who is on my side? who? and then gives us to answer, "One says, I am the Lord’ s; another calls himself by the name of Jacob; another subscribes," &c.

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?

Verse 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord] The people avouch - publicly declare, that they have taken Jehovah to be their God.

17. Thou hast avouched the Lord, etc.] i.e. acknowledged (see Wright’s Bible Word Book); lit. caused Jehovah to say that He will be thy God. This form of the Heb. vb. only here and Deuteronomy 26:18. It is probably a technical legal term, by which either of the two parties to a contract made the other utter a declaration of his obligation under it. Here it is figuratively applied to the contract between Jehovah and Israel. They did not actually cause Him to make this engagement, for His choice of them was an act of His free grace (Deuteronomy 7:8, etc.) and every covenant with Him was of His imposition (Deuteronomy 5:2, Deuteronomy 8:18). But by engaging to keep His laws Israel fulfilled the condition in which alone He could be their God. Therefore the formula, if not literally, is substantially, correct. The clever EVV. rendering avouched is unjustified by the Heb. form but has evidently been adopted to cover all the contradictory contents of the declaration; the text however is so deranged that it fails fully to do so. and that thou shouldest walk in his ways, etc.] This belongs properly not to Jehovah’s, but to Israel’s, declaration, whereas the promise in Deuteronomy 26:19, and to make thee high above all nations, etc., which is attributed to them belongs, of course, to Him. There has been a displacement of the text. The Syriac seeks to get rid of the difficulty by eliminating the conjunction at the beginning of the phrase here, so as to read by walking in his ways, etc.; but even so the difficulty is only partly removed.

17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God — We think the meaning is equivalent to this, Thou hast promised Jehovah this day that he shall be thy God, and that thou wilt walk in his ways.