Deuteronomy 32:17

They sacrificed to devils, not to God,.... Their sacrifices being continued, when it was the will of God they should cease, were reckoned by him not as, offered to him, but to demons, and to such

They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

Unto devils, i.e. unto idols, which the devils brought into the world in opposition to God, in and by which the devils ofttimes manifested themselves unto men, and gave them answers, and received their worship. Compare . The Gentiles pretended to worship God in those idols, and the devils which inspired them deluded the nations with false pretences that they were a sort of lower gods. Moses therefore takes off this mask, and shows the Israelites that these pretended gods were really devils, those great enemies of mankind, and therefore that it was the height of madness to honour or worship them. Not to God: this he saith, either because though at first they joined God and idols together in worship, yet at last they quite forsook God, and adhered to idols only; or because God utterly rejected those sacrifices which they offered to him together with idols, and took them for no sacrifices. See . Whom they knew not, or, who never knew them, i.e. never showed any kindness to them, or did them any good; for so words of knowledge are oft used, as . That came newly up; not simply or absolutely, for some of these gods had been worshipped for many generations, and had a fair pretence of long antiquity, but comparatively to the true God, who is the Ancient of days, , and who was worshipped from the beginning of the world. To this original and first antiquity Moses recalls them; as also our Saviour doth recall the Jews to the first institution, . And therefore we may safely follow both their patterns in despising all pretences of antiquity, which are contrary to God’ s first institutions contained (as all confess) in the Holy Scriptures. Whom your fathers feared not, i.e. served not, worshipped not, but justly despised and abhorred them.

Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.Ver. 17. They sacrificed unto devils.] To new gods that came newly up.] Such as are all Popish he-saints and she-saints; concerning whom Bellarmine himself cannot but yield, that Cum scriberentur Scripturae, nondum coeperat usus vovendi Sanctis. There was no vowing, or bowing either, to saints departed, when the Scriptures were written. And a loaf of the like leaven are those new lights, and all subtleties, whereby our sectaries would distinguish themselves from Brownists. Are they not all, or most of them, borrowed out of Mr H. Jacob’ s books, who was but of yesterday? The Antinomians usually call upon their hearers to mark; it may be they shall hear some new truth that they never heard before; when the thing is either false, or, if true, no more than ordinarily is taught by others. Bellarm. de cultu sanct., cap. 5.

(17) They sacrificed unto devils, not to God.—St. Paul repeats this expression in 1 Corinthians 11:20. Gods that came newly up.—Literally, that came from close at hand. Compare the description of the idol in Isaiah 44:15, easily made from the firewood; and see also Wis 13:13, “A carpenter taking a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots, hath carved it diligently, when he had nothing else to do”—a comment on the passage in Isaiah 44

Verse 17. They sacrificed unto devils] The original word שדים shedim has been variously understood. The Syriac, Chaldee, Targums of Jerusalem and Jonathan, and the Samaritan, retain the original word: the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, Persic, Coptic, and Anglo-Saxon, have devils or demons. The Septuagint has εθυσανδαιμονιοις, they sacrificed to demons: the Vulgate copies the Septuagint: the Arabic has [Arabic] sheeateen, the plural of [Arabic] Sheetan, Satan, by which the rebellious angels appear to be intended, as the word comes from the root [Arabic] shatana, he was obstinate, proud, refractory, went far away. And it is likely that these fallen spirits, having utterly lost the empire at which they aimed, got themselves worshipped under various forms and names in different places. The Anglo-Saxon has [Anglo-Saxon], devils. New gods that came newly up] מקרב באו mikkarob bau, "which came up from their neighbours;" viz., the Moabites and Amorites, whose gods they received and worshipped on their way through the wilderness, and often afterwards.

17. demons] Heb. shedîm, only here and in Psalms 106:37, ‘certainly a Babylonian loan-word,’ shedu, a good demon figured in the bull-colossi that guarded the entrances to temples (Zimmern, KAT3[152], 455 f., 460–2, 649); but according to Psalms 106:37 human sacrifices were offered them, which of course does not preclude the idea that they were protective spirits. [152] Die Keilinschriften und das AIte Testament, 3rd edition (1903), by H. Zimmern and H. Winckler.no God] Heb. ’Eloah as in Deuteronomy 32:15. whom they had not known] Deuteronomy 11:28, Deuteronomy 13:2; Deuteronomy 13:6; Deuteronomy 13:13, Deuteronomy 28:64. new ones lately come in] Or arrived. dreaded] Lit. bristled or shuddered at, Heb. sacar, as in Jeremiah 2:12, Ezekiel 27:35; Ezekiel 32:10. Some, however, translate knew, on the strength of the Ar. sacara.

17. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God — The word rendered devils is destroyers; Sept. δαιμονια: wicked spirits, demons. The people of God will leave his service, and worship at the shrines of the gods of the heathen.