John Gill Bible Commentary

Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise,.... This is also a proper character of the Jews in the times of Christ, who are often by him called "fools", Mat 23:17; being very ignorant of the Scriptures, and of the prophecies in them respecting him, setting up their own traditions on a level with the word of God, or above it; they were ignorant of the law of God, and the meaning of it; of the righteousness of God, of the righteousness of his nature, and of what the law required, as well as of the righteousness of Christ, and of him as a spiritual Redeemer, and of salvation by him; and a most egregious instance of their folly, and of want of wisdom, was their ingratitude to him, in disesteeming and rejecting him; which is what is here referred to and meant by ill-requiting him, though not expressed till Deu 32:15; and a most sad requital of him it was indeed, that he should come to them, his own, in so kind and gracious a manner, and yet be rejected by them; that he should become man, and yet for that reason be charged with blasphemy, for making himself God; horrid ingratitude, to infer the one from the other! and because he appeared as a servant, disowned him as the Son of God; and because he came in the likeness of sinful flesh to take away sin, they traduced him as a sinner: is not he thy Father, that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? Moses, in order to aggravate this their ingratitude, rehearses the various instances of divine goodness to them, from the beginning of them as nation; it was the Lord that was the founder of them as a nation, whose Son, when sent unto them, was rejected by them; it was he that bought them, or redeemed them from Egyptian bondage, that made or formed them into a body politic, or civil commonwealth, that established and settled them in the land of Canaan: this is expressed in general terms; particular instances of the goodness of God to them are after enumerated: or if this is to be understood of Christ himself, who was rejected by them, it is true of some among them, in a spiritual and evangelic sense, and so, by a figure, the whole is put for a part, as sometimes the part is for the whole: Christ, the everlasting Father of the world to come, had many children in the Jewish nation, for whose sake he became incarnate, and whom he came to seek and to save; and whom he "bought" with his precious blood, and whom, by his Spirit and grace, he "made" new creatures, the children of God, kings and priests unto God; and "established" them in the faith of him, and upon him, the sure foundation; or whom he fashioned, beautified, and adorned with his righteousness, and with the graces of his Spirit.