Deuteronomy 33:10

They shall teach Jacob thy statutes, and Israel thy law,.... The priests and Levites, being dispersed among each of the tribes, having cities in them allotted to them, taught the people the laws,

And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; Of Levi he said.

They, i.e. the priests and Levites. Before thee, i.e. upon thine altar of incense, which stood before the ark, the place of God’ s special presence.

Deuteronomy 33:10 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.Ver. 10. They shall teach Jacob.] Apt and able to teach must all ministers be, as Paul. Praedicationis officium suscipit, quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit, saith Gregory: He is no minister that is no teacher. Aidanus, the first bishop of Durham, A.D. 636, neglected no duty of a good pastor, travelling up and down the country, even on foot, to preach the gospel, giving whatsoever he could get unto the poor, and by the example of his own virtues instructing, as well as by word and doctrine. Amongst the Greeks, tragedians and comedians were said, ειςδιδαχηνωνπροσηκενεργαζομενοι, to labour in teaching the people. What should ministers then do? They shall put incense before thee,] i.e., Pray for the people, as well as preach to them. So Acts 6:4. Augustine’ s wish was, that Christ, when he came, might find him aut precantem aut praedicantem, praying or preaching. Bene orasse est bene studuisse, saith Luther. Godwin’ s Catalog.

Verse 10. They shall teach Jacob, c.] This was the office of the Levites, to teach, by their significant service and typical ceremonies, the way of righteousness and truth to the children of Israel. And of their faithfulness in this respect God bears testimony by the prophet, "My covenant was with him of life and peace," Malachi 2:5 and, "The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity;" Malachi 2:6. These words are a sufficient comment on the words of the text.

10. judgements … law] Heb. Mishpaṭ ?im … Torah cp. Deuteronomy 17:9 ff. The earlier priest was a teacher and judge (Hosea 4:6, Micah 3:11); and of his functions these also come first here, and are followed by his offices in the ritual of expiation. incense] Rather smoke of sacrifice; for in the earlier Heb. literature, Isaiah 1:13, 1 Samuel 2:16, Amos 4:5, Hosea 4:13; Hosea 11:2, the noun ḳ ?eṭ ?τreth (here ḳ ?eṭ ?τrah) and the vb ḳ ?iṭ ?ṭ ?er refer always to such smoke and not to incense. Of the use of incense in Israel’s worship there is no evidence before the 7th cent. b.c.; Jeremiah 6:20 appears to regard frankincense as an innovation. At Ta‘anach Sellin unearthed an incense altar which he dates about 700 b.c. (Tell Ta‘annek, 75 ff., 109 f.) and at Gezer Macalister found another in rubbish of 1000–600 b.c. (PEFQ, 1908, 211). See further Jerusalem i. 333, ii. 63 n. 2, 307 f., etc. The smoke from the altar conveyed to the Deity in an ethereal form the portion of the sacrificial feast reserved for Him. This seems to have been the primitive idea of the process, and a trace of it survives here in the anthropomorphic phrase in thy nostrils (R.V. marg.), cp. Genesis 8:21, 1 Samuel 26:19, etc. But later the burnt-offering came more and more to have a piacular force; and its smoke symbolised to Israel the confession of their sin and their surrender of the lives He was pleased to accept in place of their guilty and forfeit selves. No sacrament could be more adequate than this, which proved at once the death deserved by the guilty, the blackness and bitterness of their sin, and its disappearance in the infinite purity of the skies, the unfathomable mercy of Heaven. It is this piacular meaning which is behind the LXX rendering ἐνὀργῇσον, ‘in thy wrath,’ for in thy nostrils. whole burnt offering] See Deuteronomy 13:16 (17).

10. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments — The priests are to be of the tribe of Levi, the divinely appointed teachers.