Deuteronomy 33

Deuteronomy 33:1

His treasure - The heaven or the air, which is God’s storehouse, where he treasures up rain or wind for man’s use.

Deuteronomy 33:2

The head - The chief of all people in power, or at least in dignity and privileges; so that even they that are not under thine authority shall reverence thy greatness and excellency. So it was in David’s and Solomon’s time, and so it should have been much oftner and much more, if they had performed the conditions.

Deuteronomy 33:4

Overtake thee - So that thou shalt not be able to escape them, as thou shalt vainly hope and endeavour to do. There is no running from God, but by running to him; no flying from his justice, but by flying to his mercy.

Deuteronomy 33:9

Vexation - This seems chiefly to concern the mind, arising from the disappointment of hopes and the presages of its approaching miseries. Rebuke - Namely, from God, not so much in words as by his actions, by cross providences, by sharp and sore afflictions.

Deuteronomy 33:12

Brass - Like brass, hard and dry, and shut up from giving rain. Iron - Hard and chapt and barren.

Deuteronomy 33:13

Dust - Either thy rain shall be as unprofitable to thy ground and seed as if it were only so much dust. Or instead of rain shall come nothing but dust from heaven, which being raised and carried up by the wind in great abundance, returns, and falls upon the earth as it were in clouds or showers.

Deuteronomy 33:16

The botch of Egypt - Such boils and blains as the Egyptians were plagued with, spreading from head to foot: The emerodes - Or piles.

Deuteronomy 33:17

Blindness - Of mind, so that they shall not know what to do: Astonishment - They shall be filled with wonder and horror because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities.

Deuteronomy 33:18

Grope at noon day - In the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grossly mistake. Thy ways - Thy counsels and enterprizes shall be frustrated and turn to thy destruction.

Deuteronomy 33:21

Unto another people - By those who have conquered them, and taken them captives, who shall give or sell them to other persons. Fail - Or, be consumed, partly with grief and plentiful tears; and partly with earnest desire, and vain and long expectation of their return. No might - No power to rescue, nor money to ransom them.

Deuteronomy 33:22

Which thou knowest not - Which shall come from a far country, which thou didst not at all expect or fear, and therefore will be the more dreadful when they come; a nation whose language thou understandest not, and therefore canst not plead with them for mercy, nor expect any favour from them.

Deuteronomy 33:23

Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes - Quite put out of the possession of their own souls; quite bereaved of all comfort and hope, and abandoned to utter despair. They that walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when all about them looks frightful; and their condition is bad indeed, who are mad for the sight of their eyes.

Deuteronomy 33:25

Thy king - The calamity shall be both universal, which even thy king shall not be able to avoid, much less the subjects, who have far less advantage and opportunity for escape; and irrecoverable, because he who should protect or rescue them is lost with them, Lamentations 4:10. Wood and stone - So what formerly was their choice and delight now becomes their plague and misery. And this doubtless was the condition of many Israelites under the Assyrian and Balylonish captivities.