:x i,·. l l ). Even at Horeb, where, amid Vere. 22-24.-Not only at Ho~b, but at 11H' mn.,t nlf<'cling mcinifestatfons alike of other plllces o.nd on other occRsiom, had 1h<' DiYinc majesty and the Dh•ine grnee, lsrncl provoked the Lord to wmth by their .i 11st aft<'r the Lord hnd spoken to them eontumncy. At Tabere.h, by thch- com- plaining o.nd discontent (Numb. xi. 1-3); ,\ircctly out of the firo, and whilst Moses at Maese.h, by their murmuring bcoo.use of liad gone up to rC'ceive the tables of the want of water (Exod. xvii. I, otc.); at the Law, on which the co,·enant of God Kibroth-he.tte.ave.h, by despising the mannC1, with Israel wns bnsorl, o.nd whilst that and lusting for flesh to eat (Numb. xi. 4,eto.); <'ovcnnnt was being struck, they had sinned and at Ke.deeh-b&rnea, when on the confines of the promised land, they distrusted God, ~o grien•usly ns to make to themselves o. reproached him for having brought thorn mnltcn image, whfrh they worshipped with 1bore to be destroyed, o.nd sought to return idolatrous rites (Exod. xxxi. 18-~xii, 6; ef. to Egypt (Numb. xiv. 1, etc.; eh. i. 26), <'h. xxi,. 12, etc.). "The list is not o.rro.nged chronologically, Ver. !l.-The elnuse, Then I abode , .. but advo.nces from the smo.llcr to the more water, is o. parenthesis; the scntenoe runs serious forms of guilt. For Moses was on frnm When I wa& gone, etc., to Then seeking to sharpen the consciences of tho [not And] the Lord delivered unto me, etc. people, and to impress upon them tho fact that they had been rebellious against the Yer. 10. -The de.y of the assembly; the day Lord. (see at ver. 7) from the very beginning, \\·hen the people, called out by Moses, were • from the day that I knew you "llt(Keil). !!athered tog-ether in the plain at the foot of Ver. 25-29.-Having enumerated these 1'1ount Sinai (Exnd. xix. 17). instances of the rebelliousness of the people, Yers. 12-14.-{Cf. Exod. xxxii. 7-10.) Moses reverts to the aposto.cy at Sinai, in Let me alone; literally, Desist from me, i.e. order still more to impress on the minds Do not by pleadings and entreaties attempt of the people the conviction that not for any to prevent me; in Exod. xxxii. 10 the ex- righteousness or me1·it of theirs, but solely pression used is, "Let me rest; leave me in of his own grace, was_ God fulfilling to them '! uict (·~ ;;:;:•~::,); cease to urge me." his covenant with their fathers. Yer. 17.-Moses cast from him the two Ver. 25.-Thua I fell down before the tables of stone on which God had inscribed Lord forty de.ye and forty nights, as I fell the words of the Law, and broke them in down at the first; rather, the forty days and pieces in the view of the people, when he forty nights in which I fell down. The came down from the mount o.nd so.w how reference is to the intercession before Moses they had turned a.side from the right way, ea.me down fro1u the mount, described in and were become idolaters. This was not Exo,I. xxxii. 11-13. (For the form of the the dfcet of o. burst of indignation on his expression, cf. eh. i. 46.) part; it was a solemn declaration that t~e Vers. 26--29.-In these verses the sub- covenant of God with his people had been stance of Moses' intercesaion is given, and nullified and broken by their sinful apostacy. it is substantially in agreement with the Yers. 18-20.-Moses interceded with God account in Exodus. Moses pleaded with for tLe people before he came down from the God not to destroy that people which wns n,oun t (Exod. xxii. 11, etc.); but this he passes over here, merely referring to it in his own, which he had redeemed for himself 1.Le words, "as at the first," and makes and brought out of Egypt; besought him to Epeciul mention only of a subsequent inter- remember their pious ancestors, and not rcssion, that mentionod in Exod. x:xxi v. 28. to lor,k on the stubbornness and sin of the In the account in Exodus nothing is said people; and urged that the Divine honour nf Moses interceding for Aaron specially, as wdl ns for the people generally; but pro- was concerned in their being conducted to 1uinence is girnn to this here, "not only Canaan, and not let perish in the wilderness, tlmt he might make the people thoroughly Ver. 28.-The land, that is, the people of aware that at that time Israel could not the land, os in Gen. xii. 36-the Egyptians; boast even of the righteousness of its emi- the verb, accordingly, is in the plurnl. uent men (cf. Iso.. xliii. 2i), but also to Were the Israelites to perish in the wilder- briug out the fact, which is described still ness, the Egyptians might say that God mure fully in eh. x. 6, Bqq., that Aaron's had destroyed them, either because he was investiture with the priesthood and the unable to obtain for them the land he had u:.aintenance of this institutiou was purely promised them, or because he had ceased to o. work of Divine grace" (Keil). That regard them with favour, and had bccomo Aaron, however, was regarded as especially their enemy. Neither of these could be, to be blamed in this 111atter is clea1·Iy inti• for were they not the people of his in- mated in Exod. xxx.ii. 21, 22. heritance, and had he not showed his en. tlt. 1-20.J TBE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 167
power alrencly In delivering them out of Ot!ich one often seriously refleot on Ms past Egypt? life. 'fhis conduces to humility, to wntch- "As Moece in this ohnpter reoolls to the fulness, e.nd to effort o.t improvement " romembrnnce of Isrnel thie nnd tho.t place, (Herxheimer). lime, u.nd occa,ion of their einning, so should
HOMILE'l'ICS.