The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 205

on II, WBS mBde o.vo.ilnble for useful pur- plBce for & people e.lso wholly dependent on poses. In Egypt there is little or no ro.in, him, who owed to bis grace all thot they and the people are dependent on the o.nnnal were 0.nd h0.cl. overllowing of the Nile for the proper irrigo.- Ver. 13.-Being thus wholly depenrlent tion of their fields; o.nd o.e this IBsts only on God, it behoved them to be careful to for o. short period, the water has to be stored attend to his commandments and to obey e.nd redistributed by Brtiflcial meo.ne, often them, the.t so his blessing might be con- of a very le.borioue kind. Wo.teredst it with tinued to them and to the land. If they thy foot. "The reference, perhBps, is to the would love and serve the Lord as they were mo.nner or conducting the w0.ter o.bout from bound to do, he would give them the rain plant lo plant and from fnrrow to furrow. of their 10.nd, i.e. rain for their land, snch I hove often w0.tched the g0.rdener 0.t this 88 it required (cf. "rain of thy seed," Ps. fatiguing and unhealthy work. When one xxx. 2, 3), in the proper season, the early pince is sufficiently sutumted, he pushes and the latter rain, so that they shouhl aside the s0.ndy soil betweeu it o.nd the fully enjoy the benefits of the land. next furrow with his foot, and thus con- Ver. 14.-The first rain; the rain which tinues to do until o.11 o.re w0.tered. He is falls from the middle or October to the end thus knee-deep in mud, and many o.re the of December, which prepares the soil for the diseases genero.ted by this slavish work. seed, and keeps it moist after the seed is Or the reference mo.y be to cert0.in kinds of sown. The latter rain; that which falls in hydraulic machines which were turned by March and April, about the time when the the feet. I h0.ve seen sm0.ll w0.ter-wheels, on grain is ripening for ha.r\"cst; during the the plain of Acre and elsewhere, which were time of harvest no rain falls in Palestine. thus worked ; 0.nd it appeared to me to be But if they allowed themselves to be de- very tedious and toilsome, and, if the whole ceived and misled, so as to apostatize from country had to be irrigated by such a the Lord and serve other gods and worship process, it would require a nation of slaves them, the Divine displeasure would be shown like the Hebrews, and taskmasters like the in the withholding from them of the bless- Egyptians, to make it succeed. Whatever ing, so that they should miserably perish. may have been the meaning of Moses, the Ver. 16.-That yonrhea.rt be not deceived; Hebrews no doubt had learned by bitter literally, lest your heart be enticed or seducecl experience what it was to water with the (i11;p:). The Yerb means primarily to be open, foot; o.nd this would 0.dd gre0.t force to the and as a mind open to impressions from allusion, 0.nd render doubly precious the without is easily persuaded, moved either goodly 10.nd which dro.n.k of the r0.in of to good or evil, the word came to signify to he0.ven, and required no such drudgery to induce in a good sense, or to seduce in a bad make it fruitful" (Thomson, ' The Laud and sense. Here the people o.re cautionc,l the Book,' ii. 279; edit. Lond. 1859). Philo a.go.inst allowing themselves to be enticecl describes a machine of this sort as in use in so as to be led astray by seductive represen- Egypt (' De Confus. Linguo.r.,' Opp. i. 410, tations (cf. Job x=i. 27; Prov. :u. 19 edit. Mangey); and in that country, "a g0.r- [" flattereth "]; Job v. 2 [" silly one "] ; den of herbs" is still genemlly watered by Hos. vii. 11 ). means of a machine of simple coustruction, Ver. 17.-He shut up the heaven. "The consisting of a wheel, round which 1·evolves heaven conceived e.s B womb" (Schulz); an endless rope to which buckets are attached; cf. Gen. xvi. :!. The want of rain was re- this is worked by the feet of a mo.n seated garded as a sign of the Di vine displeasure on a piece of wood fastened by the side of and as a curse (1 Kings viii. 35; Zech. the m0.chine, labour nt once monotonous anu xiv. 17; Rev. xi. 6). severe (Niebuhr,' Voyage en Aro.hie,' i. 121, Vers. 18-20.-(Cf. oh. vi. 7-9.) 4to, Am~t. 1776 ; ' Description de I' Ar0.bie,' i. Ver. 21.-(Cf. rh. iv. 40; vi. 2.) As the 219, 4to, Paris, 1779; Robinson, ' Bib. Res.,' days of heaven upon the earth; as long as the i. 5-12; ii. 21). heavens continue stretched over the earth, Ver. 12.-Careth for; liter0.lly, searcheth or i.e. to the end of time, for ever (cf. Job inquireth after, i.e. tilinks about and cares xiv. 12; Ps. lxxxix. 29; Gen. viii. 22). for (LXX., /1r,a-1to1rei"-ra,, oversees; cf. Job iii. Vera. 22-25.-lf they were sedulous to 4; Ps. cxlii. 4 ; J er. xxx. 17 ; Ezek. xx.xiv. keep Gou's comme.ndments, aud faithfully 8; Isa. lxii. 12). The eyea of the Lord thy God; adhered to him, loving him and walking 1°.e. his special watchful providence ( cf. in a.II his we.ys, he would drive out before Ps. xniii. 18 ; :uxiv. 15; Ezek. iv. 5). It them the ne.tions of the Co.ne.o.nites, and WEIB l\ lund ou wliich Jehovah's rego.rd wos cause them to possess the territory of nations continually fixed, ove.· which he watched greater e.nd mightier than themselves. with nncousing care, o.nd which was sus- Every place on which the soles of their feet tained by his bounty ; o. land, therefore, should tread should be theirs, i.e. they had wholly dependent on him, and so a fitting but to enter the land to become possessors 1(16 THE noo~ OF DEUTERONOMY. [err. 11. 1-32.