The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 452

EXPOSITION. Ver. 3.-The Lord thy God will tum thy CHAPTER XXX, captivity. This does not mean will cause thy captives to return, for (1) the verb in Kal Vera.1-10.-Though rejected and exiled ( as it is here, :11.i) never has the force of the because of rebellion and apostacy, Israel Hiph.; and (2) the returning of the dis- should not be absolutely or for ever cast off. persed is afterwards referred to as conse- When dispersed among the nations, if the quent on the turning of the captivity. The people should return to Jehovah their God, plural is used here as elsewhere to ind icatc he would a.gain receive them iuto favour the cessation of affliction or suffering (cf. Job xii. 10; Ps. xiv. 7; lx:uv. 2; cxni. 1, and guther them from their dispersion (cf. eh. 4; J er. =-x. 18; Ezek. xvi. 53). The render- iv. 29, etc.; Lev. x.xvi. 40, etc.). Moses, look- ing of the LXX. here is noticeable, ,cal ,cfana, ing into the future, anticipates that both the K6p,os Ta:s a.l'ap-r(as 11ou: " ancl thti Lord will blessing o.nd the curse would come upon heo.l. thy sins," i.e. will remit thy guilt o.nd the people o.ccording as they were faithful will deliver thee from the pernicious and to their covenant eugegement and obedient destructive power of sin (cf. Ps. xli. ! ; Jer. iii. 22; :xvii. 14; Hos. :xiv. 4; Matt. xiii. to God's Law, or were disobedient und un- 15, etc.). foithful. But even when the curse co.me Vera. 4, 5.-Consequent on this deliver- upon them to the full, this would not e.nce would be the gathering of Israel from amount to finul rejection ; but God would, o.11 the places of the dispersion o.nd their by the discipline of suffering, lead thom to return to possess the land which their fothers possessed, in greater numbers tha.n repentance, and then he would ago.in their fathers were. This last statement bestow the blessing (cf. Neh. i. 9). suggests doubt ns to the literal interpreta- Ver. 1.-Thou she.It oe.11 them to mind (cf. tion of this prediction, for, o.s Keil remark8, 1 Kings viii. 47, where the same expression " If there is to be o.n increase in the num- is rendered by "bethink themselves"). This ber of tho Jews when gathered out of their is the meaning hero also; it is not the mere dispersion into o.11 the world, a.hove the num- recollection of the curse and the blessing ber of their fathers, o.nd therefore a.hove the that is referred to, but e. general considera- number of the Israelites in the time of Solo- tion of their own condition and conduct. mon and the first monarchs of the two Ver. 2.-And aha.It return unto the Lord kingdoms, Palestine will never furnish room thy God; return from the worship of false enough for a. notion multiplied like this." gods to w01·ship and serve Jehovah the ono The reference in the followiug verse to a. trne God, the God of their fothers, and the spirituo.l renewal suggests the inquiry God whom 11e a nation they had before wor- whelher the referenco here is not to such o shipped (of. Nch. i. 8, 0). gathering a.ud restoration of Israel as tho.i 1 Of. Robert Hall's 'Works,' vol. vi. p. 5-1, etc. • Of. D. P. Bowne's 'Studies in Theism,' oh. i., eto. 46! THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [cH. Xx:ll. 1-20,