The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 487

rain C(lming il(lwn in thin etreaine like hair. following seems the beat oonstruction and Bhowere; heavy rain (u':;i,:;i:,, from :I?), t.o rendering :-A 11crverae and crooked genera- be> mnch (lr mnuy, equal t.o multitude of tion-not hi'B children, [but] their spot-ha& drops). become corrn11t towards him. The subject of Yer. 3.-I will publish the n&me of the the verb at the beginning or the verse is the Lord; litc>rally, I ,rill call, i.e. proclaim, or "perl"orso and crooked generntion," nt the relel,rate, et.o. Asoribe ye gre&tnese unto end of it, and between the verb nnd its subject our God. The hearers of th"' song arc sum- there is interjected parenthetically thoclo.use moned t.o join in the <'~lebrnlion of the "not his children, but their spot." Spot i~ lli\"ine mnjesty. The woril rendered" grcat- hero used in a moml sense, ns in Job xi. 16; nC'ss" (lccurs only in this book (eh. iii. 2-1; xxxi. 7; Prov. ix. 7. These corrupt persons ~- 21; ix. 26; xi. 2), and iu Ps. cl. 2. It clo.imcd to be children or God, but they is the grentnC'ss of God as the Almighty th&t were not; they were rather a stain and a ii; here celebrnted. reproach to tl:cm (of. 2 Pet. ii. 13; Isa. i. 4). Y crs. 4, 5.-He is the Rook, his work is The rendering abovo given is substantially perfect; rnther, The Rock! his work is pei-Ject, that of De Wetto, Knobel, Keil, o.ud Herx- i c. blnmclcss, without fnult. God is called heimcr, by nil of whom the ''perverse " I he Rock" (,\i:;:;), as the unchangeable generation" is regarded ns the subject of Refuge and Stronghold of his people, by the sentence. This is the view adopted "hich they are sustninod, and to whfrh also in the• Speaker's Commentary.' Some they cnn resort for defence and protection would make" God" the subject, and render, nt all times. The epithet is applied to God "Ho hath corrupted to him, or to himself" four times besides in this song (vers. 15, 18, (mnrgin, Authorized Version; lbn Ezra, 30, 31); it occurs also frequently in the etc.). Others take "spot" f\S the subject, Psalms ( cf. Ps. xix. 14; xxviii. 1 ; xxx.i. 2, 3; thus: "Their spot or blemish hath corrupted h:ii. 2, 7; etc.). The Hebrew word, tsur, fur, before him children not his" (Lowth, Di.Ltho) ; or =ur, nppears in se~eral proper names of but such renderings are forcec.l, and proceed the !llcsaic period, as e.g. Pedahzur, "Ilock on constructions of the text which are ille- delirnrs" (Kumb. i 10), a name of the gitimate. Donaldson(' Jashar,' pp. 186, 223, sume import as Pedahel, " God delivers" edit. Sec.),, following Lowth's eoustruction, (Numb. xxxiv. 28); Elizur," God is a Rock" nppeals to c~ JC?~ K~ C'l~ (ver. 20) as a similar (Kumb. i 5); Zuriel (Numb. iii 35) and inversion. But the two cases are not Zurislwddai, " the .Almighty is Ilock " parallel. To make them so, we must have (~ umb. i. 6 ; ii 12). "lJ Jehovah," says here c:ai 010 K~ 1•J:i, "his children in whom Baumgarten, " is here called Rock, without is no ~pot." E~o.lc.l takes nc1c as the any qualification, the reason is that he is noun here, instead of 010, anci' tracing H the on! y true rock, and all the strength and firwne:ss of earth's stones is but an to the Syriac J!:.o~, juravit, renderd "to ectype of his unchangeable faithfulness and him ihey, his not-sons, have corrupted their rectitude. If one cleaves to tl,e dW!.lism of oath," i.e. have broken it ; and this Fiirst spirit and nature, and regards the figure as approves. But the phrase, "to corrupt an a werely subjective, arbitrary union of the oath" is unexampled in the Old Testament, two, such fill expression is simply un- and there is no ground for chonging the intelligible; but if we would understand noun. The ancient versions vary con- Scripture and religious speech, we must with siderably here: LXX., ~µd.pToua.v, ou1< ,,.;,,,.,;; all earnestness accustom ourselves to re- 'TEl<Va µo,µ71Td.: Aq., 01e,pO«pav a.h,j, oux 61 cognize the spiritual ground in nature, and viol ai,Tov: Sym., 61e<p0<1pav 1rpbr a~Tov oux ol apprehend this in the Diblical expression viol Tb u6vo"-ov : Vulgate, peccaverunt ei et (comp. SLeffens' • Religionsphilosophie,' i non filii eju8 in sordib11B ; Vet. ltala., pecca- s. 101, 102)." It is remarkable that none t:eru11t non ei filii maculati; Syriac, "They of the ancient versions !:ave retained this corrupted but not him, children of defile- epithet here. The LXX. hnve e,br: the ment." These various renderings indicate Yulgare, DeU8 ('' Dei opera"); the 'l'orguw of that probably the text is and ho.a loug been Onkelos, l(fil'R':·, '·Mighty;" while the Pe- corrupt. Somo of the older English ver- sL.i.to has siwply the pronoun "hut " ap- sions are worth noting on this verse. Rogers [Matthew], " The frownrcle o.nd pended t.o "works," ~C2:'0?!:I~. For all his overthwart generation hath marred them- ways are judgment; i.e. accordant with recti- selves to himwarcl, and are not his sonnes tude 'cf. Ps.cxlv.17). A God of truth; rather, for their deformitie's sake;" Bishop's Dible, of jaitl,julneBB (n11q.t:t, from 11?~, to stay, or " Frowardly have they done agaynst him be stayed, to be firm). They have oorrupted by their vices, not being his own chilclren, them.selves, their 11pot is not the spot of hiB but a wicked and froward generation;" ebildren: they are a perverse and crooked Geneva Version, " They ho. vo eorru ptecl 99Uration. Of this difficult pe.s1111,ge the themselves towards bim by thcil' vice, nol 011, xxxu. l-G2.J nm llOOK OF DEUTEnONOMY. 499