Deuteronomy 4:45

These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:41-49 Here is the introduction to another discourse, or sermon, Moses preached to Israel, which we have in the following chapters. He sets the law before them, as the rule they were to work by, the way they were to walk in. He sets it before them, as the glass in which they were to see their natural face, that, looking into this perfect law of liberty, they might continue therein. These are the laws, given when Israel was newly come out of Egypt; and they were now repeated. Moses gave these laws in charge, while they encamped over against Beth-peor, an idol place of the Moabites. Their present triumphs were a powerful argument for obedience. And we should understand our own situation as sinners, and the nature of that gracious covenant to which we are invited. Therein greater things are shown to us than ever Israel saw from mount Sinai; greater mercies are given to us than they experienced in the wilderness, or in Canaan. One speaks to us, who is of infinitely greater dignity than Moses; who bare our sins upon the cross; and pleads with us by His dying love.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These verses would be more properly assigned to the next chapter. They are intended to serve as the announcement and introduction of the address now to be commenced. Deuteronomy 4:44 gives a kind of general title to the whole of the weighty address, including in fact the central part and substance of the book, which now follows in 22 chapters, divided into two groups:

(a) Deuteronomy 5-11,

(b) Deuteronomy 12-26.

The address was delivered when they had already received the first-fruits of those promises Deuteronomy 4:46, the full fruition of which was to be consequent on their fulfillment of that covenant now again about to be rehearsed to them in its leading features.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

44-49. this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel—This is a preface to the rehearsal of the law, which, with the addition of various explanatory circumstances, the following chapters contain.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments,.... The laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, delivered in the following chapters; which are renewed, repeated, and explained: which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt; in the third month after they came from thence these laws were delivered to him at Mount Sinai, and he declared them to them; and now afresh, near forty years after, repeated them to them in the plains of Moab.

Geneva Study Bible

These are the {c} testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt,

(c) The articles and points of the covenant.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

45. the testimonies] An unsatisfactory translation of Heb. ‘çdoth. As the kindred verb signifies to solemnly affirm, attest, protest and warn, ‘edôth may mean either (1) decrees or edicts, or (2) solemn exhortations. Its association with statutes and judgements, here and again in Deuteronomy 6:20, and with commandments and statutes in Deuteronomy 6:17, where it stands not before but between these two legal terms, favours the former alternative. Similarly P uses the related form ‘edûth for the Decalogue. Steuernagel’s opinion that ‘edôth here covers the following hortatory discourses is therefore, while possible, less probable. Bertholet, limiting the reference of Deuteronomy 4:45-49 to ch. 5 (see introd. to this section), suggests that ‘edôth means the Decalogue in ch. 5.

statutes, and the judgements] See Deuteronomy 4:1.

children of Israel] See Deuteronomy 4:44.

when they came forth out of Egypt] An illustration of the writer’s late perspective. For thus to date legislation given in Moab forty years after the actual Exodus, was not possible for Moses himself or for a writer contemporary or nearly contemporary with him; but only for one viewing the whole progress of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land from a very distant standpoint.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 45. - Testimonies; ordinances attested and confirmed by God; the word used here (עֵדות, plu. of עֵדַה) occurs only in Deuteronomy (here and Deuteronomy 6:17, 20) and in the Psalms. Statutes and judgments (cf. Deuteronomy 4:1). After they came forth out of Egypt; "i.e. not immediately after their exit, But, as ver. 46 shows, when they were already beyond Jordan" (Herxheimer); literally, in their coming out: i.e. during the process of their passing from Egypt to Canaan; more exactly defined by what follows. Deuteronomy 4:45

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Announcement of the Discourse upon the Law. - First of all, in Deuteronomy 4:44, we have the general notice in the form of a heading: "This is the Thorah which Moses set before the children of Israel;" and then, in Deuteronomy 4:45, Deuteronomy 4:46, a fuller description of the Thorah according to its leading features, "testimonies, statutes, and rights" (see at Deuteronomy 4:1), together with a notice of the place and time at which Moses delivered this address. "On their coming out of Egypt," i.e., not "after they had come out," but during the march, before they had reached the goal of their journeyings, viz., (Deuteronomy 4:46) when they were still on the other side of the Jordan. "In the valley," as in Deuteronomy 3:29. "In the land of Sihon," and therefore already upon ground which the Lord had given them for a possession. The importance of this possession as the first-fruit and pledge of the fulfilment of the further promises of God, led Moses to mention again, though briefly, the defeat of the two kings of the Amorites, together with the conquest of their land, just as he had done before in Deuteronomy 2:32-36 and Deuteronomy 3:1-17. On Deuteronomy 4:48, cf. Deuteronomy 3:9, Deuteronomy 3:12-17. Sion, for Hermon (see at Deuteronomy 3:9).