Deuteronomy 4 Study Notes

4:1 Statutes and ordinances are technical terms referring to elements common to covenant texts. They occur together regularly in Deuteronomy (vv. 5,8,14,45; 5:1,31; 6:1,20; 7:11; 11:1; 12:1) and always to describe the Lord’s requirement of his people Israel with whom he had entered into covenant fellowship.

4:2 The instruction not to add to what the Lord commands occurs also in 12:32 and Rv 22:18-19. In a vassal treaty such as this the suzerain sets the terms. Commands is equivalent to “statutes and ordinances” in v. 1.

4:3 Baal-peor was the place in Transjordan where Israel was first seduced into the licentious worship of the fertility deity Baal of Peor (Nm 25:1-9). As a result the Lord commanded Moses to kill all the men who had participated in this sexually perverse paganism.

4:4-6 In a clear linkage with wisdom thought, Moses argued that keeping and doing the commandments of the Lord is in itself a definition of wisdom and understanding. That is, the very essence of wisdom is conformity with the will of God. Even the pagan nations, who prized wisdom, would see in Israel’s covenant provisions a wisdom of a higher order. This was to be one way Israel was to be a means of blessing to the nations (1Kg 10:4,7,23-24).

4:7-8 The reference to the gods of the nations suggests only that the nations believed that those gods existed, though, of course, they did not exist (3:24). Israel was to be a great nation because of the nearness of its God and the righteousness of the Torah. Israel’s law invites comparison to all the ancient law codes. As Christopher Wright explains, “There is a vital link between the religious claims of the people of God (that God is near them) and their practical social ethic. The world will be interested in the former only when it sees the latter.”

4:9-12 It would take diligence to keep the memory of their encounter with God fresh in their minds. Here in v. 10 is the first reference in Deuteronomy to the fear of the Lord as required of God’s people. The fear of God can be equated with wisdom, which should be the guiding principle of one’s life (Jb 28:28; Ps 111:10; Pr 1:7; Mc 6:9). According to Is 33:6 the fear of the Lord is the key to the divine treasure of “salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.”

4:13-14 The Ten Commandments were the foundational principles upon which the covenant between the Lord and Israel was based. As with legal texts in general, there must be two copies. Exodus 32:15 points out that each of the two stone tablets was inscribed on both sides.

4:15-18 To conceptualize God in a manufactured form was to limit his power and glory. To worship idols of other gods was to deny God’s uniqueness and sovereignty. See Rm 1:23.

4:19 There is a word here of polemic in the suggestion that it is the Lord who controls his creation for the benefit of humankind. He, and not creation itself, must be revered—no matter how powerful it may appear to be.

4:20 Egypt’s description as an iron furnace is a metaphor for a smelter or crucible whose function was to melt down metals under such intense heat that all the dross and other impurities were separated from them, leaving them pure and usable (Pr 17:3). The Lord had allowed Israel to suffer in Egypt so they would be better prepared to be a people for his inheritance (cp. 1Kg 8:51; Jr 11:4-5; Zch 13:9; Mal 3:3).

4:21-22 See Dt 3:26.

4:23-24 God is never envious of anyone or anything, but he emphatically states and defends his right to exclusive worship by his people (6:14-15).

4:25-26 This is the first of several such warning passages in the book (see 28:15-68; 29:22-28; 31:16-29). Since humans are not qualified to certify the durability and reliability of God’s promises, and since no other gods exist to serve as witnesses, Moses invoked heaven and earth to serve that function (30:19; 31:28; cp. note at Gn 22:15-18).

4:27 The peoples and nations most immediately in view are the Assyrians and Babylonians, who took Israel and Judah captive in 722 and 586 BC, respectively. Since then, Greece, Rome, and other world powers have successively uprooted the Jewish people for various reasons, including their violation of the covenant the Lord made with them (vv. 23,25; cp. 2Kg 17:7-41; 2Ch 36:15-19).

4:28 In a foreign land, they will have to do what they had previously chosen to do.

4:29-31 When Israel went into exile they would find the Lord when they sought him with all their heart and soul. Yet the promise is clear that this would happen, because they would in fact return to the Lord in the future. The Lord’s promises to his chosen people must come to pass because he has sworn by his own reputation to make it so (30:6-10; Gn 17:3-8; Jr 31:31-34; Ezk 36:24-30; Rm 11:1-2,25-26). He thus provides the grace by which Israel can believe, repent, and return (Rm 11:28-32).

4:32-34 The event in view is the whole complex of God’s election of Abraham to establish a nation, the deliverance of that nation from Egyptian bondage (v. 34), his gracious act of making covenant with them (v. 33), and his care for them ever since. This event was unique in the history of the world (cp. 32:9; 33:29).

4:35-40 The Lord’s mighty acts in history on Israel’s behalf were designed to demonstrate his sovereignty and uniqueness. In v. 37 loved and chose are virtually synonymous. The exodus deliverance was predicated on Israel’s prior election by the Lord.

4:41-43 Before Moses’s death and the conquest of Canaan, he selected three cities as places of refuge for people accused but not convicted of manslaughter (see 19:2-13): one in the territory of Reuben, one in the territory of Gad, and the third in the allotment of Manasseh (4:43). These verses, together with vv. 44-49, serve as a double introduction to the following division—one to the address and the other to the covenant document more specifically.

4:42 Manslaughter is qualified here as the killing of a person accidentally without previously hating him. If the accused hated the victim, there might be cause to suspect him of premeditated murder, in which case no refuge could suffice. Manslaughter today is defined similarly as accidental or “without malice aforethought.”

4:44-49 The law is literally “the Torah.” The term usually refers to the Pentateuch, but here to the full collection of principles and stipulations about to be promulgated by Moses. The verb proclaimed suggests these verses were added after Moses had finished the address. What follows is a historical recapitulation of events already described. See Dt 29:7; 31:4; Jos 2:10; 9:10; Neh 9:22; Ps 135:11.