(2) And Moses called all Israel and said unto them.--The address in this chapter may be compared with that of Joshua to the people (as distinct from their heads and officers) in Joshua 24. The topics brought before them are simple. In Deuteronomy 29:2-3, the miracles of the Exodus; in Deuteronomy 29:5; Deuteronomy 29:7, the wilderness journey; in Deuteronomy 29:7-8, the conquest of Sihon and Og. All are appealed to, from the captains of the tribes (Deuteronomy 29:10), to the little ones (Deuteronomy 29:11), and the lowest slaves (Deuteronomy 29:11). And the point set before them is one simple thing, to accept Jehovah as their God. All this is very closely reproduced in Joshua 24 (see Notes in that place).
Ye have seen.--The pronoun is emphatic. Yourselves are witnesses. I need not repeat the story. (Comp. Deuteronomy 11:2-7.)
Verse 2. - Moses addresses the nation as such, and reminds them of their dullness to apprehend the manifestations of God's grace which had been so abundantly afforded in their past history, in order that he may arouse them to a better state of mind, and stimulate them to hearken to the voice of God in the future.
29:1-9 Both former mercies, and fresh mercies, should be thought on by us as motives to obedience. The hearing ear, and seeing eye, and the understanding heart, are the gift of God. All that have them, have them from him. God gives not only food and raiment, but wealth and large possessions, to many to whom he does not give grace. Many enjoy the gifts, who have not hearts to perceive the Giver, nor the true design and use of the gifts. We are bound, in gratitude and interest, as well as in duty and faithfulness, to keep the words of the covenant.
Moses called unto all Israel,.... He had been speaking before to the heads of them, and delivered at different times what is before recorded; but now he summoned the whole body of the people together, a solemn covenant being to be made between God and them; or such things being to be made known unto them as were of universal concernment:
and said unto them; what is in this chapter; which is only a preparation or introduction to what he had to declare unto them in the following:
ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt; the Targum of Jonathan is,"what the Word of the Lord did;''for all the wonderful things there done in Egypt were done by the essential Word of God, Christ, the Son of God; who appeared to Moses in the bush, and sent him to Egypt, and by him and Aaron wrought the miracles there; which many now present had seen, and were then old enough to take notice of, and could remember, though their fathers then in being were now dead:
unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; the plagues he inflicted on the person of Pharaoh, and on all his courtiers, and on all the people in Egypt, for they reached the whole land.
Ye have seen.--The pronoun is emphatic. Yourselves are witnesses. I need not repeat the story. (Comp. Deuteronomy 11:2-7.)
and said unto them; what is in this chapter; which is only a preparation or introduction to what he had to declare unto them in the following:
ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt; the Targum of Jonathan is,"what the Word of the Lord did;''for all the wonderful things there done in Egypt were done by the essential Word of God, Christ, the Son of God; who appeared to Moses in the bush, and sent him to Egypt, and by him and Aaron wrought the miracles there; which many now present had seen, and were then old enough to take notice of, and could remember, though their fathers then in being were now dead:
unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; the plagues he inflicted on the person of Pharaoh, and on all his courtiers, and on all the people in Egypt, for they reached the whole land.