Deuteronomy 10

De 10:1-22.

GOD'S

MERCY IN

RESTORING THE

TWO

TABLES.

1. At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone

like unto the first--It was when God had been pacified through the

intercessions of Moses with the people who had so greatly offended Him

orders he had received as to the preparation both of the hewn stones,

and the ark or chest in which those sacred archives were to be laid.

3. And I made an ark of shittim wood--It appears, however, from

Ex 37:1,

that the ark was not framed till his return from the mount, or most

probably, he gave instructions to Bezaleel, the artist employed on the

work, before he ascended the mount--that, on his descent, it might be

finished, and ready to receive the precious deposit.

4, 5. he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing--that is,

not Moses, who under the divine direction acted as amanuensis, but God

Himself who made this inscription a second time with His own hand, to

testify the importance He attached to the ten commandments. Different

from other stone monuments of antiquity, which were made to stand

upright and in the open air, those on which the divine law was engraven

were portable, and designed to be kept as a treasure.

JOSEPHUS says

that each of the tables contained five precepts. But the tradition

generally received, both among Jewish and Christian writers is, that

one table contained four precepts, the other six.

5. I . . . put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they

be, as the Lord commanded me--Here is another minute, but important

circumstance, the public mention of which at the time attests the

veracity of the sacred historian.

6-9. the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the

children of Jaakan to Mosera--So sudden a change from a spoken

discourse to a historical narrative has greatly puzzled the most

eminent biblical scholars, some of whom reject the parenthesis as a

manifest interpolation. But it is found in the most ancient Hebrew

manuscripts, and, believing that all contained in this book was given

as it stands, although acknowledging our inability to explain the

insertion of these encampment details in this place. There is another

difficulty in the narrative itself. The stations which the Israelites

are said successively to have occupied are enumerated here in a

different order from

Nu 33:31.

That the names of the stations in both passages are the same there can

be no doubt; but, in Numbers, they are probably mentioned in reference

to the first visit of the Hebrews during the long wandering

southwards, before their return to Kadesh the second time; while here

they have a reference to the second passage of the Israelites,

when they again marched south, in order to compass the land of Edom. It

is easy to conceive that Mosera (Hor) and the wells of Jaakan might lie

in such a direction that a nomadic horde might, in different years, at

one time take the former first in their way, and at another time

the latter [ROBINSON].

10-22. Moses here resumes his address, and having made a passing

allusion to the principal events in their history, concludes by

exhorting them to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully.

16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart--Here he teaches

them the true and spiritual meaning of that rite, as was afterwards

more strongly urged by Paul

(Ro 2:25, 29),

and should be applied by us to our baptism, which is "not the putting

away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience

toward God"

[1Pe 3:21].