Teks -- Deuteronomy 4:1-3 (NET)

The Privileges of the Covenant

4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you. 4:3 You have witnessed what the Lord did at Baal Peor, how he eradicated from your midst everyone who followed Baal Peor.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Deu 4:1 - The statutes

The laws which concern the worship and service of God.

Wesley: Deu 4:1 - The judgments

The laws concerning your duties to men. So these two comprehend both tables, and the whole law of God.

JFB: Deu 4:1 - hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you

By statutes were meant all ordinances respecting religion and the rites of divine worship; and by judgments, all enactments relative to civil matters. The two embraced the whole law of God.

JFB: Deu 4:2 - Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you

By the introduction of any heathen superstition or forms of worship different from those which I have appointed (Deu 12:32; Num 15:39; Mat 15:9).

JFB: Deu 4:2 - neither shall ye diminish aught from it

By the neglect or omission of any of the observances, however trivial or irksome, which I have prescribed. The character and provisions of the ancient dispensation were adapted with divine wisdom to the instruction of that infant state of the church. But it was only a temporary economy; and although God here authorizes Moses to command that all its institutions should be honored with unfailing observance, this did not prevent Him from commissioning other prophets to alter or abrogate them when the end of that dispensation was attained.

JFB: Deu 4:3-4 - Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor . . . the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you

It appears that the pestilence and the sword of justice overtook only the guilty in that affair (Num 25:1-9) while the rest of the people were spared. The allusion to that recent and appalling judgment was seasonably made as a powerful dissuasive against idolatry, and the fact mentioned was calculated to make a deep impression on people who knew and felt the truth of it.

Clarke: Deu 4:1 - Hearken - unto the statutes

Hearken - unto the statutes - Every thing that concerned the rites and ceremonies of religion; judgments - all that concerned matters of civil right and wrong.

Clarke: Deu 4:2 - Ye shall not add

Ye shall not add - Any book, chapter, verse or word, which I have not spoken; nor give any comment that has any tendency to corrupt, weaken, or destroy any part of this revelation

Clarke: Deu 4:2 - Neither shall ye diminish

Neither shall ye diminish - Ye shall not only not take away any larger portion of this word, but ye shall not take one jot or tittle from the Law; it is that word of God that abideth for ever.

Calvin: Deu 4:1 - Now, therefore, hearken, O Israel

1.Now, therefore, hearken, O Israel He requires the people to be teachable, in order that they may learn to serve God; for the beginning of a good and upright life is to know what is pleasing to God. From hence, then, does Moses commence commanding them to be attentive in seeking direction from the Law; and then admonishing them to prove by their whole life that they have duly profited in the Law. The promise which is here inserted, only invites them to unreserved obedience through hope of the inheritance. The main point is, that they should neither add to nor diminish from the pure doctrine of the Law; and this cannot be the case, unless men first renounce their own private feelings, and then shut their ears against all the imaginations of others. For none are to be accounted (true) disciples of the Law, but those who obtain their wisdom from it alone. It is, then, as if God commanded them to be content with His precepts; because in no other way would they keep His law, except by giving themselves wholly to its teaching. Hence it follows, that they only obey God who depend on His authority alone; and that they only pay the Law its rightful honor, who receive nothing which is opposed to its natural meaning. The passage is a remarkable one, openly condemning whatsoever man’s ingenuity may invent for the service of God.

Calvin: Deu 4:3 - Your eyes have seen what the Lord did

3.Your eyes have seen what the Lord did This enlargement more clearly shews that so conspicuous was the example given in the punishment, that it could not be hidden from even the most ignorant; for Moses does not here address those of refined judgment, but the common people generally, who had only been spectators. Assuredly, if God’s vengeance had been less manifest, he would not have so confidently appealed to them as witnesses; hence was their stolidity the less excusable, if they were blind to so plain and notorious a fact.

His praise of their constancy I refer to the present case alone; for it is abundantly clear that they did not persevere in cleaving to God. The meaning is, that there was a manifest discrimination in this Divine chastisement, so that the death of the ungodly multitude should preserve the pure worship of God among the survivors.

Defender: Deu 4:2 - not add unto the word

This uniquely important commandment - not to augment or diminish the revealed word of God - is reflected in the final climactic words of God in the Bible (Rev 22:18, Rev 22:19). Moses here clearly claims verbal inspiration."

TSK: Deu 4:1 - unto the statutes // that ye may

unto the statutes : Statutes, every thing that concerned morals and the rites and ceremonies of religion; judgments, all matters of civil right and wrong. Deu 4:8, Deu 4:45, Deu 5:1, Deu 6:1, Deu 6:2, Deu 8:1, Deu 11:1, Deu 11:32; Lev 19:37, Lev 20:8, Lev 22:31; Psa 105:45; Psa 119:4; Eze 11:20, Eze 36:27, Eze 37:24; Mat 28:20; Luk 1:6; Joh 15:14

that ye may : Lev 18:5; Eze 20:11, Eze 20:21; Rom 10:5

TSK: Deu 4:2

Deu 12:32; Jos 1:7; Pro 30:6; Ecc 12:13; Mat 5:18, Mat 5:43, Mat 15:2-9; Mar 7:1-13; Gal 3:15; Rev 22:18, Rev 22:19

TSK: Deu 4:3 - what the // for all the men

what the : Num 25:1-9, Num 31:16; Jos 22:17; Psa 106:28, Psa 106:29; Hos 9:10

for all the men : It appears from this appeal, that the pestilence, as well as the sword of the magistrates, singled out the guilty persons and spared the rest (Psa 91:6-8). The legislator, in order to deter the Jews from idolatry, alludes to this fact, but he notices no circumstance but one, which, though in the original narrative was not stated, was infinitely the most important to advert to on this occasion; but which no persons, but spectators of the fact, and perfectly acquainted with every individual concerned in it, could possibly feel the truth of. Num 26:64

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Deu 4:1 - The statutes

The statutes the laws which concern the worship and service of God. The judgments the laws concerning your duties to men. So these two comprehend both tables, and the whole law of God.

Poole: Deu 4:2 - Ye shall not add // Neither shall ye diminish

Ye shall not add by devising other doctrines or ways of worship than what I have taught or prescribed; see Num 15:39,40 De 12:8,32 1Ki 12:33 Pro 30:6 Mat 15:9 ; for this were to accuse me of want of wisdom or care or faithfulness in not giving you sufficient instructions for my own service.

Neither shall ye diminish by rejecting or neglecting any thing which I have commanded, though it seem never so small.

Haydock: Deu 4:1 - There // Soul

There. Hebrew, "thence" from the place of captivity, or returning from the love of idols to the services of the true God. ---

Soul. Hebrew, "with all thy soul. (Ver. 30) In thy tribulation after," &c. (Calmet) ---

God often sends chastisements as the most effectual means of salvation, to make his children enter into themselves. In this state, the soul is more at liberty to consider the follow of adhering to any thing in opposition to the sovereign Lord. Then she is forced to confess that her idols cannot afford her any protection. How, in effect, could any one fall into such an abyss of corruption and stupidity, as to imagine those things to be gods which have not even the dignity and advantages which they themselves possess? Their soul must first have been strangely blinded, and their heart corrupt. Even the more enlightened pagans acknowledged the folly of pretending to represent the Divinity under sensible forms. "God, says Empedocles, has no human members....He is a pure and ineffable spirit, who governs the world by his profound wisdom." Numa would not allow any picture of Him, conformably to the doctrine of Pythagoras; and, for the first 170 years of Rome, no representation of God was set up in the temples. (Plutarch) ---

The ancient Phœnicians seemed to have acted on the same principle, as the temple of Hercules, at the Straits, had no image. It is well known that the Persians rejected both the statues and temples erected in honour of the gods; and the Germans esteemed it beneath the majesty of the heavenly Beings, to represent them under any human form. (Tacitus, Hist. v.) (Calmet) ---

Yet these sages gave way to the folly of the people, and, against their better knowledge, adored the stupid and senseless idols. (Haydock)

Haydock: Deu 4:1 - And judgments

And judgments, regarding religion and civil affairs. (Calmet) ---

Live a happy life. (Menochius)

Haydock: Deu 4:2 - Add

Add any thing repugnant to the spirit of my law. No interpretation of this kind can be admitted. But this does not condemn well authorized traditions, and laws enacted by lawful superiors. The Jews always boast of their close adherence to the letter of the law, but they often forget the spirit of it, and by their traditions render it deformed, like a carcass. Demosthenes takes notice, that the Locrians had such a regard for their laws, that if any one chose to propose any fresh ones, he came with a rope about his neck, that if they did not meet with the approbation of the people, he might be strangled immediately. (Calmet) ---

Moses cannot mean to forbid any more divine or civil commandments being written by Josue and the subsequent prophets. He only enjoins that nothing shall be altered by human authority. The other books of the Old Testament serve to explain the law; and so do the apostolical traditions (Worthington) afford great assistance to understand the true meaning of all the Scriptures, and hence we learn whatever we have to perform, without danger of being led astray. (Haydock) ---

To these the Scriptures frequently refer. He that heareth you, heareth me, Luke x. Hold the traditions which you have learnt, 2 Thessalonians ii. The rest I will set in order, when I come, 1 Corinthians xi. 34. Hence St. Augustine (contra Cresc. i. 33) observes, "Though no evident example can be produced from Scripture, yet we hold the truth of the same Scripture, when we do what meets with the approbation of that Church whose authority the Scripture establishes." See ep. 80, St. Chrysostom in 1 Thess. iv.; St. Irenæus, Against Heresies iii. 4. (Worthington) ---

The Jews themselves never had the folly to imagine with the modern innovators, that all laws both of a religous or civil nature were here proscribed. Under David, Mardocheus, and the Machabees, various laws and feasts were commanded, and observed in the true spirit of the law, 1 Kings xxx. 25., and Esther ix., and 1 Machabees iv. God does not leave to the discretion of the Jews, the appointing of different victims, &c., in his worship, (chap. xii. 30,) as they might very easily give way to the superstitious observances of their neighbours, and these things that had been sufficiently determined. But he enjoins all to obey the declarations of the priests and judges, chap. xvii. 10. (Bellarmine) (Tirinus) ---

Thus when the Apocalypse records a prohibition similar to this, (Apocalypse xxii. 18, 19,) it is not intended to seal up the divine volume, so that nothing more shall be admitted into it, for St. John wrote his gospel afterwards. But it must be explained in the same sense as this passage, and condemns all those who, of their own authority, would set up fresh doctrine in opposition to the word of God. Let Protestants consider if they be not concerned in this caution, when they not only cut off whole books of Scripture, but deny the authority of the Church itself, without which the Scripture can be of little service. They are the book sealed with seven seals, impenetrable to man without the aid of the Divine author; (Apocalypse v. 5;) and this aid he will never grant to those who obstinately refuse to hear the Church, Matthew xviii. 17., and 2 Peter i. 20. (Haydock)

Haydock: Deu 4:3 - Among you

Among you, when the guilty Israelites and the Madianites were slain, Numbers xxv., and xxxi.

Gill: Deu 4:1 - Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments // which I teach you for to do that ye may live // and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you

Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments,.... The laws of God, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which they are exhorted to attend to and obey, in consideration of the great and good things the Lord had done for them, ever since they came from Horeb, where they were given them; such as providing for them, and feeding them in the wilderness, preserving them from every hurtful thing, and delivering their enemies into their hands, the two kings of the Amorites, which they are put in mind of in the preceding chapters; hence this begins with "therefore hearken"; for nothing is a greater incentive to obedience than the kindness and goodness of God:

which I teach you for to do that ye may live; the law was taught by Moses, but the Gospel of grace and truth by Jesus Christ; and it was taught by him, as well as it was to be hearkened to by them, in order to yield obedience to it; for not bare hearing, but doing the law, is the principal thing of any avail; and which was to be done, that they might live; not a spiritual and eternal life, which are not by the works of the law, but are had only from Christ, through his grace and righteousness; but a corporeal life, and a comfortable enjoyment of the blessings of it, and particularly that that might be continued to them:

and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you; the land of Canaan, which the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had promised to give to their posterity, and which they were to hold by their obedience to his laws.

Gill: Deu 4:2 - Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, nether shall you diminish ought from it // that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you

Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, nether shall you diminish ought from it,.... Neither make new laws of their own, and join them to the law of God, and set them upon a level with it, or prefer them before it; as the Scribes and Pharisees did in Christ's time, who by their traditions made the word of God of none effect, as do the Papists also by their unwritten traditions; nor abrogate nor detract from the law of God, nor make void any part of it: or else the sense is, neither do that which is forbidden, nor neglect that which is commanded; neither be guilty of sins of omission nor commission, nor in any way break the law of God, and teach men so to do by word or by example; not a jot or tittle is either to be put to it, or taken from it, Pro 30:5.

that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you; in his name; or which he delivered unto them as his commandments, and which were to be kept just as they were delivered, without adding to them, or taking from them.

Gill: Deu 4:3 - Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor // for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor,.... Because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshipping that idol, being drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication; which led them to the other sin, and both highly provoking to God. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,"what the Word of the Lord has done to the worshippers of the idol Peor;"

for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you; 24,000 persons died on that account; which being a recent thing, fresh in memory, and what they were eyewitnesses of, was a caution to them to avoid the same sins, as it is to us on whom the ends of the world are come, Num 23:9.