Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 26:5

And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish [was] my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

5. answer ] testify, as in Deu 5:20, Deu 19:16; Deu 19:18, Deu 21:7, Deu 25:9.

A nomad Aramean was my father ] Jacob-Israel, the son of an Aramean (Gen 24:10, cp. Deu 24:4), himself a nomad shepherd in Aram (Hos 12:12, Genesis 29-31), with Aramean mothers to his children. EVV. ready to perish and R.V. marg. wandering or lost are all possible transl. of the Heb. ’bed, used of lost or ‘wandered’ beasts, Deu 22:3 , 1Sa 9:3; 1Sa 9:20, Eze 34:4; Eze 34:16, Psa 119:176; and of men perishing, Deu 4:26, Deu 7:20, Deu 8:19 f., Deu 28:20, 2Sa 1:27, Job 6:18 and frequently. Here no doubt intended to mark the nomad origins of Israel in contrast to their present state as cultivators of their own land.

Dillm. ‘verlorner oder verkommender,’ Dri. ‘ready to perish,’ Steuern. ‘dem Untergang naher,’ Berth. ‘dem Untergang zugehend,’ Marti, ‘umherirrender.’ The LXX, at a time when Aramean = heathen, avoided such a reproach to Israel by differently dividing the two words ( ’Aram yo’bed) and producing the renderings ‘threw off’ or ‘lost’ and ‘forsook’ or ‘recovered (!) Syria’: (LXX B), (N, etc.), (A, F).

went down ] So always from Palestine to Egypt, e.g. JE, Num 20:15.

sojourned ] Was a gr, cp. Deu 23:7 (8).

few in number ] Deu 10:22.

great, and mighty, and populous ] So Sam., Vulg., etc. J, Exo 1:9, more and mightier than we (Egyptians), 12, 20, multiplied, waxed mighty.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

A Syrian ready to perish was my father – The reference is shown by the context to be to Jacob, as the ancestor in whom particularly the family of Abraham began to develop into a nation (compare Isa 43:22, Isa 43:28, etc.). Jacob is called a Syrian (literally, Aramaean), not only because of his own long residence in Syria with Laban Gen. 2931, as our Lord was called a Nazarene because of his residence at Nazareth Mat 2:23, but because he there married and had his children (compare Hos 12:12); and might be said accordingly to belong to that more than to any other land.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Deu 26:5

A Syrian ready to perish was my father.

Humiliation in connection with gratitude

Such was the confession required of every priest of Israel when he presented, before the altar, the offering of first-fruits. It was, therefore, in the midst of abundance, a memorial of former destitution, and an acknowledgment of utter unworthiness, under circumstances of peculiar obligation. The text is capable of divers renderings; but take whichever we may, the lesson is the same. It teaches us, that when the Divine promises are all fulfilled, and our salvation is complete, we are still to remember the past (Isa 51:1). The connection between acceptable thanksgiving and profound humiliation is a fact which none but a Pharisee would dare to disregard, and which it behoves the Christian to bear in mind in all his devout meditations and religious exercises. Should pride ever rise within his bosom–Who maketh thee to differ? is a consideration which may suffice to put it down: nor will he, if walking in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, when, by virtue of his royal priesthood, he has boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, forget to say there–A Syrian ready to perish was my father. The natural philosopher may rejoice that he is not a brute, and a pagan may glory in the attributes peculiar to man, but the devout student learns some very humbling facts concerning the position of our race. Among the rest is this, that, of intelligent beings, man is probably the lowest in the scale. That angels excel us in strength is obvious from everything we know concerning them; and that devils have far greater intellectual power than belongs to man, none acquainted with their devices will be disposed to question. To boast of our mental superiority, then, is but to mingle ignorance with pride. The humiliation which these considerations may be supposed to engender is deepened by the recollection, that our case is not one of poverty alone, but of degradation. Whatever may have been mans original glory, that glory has long since departed. His boast of heraldry is vain; traced back to its earliest antiquity, it bespeaks his ruin. His crest is an inverted crown. And this is his motto–Man that was in honour abode not. The grace of God works wonders. It copes with depravity, and subdues it. It rescues the sinner from his degradation, and renders him meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. But it also teaches him never to forget, even amidst the splendours of the heavenly temple, to which it ultimately introduces him, the ancient acknowledgment of the adoring Israelite–A Syrian ready to perish was my father. (D. E. Ford.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. A Syrian ready to perish was my father] This passage has been variously understood, both by the ancient versions and by modern commentators. The Vulgate renders it thus: Syrus persequebatur patrem meum, “A Syrian persecuted my father.” The Septuagint thus: , “My father abandoned Syria.” The Targum thus: Laban arammaah bea leobada yath abba, “Laban the Syrian endeavoured to destroy my father.” The Syriac: “My father was led out of Syria into Egypt.” The Arabic: “Surely, Laban the Syrian had almost destroyed my father.” The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel: “Our father Jacob went at first into Syria of Mesopotamia, and Laban sought to destroy him.”

Father Houbigant dissents from all, and renders the original thus: Fames urgebat patrem meum, qui in AEgyptum descendit, “Famine oppressed my father, who went down into Egypt.” This interpretation Houbigant gives the text, by taking the yod from the word arammi, which signifies an Aramite or Syrian, and joining it to yeabud, the future for the perfect, which is common enough in Hebrew, and which may signify constrained; and seeking for the meaning of aram in the Arabic [Arabic] arama, which signifies famine, dearth, &c., he thus makes out his version, and this version he defends at large in his notes. It is pretty evident, from the text, that by a Syrian we are to understand Jacob, so called from his long residence in Syria with his father-in-law Laban. And his being ready to perish may signify the hard usage and severe labour he had in Laban’s service, by which, as his health was much impaired, so his life might have often been in imminent danger.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Jacob was a

Syrian, partly, by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were Abraham and Rebekah, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria largely so called, as is confessed by Strabo, b. 16. and by Pliny, b. 5. c. 12; partly, by his education and conversation, for which reason Christ is called a Nazarene, and a Capernaite; and partly, by his relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mothers. Ready to perish; either through want and poverty; see Gen 28:11,20; 32:10; or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery and cruelty of his father-in-law Laban.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. thou shalt say . . . A Syrianready to perish was my fatherrather, “a wanderingSyrian.” The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomad shepherds,either Syrians by birth as Abraham, or by long residence as Jacob.When they were established as a nation in the possession of thepromised land, they were indebted to God’s unmerited goodness fortheir distinguished privileges, and in token of gratitude theybrought this basket of first-fruits.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God,…. Speak with a loud voice, lifting up the voice, as Jarchi interprets it; or “answer” e, to the question the priest will ask, saying, what is this thou hast brought? as Aben Ezra remarks; and this being said in the tabernacle, and before the priest of the Lord, and as in the presence of the Lord, is represented as said before him, which is as follows:

a Syrian ready to perish [was] my father; meaning Jacob, who though born in Canaan, his mother was a Syrian, and his grandfather Abraham was of Chaldea, a part of Syria; and Jacob married two wives in Syria, and all his children were born there but Benjamin, and where he lived twenty years; and sometimes persons are denominated, as from the place of their birth, so from the place of their dwelling, as Christ was called a Nazarene from Nazareth, where he dwelt, though he was born at Bethlehem, Mt 2:23; and Jether, though an Israelite, as Aben Ezra observes, is called an Ishmaelite, perhaps because he dwelt some time among that people, 1Ch 2:17. Now Jacob might be said to be ready to perish when he fled for his life from his brother Esau, and was poor and penniless when he came to Laban; so the last mentioned writer interprets this phrase; to which may be added, that when in his service he was exposed to cold and heat, and had his wages frequently changed, and afterwards, when obliged to flee from Laban, was pursued by him with an intention to do him mischief, had not the Lord prevented him. The reason of this part of the confession was to show that it was not owing to the greatness of their ancestors from whence they sprung, whose condition was mean, but to the gift of God, and his goodness, that they enjoyed the land of Canaan. So every sensible soul, when he brings his sacrifice of praise to God for his mercies, especially spiritual ones, frankly acknowledges his lost perishing condition by nature, of which he is sensible; and that in order to magnify the riches of the grace of God in his salvation, to endear Christ as a Saviour the more, and to keep humble, and make thankful:

and he went down into Egypt; not directly, but some years after his former afflicted circumstances; so the Targum of Jonathan expresses it,

“after these things he went down into Egypt;”

after he had been in perishing circumstances in Syria, and when he was sore pressed with famine in Canaan:

and sojourned there with a few; with seventy souls, as Jarchi:

and became there a great nation, mighty and populous; insomuch that the king of Egypt was jealous of them, lest through their strength and numbers they should get away from them, when any favourable incident happened; they being when they came out from thence six hundred thousand men able to bear arms, besides women and children.

e “et respondebis”, Montanus, Vatablus; “et respondens dices”, Munster.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

5. A Syrian ready to perish Rather, a wandering Syrian. Jacob is here referred to. He is called an Aramaean, or Syrian. For in Aramaea he lived for a long period. Here he served Laban. Here he married his wives. Here most of his children were born.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ver. 5. And thou shalt speak, &c. The sum of the acknowledgment amounts to this: that their possession of that land was entirely owing to the bounty of God, and not left them by their ancestors; for Jacob or Israel, their progenitor, was forced to fly into Syria in a poor condition, and afterwards to go down into Egypt, where his posterity was sorely afflicted; but, by the mercy of God, they increased there, and were by him miraculously brought into this good land. The Vulgate, and some other versions, render it, A Syrian persecuted my father, referring to Laban; and others, my father passed into Syria: but our translation is more agreeable to the Hebrew. For though Jacob himself was born in Canaan, yet was he a Syrian by descent, Abraham being a native of Syria; and as he himself lived twenty years with Laban the Syrian, he is, on these accounts, very properly called a Syrian, or an inhabitant of Mesopotamia, which, in Scripture, is comprehended under the name of Syria, or Aram. Le Clerc observes, that Syrian was a name of reproach; for the Syrians were thought more fraudful and cunning than others: but I should imagine, that the expression could not be used here in any such sense; the low and unfortunate state of Jacob and his family, when going down into Egypt, being here evidently contrasted with their happy and fortunate state in the land of Canaan. What we render, ready to perish, Dr. Waterland renders wandering; a translation which he has taken from Mr. Wesseling’s Observations, who remarks, that the same word abed, is used, Psa 119:176 in the same sense, where the Psalmist compares himself to a sheep that was wandering or lost; and he adds, that nothing can answer better than this expression to the kind of life which Jacob led. We find exactly the same manner of speaking in the OEdipus of Sophocles, ver. 1039. See Wesseling’s Observ. Var. l. 2. c. 3. p. 148. Houbigant dissents from others in his interpretation of this text.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Jacob was in fact a Syrian, for he lived many years in Padanaram. And Laban, his father-in-law, was a Syrian, consequently his daughters sprung from thence. It is good to remind the spiritual Israel of the hole of the pit, whence they were digged. Isa 51:2 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Deu 26:5 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish [was] my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

Ver. 5. A Syrian ready to perish. ] Jacob, whose original was from Haran in Syria, Gen 11:31 and whose abode had been with Laban the Syrian, in much poverty, affliction, and misery. Hos 12:12 How low and mean were we of this nation at first! Brith signifies blue-coloured, sc., with woad: hence we were called Britons. Instead of fine clothes our ancestors dyed their skins, and painted upon them sundry sorts of birds and beasts: for food they had barks of trees, &c. This should never be forgotten.

And became there a nation. ] Consider we likewise what we were by nature, and should have been; what we are by grace, and shall be; and then take we up that most modest speech of that noble Athenian captain, Iphicrates, in the midst of all his glory, ; a from how great baseness and misery, to what great blessedness and glory are we advanced; being “raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” Eph 2:9 ; Eph 2:11-13 See Trapp on “ Eph 2:11 “ See Trapp on “ Eph 2:12 “ See Trapp on “ Eph 2:13 “ What was there in us, said Tamerlane to Bajazet the great Turk, now his prisoner, that God should set us over two great empires of Turks and Tartars, to command many more worthy than ourselves, you being blind of one eye, and I lame of a leg, &c.? b Peter Martyr told Queen Elizabeth in an epistle, that princes must be doubly thankful to God: (1.) As men; (2.) As eminent men, exalted above others. So must all God’s servants, who being his firstborn, are in that respect “higher than the kings of the earth,” Psa 89:27 and being “the firstfruits of his revenue,” are therefore “holiness to the Lord.” Jer 2:3

a Arist., Rhetor., lib, v. cap. 9.

b Leonclav., Annal. Turc.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)