Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 33:15
And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
15. deliver ] i.e. under arrest; cp. Jos 20:5 (deut.), 1Sa 23:11 f.
a servant ] slave or bondman, as elsewhere, e.g. Deu 5:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15. chief things ] Heb. rsh (collect.) tops or rather headlands, see on Deu 3:27 and small print under Deu 12:2. Some conjecture reshth the best (fruit) of the hills. Cp. Deu 32:13 increase of the mountains.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15, 16 ( 16, 17). Of a Runaway Slave. If such escape to thee apparently Israel as a whole (cp. Deu 5:16), and therefore the slave, though not necessarily a Hebrew slave 1 [145] (Marti), is one who has escaped from a foreign master thou shalt not send him back, he shall dwell with thee, where he chooses and unoppressed. Peculiar to D. That slaves sometimes fled abroad is seen from the flight of Shimei’s to Achish of Gath, who gave them back, apparently as a matter of course (1Ki 2:39). If this was the usual practice D’s law marks a humane advance upon it. For slaves who flee from native owners no Hebrew laws are extant. On slavery see further on Deu 15:12 ff.
[145] Had this been so it would have been stated as in Deu 15:12.
ammurabi decrees that he who induces a slave to flee or harbours the runaway shall die ( 15 f., 19) and that runaways shall be restored ( 18, 20), the reward for each being two silver shekels ( 17). The slaves of Arabs seldom run away. If one is harshly treated and escapes, he is sheltered by another man of the tribe till his owner promises to treat him better (Musil, Ethn. Ber. 225).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15 25 (16 26). Five Laws Various
The subjects of these are not related. As to form, all are in the Sg. address (Steuern.’s reasons for dividing them between his Sg. and Pl. authors are again inconclusive); and the first three (Deu 33:15-20) have negative openings similar to those of the group in Deu 33:1-8 (from which they are abruptly separated by Deu 33:9-14). In D or D’s source they may have originally followed that group, in the feeling that as all three treat of relations with foreigners or foreign practices they had affinity with it. Steuern. thinks that Deu 33:15 f. fit Deu 22:8 in the code of his Sg. author. In addition to the negative openings there are possibly some cue-words. Escaped in Deu 33:15 is the same Heb. vb (but passive) as deliver in Deu 33:14; and vow in Deu 33:18 is soon followed by vows in Deu 33:21-23.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. The chief things of the ancient mountains] umerosh harerey kedem, and from the head or top of the ancient or eastern mountains, the precious things or productions being still understood. And this probably refers to the large trees, &c., growing on the mountain tops, and the springs of water issuing from them. The mountains of Gilead may be here intended, as they fell to the half tribe of Manasseh. And the precious things of the lasting hills may signify the metals and minerals which might be digged out of them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. The excellent fruits, as grapes, olives, figs, &c., which delight in mountains, growing upon, or the precious minerals contained in, their mountains and hills, called ancient and lasting, i.e. such as have been from the beginning of the world, and likely to continue to the end of it, in opposition to those hills or mounts which have been cast up by the wit of man.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And for the chief things of the ancient mountains,…. Which were from the beginning of the world, and for which the land, possessed by the children of Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim, were famous; as the mountains of Gilead and Bashan, inherited by the former, and Mount Ephraim, and the mountains of Samaria, by the latter; which produced, besides great quantities of grass and corn, also vines, figs, olives, c.
and for the precious things of the lasting hills which will endure as long as the world, the same as before in other words; and which precious things may be emblems of the spiritual blessings of grace, provided in an everlasting covenant, and given to Christ for his people before the world began, or any mountains and hills were formed, and which are as lasting and as immovable as they are; see Pr 8:22, Isa 54:10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. And for the chief things of the ancient mountains. In these words he shows that no part of the land would be barren. We know that the tops of mountains are generally and uncultivated, or at any rate bear nothing but trees that have no fruit. But Moses affirms that even there also there shall be the richest produce, for which reason, at least in my opinion, he calls the mountains ancient, and the hills lasting, as if being very highly renowned; for their antiquity is not praised, as if they were created before the rest of the world, but these mountains are honorably distinguished as the first-born, because God’s blessing eminently rests upon them. Thus in the blessing of Jacob it is said, “unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills,” as much as to say, that no corner of these most celebrated mountains should be devoid of fertility. (Gen 49:26.)
In the next verse he extends generally to the whole land what he had said of the mountains.
Those are wide of the meaning of Moses, who translate what follows: “On account of the good-will of the dweller in the bush the blessing shall come;” and his rendering is altogether barbarous who gives it, “On account of the piety,” etc. My opinion is that the word רצון, retzon, is in the nominative case; for it is quite in accordance with the context that the “favor of God would come upon the head of Joseph;” for, after Moses had magnified His bounty, he now points out its source or cause, viz., that this extraordinary fertility was the result of God’s gratuitous favor. The words of Jacob, “by the God of thy father,” and “by the Almighty,” exactly correspond with these; where also I have explained why Joseph was called a Nazarene among his brethren. (321)
God is called “the dweller in the bush” by periphrasis, with reference to the vision which was presented to Moses on Mount Sinai; for God then appeared a second time as the Redeemer and Father of His people; after having made His covenant with Abraham and Jacob. And this serves by way of confirmation; as if it were said, that the same God who had formerly blessed Joseph by the mouth of His servant Jacob, now repeated the same prophecy, in order to give fuller assurance of its truth.
(321) A. V. , “Separated from his brethren. ” See on Gen 49:26, C. Soc. Edit., vol. 2, p. 470.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Deu 33:15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
Ver. 15. And for the chief things. ] Metals and minerals usually dug out of mountains, which are here called ancient and lasting, because they have been from the beginning, and were not first cast up, as some have held, by Noah’s flood. Psa 90:2
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ancient mountains = mountains of old. Compare Deu 33:27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gen 49:26, Hab 3:6, Jam 5:7
Reciprocal: 1Ti 6:17 – that they