Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 33:4
Moses commanded us a law, [even] the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
4. Moses commanded us a law ] The change to 1st pers. plur. (but LXX B you), the introduction of Moses’ name, and the fact that the line is an odd one, raise the suspicion that it is a gloss. Law, Heb. Trah, in its widest sense (see on Deu 1:5; Deu 1:31); omit a. If the line be retained, the next line is in apposition and we must render with Sam. (and LXX) a possession for the assembly of Jacob (cp. Psa 119:111). But without changing the consonants we may read, His possession, or dominion, is the assembly of Jacob; a parallel to the next line. Assembly, Heb. e hillah, only here and Neh 5:7, in D and elsewhere ahal (see on Deu 5:22 and Deu 23:1 (2)), the whole nation as a body politic. Possession elsewhere only in P, Exo 6:8, and Ezek. (6 times) mostly of the land.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4a. met you not, etc.] The appearance of the Pl. address marks a quotation as in Deu 9:7 f. According to Deu 2:29 Moab sold bread and water to Israel.
when ye came forth out of Egypt ] Whoever wrote this clause (D or an editor) its perspective is that not of Moses in the land of Moab but of a time long after when the whole forty years’ passage from Egypt was foreshortened.
4b, 5. Probably another quotation from a different source: (1) because of the change from the Pl. to the Sg. address (confirmed by LXX), and (2) because Heb. and the versions have he hired (not they as in EVV.), suggesting that in the context from which it was extracted this vb had a sing. nominative (Balak?). On the substance of Deu 33:4 b, Deu 33:5, see JE, Num 22:2 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Moses speaks this of himself in the third person, which is very usual in the Hebrew language. The law is called their
inheritance, partly because the obligation of it was hereditary, passing from parents to their children, and partly because this was the best part of all their inheritance and possessions, the greatest of all those gifts and favours which God bestowed upon them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Moses commanded us a law,…. The law was of God, it came forth from his right hand, De 33:2; it is of his enacting, a declaration of his will, and has his authority stamped upon it, who is the lawgiver, and which lays under obligation to regard it; but it was delivered to Moses, and by him to the children of Israel, on whom he urged obedience to it; and so it is said to come by him, and sometimes is called the law of Moses, see Joh 1:17;
[even] the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob; which either describes the persons who were commanded to keep the law, the tribes of Jacob or congregation of Israel, who were the Lord’s people, portion, and inheritance, De 32:9; or the law commanded, which was to be valued, not only as a peculiar treasure, but to be considered a possession, an estate, an inheritance, to be continued among them, and to be transmitted to their posterity, see Ps 119:111; these are the words of the people of Israel, and therefore are thus prefaced in the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem,
“the children of Israel said, Moses commanded, &c.”
they were represented by Moses.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 Moses commanded us a law. What he had declared respecting the glory of God, and the excellency of the Law, he now applies to his own person, since it was his purpose, as I have said, to establish the authority of his own ministry. In order, therefore, to prove the certainty of his mission, he boasts that he was appointed by God to be the teacher of the people, and that not for a brief period, but throughout all ages; for by the word “inheritance,” the perpetuity of the Law is signified. He then claims for himself the royal supremacy, not because he had ruled after the manner of kings, but that the dignity of this high office might add weight to his words. He says that “the heads of the people and the tribes were gathered together,” with reference to their unhappy disorganization, which was tending to their destruction, as much as to say that, under his guidance, rind by his exertions, the state of the people was reestablished.
He begins with Reuben, the first-born, and so far removes or mitigates the ignominy of that condemnation wherewith he had been branded by his father Jacob, as only to stop short of restoring him to his place of honor. For the holy Patriarch had pronounced a severe sentence, namely, that Reuben should be “as unstable as water, and should not excel.” (Gen 49:4.) Lest, therefore, the whole of his posterity should be discouraged, or should be rejected by the other tribes, he abates the severity of his disinheritance, as if to pardon the condemned. In short, he assigns to the family of Reuben a place among the sons of Jacob, lest despair should drive them to headlong ruin. The second clause admits of two contrary meanings. Literally it is, “Let him be small in number;” and, in fact, this tribe was not of the more numerous ones. Since, however, it occupied a middle place, and surpassed several of the others, some repeat the negative, “Let him not die, nor let him be few in number.” (311) But it appears more probable that an abatement is made from the rank to which his primogeniture entitled the family of Reuben, and thus that some remainder of dishonor was introduced into the promise of grace. And, in fact, not only the tribe of Judah, but those of Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphthali, surpassed it in size. Thus the qualification will be by no means inappropriate, that, although Reuben was to be reckoned among the people of God, still he should not altogether recover his dignity.
(311) A. V. , “and let not his men be few.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4,5)
[Of] the law which Moses commanded us,
The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob,
When he (Moses) was king in Jeshurun,
In the gathering of the heads of the people,
The tribes of Israel together.
This fourth verse, from its form, is evidently not what Moses said, but an explanatory parenthesis, inserted by the writer, who was probably Joshua. Upon He was king in Jeshurun, Rashi says, The Holy One, blessed be He! the yoke of His kingdom is upon them for ever. It may be so. When the Lord your God was your king, is Samuels description of the whole history of Israel previous to himself.
The certainty that the King of kings, the Messiah of Israel, was and is the Lawgiver and Teacher, and Keeper of all saints, and that there are none of that character who do not sit at the feet of Jesus, makes the real meaning of the passage perfectly plain, even though the exact grammatical relation of the clauses may be not beyond dispute.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Moses commanded us a law The law was given by God through Moses, and was a possession for the people.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 33:4-5
“Moses commanded us a law,
An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.
And he was king in Jeshurun,
When the heads of the people were gathered,
All the tribes of Israel together.”
“Moses.” There is no reason for doubting that in the light of his coming death Moses could in such a solemn writing speak of himself in the third person. This was intended to be a solemn record and he intended its happenings to be recorded and passed on down the generations in a way that they would understand clearly.
“He was king in Jeshurun.” Some see this as Moses declaring his status. He was ‘king’ in Jeshurun, and commanded them a law. This law was the inheritance of ‘the assembly of Jacob’, it was what was passed on to them from Yahweh through Moses. ‘Assembly of Jacob’ indicates either the gathered Israelite leadership, the men of Israel as a whole, or the whole people.
Jeshurun (‘the upright one’ – some say in the diminutive, although that is questionable) refers to the people of Israel in Deu 32:15; Isa 44:2. They were gathered together with their leaders as an upright nation responding to Yahweh’s covenant, with Moses as ‘king’ over them. In this view Moses wanted future generations to recognise the full authority that he had.
Others see ‘He was king in Jeshurun’ as referring to Yahweh as King over His people, with His throne as the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh. Compare Exo 15:18; the suzerainty treaty – Exo 20:1-17; Num 23:21; Jdg 8:23. The people saw themselves as a theocratic people with Yahweh ruling over them. This is possibly the preferable way of looking at it, and we would expect the idea of Yahweh as ‘coming from Sinai’ with His law, to be taken up again prior to the blessings on the tribes. It would be a way by which Moses could assure them that their future was secure. Yahweh was their everlasting King.
(There were dangers in using the title of ‘king’ (melek) of Yahweh, for the god of Ammon was called Melek (becoming with the addition of the vowels from bosheth (‘shame’) Molech) and there could have been confusion. This would explain why, although the covenant format revealed Yahweh as His people’s Overlord, the term King was generally avoided except in a context like this).
It is possible that in the reciting of the poem at covenant festivals this section was intended to be a response of the people to the narrator, which would further explain the reference to Moses in the third person. But such a theory is not necessary.
Moses then, with the prophetic instinct of a dying prophet, spoke of the future of God’s people. Something of which he said of each tribe applied to all the tribes of Israel (we can compare with this the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 1-3 which were written to seven specific churches, but were intended for all the church of Christ). Because it was necessary to maintain the number twelve, and because he intended to mention both Ephraim and Manasseh, he had to omit one tribe and he chose to omit Simeon, probably with mutual agreement as they humbly and repentantly recognised how they had failed at Baal Peor and over the Midianitish woman. But they were still included in his overall words. This omission was possibly partly because in the blessing of Jacob Simeon and Levi were included as one (they were probably twins and did everything together – compare Gen 34:25). Here his words to Levi would not have suited Simeon apart from verse 11. Or it may have been because of a developed closeness with Judah.
The suggestion that Simeon is omitted because this was written after Simeon had disappeared as a tribe is lacking in evidence and contradicts the evidence of 1Ch 12:25; 1Ch 27:16 ; 2Ch 15:9; 2Ch 34:6. At the division of the kingdoms there were still recognised to be twelve tribes excluding the Levites, and that puts Simeon among the ten, although not all in the ten seceded (2Ch 15:9). The position was necessarily very complicated, and loyalties were tested. But it is clear that Simeon were still able to contribute soldiers at different periods, and that there were Simeonite cities in the time of Josiah
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 4. Moses commanded us a law, &c. He commanded as a law, To be the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
If Moses be meant here as the king of Jeshurun, we may admire the modesty of the man. He never assumed the title himself; he did not affect to be called so; and seemed to be not anxious to preserve his name in the earth. For we never hear of the sons of Moses, but we do of the sons of Aaron.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 33:4 Moses commanded us a law, [even] the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
Ver. 4. Moses commanded us a law. ] These are the words of those saints above mentioned, expressing their good affection to the law and to Moses, by whose mediation they received it.
Even the inheritance.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
congregation = assembly.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Moses: Joh 1:17, Joh 7:19
the inheritance: Deu 9:26-29, Psa 119:72, Psa 119:111
Reciprocal: Num 21:18 – the lawgiver Deu 4:44 – General Neh 10:29 – given Act 7:38 – who
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 33:4. Moses commanded us a law Moses has been thought by some to speak this of himself, in the third person, because he intended the contents of this chapter, like the preceding song, to be learned by the Israelites, and repealed in their own persons. They are therefore supposed to say, Moses commanded us a law, &c. The inheritance of the congregation The law is called their inheritance. because the obligation to observe it was hereditary, passing from parents to their children, and because this was the best part of their inheritance, the greatest of all those gifts which God bestowed upon them. So the psalmist thought, Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage for ever, Psa 119:111.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
33:4 Moses commanded us a law, [even] the {e} inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
(e) To us and our successors.