Deuteronomy 4:21

Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21-23) The Lord was angry with me for your sakes . . . I must die in this land . . . but ye shall go over . . . Take heed unto yourselves.—The argument appears to be this: “I cannot go with you to warn you; therefore take the more heed when you are alone.” The same line of thought appears in St. Paul’s last appeal to Timothy: “Fulfil thy ministry; for I am now ready to be offered” (2Timothy 4:6).

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:21. That I should not go over Jordan — And as God has granted you the favour which he has denied me, your obligation to him is greatly increased.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-23 The power and love of God to Israel are here made the ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord their God had imparted to all nations. It is absurd to worship them; shall we serve those that were made to serve us? Take heed lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God. We must take heed lest at any time we forget our religion. Care, caution, and watchfulness, are helps against a bad memory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Divided - i. e., "whose light God has distributed to the nations for their use and benefit, and which therefore being creatures ministering to man's convenience must not be worshipped as man's lords."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace—that is, furnace for smelting iron. A furnace of this kind is round, sometimes thirty feet deep, and requiring the highest intensity of heat. Such is the tremendous image chosen to represent the bondage and affliction of the Israelites [Rosenmuller].

to be unto him a people of inheritance—His peculiar possession from age to age; and therefore for you to abandon His worship for that of idols, especially the gross and debasing system of idolatry that prevails among the Egyptians, would be the greatest folly—the blackest ingratitude.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

God hath granted you the favour which he denied to me, which greatly increaseth your obligation to God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes,.... See Deuteronomy 3:26,

and sware that I should not go over Jordan; this circumstance of swearing is nowhere else expressed:

and that I should not go in unto that good land; the land of Canaan; he might see it, as he did from Pisgah, but not enter into it:

which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; to them and to their children after them.

Geneva Study Bible

Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes] See on Deuteronomy 1:37, Deuteronomy 3:26. The fact is again introduced here as a relevant motive to the following exhortation; this answers the proposal to treat it, on account of its repetition, as an intrusion.

that good land] Heb. the; see on Deuteronomy 1:35.

which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance] Heb. partic. is about to give thee, Deuteronomy 19:10, Deuteronomy 20:16, Deuteronomy 21:23, Deuteronomy 24:4, Deuteronomy 26:1; as an inheritance to possess it, Deuteronomy 15:4, Deuteronomy 25:19; cp. Deut 19:31; only in D, and almost always with the Sg. address, but cp. Deuteronomy 29:8, The transition to the Sg. is confirmed by Sam. and LXX.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 21-24. - Moses, after again referring to his being not permitted to enter Canaan, takes occasion anew to warn the people against forgetting the covenant of Jehovah and making any image of God, seeing he is a jealous God, and a consuming fire. Verse 21. - The Lord was angry with me... and swore, etc. Neither in Numbers 20:12, nor in Numbers 27:12-14, is there any mention of God's having sworn that Moses should not enter Canaan with the people; but it is absurd to suppose, as some have done, that the writer here has confounded this with what is recorded in Numbers 14:21, 28, - that is inconceivable; and it certainly does not follow, because no mention is made in Numbers of God's having sworn, that he did not swear on this occasion; if he confirmed with an oath his decree that the generation that rebelled at Kadesh should not enter Canaan, the probability surely is that he would do the same when he announced to Moses the decree that he should not conduct Israel into the promised laud. "It is perfectly obvious, from Deuteronomy 3:23, sqq., that all the details are not given in the historical account of the event referred "(Keil). Deuteronomy 4:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The bringing of Israel out of Egypt reminds Moses of the end, viz., Canaan, and leads him to mention again how the Lord had refused him permission to enter into this good land; and to this he adds the renewed warning not to forget the covenant or make any image of God, since Jehovah, as a jealous God, would never tolerate this. The swearing attributed to God in Deuteronomy 4:21 is neither mentioned in Numbers 20 nor at the announcement of Moses' death in Numbers 27:12.; but it is not to be called in question on that account, as Knobel supposes. It is perfectly obvious from Deuteronomy 3:23. that all the details are not given in the historical account of the event referred to. כּל תּמוּנת פּסל, "image of a form of all that Jehovah has commanded," sc., not to be made (Deuteronomy 4:16-18). "A consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24): this epithet is applied to God with special reference to the manifestation of His glory in burning fire (Exodus 24:17). On the symbolical meaning of this mode of revelation, see at Exodus 3:2. "A jealous God:" see at Exodus 20:5.