Second address, or expostion of the Law Deut 4:44-26:19
This address, which is described in the heading as the law which Moses set before the Israelites, commences with a repetition of the decalogue, and a notice of the powerful impression which was made, through the proclamation of it by God Himself, upon the people who were assembled round Him at Horeb (Deut 5). In the first and more general part, it shows that the true essence of the law, and of that righteousness which the Israelites were to strive after, consisted in loving Jehovah their God with all their heart (Deut 6); that the people were bound, by virtue of their election as the Lord’s people of possession, to exterminate the Canaanites with their idolatrous worship, in order to rejoice in the blessing of God (Deut 7) ; but more especially that, having regard on the one hand to the divine chastisement and humiliation which they had experienced in the desert (Deut 8), and on the other hand to the frequency with which they had rebelled against their God (Deut 9:1-10:11), they were to beware of self-exaltation and self-righteousness, that in the land of Canaan, of which they were about to take possession, they might not forget their God when enjoying the rich productions of the land, but might retain the blessings of their God for ever by a faithful observance of the covenant (Deut 10:12-11:32). Then after this there follows an exposition of the different commandments of the law (Deut 12—26).
Verse 44-49
Announcement of the Discourse upon the Law. - First of all, in Deu 4:44, we have the general notice in the form of a heading: “This is the Thorah which Moses set before the children of Israel;” and then, in Deu 4:45, Deu 4:46, a fuller description of the Thorah according to its leading features, “testimonies, statutes, and rights” (see at Deu 4:1), together with a notice of the place and time at which Moses delivered this address. “On their coming out of Egypt,” i.e., not “after they had come out,” but during the march, before they had reached the goal of their journeyings, viz., (Deu 4:46) when they were still on the other side of the Jordan. “In the valley,” as in Deu 3:29. “In the land of Sihon,” and therefore already upon ground which the Lord had given them for a possession. The importance of this possession as the first-fruit and pledge
