5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, 11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; 'when thou shalt have eaten and be full; 12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of 'bondage. 13 Thou shalt 'fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. 2 Chap. 10. 12. Matth. 22. 37. Mark 12. 30. Luke 10. 27. 6 Heb. bondmen, or servants. 7 Chap. 10. 12, 20, and 13. 4. 16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. 17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, 19 To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken. 20 And when thy son asketh thee 1oin time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? 21 Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt: and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: 22 And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and "sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his houshold, before our eyes: 23 And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. 25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us. 3 Chap. 11. 18. 8 Matth. 4.7. 4 Heb. whet, or sharpen. 5 Chap. 8. 10. &c. 9 Exod. 17. 2. 10 Heb. to-morrow. 11 Heb. evil. Verse 8. "For a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes."-A very ingenious interpretation of this is, that it refers to a man tying something upon his hand as a token to prevent him from forgetting what he desires to remember. But this does not seem to agree very well with the other clauses. It seems to us that there is throughout a reference to existing usages, as well with regard to the sign on the hand as to the frontlets between the eyes, and the writing on the door-posts. The last item we shall consider in the following note. We believe that the Hebrews at this time were in the habit of wearing certain ornaments on the forehead and the arm, to which Moses referred; but whether he so referred with the intention of saying, "as these are, so let the law be to you;" or, "let the law be to you in the place of these," is a matter of doubt. It is very likely that the Hebrews were in the habit of wearing amulets and other superstitious appendages, which are still much used in the East, and which consist sometimes of jewels and other ornaments, and at other times of certain lines and sentences, with Abracadabra and other superstitious figures written on scrolls or embroidered on linen. If the Jews had such, it may easily be conceived that Moses intended, by the present injunction, to supersede them. We rather incline to this opinion. The Jews in general have understood this law as permanently binding; and the manner in which it has been observed is this. They call these things tephilim, and they are the same which are called phylacteries in the New Testament. They consisted, and still do, of a certain small square box of carefully prepared and stiff skin, attached at the open end to a thick border, which gives it considerable resemblance to a hat. This box has impressed on one side, in a raised character, the letter w, and on the other the same letter, with the singularity of having four prongs instead of three: but these letters are omitted in the box intended for the arm. In this box are placed long and narrow slips of parchment, rolled up, on which are written the texts, Exod. xiii. 1—10, xiii. 11-16; Deut. vi. 4-9, xi. 13-21, all inclusive. In that intended for the arm, these texts are written on two slips of parchment, but for the head on four. The parchment is most carefully prepared for the occasion, and the ink also is made on purpose. When the scrolls are inserted in the box, a flap connected with the brim is drawn over the open end and sewed firmly down, leaving however a loop, through which is run the thong by which the box is fastened to the forehead or the arm. Every particular, even the most minute, in the preparation and use of the tephilim, is regu lated by careful and strict rules, which it would be tiresome to enumerate-how they are to be tied to the arm and forehead, how they are to be kept when not actually worn, and every other the most minute circumstance is a matter of equally precise regulation. Leo of Modena says, that the men ought in strictness to wear their tephilim for the head continually; but adds, "notwithstanding at present, partly to avoid the scoffs of the nations among whom they live, and also because they account these holy things, and such as ought to be used with great discretion, and not upon every trivial occasion, they put them on only at the time of prayer." This also, it seems, they do only at morning prayer; and although some of the more devout put them on also at the afternoon prayer, they are not bound to do so. Our Saviour severely animadverted on the abuse of the phylacteries by the Pharisees, whose ostentatious hypocrisy led them to wear them of larger size than usual; and it may illustrate his complaint, that the law of God had been made of no effect by their traditions, to mention the rabbinical maxim that "the single precept of the tephilim is equivalent to all the commandments!" There is a very full account of the tephilim in Allen's Modern Judaism:' see also Leo of Modena; Calmet's Dictionary,-arts. Phylacteries' and 'Tephilim;' and Michaelis's Commentaries,' vol. iii., p. 370. We have described from a specimen in our possession, in which the text is beautifully written, in small characters, on slips of fine parchment, two of which are unequal to the others and to each other in length; but they are all of the same breadth, that is, about three-fourths of an inch. 6 9. "Write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."-It is at this day customary in Mohammedan Asia for sentences from the Koran, and moral sentences, to be wrought in stucco over doors and gates, and as ornamental scrolls to the interior of apartments. The elegant characters of the Arabian and Persian alphabets, and the good taste with which they are applied in running scrolls, the characters being usually white, raised on a blue ground, and intermixed with gilding, have a very pleasing effect, particularly in interior ornament. This custom must have been very ancient, for Moses here very evidently alludes to it. We understand the injunction not asi mperative upon the Hebrews to write on their doors, but as enjoining them, if they did write at all, to write sentences of the law. He suggests this as a means of inculcating the law upon their children; whence it seems that he took it for granted that the children would be taught to read. "Among us," says Michaelis, "where, by the aid of printing, books are so abundantly multiplied, and may be put into the hands of every child, such measures would be quite superfluous; but if we would enter into the ideas of Moses, we must place ourselves in an age when the book of the law could only come into the hands of a few opulent people." The later Jews have exercised their usual ingenuity in misunderstanding this injunction. They conceive the observance to be imperative, and they act on it as follows. Their mezuzoth, or doorschedules, are slips of parchment, on which are written the passages Deut. vi. 4—9, and xi. 13-20: these slips are rolled up, and on the outside is written the Hebrew word (shaddai), or "the Almighty," one of the names appropriated to God. This roll they put into a reed or hollow cylinder of lead, in which a hole is cut for the word shaddai to appear; and the tube is then fastened to the door-post by a nail at each end. As the injunction is in the plural form, they conceive that a mezuza should be placed on every door of a house. It is usually fixed to the right-hand door-post; and those Israelites who wish to be considered particularly devout, usually touch or even kiss it as they pass. The Talmud ascribes great merit to having the mezuza fixed on the door-post, and describes it as a preservation from sin. CHAPTER VII. 1 All communion with the nations is forbidden, 4 for fear of idolatry, 6 for the holiness of the people, 9 for the nature of God in his mercy and justice, 17 for the assuredness of victory which God will give over them. WHEN the 'LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shall smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: 3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be 1 Chap. 31. 3. 6 Heb. because. slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. 11 Thou shalt therefore keep the com mandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. 12 ¶ Wherefore it shall come to pass, $if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: 13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. 15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. 16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee. 17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? 18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; 19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. 20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. 21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. 22 And the LORD thy God will "put out those nations before thee by little and little : thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. 23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver 2 Exod. 23. 32, and 34. 12. 3 Heb. statues, or pillars. 4 Chap. 14. 2, and 26. 19. 7 Exod. 23, 26, &c. 8 Exod. 9. 14, and 15, 26. 9 Exod. 23, 33. 10 Exod. 23, 28. 5 Exod. 19. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Josh, 24. 12. 11 Heb. pluck of. them unto thee, and shall destroy them | ye burn with fire: thou 24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. 25 The graven images of their gods shall 13 Heb. before thy face. 13 Chap. 12. 3. shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God. 26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing. 14 Josh. 7. 1, 21. 2 Mac. 12. 40. 15 Chap. 13. 17. Verse 1. "Hittites," &c.-Compare this list with that in Gen. xv. 19, and see the note there. The nations named in the promise to Abraham were ten; here there are only seven, and in the seven there is one that does not occur in the previous list, so that this list wants four names which we find in Genesis. The new name is that of the Hivites, and the four wanting names are those of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, and Rephaim. We have seen that the latter tribe seems to have become extinct, Og being mentioned as the last of the Rephaim. In the lapse of about four hundred years, the same lot may have befallen the others not here enumerated; or some of them may very probably have become mixed up with and lost in some of the nations that are named. We incline, however, to think that these omitted nations were situated east of the Jordan, and had been already conquered, whence, of course, they would not be mentioned as yet to be conquered; and besides, from their geographical position east of the Jordan, they would not be named among the nations of Canaan proper, or west of the Jordan, of which Moses now seems particularly to speak. In Genesis, the lands of the people there mentioned are promised; here the names of the people who now occupied the land are mentioned. There is no discrepancy. Of the omitted nations, it is only necessary to notice the Kenites. These were by no means extinct, as they are mentioned before and after the time of Moses: his father-in-law is called |