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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 10, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 31, No. 13.

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Scripture Notes.

AS IT IS THIS DAY.

DEUT. xxix, 28. And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
As it is this day.] Probably the clause was added by Ezra, or some scribe, who had witnessed the desolations of the Babylonish captivity.—Scott.
The same may be said of a few other passages in the Pentateuch, which the skeptic brings up as evidence that Moses could not have been the author of those works.—Ed.

HIDING THE FACE.

DEUT. xxxi, 18. And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.
Hide my face.] A metaphor taken from the custom of kings not to admit to their presence those with whom they are offended, and only to admit their friends.—Rosenm.

A COMMON DISGRACE.

DEUT. xxxii, 5. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
The marginal reading helps to an understanding of this passage: “They are not his children: this is their blot.” It is a blot or disgrace to any one not to be a child of God. The world esteems it a disgrace to be a Christian; God declares it a disgrace not to be one.—Ed.

HONEY OUT OF THE ROCK.

VERSE 13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.
Honey out of the rock.] There is no difficulty in taking this literally, as the rocks of Palestine are porous, and it is known that so much wild honey is deposited in the hollows of trees in the Western U. S. as to form an article of commerce. Oil out of the flinty rocks.] Olive oil. The olive delights in a stony soil, and strikes its roots into the fissures of the rocks. Some, however, translate honey by the Arabic dibs, made from raisins. Gen. xliii, 11. Rosenm. understands wild honey, as the Greeks call it, of a sweet juice of certain trees, palms, figs, &c. distilling at a certain season, and falling on the ground, as 1 Sam. xxvi, 27.—Jenks.

A MAN OF GOD.

DEUT. xxxiii, 1. And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
The phrase, “the man of God,” here first used, implies a man that is wholly devoted to God; and it is generally spoken of prophets, or extraordinary teachers of his truth.—Scott.

THE BURIAL OF MOSES.

DEUT. xxxiv, 5, 6. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
The Lord Himself, (the immediate antecedent to the pronoun he,) buried the body of Moses, and so concealed it, that, when this account was written, no man knew of his sepulchre; and we have reason to conclude it was never afterwards found. The ministration of angels was probably employed, but no human assistance; and we may be sure nothing was placed that could lead to a discovery. (Jude 9, 10.) The Israelites burnt incense to the brazen serpent (2 Kings xxiii, 4); but not being allowed to venerate the relics of their lawgiver, they seem never to have been guilty of that species of superstition, which has so long disgraced the Christian church.—Scott.