5. Mose 29:20

AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu. 29:1-29) These are the words of the covenant--The discourse of Moses is continued, and the subject of that discourse was Israel's covenant with God, the privileges it conferred, and the obligations it imposed. beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb--It was substantially the same; but it was renewed now, in different circumstances. They had violated its conditions. Moses rehearses these, that they might have a better knowledge of its conditions and be more disposed to comply with them.

And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel,.... Unto the evil of punishment, devote and consign him to it, and make him a visible and distinguished mark of his displeasure and vengeance. So some men are righteously separated from others, and preordained unto condemnation, being wicked and ungodly men; for such God has made or appointed for the day of evil; see Pro 16:4, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; the evil of punishment he shall be separated unto shall be according to them, or include them all; the sense is, that the wrath of God, and the whole curse of the law due to him for his sin, shall come upon him; see Deu 28:16, &c.

"For the Lord will not forgive him (who thinks or speaks in this way); but then will His anger smoke (break forth in fire; vid., (Psa 74:1), and His jealousy against that man, and the whole curse of the law will lie upon him, that his name may be blotted out under heaven (vid., Deu 25:19; Exo 17:14). "The Lord will separate him unto evil from all the tribes, - so that he will be shut out from the covenant nation, and from its salvation, and be exposed to destruction - according to all the curses of the covenant." Although the pronominal suffix refers primarily to the man, it also applies, according to Deu 29:18, to the woman, the family, and the tribe. "That is written," etc., as in Deu 28:58, Deu 28:61.

The first words of this chapter are the contents of it, "These are the words of the covenant" (Deu 29:1), that is, these that follow. Here is, I. A recital of God's dealings with them, in order to the bringing of them into this covenant (Deu 29:2-8). II. A solemn charge to them to keep the covenant (Deu 29:9). III. An abstract of the covenant itself (Deu 29:12, Deu 29:13). IV. A specification of the persons taken into the covenant (Deu 29:10, Deu 29:11, Deu 29:14, Deu 29:15). V. An intimation of the great design of this covenant against idolatry, in a parenthesis (Deu 29:16, Deu 29:17). VI. A most solemn and dreadful denunciation of the wrath of God against such persons as promise themselves peace in a sinful way (Deu 29:18-28). VII. The conclusion of this treaty, with a distinction between things secret and things revealed (Deu 29:29).

29:20 erase their names: To forget the name of a people resulted in eventually forgetting their very existence. The most unspeakable tragedy would be for God to treat the people of Israel as though they had never existed (see 7:24; Exod 32:32-33; 2 Kgs 14:27).