Deuteronomy 6:10
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And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
To the positive statement of the command there is attached, in the next place, the negative side, or a warning against the danger to which prosperity and an abundance of earthly goods so certainly exposed, viz., of forgetting the Lord and His manifestations of mercy. The Israelites were all the more exposed to this danger, as their entrance into Canaan brought them into the possession of all the things conducive to well-being, in which the land abounded, without being under the necessity of procuring these things by the labour of their own hands; - into the possession, namely, of great and beautiful towns which they had not built, of houses full of all kinds of good things which they had not filled, of wells ready made which they had not dug, of vineyards and olive-plantations which they had not planted. - The nouns ערים, etc. are formally dependent upon לך לתת, and serve as a detailed description of the land into which the Lord was about to lead His people.
Open source ↗Moses, in this chapter, goes on with his charge to Israel, to be sure to keep up their religion in Canaan. It is much the same with ch. 4. I. His preface is a persuasive to obedience (Deu 4:1-3). II. He lays down the great principles of obedience. The first truth to be believed, That God is one (Deu 4:4). The first duty to be done, To love him with all our heart (Deu 4:5). III. He prescribes the means for keeping up religion (Deu 4:6-9). IV. He cautions them against those things which would be the ruin of religion - abuse of plenty (Deu 4:10-12), inclination to idolatry (Deu 4:14, Deu 4:15), and gives them some general precepts (Deu 4:13, Deu 4:16-18). V. He directs them what instructions to give their children (Deu 4:20, etc.).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities that you did not build, and now you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor,
They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness.
He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—