Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 14:1-21
Moses here tells the people of Israel,
I. How God had dignified them, as a peculiar people, with three distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things with which God has in Christ blessed us. 1. Here is election: The Lord hath chosen thee, v: 2. Not for their own merit, nor for any good works foreseen, but because he would magnify the riches of his power and grace among them. He did not choose them because they were by their own dedication and subjection a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Eph 1:4. 2. Here is adoption (Deu 14:1): "You…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Deuteronomy 14:1
Ye are the children of the Lord your God,.... Some of them were so by the special grace of adoption, and all of them by national adoption; which was the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, and laid them under great obligation to honour and obey the Lord their God, who stood in the relation of a father to them, and they of children to him, Malachi 1:6. The Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it "beloved children"; so the apostle calls the saints; the "dear children of God", who therefore ought to be followers of him, Ephesians 5:1 and for a like reason this relation is observed here, namely, to quicken a regard to the exhortations of the Lord, his cautions, commands, laws, and ordinances,…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Deuteronomy 14:1-2
Deuteronomy 14:1, 2
1. Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
1. Filii estis Jehovae Dei vestri. Non vos incidetis, nec facietis calvitium super mortuo.
2. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
2. Quoniam populus sanctus es Jehovae Deo tuo, qui te elegit ut sis ei in populum peculiarem e cunctis gentibus quae sunt in superficie terrae.
