Deuteronomy 29:12

12 that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day;

Deuteronomy 29:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 29:12

That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God,
&c.] That is, they were all to appear and stand in this order before the Lord, that they might solemnly avouch him to be their God, and hear him declaring them to be his people, and the many promises and prophecies of good things he should deliver to them, as well as threatenings of wrath and vengeance in case of disobedience to him: or "that thou shouldest pass" F5: which some think is an allusion to the manner of making covenants, by slaying a creature, and cutting it in pieces, and passing between them, as in ( Jeremiah 34:18 ) ; so Jarchi and Aben Ezra:

and into his oath;
annexed to his covenant and promise, to show the immutability and certain fulfilment of it on his part; and may signify not only the oath he swore that they should be his people, but the oath he gave them, and they took, that he should be their God:

which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day;
which refers both to the covenant and the oath, or the covenant confirmed by an oath, even the covenant now made in the plains of Moab, distinct from that at Horeb or Sinai.


FOOTNOTES:

F5 (Krbel) "ut transeas", V. L. Tigurine version, Munster, Vatablus, Pagniuns, Cocceius; "ad transeundum", Montanus.

Deuteronomy 29:12 In-Context

10 You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your heads, your tribes, your Zakenim, and your officers, even all the men of Yisra'el,
11 your little ones, your wives, and your sojourner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;
12 that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day;
13 that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya`akov.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.