Deuteronomy 4:20

20 `And you hath Jehovah taken, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him for a people -- an inheritance, as [at] this day.

Deuteronomy 4:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:20

But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the
iron furnace
The allusion is to the trying and melting of metals, and fleeing them from dross, by putting them into furnaces strongly heated, some of which are of earth, others of iron; the word, as the Jewish writers ^F7 observe, signifies such an one in which gold and silver and other things are melted; see ( Psalms 12:6 ) ( Proverbs 17:3 ) even "out of Egypt"; which is here compared to an iron furnace, because of the cruelty with which the Israelites were used in it, the hardships they were put under, and the misery and bondage they were kept in; but out of all the Lord brought them, as he does all his people sooner or later out of their afflictions, sometimes called the furnace of affliction, ( Isaiah 48:10 ) where their graces are tried, and they are purged, purified, and refined from their dross and tin. This the Lord did to Israel, he brought them out of their distressed state and condition:

to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day:
to be the Lord's inheritance, as they now were, ( Deuteronomy 32:9 ) as well as they were quickly to inherit the land of Canaan, for which they were brought out of the land of Egypt; and indeed they were already, even that day, entered on their inheritance, the kingdom of the Amorites being delivered into their hands.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Celim. c. 8. sect. 9. & Jarchi in loc.

Deuteronomy 4:20 In-Context

18 a form of any creeping thing on the ground -- a form of any fish which [is] in the waters under the earth;

19 `And lest thou lift up thine eyes towards the heavens, and hast seen the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and thou hast been forced, and hast bowed thyself to them, and served them, which Jehovah thy God hath apportioned to all the peoples under the whole heavens.

20 `And you hath Jehovah taken, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him for a people -- an inheritance, as [at] this day.

21 `And Jehovah hath shewed himself wroth with me because of your words, and sweareth to my not passing over the Jordan, and to my not going in unto the good land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee -- an inheritance;

22 for I am dying in this land; I am not passing over the Jordan, and ye are passing over, and have possessed this good land.