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From: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8

Faithfulness to the Law: God’s Closeness to His People

(Moses said to the people:) [1] “And now, 0 Israel, give heed to the statutes and
the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and
take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you.
[2] You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you
may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

[6] Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding
in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes will say, ‘Sure-
ly this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ [7] For what great nation
is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we
call upon him? [8] And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinan-
ces so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

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Commentary:

4:1-8. Having recalled the main events in Israel’s journey from Sinai-Horeb on-
wards, in which God’s special providence was evident, the text now stresses the
privileged position of the Hebrew people, chosen as they are by God from among
ll the nations of the earth, and enabled to draw near to him in a close relationship
quite beyond the experience of the Gentiles.

The passage acts as an advance exhortation to fidelity to the Law, the core of
which will be recorded later on (5:1-6; 6; 12:1-28:68); it may have been inserted
in the course of a revision of the book. The main argument it makes in favor of
keeping the Law is the fact that God is so near his people and so accessible to
them (vv. 7-8).

4:6-8. The theme of these verses is typical of Wisdom writing. The very life of Is-
rael, shaped as it is by obedience to the Law, will be an eloquent lesson for all
other nations. This message, open and out-reaching, implies a universal mission
for the chosen people, a message which looks far ahead and will find its fulfill-
ment in the future spread of the Church throughout the world.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States