The Awful Danger That Must Be Avoided: A Turning To Other Overlords, to Idols (Deuteronomy 29:16-21).
Aware of their propensity to seek after idols he now warns them once more against doing so.
Analysis using the words of Moses:
a For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed, and you have seen their abominations (detestable things), and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them (Deuteronomy 29:16-17).
b Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations (Deuteronomy 29:18 a).
c Lest there should be among you a root which bears gall (bitter, inedible fruit) and wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18 b).
c And it come about that, when he hears the words of this curse, he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the watered with the parched (Deuteronomy 29:19).
b Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven (Deuteronomy 29:20).
a And Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which is written in this book of instruction (the law) (Deuteronomy 29:21).
Note that in ‘a' they have come safely from Egypt and through the midst of the nations, seeing idols on every side, but not yielding to them, and in the parallel any who do yield to them will be set apart by Yahweh as evil in accordance with the curses in the book of Instruction. In ‘b' there is the fear lest there should be among them any man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh their God, to go to serve the gods of those nations, and in the parallel the warning comes that Yahweh will not pardon him, for then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven. In ‘c' the fear is lest there should be among them a man who is a root which bears gall (bitter, inedible fruit) and wormwood, and in the parallel it comes about that, when he hears the words of this curse, he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart”. The danger is that he will destroy the watered with the parched (Deuteronomy 29:19).
‘ (For you (ye) know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you (ye) passed, and you (ye) have seen their abominations (detestable things), and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them),'
They had no excuse for turning to idolatry, for they had good reason to know about gruesome idols. They had dwelt in the land of Egypt and had seen them there. And they had seen them as they had passed through the nations on their journey. All their abominations, their idols of wood and stone (compare Deuteronomy 4:28; Deuteronomy 28:36; Deuteronomy 28:64), of silver and of gold (Deuteronomy 7:25) had been openly apparent. They had seen them everywhere. They had watched them being worshipped, and they should have recognised them for what they were, abominations, objects of stone and wood gilded with silver and gold.
‘ Lest there should be among you (ye) man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you (ye) a root which bears gall (bitter, inedible fruit) and wormwood,'
And it was good that this was known to them, lest there be any among them, whether as individuals or as a group (compare Deuteronomy 13), whose hearts would turn away from Yahweh in order to serve these other gods. For such an attitude would establish a root which would produce wormwood and gall, the bitterest things known to them, which would spread until it affected many.
For gall and wormwood which indicates distress, trouble and bitterness see Proverbs 5:4; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:15; Lamentations 3:19; Amos 5:7.
‘ And it come about that, when he hears the words of this curse, he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the watered with the parched.'
This bitter root at work within a man, this foolish way of thinking, could cause him, when he heard the curse against idolatry (or the oath of the covenant), to deceive himself and rather bless himself and say ‘I shall have wellbeing, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.” He would foolishly, and fruitlessly, counter Yahweh's curse with his own blessing. And by his behaviour he could then affect others. Thus would he destroy what is watered (is watered, moist and at present alive) with that which is parched (is thirsty, dry and dead).
He might foolishly think that as he was only one among a people who were blessed he could get away with it even though he walked in stubbornness of heart. What was he among so many? God would surely not pick on him alone. But the result was that he would not only destroy himself but others.
Alternately there may be a play on thought here, that the man's intention had been to call on the gods of the land in order that they might send rain so that ‘the watered might sweep away the parched'. But what would happen would be that both watered and parched would be swept away.
This is always man's tendency with God, to dismiss the possibility of being called to account and to suppose that God can be mocked. But it is not so. God will bring every work into judgment. We may have been forgiven, but w will still have to give account.
‘ Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven.'
But he was wrong. Yahweh would see, and He would act. He would not pardon him (unless of course he repented), because His anger and jealousy for His people's purity would be like the smoke of fiery judgment against him, and the whole curse written in the book containing Moses' covenant speeches, would lie on him, and Yahweh would blot out his name from under heaven. He would not be remembered, he would not be ‘gathered to his fathers', he would cease to be. He would become nothingness.
‘ And Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which is written in this book of instruction (the law).'
He would be set apart to evil, to the evils as described in Deuteronomy 28:15 onwards, selected out from all the tribes of Israel because of his detestable behaviour to undergo the curses of the covenant written in this book of instruction. Note the continued emphasis that it was now in writing, as it would also be written on the stones once they were in the land.