Deuteronomy 4:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, &c.— The meaning of these words, is plainly to be learned from a similar passage, chap. Deuteronomy 12:32. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it: In which words the intention of the divine law-giver plainly is, only to preclude the people from any additions or diminutions to the law, of their own heads, and without a divine commission: but they cannot be supposed at all to refer to whatever God might be pleased to do in this case by any future prophet whom he should commission. Calmet explains this passage as follows, understanding it as a prohibition against the vain traditions of men. "You shall not add any thing to that which the Lord hath forbidden; and ye shall not omit any thing of that which he hath commanded: you shall not give yourselves the liberty to interpret my precepts according to your own will; but shall pay an exact and precise observance to my law, without turning aside from it, and without forming any worship after your own inclination." Mr. Allix, observing with what exactness the Jews had always acknowledged the divinity of their law, adds, "nay, we see, not without wonder, that after the greatest part of the ten tribes of Israel were transported into Assyria, those who were sent from Assyria to inhabit their country [of Samaria] did receive that law, and that their posterity have kept it all along to this day, as uncorrupted as the Jews, although they continue their mortal enemies, and have been exposed to all the changes and revolutions that can befal a nation during the long interval of two thousand four hundred years." See Allix on the Scriptures, vol. 1: p. 144.