Deuteronomy 29:5

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) See on Deuteronomy 8:4.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 29:5-6. Your clothes waxed not old — See on Deuteronomy 8:4.

Ye have not eaten bread — Common bread purchased by your own money, procured by your own labour, or made by your own hands, but heavenly and angelical bread. Neither have ye drunk wine — But only water out of the rock, and the water was made both pleasant and refreshing. The meaning is, that they were not nourished by the ordinary means of sustenance, but were constantly supported by a miraculous supply from God, who graciously fed them for a course of years without any labour of their own. That I am the Lord — That I am Jehovah, that is, the Being who can bring to pass whatever I will, (see on Exodus 6:3,) omnipotent and all-sufficient to provide for you without the help of any creatures, and your God, in covenant with you, who have a true affection to you, and a fatherly care of you.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:1-9 Both former mercies, and fresh mercies, should be thought on by us as motives to obedience. The hearing ear, and seeing eye, and the understanding heart, are the gift of God. All that have them, have them from him. God gives not only food and raiment, but wealth and large possessions, to many to whom he does not give grace. Many enjoy the gifts, who have not hearts to perceive the Giver, nor the true design and use of the gifts. We are bound, in gratitude and interest, as well as in duty and faithfulness, to keep the words of the covenant.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ability to understand the things of God is the gift of God (compare 1 Corinthians 2:13-14); yet man is not guiltless if he lacks that ability. The people had it not because they had not felt their want of it, nor asked for it. Compare 2 Corinthians 3:14-15.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. Moses called unto all Israel, … Ye have seen all that the Lord did, &c.—This appeal to the experience of the people, though made generally, was applicable only to that portion of them who had been very young at the period of the Exodus, and who remembered the marvellous transactions that preceded and followed that era. Yet, alas! those wonderful events made no good impression upon them (De 29:4). They were strangers to that grace of wisdom which is liberally given to all who ask it; and their insensibility was all the more inexcusable that so many miracles had been performed which might have led to a certain conviction of the presence and the power of God with them. The preservation of their clothes and shoes, the supply of daily food and fresh water—these continued without interruption or diminution during so many years' sojourn in the desert. They were miracles which unmistakably proclaimed the immediate hand of God and were performed for the express purpose of training them to a practical knowledge of, and habitual confidence in, Him. Their experience of this extraordinary goodness and care, together with their remembrance of the brilliant successes by which, with little exertion or loss on their part, God enabled them to acquire the valuable territory on which they stood, is mentioned again to enforce a faithful adherence to the covenant, as the direct and sure means of obtaining its promised blessings.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

So far that it was necessary for you to throw them away, and to get new ones. See on "Deu 8:4".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness,.... From the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day, which though not quite complete, is given as a round number. Eupolemus (d), an Heathen writer, confirms this date of the ministry of Moses among the Israelites; he says, Moses performed the office of a prophet forty years:

your clothes are not waxen old upon you: were not worn out; all those forty years they had been in the wilderness, they had never wanted clothes fitting for them, according to their age and stature, and which decayed not; See Gill on Deuteronomy 8:4,

and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot; which were necessary to wear in travelling, and especially in a rugged wilderness; and yet, thought they had been always in use during so long a time, were not worn out, which was really miraculous; See Gill on Deuteronomy 8:4.

(d) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30. p. 447.

Geneva Study Bible

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. I have led you, etc.] So Amos 2:10; cp. above Deuteronomy 2:7, Deuteronomy 8:2. I, here the speaker’s personality, is merged in that of the Deity; for other instances see on Deuteronomy 7:4. But LXX has ἤγαγεν.

your clothes, etc.] Varied from Deuteronomy 8:4. With Sam. LXX read your shoes and your feet.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Having referred to the gracious dealing of God with them in the wilderness, Moses introduces Jehovah himself as speaking to them (cf. Deuteronomy 11:14). (On vers. 5 and 6, see Deuteronomy 8:3, 4; and on vers. 7 and 8, see Deuteronomy 2:26, etc.; Deuteronomy 3:1, etc.) Deuteronomy 29:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With the appeal to the gracious guidance of Israel by God through the desert, the address of Moses passes imperceptibly into an address from the Lord, just as in Deuteronomy 11:14. (On Deuteronomy 29:5, Deuteronomy 29:6, vid., Deuteronomy 8:3-4; on Deuteronomy 29:7, vid., Deuteronomy 2:26., and Deuteronomy 3:1. and Deuteronomy 3:12.).