Deuteronomy 33:5

And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 33:5. And — Or, for, he was king — Not indeed in title, but, in reality, being under God their supreme governor and lawgiver; and therefore, by his authority, required them to observe these laws. When the tribes were gathered together — When the princes and people met together, for the management of public affairs, Moses was owned by them as their king and lawgiver. Le Clerc, however, and many others, think that God, and not Moses, is here intended, he being indeed the king and lawgiver of the Jews especially, and not Moses. Moses elsewhere sufficiently intimates that he was not their king, Deuteronomy 17:14. And so does Samuel, who acted in a character similar to that of Moses, 1 Samuel 8:7.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

33:1-5 To all his precepts, warnings, and prophecies, Moses added a solemn blessing. He begins with a description of the glorious appearances of God, in giving the law. His law works like fire. If received, it is melting, warming, purifying, and burns up the dross of corruption; if rejected, it hardens, sears, pains, and destroys. The Holy Spirit came down in cloven tongues, as of fire; for the gospel also is a fiery law. The law of God written in the heart, is a certain proof of the love of God shed abroad there: we must reckon His law one of the gifts of his grace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He was king - i. e., not Moses but the Lord became king.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2-4. The Lord came—Under a beautiful metaphor, borrowed from the dawn and progressive splendor of the sun, the Majesty of God is sublimely described as a divine light which appeared in Sinai and scattered its beams on all the adjoining region in directing Israel's march to Canaan. In these descriptions of a theophania, God is represented as coming from the south, and the allusion is in general to the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai; but other mountains in the same direction are mentioned with it. The location of Seir was on the east of the Ghor; mount Paran was either the chain on the west of the Ghor, or rather the mountains on the southern border of the desert towards the peninsula [Robinson]. (Compare Jud 5:4, 5; Ps 68:7, 8; Hab 3:3).

ten thousands of saints—rendered by some, "with the ten thousand of Kadesh," or perhaps better still, "from Meribah" [Ewald].

a fiery law—so called both because of the thunder and lightning which accompanied its promulgation (Ex 19:16-18; De 4:11), and the fierce, unrelenting curse denounced against the violation of its precepts (2Co 3:7-9). Notwithstanding those awe-inspiring symbols of Majesty that were displayed on Sinai, the law was really given in kindness and love (De 33:3), as a means of promoting both the temporal and eternal welfare of the people. And it was "the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob," not only from the hereditary obligation under which that people were laid to observe it, but from its being the grand distinction, the peculiar privilege of the nation.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Moses was their king, not in title, but in reality, being under God their supreme and uncontrollable governor and lawgiver: though the word oft signifies only a prince or chief ruler, as Judges 19:1 Jeremiah 19:3 46:25.

In Jeshurun, i.e. in Israel, so called Deu 32:15.

When the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together: when the princes and people met together for the management of public affairs, Moses was owned by them as their king and lawgiver, and he directed and ruled them as their superior. This he saith to show that the people approved and consented to the authority and law of Moses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he was king in Jeshurun,.... That is, in Israel, or over the people of Israel, of which name of theirs; see Gill on Deuteronomy 32:15; either God, as Jarchi; for the government of the Israelites was a theocracy, and their laws were immediately from God, and by him they were guided and directed in all things; wherefore, when they were so importunate for a change in their government, and to have a king over them, they are said to reject the Lord, that he should not reign over them, 1 Samuel 8:7; or Moses, as Aben Ezra on the place, Maimonides (f), and others (g); who, under God, had the civil government of the Hebrews; both may be received, God was the supreme Governor, and Moses the chief magistrate under him:

when the heads of Israel and the tribes of the people were gathered together; at Mount Sinai, to hear the law there and then given, or to hear it repeated by Moses, as in this book of Deuteronomy, who were at different times convened together for that purpose, see Deuteronomy 1:1; next follow the particular blessings of the several tribes, beginning with Reuben the firstborn.

(f) In Misn. Shebuot, c. 2. sect. 2.((g) Philo de Vita Mosis, l. 3. p. 681.

Geneva Study Bible

And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. And he became king in Jeshurun] i.e. Jehovah. Graf, Wellh., Stade render and there was a king, i.e. Saul, but Saul is not relevant here. On Yeshurun see Deuteronomy 32:15.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Some refer this to Moses, but Moses was never recognized as king in Israel: he "was faithful in all his house as a servant" (Hebrews 3:5); but Jehovah alone was King (Exodus 15:18; Psalm 47:6, 7). Jeshurun (cf. Deuteronomy 32:5). The gathering together refers to the assembling of the people at Sinai, when Jehovah came forth as their King to give them his Law. Deuteronomy 33:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Moses appointed us a law, a possession of the congregation of Jacob. And He became King in righteous-nation (Jeshurun); there the heads of the people assembled, in crowds the tribes of Israel." The God who met Israel at Sinai in terrible majesty, out of the myriads of holy angels, who embraces all nations in love, and has all the holy angels in His power, so that they lie at His feet and rise up at His word, gave the law through Moses to the congregation of Jacob as a precious possession, and became King in Israel. This was the object of the glorious manifestation of His holy majesty upon Sinai. Instead of saying, "He gave the law to the tribes of Israel through my mediation," Moses personates the listening nation, and not only speaks of himself in the third person, but does so by identifying his own person with the nation, because he wished the people to repeat his words from thorough conviction, and because the law which he gave in the name of the Lord was given to himself as well, and was as binding upon him as upon every other member of the congregation. In a similar manner the prophet Habakkuk identifies himself with the nation in ch. 3, and says in Habakkuk 3:19, out of the heart of the nation, "The Lord is my strength,...who maketh me to walk upon mine high places," - an expression which did not apply to himself, but to the nation as a whole. So again in Psalm 20:1-9 and Psalm 21:1-13, which David composed as the prayers of the nation for its king, he not only speaks of himself as the anointed of the Lord, but addresses such prayers to the Lord for himself as could only be offered by the nation for its king. "A possession for the congregation of Jacob." "Israel was distinguished above all other nations by the possession of the divinely revealed law (Deuteronomy 4:5-8); that was its most glorious possession, and therefore is called its true κειμήλιον" (Knobel). The subject in Deuteronomy 33:5 is not Moses but Jehovah, who became King in Jeshurun (see at Deuteronomy 32:15 and Exodus 15:18). "Were gathered together;" this refers to the assembling of the nation around Sinai (Deuteronomy 4:10.; cf. Exodus 19:17.), to the day of assembly (Deuteronomy 9:10; Deuteronomy 10:4; Deuteronomy 18:16).