(29) They clave to their brethren.--It was a union of the people as such, and sprang from a deep national conviction.

Entered into a curse, and into an oath.--The oath assumed the obligation; the curse imprecated the penalty of violation. (Comp. Deuteronomy 29:12.)

Verse 29. - They clave to their brethren, their nobles. They gave their support and adherence to their more distinguished brethren who had attached their seals to the document, approving what they had done, and ratifying it. Entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law. Something of this kind seems to have occurred in the wilderness, when God's law was first given to his people (Deuteronomy 29:12); and therefore, when renewals of the covenant were made, and the people were required to ratify the act, it was natural to recur to the old sanction, An oath was probably taken of the people in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 23:3), when they are said to have "stood to the covenant." Moses the servant of God. The epithet "servant of God," or "servant of the Lord," attaches to Moses in a peculiar way. God called him (Numbers 12:7) "my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house;" and henceforward "servant of God" was his epitheton usitatum (see Joshua 1:1; Joshua 8:31, 33; 1 Chronicles 6:49; 2 Chronicles 24:9; Daniel 9:11; Hebrews 3:5; Revelation 15:3). St. Paul contrasts "Moses, the servant" with "Christ, the Son" (Hebrews 3:1-6).

10:1-31 Conversion is separating from the course and custom of this world, devoting ourselves to the conduct directed by the word of God. When we bind ourselves to do the commandments of God, it is to do all his commandments, and to look to him as the Lord, and our Lord.They clave to their brethren, their nobles,.... Who had signed and sealed the covenant, they declared their approbation of it, attended to it, and ratified what they had done in their name:

and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God; they bound themselves with an oath that they would keep the law of God, and added a curse or imprecation on themselves to it should they break it; or, according to Piscator, they went into the space between the two pieces of the calf, which they cut asunder for the confirmation of the covenant, and so they cursed themselves if they should break it, see Jeremiah 34:18

and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and his judgments and his statutes; all the laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; this they engaged to do in general; some particulars follow.