John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 12:29

"When Jehovah thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them, and dwellest in their land;" — Deuteronomy 12:29 (ASV)

When the Lord your God shall cut off. This passage has some similarity to the one in Deuteronomy 18, which we have already commented on.

Since it was easy for the people to lapse into imitating the Gentiles and worshipping their false gods—under whose protection the inhabitants boasted their land to be—all inquiry concerning them is also strictly forbidden.³⁰⁵

For this is the origin of idolatry: when people know the genuine simplicity of God’s worship, they begin to be dissatisfied with it. They then curiously inquire whether there is anything worthy of belief in the figments of men.

People's minds are soon attracted by the snares of novelty, and thus they pollute with various kinds of leaven what has been delivered in God’s word.

God not only withdraws and restrains them from the desire for inquiry but expressly commands them to “take heed to” themselves, or to guard themselves.

This is because people are naturally disposed to this unrestrained curiosity and take much delight in it.

Therefore, God encloses His people with barriers to keep them back from all harmful desires. Indeed, He would have them so abominate the practice of superstitions as to flee even from the infection of hearing about them.

We must briefly observe, concerning the words translated as “to possess the nations,” that Moses does not mean that they were to become their prey, to be enslaved by right of capture, but that he refers to the land.

Therefore, he says, “you shall possess them before your face;” that is, when they are destroyed, the land will be vacant for you to possess it.

In the Hiphil conjugation, this word signifies to expel, as we have already seen, and Moses perhaps alludes to this meaning.

The word³⁰⁶ that I have translated as “illaqueare,” meaning to snare, some interpreters render as stumble, and others as to be carried away. The latter would be more consistent with the construction, “lest you should be carried away after them.”

Yet I have been unwilling to depart from the generally received opinion, since the metaphor of ensnaring is very appropriate. It is as if he had said that all the perversities of the Gentiles were so many nets or snares to entrap people if they come too near them.

For it soon follows, “after that they be destroyed,” which some also render as, “lest you should perish after them,” as if God would awaken their fears by presenting the example of their destruction.

³⁰⁵ Addition in French, “de peur que de l’un ils ne vienent a l’autre;” for fear that they should pass from one to the other.

³⁰⁶ תנקש, 2. fut. pass. of נקש. The Chaldee paraphrast is cited by S. M. as explaining it by a word equivalent to thou stumble. It does not appear who has rendered it be carried away. — W.