Matthew Poole and continuators on Deuteronomy 33:3

3 Yea, he loved the people : all his saints are in thy hand , and they sat down at thy feet : every one shall receive of thy words .

(i. e.) The tribes of Israel, which are called People, Gen. 48. 19. Iudges 5. 14. Act. 4. 27. The sense is, This Law, though delivered with Fire and Smoke and Thunder, which might seem to portend nothing but hatred and terrour, yet in truth it was given to Israel in great love, as being the great mean of their temporal and eternal Salvation. And although God shews a general and common kindness to all men, yet he loved this people in a singular and peculiar manner.

All Gods Saints or holy ones, i. e. his People, as they are now called, the people of Israel, who are all called holy, Exod. 19. 6. Num. 16. 3. Deut. 7. 6. Dan. 7. 25. and 8. 24. and 12. 7. because they all professed to be so and were obliged to be so and many of them were such. Though some appropriate this to the true Saints in Israel.

Or, were in thy hand, i. e. under Gods care to protect and direct and govern them, as that phrase signifies, Numb. 4. 28, 33. Ioh. 10. 28, 29. These words are spoken to God, and for the change of persons, his and thy, that is most frequent in the Hebrew tongue. See Dan. 9. 4. This clause may further note Gods kindness to Israel in upholding and preserving them when the fiery law was delivered, which was done with so much dread and terrour, that not onely the people trembled and were ready to sink under it, Exod. 20. 18, 19. but even Moses himself did exceedingly fear and quake, Heb. 12. 21. But in this fright God sustained both Moses and the people in or by his hand, whereby he in a manner hid and covered them that no harm might come to them by this terrible apparition.

Like Scholars to receive instructions and counsels from thee. He alludes either 1. To the manner of disciples among the Jews who used to sit at their masters feet, Luk. 10. 39. Acts 22. 3. See also Gen. 49. 10. 2 King. 4. 38. But it is doubtful whether this custom was so antient as Moses. Or 2. To the place where the people waited when the Law was delivered, which was at the foot of the mount.

The people, easily understood from the foregoing words, did or will receive or submit to thy instructions and it commands. This may respect either 1. The peoples promise when they heard the Law, that they would hear and do all that was commanded, Deut. 5. 27. Or 2. The peoples duty to do so. 3. The peoples priviledge that they were admitted to receive so great a priviledge as the words and Laws of God were.