Deuteronomy 32:1-43

The Song of Moses

1 "¹Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

2 "²Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, ³As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb.

3 "⁴For I proclaim the name of the LORD; ⁵Ascribe greatness to our God!

4 "⁶The Rock! His work is perfect, ⁷For all His ways are just; ⁸A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.

5 "⁹They have acted corruptly toward Him, They are not His children, because of their defect; ¹⁰But are a perverse and crooked generation.

6 "Do you thus ¹¹repay the LORD, ¹²O foolish and unwise * people? ¹³Is not He your Father who has bought you? ¹⁴He has made you and established you.

7 "Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. ¹⁵Ask your father, and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you.

8 "¹⁶When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples ¹⁷According to the number of the sons of Israel.

9 "¹⁸For the LORD'S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

10 "¹⁹He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as ²⁰the pupil of His eye.

11 "²¹Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, ²²He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.

12 "²³The LORD alone guided him, ²⁴And there was no foreign god with him.

13 "²⁵He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; ²⁶And He made him suck honey from the rock, And ²⁷oil from the flinty rock,

14 Curds of cows, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats, ²⁸With the finest * of the wheat - And of the ²⁹blood of grapes you drank wine.

15 "³⁰But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked - You are grown fat, thick, and sleek - ³¹Then he forsook God ³²who made him, And scorned ³³the Rock of his salvation.

16 "³⁴They made Him jealous with strange gods; ³⁵With abominations they provoked Him to anger.

17 "³⁶They sacrificed to demons who were not God, ³⁷To gods whom they have not known, ³⁸New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread.

18 "You neglected ³⁹the Rock who begot you, ⁴⁰And forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 "⁴¹The LORD saw this, and spurned them ⁴²Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters.

20 "Then He said, 'I will hide My face from them, ⁴³I will see what their end shall be; ⁴⁴For they are a perverse generation, ⁴⁵Sons in whom is no faithfulness.

21 '⁴⁶They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their ⁴⁷idols. ⁴⁸So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,

22 ⁴⁹For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, ⁵⁰And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23 '⁵¹I will heap misfortunes on them; ⁵²I will use My arrows on them.

24 '⁵³They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague ⁵⁴And bitter destruction; ⁵⁵And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, ⁵⁶With the venom of crawling things of the dust.

25 '⁵⁷Outside * the sword will bereave, And inside * terror - ⁵⁸Both young man and virgin, The nursling with the man of gray hair.

26 'I would have said, "⁵⁹I will cut them to pieces, ⁶⁰I will remove the memory of them from men,"

27 Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, That their adversaries would misjudge, That they would say, "⁶¹Our hand is triumphant, And the LORD has not done all this."'

28 "⁶²For they are a nation lacking in counsel, And there is no understanding in them.

29 "⁶³Would that they were wise, that they understood this, ⁶⁴That they would discern their future!

30 "⁶⁵How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless * * their ⁶⁶Rock had sold them, And the LORD had given them up?

31 "Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, ⁶⁷Even our enemies themselves judge this.

32 "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of ⁶⁸poison, Their clusters, bitter.

33 "Their wine is the venom of serpents, And the deadly poison of cobras.

34 '⁶⁹Is it not laid up in store with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries?

35 '⁷⁰Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, ⁷¹In due time their foot will slip; ⁷²For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.'

36 "⁷³For the LORD will vindicate His people, ⁷⁴And will have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their strength is gone, And there is none remaining, bond or free.

37 "And He will say, '⁷⁵Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge?

38 '⁷⁶Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? ⁷⁷Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your hiding place!

39 '⁷⁸See now that I, I am He, ⁷⁹And there is no god besides Me; ⁸⁰It is I who put to death and give life. ⁸¹I have wounded and it is I who heal, ⁸²And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

40 'Indeed, ⁸³I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever,

41 ⁸⁴If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, ⁸⁵I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me.

42 '⁸⁶I will make My arrows drunk with blood, ⁸⁷And My sword will devour flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.'

43 "⁸⁸Rejoice, O nations, with His people; ⁸⁹For He will avenge the blood of His servants, ⁹⁰And will render vengeance on His adversaries, ⁹¹And will atone for His land and His people."

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Deuteronomy 32:1-43 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 32

This chapter contains the song mentioned and referred to in the former, the preface to it, De 32:1-3; the character of the divine and illustrious Person it chiefly respects, De 32:4; the ingratitude of the people of the Jews to him, who were a crooked and perverse generation, aggravated by his having bought, made, and established them, De 32:5,6; and which is further aggravated by various instances of divine goodness to them, first in providing and reserving a suitable country for them, at the time of the division of the earth to the sons of men, with the reason of it, De 32:7-9; then by what the Lord did for them in the wilderness, De 32:10-12; after that in the land of Canaan, where they enjoyed plenty of all good things, and in the possession of which they were, when the illustrious Person described appeared among them, De 32:13,14; and then the sin of ingratitude to him, before hinted at, is fully expressed, namely, lightly esteeming the rock of salvation, the Messiah, De 32:15; nor could they stop here, but proceed to more ungodliness, setting up other messiahs and saviours, which were an abomination to the Lord, De 32:16; continuing sacrifices when they should not, which were therefore reckoned no other than sacrifices to demons, and especially the setting up of their new idol, their own righteousness, was highly provoking; and by all this they clearly showed they had forgot the rock, the Saviour, De 32:17,18; wherefore, for the rejection of the Messiah and the, persecution of his followers, they would be abhorred of God, De 32:19; who would show his resentment by the rejection of them, by the calling of the Gentiles, and by bringing the nation of the Romans upon them, De 32:20,21; whereby utter ruin and destruction in all its shapes would be brought upon them, De 32:22-25; and, were it not for the insolence of their adversaries, would be entirely destroyed, being such a foolish and unwise people, which appears by not observing what the enemies of the Messiah themselves allow, that there is no rock like him, whom they despised, De 32:26-31; which enemies are described, and the vengeance reserved for them pointed out, De 32:32-35; and the song closed with promises of grace and mercy to the Lord's people, and wrath and ruin to his and their enemies, on which account all are called upon to rejoice in the latter day, De 32:36-43; and this song being delivered by Moses, the people of Israel are exhorted seriously to attend to it, it being of the utmost importance to them, De 32:44-47; and the chapter is concluded with a relation of Moses being ordered to go up to Mount Nebo and die, with the reason of it, De 32:48-52.