1‘Listen O heaven and I’ll speak: May the land hear the words from my mouth. 2May the things that I say be looked for like rain; May my words fall like the dew… Like a shower on the plants and snow on the grass. 3‘For, I’ve called on the Name of the Lord, And I’ve told of the greatness of our God. 4His works are true and all His ways just. Yes God is faithful… He isn’t unrighteous, For Jehovah is holy and just. 5‘Against Him they have all sinned, For they are children with spots; A pushy and perverted generation. 6Is this how you pay back Jehovah? ‘Are these people all foolish and stupid? Didn’t He become your own Father, Didn’t He purchase you back? Didn’t He form you and make you? 7‘Remember the days of long ago; Think of the years of past ages; Ask your fathers and they will remind you, And your elders and they’ll tell you. 8‘When the Most High divided the nations; When the sons of Adam He moved apart, He set the borders of the nations, By the numbers of the messengers of God. 9‘His people (Jacob) was the portion of Jehovah; Israel was His own inheritance. 10He kept them alive on dry land; And in the desert [He sated] their thirst. ‘He led them around and He taught them, And kept them as the apple of His eye. 11‘He takes them to Himself as an eagle, Who keeps watch on his brood and yearns for his young. He spreads his wings and carries them on his back. 12‘It was Jehovah alone who led them, When no other gods did they have. 13He raised them on the strength of the land; He fed them with the fruitage of the fields. So, out of rocks they sucked honey, And [they sucked] oil out of boulders. 14‘With the butter of cows and the milk of the sheep; With the fat of lambs, and rams, calves, and kids; With the fat of kidneys and wheat, They drank their wine…the blood of the grape. 15So, Jacob ate and was filled. ‘Then this loved one kicked and grew fat; He became both thick and broad. Then he turned from the God who had made him, And he left the God who had saved him. 16‘They made Me enraged with strange gods; And with disgusting things made Me mad. 17They sacrificed to demons that they didn’t know, And not to the God [of all] gods. ‘They turned to things fresh and new; [Things] their ancestors never knew. 18You’ve left the God who gave you birth; You’ve forgotten the God who feeds you. 19‘When Jehovah saw this He was zealous; He was enraged by His sons and His daughters. 20And said, From them I’ll turn My face; I’ll show what will happen in the last days. For they’re a perverted generation; They are sons with no faith. 21‘They’ve angered Me and made Me jealous, With gods that simply are not. They’ve irritated Me with their idols. So I’ll make them angry and jealous, Over those who are not [yet] a nation… I’ll enrage them with a nation that doesn’t understand. 22‘For a fire has been started by My rage, Which will burn to the grave down below. It’ll devour all the land and its fruitage, And will burn to the bottom of the mountains. 23‘I will gather evil things upon them… With all My weapons I’ll fight against them. 24They’ll be consumed with hunger and eaten by birds… Their destruction will never be repaired. I’ll send against them the teeth of wild beasts… The rage of those that crawl on the ground. 25‘Their children will be taken without swords, And in their bedrooms there’ll be terror. Young men will be destroyed with the virgins, Along with the newborn and those who’ve grown old. 26For I said: Them I will scatter; I’ll cause their memory to be erased among men. 27‘Were it not for their enemies’ rage, They would have lived a long time. But their enemies have combined to attack them. And yet, may their enemies not say, It was by my own mighty arm. For, Jehovah has done all these things. 28‘It’s a nation that has lost its direction, And there’s no understanding among them. 29They have no sense, so they don’t understand. Let them hold to these things, for the time will [soon] come. 30‘O how can one man chase a thousand, Or two men route tens of thousands, If it weren’t God who had sold them, And if Jehovah hadn’t handed them over? 31‘Yet, their gods aren’t like our God, And our enemies don’t understand. 32For, theirs is the vine of Sodom, And the branch of their vine is GomorRah. ‘All their grapes are like gall, And all their clusters are bitter. 33Their wine is the anger of snakes, And the deadly rage of the asps. 34{‘Look!} Aren’t these the things that I stored? Aren’t they sealed with My treasures? 35I will repay in the day of My vengeance, When their feet stumble in that day, And their destruction is very near, And all My decisions have reached them. 36‘For, Jehovah will judge all His people; He’ll take comfort [in the fall of] His servants. For, He saw they were weak and had failed, So, in a hostile invasion they’ll become feeble. 37‘Then Jehovah asked: Where are those gods that they trusted? 38Where’s the sacrificial fat that you ate, And the wine of your offerings that you drank? Let them arise and now help you… Let them become your protectors! 39‘Look! I AM… there are no gods other than Me! I kill and I can make it alive; I can strike it down and then heal it. For, none can take it out of My hands! 40‘I’ll lift My hand to heaven and I’ll swear; Yes, by My right hand I will say: I live through the ages! 41‘Then I will take hold of My sword, And make it sharp as lightning in My hand. To justice I’ll grab hold and judge My enemies… I’ll repay all of those who hate Me. 42‘On blood I’ll make My weapons drunk, And My sword will devour much flesh… With the blood of the wounded and captured, And the heads of the enemies that ruled them. 43‘Rejoice with Him, O you heavens, And may all God’s messengers bow low before Him. Rejoice with His people, you nations, And may all sons of God in Him become strong. ‘For, He will avenge the blood of His sons, And bring vengeance and justice on His enemies. He’ll bring their reward to all those who hate Him, When He purges His people from the land.’ 44This is the song that Moses wrote that day, and then he taught it to the children of Israel. And thereafter, Moses and JoShua (the son of NaWeh) [stood up] and [read] all the words of this Law where the people could hear it. 45And when they finished, 46[Moses] added, ‘Pay attention with your whole hearts to these words that I [read] to you today, and command your sons to follow and obey all the words of this Law. 47These must not be just words to you… they’re your life! For, these words will allow you to live a long time in the land that you’re crossing the Jordan to inherit.’ 48Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and said, 49‘Now, go to the Abarim Mountains and climb Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab near Jericho, and look at the land of CanaAn that I’m giving to the sons of Israel. 50Then you will die on that mountain and be added to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Or and was added to his people. 51This is because you disobeyed [Me before] the children of Israel at the Water of Rebellion, at Kadesh in the Sin desert, when you failed to [speak of] Me in a holy way among the sons of Israel. 52However, [I want you to] see the land before you, which you won’t be able to enter.’
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 MOSES' SONG, WHICH SETS FORTH THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD. (Deu. 32:1-43)
Give ear, O ye heavens; . . . hear, O earth--The magnificence of the exordium, the grandeur of the theme, the frequent and sudden transitions, the elevated strain of the sentiments and language, entitle this song to be ranked amongst the noblest specimens of poetry to be found in the Scriptures.
2 My doctrine shall drop, &c.--The language may justly be taken as uttered in the form of a wish or prayer, and the comparison of wholesome instruction to the pure, gentle, and insinuating influence of rain or dew, is frequently made by the sacred writers (
Isa 5:6;
Isa 55:10-
Isa 55:11).
4 He is the Rock--a word expressive of power and stability. The application of it in this passage is to declare that God had been true to His covenant with their fathers and them. Nothing that He had promised had failed; so that if their national experience had been painfully checkered by severe and protracted trials, notwithstanding the brightest promises, that result was traceable to their own undutiful and perverse conduct; not to any vacillation or unfaithfulness on the part of God (
Jas 1:17), whose procedure was marked by justice and judgment, whether they had been exalted to prosperity or plunged into the depths of affliction.
5 They have corrupted themselves--that is, the Israelites by their frequent lapses and their inveterate attachment to idolatry.
their spot is not the spot of his children--This is an allusion to the marks which idolaters inscribe on their foreheads or their arms with paint or other substances, in various colors and forms--straight, oval, or circular, according to the favorite idol of their worship.
6 is not he thy father that hath bought thee--or emancipated thee from Egyptian bondage.
and made thee--advanced the nation to unprecedented and peculiar privileges.
8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance--In the division of the earth, which Noah is believed to have made by divine direction (
Gen 10:5;
Deut 2:5-
Deut 2:9;
Acts 17:26-
Acts 17:27), Palestine was reserved by the wisdom and goodness of Heaven for the possession of His peculiar people and the display of the most stupendous wonders. The theater was small, but admirably suited for the convenient observation of the human race--at the junction of the two great continents of Asia and Africa, and almost within sight of Europe. From this spot as from a common center the report of God's wonderful works, the glad tidings of salvation through the obedience and sufferings of His own eternal Son, might be rapidly and easily wafted to every part of the globe.
he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel--Another rendering, which has received the sanction of eminent scholars, has been proposed as follows: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam and set the bounds of every people, the children of Israel were few in numbers, when the Lord chose that people and made Jacob His inheritance" (compare
Deut 30:5;
Gen 34:30;
Ps 105:9-
Ps 105:12).
10 found him in a desert land--took him into a covenant relation at Sinai, or rather "sustained," "provided for him" in a desert land.
a waste howling wilderness--a common Oriental expression for a desert infested by wild beasts.
11 As an eagle . . . fluttereth over her young--This beautiful and expressive metaphor is founded on the extraordinary care and attachment which the female eagle cherishes for her young. When her newly fledged progeny are sufficiently advanced to soar in their native element, she, in their first attempts at flying, supports them on the tip of her wing, encouraging, directing, and aiding their feeble efforts to longer and sublimer flights. So did God take the most tender and powerful care of His chosen people; He carried them out of Egypt and led them through all the horrors of the wilderness to the promised inheritance.
13 He made him ride on the high places, &c.--All these expressions seem to have peculiar reference to their home in the trans-jordanic territory, that being the extent of Palestine that they had seen at the time when Moses is represented as uttering these words. "The high places" and "the fields" are specially applicable to the tablelands of Gilead as are the allusions to the herds and flocks, the honey of the wild bees which hive in the crevices of the rocks, the oil from the olive as it grew singly or in small clumps on the tops of hills where scarcely anything else would grow, the finest wheat (
Ps 81:16;
Ps 147:14), and the prolific vintage.
15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked--This is a poetical name for Israel. The metaphor here used is derived from a pampered animal, which, instead of being tame and gentle, becomes mischievous and vicious, in consequence of good living and kind treatment. So did the Israelites conduct themselves by their various acts of rebellion, murmuring, and idolatrous apostasy.
17 They sacrificed unto devils--(See on
Lev 17:7).
21 those which are not a people--that is, not favored with such great and peculiar privileges as the Israelites (or, rather poor, despised heathens). The language points to the future calling of the Gentiles.
23 I will spend mine arrows upon them--War, famine, pestilence (
Ps 77:17) are called in Scripture the arrows of the Almighty.
29 Oh, . . . that they would consider their latter end--The terrible judgments, which, in the event of their continued and incorrigible disobedience, would impart so awful a character to the close of their national history.
32 vine of Sodom . . . grapes of gall--This fruit, which the Arabs call "Lot's Sea Orange," is of a bright yellow color and grows in clusters of three or four. When mellow, it is tempting in appearance, but on being struck, explodes like a puffball, consisting of skin and fiber only.
44 Moses . . . spake all the words of this song in the ears, &c.--It has been beautifully styled "the Song of the Dying Swan" [LOWTH]. It was designed to be a national anthem, which it should be the duty and care of magistrates to make well known by frequent repetition, to animate the people to right sentiments towards a steadfast adherence to His service.
48 Get thee up . . . and die . . . Because ye trespassed . . . at Meribah--(See on
Num 20:13).
52 thou shalt see the land, but thou shalt not go thither-- (
Num 27:12). Notwithstanding so severe a disappointment, not a murmur of complaint escapes his lips. He is not only resigned but acquiescing; and in the near prospect of his death, he pours forth the feelings of his devout heart in sublime strains and eloquent blessings.