s A 1-6. Call to hear: and the reason. The publishing
of Yahaveh's name: His perfect work and righteous ways.
B 7-14. The goodness and bounty of Yahaveh to Israel.
(Period of the Pentateuch).
C 15-19. Israel's evil return for that goodness. Their pride: forsaking
God; despising the Rock of their Salvation; moving Him to
anger. (Period, past history. The Historical books).
D 20. Divine reflection on the period while
Israel is "Lo Ammi" (not my people). Period of Minor Prophets, especially
Hosea).
E 21. Yahaveh's provocation of Israel. (Period of Acts and present Dispensation).
E 22-25. Yahaveh's threatening of judgment on Israel in the great tribulation.
D 26-33. Divine reflections on the period while Israel is scattered.
C 34-38. Israel's evil return for Yahaveh's goodness. Their helpless condition
moving Him to pity. He has not forsaken them. Their rock useless.
(Period of present history).
B 39-42. The judgment of Yahaveh. (The period of the Apocalypse).
A 43. Call to rejoice: and the reason. The publishing of Yahaveh's Kingdom. Vengeance
on Israel's enemies. Mercies for His "Land" and for His "People". (fulfillment
of all prophecy)1452 B.C.
Deuteronomy 32)
1: Give ear (Cp. Isa. 1:2), O all you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth (Cp. Rev. Chapters 14 & 15), the words of my mouth.
2: My doctrine shall drop as the rain (Heb. lekah. First occ. = good teaching), My speech (= the words of my mouth) shall distill as the dew (the purest water there is. Cp. Mic. 5:7), as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass (Latter day rains. First occ. here, cp. Ps. 65:10; 72:6. Jer. 3:3; 14:22. Mic. 5:7):
3: Because I will publish the name of the Lord (Yahaveh): ascribe you all greatness to our God (Elohim).
4: The Rock (Used of Yehovah in this song 5 times [the number of grace], vv.4,15,18,30,31. Used twice in irony vv.31,32. Cp. 2 Sam. 23:31,32), His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment (= justified): a GOD (El) of truth and without iniquity (Heb. 'aval, sin in its nature as deceitful, dishonesty, that which is not equal and right, unfairness in dealings, also rendered unjust), just and right is He.
5: They have corrupted themselves, their spot (= blemish. Spots of a leopard do not change, symbolic of Kenites = the sons of Cain [which is the son of Satan]) is not the spot of His sons: they are a perverse and crooked generation. (The noun "generation", is put last by Fig. Hyperbaton, for emphasis, in contrast with "thee Rock" of v.4, which is there put first. Cp. v.20. Render the verse thus: "A perverse and crooked generation has corrupted itself: To be no sons of His in their blemish)
6: Do you all thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not He your Father that has bought you? has He not made you, and established you? (the answer is yes!)
7: Remember the days of old (look at your history. Cp. Ps. 77:5), consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will shew you; your elders (prophets, scholars), and they will tell you.
8: When the Most High (= Elyon) divided to the nations their inheritance (As an inheritance. Cp. v.9. Heb. nahal = to posses. Not Heb. palag [Gen. 10:25], which = to cleave by disruption, or parur [Gen. 10:5,32], which = to divide by breaking off), when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the Peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.
9: For the Lord's portion is His People; Jacob is the line of His inheritance (All natural seed of Israel plus those adopted. The line because the inheritance was allotted by a cord or line. Cp. 1 Chron. 16:18. Ps. 16:6; 19:4. Mic. 2:5 ).
10: He found him (i.e. Jacob) in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye (First occ. of Heb. bâbah, used of the small round dark pupil of the eye. Heb. = hole, gate or door of the eye. Cp. Ps. 17:8. See Zech. 2:8. Called "pupil" from Latin pupilla = a little girl).
11: As an eagle flutters (same word as Gen.1:2) her nest (put for the young in it), flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings (in which lies the feathers), takes them, bears them on her wings (in which lies the strength. The eagle encourages them to fly and catches them when they fall):
12: So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him (no false Christ).
13: He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he did eat the increase of the fruit from land; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock (a rock, as a fortress, unmovable), and oil (honey and oil put for all delicious things) out of the flinty rock (Heb. zûr = rock in situ, sharp and precipitous. Hence a refuge and security);
14: Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan (Confirming the promise of v.13 as to high or mountainous places), and goats, with the fat of kidneys (= white of the kernels) of wheat; and you did drink the unmixed blood of the grape (no contamination).
15: But Jeshurun waxed fat (= the Upright One. First occ. Fig. Metonymy, put for the ideal Israel. Cp. 33:5,26. Isa. 44:2, as chosen by God. Also used in irony for Israel when he had it too good), and kicked (= trampled under foot, hence to condemn. Heb. ba'at. First occ.): you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook GOD (Eloah = The God in respect to worship. First occ.) Which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16: They provoked Him to jealousy (Cp. Ps. 78:58) with foreign gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger (Strange teachings and traditions of men).
17: They sacrificed to devils (= demons, Heb. shêd. First occ. Cp. Ps. 106:37. 1 Cor. 10:20), not to GOD; to gods whom they knew not (such as the goddess Ashterah
= "Easter" [mistranslated in Acts, Gr. pascha = passover], they didn't exist), to new gods that came recently up (= recent, lately. Heb. karab, as in Judg. 5:8), whom your fathers feared not (= trembled at. Heb. sa'ar. Not gar, reverence).
18: Of the Rock that begat you you are unmindful, and have forgotten God that formed you.
19: And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them (Cp. Ps. 106:40), because of the provoking of His sons (the provocation produced by the conduct of His People), and of His daughters.
20: And He said, I will hide My face from them (see 31:17), I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very perverse generation (Heb. haphakpak. First occ), children in whom is no faith (stubborn, denies that He exists).
21: They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not god; they have provoked (see Rom.10:19) Me to anger with their vanities (= emptiness): and I will move them to jealousy with those which are no People (Arabia, see Amos 6:14. Cp. Rom. 10:19; 11:11); I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22: For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell (sh'eôl), and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire (Heb. lahat. First occ.) the foundations of the mountains (bad elements only. See 2 Pet. 3:10).
23: I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them (troubles and accidents, named in v.24).
24: They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat (diseases. Heb. repheph. Fist occ.), and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust (Heb. zahal = to crawl or creep. First occ.).
25: The sword outside (= God's Word), and terror from the inner chambers, shall destroy (= bereave) both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs (no one, i.e. all peoples, all ages can escape Him).
26: I said, I would scatter them into corners (= disperse them, scatter them as the wind. Them = Jacob, the natural seed. The verb pa'âh occurs only here. The Servus Codex divides the one word 'aph'eyhem [disperse the] into the three words âph êh, hem, = "I said in anger, Where are they?"), I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among mortals (God allows the enemy to come for correction):
27: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely (= mistake it. The Heb. nâkar, a Homonym with 3 meanings: #1. to mistake, here; #2. to acknowledge, Job 34:19;#3. to deliver, 1 Sam. 23:7. Both A.V. and R.V. miss the first [R.V.= misdeem], admit the second and third [although the R.V. margin suggests "alienated" for "delivered"), and lest they should say, 'Our hand is high, and the Lord (Note the 5 Divine titles in this song. #5 = grace) has not done all this.'
28: For they are a nation void of council (= deliberation), neither is there any understanding in them (No God no counsel).
29: O that they were wise (cp. Ps. 81:13,14), that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! ("If the would have listened to Me" [God])
30: How should one chase a thousand (Cp. Lev. 26:8. Josh. 23:10. 2 Chron. 24:24. Isa. 30:17), and two put ten thousand to flight (fearless in His service), except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
31: For their rock (= Tyrus = Satan.) is not as our Rock (= Christ. Cp. 1 Sam. 2:2 and v.4), even our enemies themselves being judges.
32: For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah (perversions): their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33: Their wine is the poison of dragons (i.e. the Red Dragon, Satan), and the cruel venom of asps (i.e. The Serpent, Satan).
34: Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures?
35: To Me belongs vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. (2nd half of Isaiah that Christ left off in the synagogue)
36: For the Lord shall vindicate his people (Cp. Lev. 26:25. Judg. 2:18. Ps. 7:8; 135:14. Jer. 51:6), and repent Himself for His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left (Heb. 'azab, is a Homonym, with two meanings: #1. to leave, or forsake [Gen. 2:24; 339:6. Neh. 5:10. Ps. 49:10. Mal. 4:1]; #2. to help, restore, strengthen, shut in, or fortify, as in [Ex. 23:5. 1 Kings 14:10. 2 Kings 14:26. Neh. 3:8. Jer. 49:25]. See the notes on these passages. Hence, here, = defended and protected. Note the perplexity manifested in the margins of the A.V. and R.V.).
37: And He shall say, 'Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted (Heb. hasah = to flee for refuge to, to take shelter in. He [Satan] is in the abyiss, the pit),
38: Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and let them be your protection.'
39: See now that I, even I, am He (cp. Isa. 44:8), and there is no god with Me: I kill (cp. 1 Sam.2:6. 2 Kings 5:7), and I make alive; I wound (cp. Job 5:18. Hos. 6:1), and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand.
40: For I lift up My hand to heaven (= I swear. The lifting of the hand put by the Fig. Metonymy, for the thing signified by it), and say, I live for ever.
41: If I whet My glittering sword (cp. Rev.19:15), and My hand take hold on justice (or retribution. Cp. Isa. 1:24); I will render vengeance to My enemies, and will reward them that hate Me (just dessert).
42: I will make My arrows drunk with blood (= devour), and My sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the flesh [of the] chief leader of revenges upon the enemy. (Just before change into spiritual bodies His Word will slay)
43: Rejoice, O all you nations, with His people (cp. Ps. 67:1-7): for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful (= be propitious, cp. Joel 2:18. Rom. 15:9) to His land, and to His people" (the 2 great subjects of the song and of the O.T. This ends Moses' 8th address).
44: And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people (this is the 5th and last contextual reference to "the Song of Moses"), he, and Hoshea the son of Nun (= the old spelling of Joshua. Later it was "Jeshua" [Ezra 2:2]. This was adopted by the Sept.,and ultimately became "Jesus").
45: And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
46: And he said to them, "Set your hearts (Moses' 9th address. See 1:6) unto all the words which I testify among you this day (Not merely the Word of God as a whole, but the "words" of which it is made up. Cp. Jer. 15:16. John 17:8,14,17), which you all shall command your children to observe and to do, all the words of this law.
47: For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing you all shall prolong your days on the soil, to which place you all go over Jordan to possess it." (End of Moses' 9th address)
48: And the Lord spoke to Moses that selfsame day, saying,
49: "Get you up into this mountain Abarim (Heb. = regions beyond), to mount Nebo (= prophet), which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel for a possession:
50: And die in the mount to which place you go up, and be gathered to your people (imperative for Indicative. Cp. Gen. 25:8,17); according as Aaron your brother died in mount Hor (cp. Num. 20:24; 27:12-14), and was gathered to his people:
51: Because you all trespassed (cp. Num. 20:12) against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh (= quarrel with God), in the wilderness of Zin (= flat); because you all sanctified Me not in the midst of the sons of Israel.
52: Yet you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go to that place to the land which I give the sons of Israel."