CLARITY EDITION · OLD TESTAMENT
Deuteronomy 32
Chapter 32 of 34
Chapter Overview
What happens in Deuteronomy 32
The Song of Moses is one of the great poems of the Bible. It celebrates God's perfection, recalls his tender care for Israel, laments their rebellion, and looks forward to God's final justice and compassion. After the song, God tells Moses to climb Mount Nebo to see the Promised Land before he dies.
Scripture
Deuteronomy 32
The Greatness of God
Study note
The Song of Moses begins by calling heaven and earth to listen. Moses declares that God is the Rock -- perfect, just, and faithful. In contrast, his people have acted corruptly and foolishly, rejecting the Father who created them.
1 Pay attention, heavens -- I have something to say! Listen, earth, to every word from my mouth! Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching come down like rainfall. May my words drop gently like dew, like a soft mist on fresh grass, like light showers on growing plants. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
3 I will declare the name of the Lord. Celebrate the greatness of our God! Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock! Everything he does is flawless. Every action he takes is honest and fair. He is a trustworthy God who never does wrong -- always righteous and always true. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5 But his people have turned against him and acted shamefully. Because of their corruption, they can no longer call themselves his children. They are a twisted, crooked generation. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Is this how you pay the Lord back, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your Father, your Creator? He is the one who made you and set you firmly in place. Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?
God's Tender Care for Israel
Study note
Moses recalls how God chose Israel as his special portion, found them in a barren wilderness, and tenderly cared for them like an eagle caring for its young. God alone led them and gave them the richest blessings of the land.
7 Think back to ancient days. Consider what happened in generations long past. Go ask your father -- he will explain it. Ask your elders -- they will lay it all out for you. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
8 The Most High split up the nations. He spread people across the earth. He drew the borders of every people group. He based them on the number of the children of Israel. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 The Lord's own special portion is his people. Jacob is the inheritance he claimed for himself. For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him wandering in a barren desert, in a wild, empty wasteland full of howling winds. He wrapped his arms around him, cared for him, and protected him like the pupil of his own eye. He found him 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.
11 Like a mother eagle that stirs up her nest. She flutters over her babies. She spreads her wings to catch them. She carries them on her feathers. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
12 that is how the Lord alone guided him. No foreign god had any part in it. So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He lifted him up to ride over the highest places in the land and fed him crops from the fields. He gave him honey flowing from rocky cliffs and olive oil pressed from solid stone, He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 butter from the herd and milk from the flock, along with the richest lambs and rams -- the finest livestock from Bashan -- and goats, with the choicest wheat. You drank deep red wine made from the finest grapes. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
Israel's Rebellion and God's Anger
Study note
But when Israel grew prosperous, they forgot God and turned to foreign gods and demons. God's anger burned against them. He would hide his face and bring disasters upon them, but he held back from total destruction so enemies would not take credit for Israel's downfall.
15 But Jeshurun got fat and started kicking. You grew heavy, bloated, and stuffed with food! Then you dumped the God who made you and turned your back on the Rock who rescued you. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made him jealous by worshiping foreign gods. They made him angry with their sickening idols. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They made offerings to demons that are not real gods at all. These were gods they had just found out about — new gods their ancestors never honored. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 You turned your back on the Rock who brought you into being. You forgot the God who gave you life. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
19 The Lord saw all of this and turned away in disgust, because his own sons and daughters had driven him to fury. And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 He declared, 'I will turn my face away from them and watch what becomes of them. They are a completely unfaithful generation -- children who cannot be trusted. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
21 They made me jealous by worshipping things that are not even gods. They infuriated me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with a people who are not a real nation. I will provoke them with a foolish people. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 My anger has started a fire that burns all the way down to the grave. It will consume the earth and its crops and ignite the very roots of the mountains. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will stack one disaster on top of another against them. I will use up every one of my arrows on them. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 Starvation will drain them, disease will eat them alive, and deadly sickness will take them down. I will send savage animals to attack them and venomous serpents to strike from the dust. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 Out in the streets, swords will cut down their children. Inside their homes, terror will reign. Young men and young women will die, along with nursing infants and gray-haired elders. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
26 I thought about scattering them so fully that no one would even remember they were ever there. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27 But I held back because of how the enemy would react. Their attackers would get the wrong idea and boast, "We did this with our own strength. The Lord had nothing to do with it."' Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.
A Foolish Nation Without Understanding
Study note
Israel lacks wisdom to understand the consequences of their choices. Their enemies' false gods are nothing compared to the true God. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, and the day of judgment will surely come.
28 Israel is a nation that cannot think straight. They have no understanding at all. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
29 If only they had any wisdom! If only they could figure this out and consider where their choices will lead! O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30 How could one person chase a thousand, or two people make ten thousand run away? It could only happen if their Rock had given up on them and the Lord had let them lose. How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
31 Even our enemies know that their rock is nothing compared to our Rock. For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 Their vine grows from the same root as Sodom's and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are full of poison, and their clusters taste bitter. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33 Their wine is like snake venom -- the lethal poison of cobras. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
34 'Have I not been keeping track of all this, locked safely away in my vaults? Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35 Payback belongs to me, and I will deliver it. Sooner or later their feet will slip. Their day of ruin is coming fast, and their doom is racing toward them.' To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; 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.
God's Compassion and Final Victory
Study note
When Israel's strength is completely gone, God will have compassion on his servants. He will expose the worthlessness of false gods and declare that he alone is God -- the one who kills and makes alive, wounds and heals. He will avenge his people and make atonement for his land.
36 The Lord will stand up for his people and show mercy to those who serve him. He will do this once he sees that their strength is all gone and nobody is left. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
37 Then he will ask, 'So where are those gods now -- the rock you ran to for shelter? And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
38 Where are the gods who feasted on the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine you poured out to them? Let them get up and rescue you! Let them protect you now! Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
39 Open your eyes and see: I alone am God. There is no other god besides me. I am the one who takes life and gives life. I am the one who wounds and heals. No one can pry anything out of my grip. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40 I raise my hand toward heaven and swear: As surely as I live forever, For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
41 I will sharpen my flashing sword. I will grab hold of it to bring justice. I will settle the score with my foes. I will pay back all who hate me. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
42 My arrows will be soaked in blood, and my sword will feast on flesh. There will be blood from the killed and captured, from the heads of enemy leaders.' I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43 Celebrate with his people, O nations! He will avenge the blood of those who served him. He will strike back at his enemies and cleanse his land and his people. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
Moses Told to Ascend Mount Nebo
Study note
After finishing the song, Moses urges Israel to take these words to heart as their very life. God then tells Moses to climb Mount Nebo to see the Promised Land from a distance, but he will not enter it because of his unfaithfulness at Meribah.
44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and sang every word of this song for the people to hear. And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
45 Moses finished saying the whole song to all of Israel. And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
46 he told them, 'Let every word I have spoken today sink deep into your hearts. Tell your children to faithfully follow every word of this law. And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47 These are not hollow, meaningless words -- they are your very life. Living by them is how you will enjoy a long future in the land you are crossing the Jordan to claim.' For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
48 That very same day, the Lord spoke to Moses: And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
49 'Climb into the Abarim Mountains and go up Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, facing Jericho. From there, look out over the land of Canaan -- the land I am giving to the Israelites. Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:
50 You will die on that mountain and join your ancestors. This is just like your brother Aaron, who died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
51 This is because you both acted unfaithfully toward me at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Zin wilderness. You failed to demonstrate my holiness in front of the Israelites. Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
52 You will get to see the land from a distance, but you will not step foot in the land I am giving the people of Israel.' Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
Key Themes
Themes in Deuteronomy 32
God's perfect faithfulness versus human ficklenessThe rock as a name for GodJealousy kindled by a foolish nationGod's ultimate vindication of his people
Prophetic Connections
How this chapter points to Christ
Deuteronomy 32:21 Romans 10:19
Paul quotes God's declaration 'I will make you envious by those who are not a nation' to explain how the inclusion of Gentiles in salvation was part of God's plan to provoke Israel to return.
Deuteronomy 32:35 Romans 12:19
Paul quotes 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord' to instruct Christians not to take revenge but to leave justice in God's hands.
Deuteronomy 32:43 Romans 15:10
Paul quotes 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people' to demonstrate that the inclusion of Gentiles in God's covenant was promised from the beginning.
Apply This Today
Living Deuteronomy 32
The Song of Moses is a masterpiece of contrast: God is the Rock, faithful and just, while Israel is corrupt and crooked. Yet the song ends with vindication, not destruction. God's jealousy is not petty but the fierce love of a parent whose child has run to destruction. This song warns every generation against forgetting the God who made them and gave them everything.
Go Deeper
Study Deuteronomy in Covenant Path
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