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In this chapter we have, I. The song which Moses, by the appointment of God, delivered to the children of Israel, for a standing admonition to them, to take heed of forsaking God. This takes up most of the chapter, in which we have, 1. The preface, De 32:1,2. 2. A high character of God, and, in opposition to that, a bad character of the people of Israel, De 32:3-6. 3. A rehearsal of the great things God had done for them, and in opposition to that an account of their ill carriage towards him, De 32:7-18. 4. A prediction of the wasting destroying judgments which God would bring upon them for their sins, in which God is here justified by the many aggravations of their impieties, De 32:19-33. 5. A promise of the destruction of their enemies and oppressors at last, and the glorious deliverance of a remnant of Israel, De 32:36-43. II. The exhortation with which Moses delivered this song to them, De 32:41-47. III. The orders God gives to Moses to go up to Mount Nebo and die, De 32:48-52, etc.

The prophetical and historical song of Moses, showing forth the nature of God's doctrine, Deuteronomy 32:1-3. The character of God, Deuteronomy 32:4. The corruption of the people, Deuteronomy 32:5, Deuteronomy 32:6. They are called to remember God's kindness, Deuteronomy 32:7, and his dealings with them during their travels in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 32:8-14. Their ingratitude and iniquity, Deuteronomy 32:15-18. They are threatened with his judgments, Deuteronomy 32:19-28. A pathetic lamentation over them because of their sins, Deuteronomy 32:29-35. Gracious purposes in their behalf, mixed with reproaches for their manifold idolatries, and threatenings against his enemies, Deuteronomy 32:36-42. A promise of salvation to the Gentiles, Deuteronomy 32:43. Moses, having finished the song, warmly exhorts the people to obedience, Deuteronomy 32:44-47. God calls him up to the mount, that he may see the good land and then die, Deuteronomy 32:48-52.

INTRODUCTION TO Deuteronomy 32

This chapter contains the song mentioned and referred to in the former, the preface to it, Deuteronomy 32:1; the character of the divine and illustrious Person it chiefly respects, Deuteronomy 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, Deuteronomy 32:5; 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, Deuteronomy 32:7; then by what the Lord did for them in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 32:10; 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, Deuteronomy 32:13; and then the sin of ingratitude to him, before hinted at, is fully expressed, namely, lightly esteeming the rock of salvation, the Messiah, Deuteronomy 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, Deuteronomy 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, Deuteronomy 32:17; wherefore, for the rejection of the Messiah and the, persecution of his followers, they would be abhorred of God, Deuteronomy 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, Deuteronomy 32:20; whereby utter ruin and destruction in all its shapes would be brought upon them, Deuteronomy 32:22; 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, Deuteronomy 32:26; which enemies are described, and the vengeance reserved for them pointed out, Deuteronomy 32:32; 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, Deuteronomy 32:36; 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, Deuteronomy 32:44; 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, Deuteronomy 32:48.

The Song

Though not comparable to other masterpieces of Hebrew poetry either for beauty of metaphor, or musical diction, or fineness of spiritual insight, this strong poem is distinguished by the fire, force, and sweep of its superb rhetoric. Granted its limits—for it is neither an epic nor a lyric, but a didactic ode addressed with a practical purpose to a sinful generation—it has no peer in the O.T.

The editor of the Pent., who has ascribed it to Moses (Deuteronomy 31:30; cp. Deuteronomy 32:19; Deu 32:22, these words in Deuteronomy 32:28, and the possible reading song instead of law in Deuteronomy 32:24), asserts that its main purpose is to testify beforehand against Israel; whereas the poem itself strikes its keynote (Deuteronomy 32:2) as one of mercy and of hope, and emphatically concludes on this keynote (Deuteronomy 32:34-43). The poem makes no claim to be by Moses, and reflects nothing of his time or circumstances. On the contrary it is addressed throughout to a generation at a remote distance from Israel’s origin in the desert (Deuteronomy 32:7-12). Not only is their carriage to, and settlement upon, the Land long past (Deuteronomy 32:13 f.); but they have become demoralised by their enjoyment of the wealth of the Land, succumbed to strange gods, forsaken Jehovah, and suffered His chastisements, which are described—exactly as by the earlier prophets—as a series of national calamities, famine, plague, pestilence, and wild beasts, culminating in war and defeat at the hands of a new and alien people (Deuteronomy 32:15-25). So worthless are they that Jehovah would have destroyed them but for the fear that the arrogant foe would vaunt this as his own work. Therefore He relents and turns His wrath upon the foe; Israel’s deliverance is near, their blood will be avenged and their land assoiled (Deuteronomy 32:26-43).

The evidence of the Song is thus clearly of a date far subsequent to Moses. The only question is to which of the many sufferings of the long settled people we are to assign it. As to this the data are in conflict.

Some critics are satisfied that the period of the Syrian wars alone suits the effects of the divine wrath reflected in the Song (Knobel, Dillm., etc.); they compare Deuteronomy 32:36 with 2 Kings 14:26, emphasise the absence of all threat of Exile, argue for the identity of the no-people who execute God’s anger on Israel with the Syrians, and explain the number of words in the Song not found elsewhere (see below) as due to its northern origin. Others have identified the no-people with the Assyrians, either at the time of the fall of Samaria (Reuss) or during the invasion of Sennacherib; to which the objection is reasonable that Deuteronomy 32:40 f. do not suit the Assyrians, and that there is no threat of Exile, an essential part of the Assyrian policy towards defeated enemies, as all the prophets of the period recognise. On the grounds of the literary affinities of the Song with Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the exilic ‘Isaiah’ 40–55, and the Wisdom literature, more recent critics have brought it down to the Babylonian Exile, some to the eve or beginning of this (Kuen., Dri., etc.), others to its end on the ground that the deliverance of Israel is near (Steuern., Moore, the Oxford Hex., Berth., Robinson, and Marti). The no-people would thus be the Chaldeans.

The literary reasons for an exilic date are not slight (see notes). But on the other hand, there is the absence of reference to exile as the culmination of the apostate Israel’s punishment. Is it possible to conceive that an exilic poet could have ignored the Exile? The present writer thinks not. If the author of the Song be really echoing Jer., Ez., and the exilic ‘Isaiah,’ it is all the more strange that he does not speak of banishment or captivity. The only theory which would reconcile this conflict between the literary phenomena of the Song and its reflection of circumstances upon which exile does not lower, is that an exilic writer composed it with exclusive reference to a generation far earlier than his own, which is not unlikely when we consider the early subjects of certain late Psalms; or else that a poem originally written before the Assyrian period of Israel’s history received additions from an exilic scribe, for the affinities with Ez. and the exilic ‘Isaiah’ are not many.

The rhythm is one frequent in Heb. poetry: parallel couplets with, in the main, three stresses or accents to each line, but as in other O.T. poems of the same structure there are a considerable number of lines with only two stresses, and occasionally there is one of four, though this may not be original but due to bad tradition of the text. As Heb.—especially by virtue of its verbal suffixes—can express by one word with one accent ideas or feelings which it takes two or three to express in English, the rhythmical translation offered below is only a rough approximation to the metre of the original. As in many Heb. poems, there is no division into strophes. The rush of the rhetoric does not allow of this. The divisions given below are simply for the sake of convenience.

De 32:1-43.

MOSES' SONG, WHICH SETS FORTH THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD.

1. 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.

Song of Moses

If Deuteronomy 32:1-3 be regarded as the introduction, and Deuteronomy 32:43 as the conclusion, the main contents of the song may be grouped under three heads, namely,

-1Deu 32:4-18, the faithfulness of God, the faithlessness of Israel;

-2Deu 32:19-33, the chastisement and the need of its infliction by God;

-3Deu 32:34-42, God's compassion upon the low and humbled state of His people.

The Song differs signally in diction and idiom from the preceding chapters; just as a lyrical passage is conceived in modes of thought wholly unlike those which belong to narrative or exhortation, and is uttered in different phraseology.

There are, however, in the Song numerous coincidences both in thoughts and words with other parts of the Pentateuch, and especially with Deuteronomy; while the resemblances between it and Psalm 90:"A Prayer of Moses," have been rightly regarded as important.

The Song has reference to a state of things which did not ensue until long after the days of Moses. In this it resembles other parts of Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch which no less distinctly contemplate an apostasy (e. g. Deuteronomy 28:15; Leviticus 26:14), and describe it in general terms. If once we admit the possibility that Moses might foresee the future apostasy of Israel, it is scarcely possible to conceive how such foresight could be turned to better account by him than by the writing of this Song. Exhibiting as it does God's preventing mercies, His people's faithlessness and ingratitude, God's consequent judgments, and the final and complete triumph of the divine counsels of grace, it forms the summary of all later Old Testament prophecies, and gives as it were the framework upon which they are laid out. Here as elsewhere the Pentateuch presents itself as the foundation of the religious life of Israel in after times. The currency of the Song would be a standing protest against apostasy; a protest which might well check waverers, and warn the faithful that the revolt of others was neither unforeseen nor unprovided for by Him in whom they trusted.

That this Ode must on every ground take the very first rank in Hebrew poetry is universally allowed.

Deuteronomy 32:1-3

Introduction. Heaven and earth are here invoked, as elsewhere (see the marginal references), in order to impress on the hearers the importance of what is to follow.

On the inimitable excellence of this ode much has been written by commentators, critics, and poets - and it is allowed by the best judges to contain a specimen of almost every species of excellence in composition. It is so thoroughly poetic that even the dull Jews themselves found they could not write it in the prose form; and hence it is distinguished as poetry in every Hebrew Bible by being written in its own hemistichs or short half lines, which is the general form of the Hebrew poetry; and were it translated in the same way it would be more easily understood. The song itself has suffered both by transcribers and translators, the former having mistaken some letters in different places, and made wrong combinations of them in others. As to the translators, most of them have followed their own fancy, from good Mr. Ainsworth, who ruined it by the most inanimate rhyming version, to certain latter poets, who have cast it unhallowedly into a European mould. See the observations at the end of the chapter, Deuteronomy 32:52.

Give ear, O ye heavens - Let angels and men hear, and let this testimony of God be registered both in heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are appealed to as permanent witnesses.

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth,

the words of my mouth. This song is prefaced and introduced in a very grand and pompous manner, calling on the heavens and earth to give attention; by which they themselves may be meant, by a "prosopopaeia", a figure frequently used in Scripture, when things of great moment and importance are spoken of; and these are called upon to hearken, either to rebuke the stupidity and inattention of men, or to show that these would shed or withhold their influences, their good things, according to the obedience or disobedience of Israel; or because these are durable and lasting, and so would ever be witnesses for God and against his people: Gaon, as Aben Ezra observes, by the heavens understands the angels, and by the earth the men of the earth, the inhabitants of both worlds, which is not amiss: and by these words of Moses are meant the words of the song, referred to in Deuteronomy 31:29; here called his words, not because they were of him, but because they were put into his mouth, and about to be expressed by him, not in his own name, but in the name of the Lord; and not as the words of the law, which came by him, but as the words and doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ, of whom Moses here writes; whose character he gives, and whose person and office he vindicates against the Jews, whom he accuses and brings a charge of ingratitude against for rejecting him, to which our Lord seems to refer, John 5:45; the prophecies of their rejection, the calling of the Gentiles, the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, and the miseries they should undergo, and yet should not be wholly extirpated out of the world, but continue a people, who in the latter days would be converted, return to their own land, and their enemies be destroyed; which are some of the principal things in this song, and which make it worthy of attention and observation.