圣经注释书

本章我们有：I. 摩西照神的吩咐赐给以色列人的一首歌，作为对他们长存的警戒，叫他们谨防离弃神。这一部分占了本章大部分篇幅，其中有：1. 序言，申 32:1、2。2. 对神崇高的颂赞，与之相对的是以色列人的恶劣品性，申 32:3-6。3. 复述神为他们所行的奇事，与之相对的是他们对他恶劣的行为，申 32:7-18。4. 预言神将因他们的罪而降下毁坏消灭的审判；在此，神因他们种种加重的不敬虔之事而得以表白，申 32:19-33。5. 应许终必毁灭他们的仇敌与欺压者，并奇妙地拯救以色列余民，申 32:36-43。II. 摩西将这首歌交付给他们时所用的劝勉，申 32:41-47。III. 神吩咐摩西上尼波山去死，申 32:48-52 等。

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.

申 32:1-43。

摩西的歌，颂赞神的完全。

1. 诸天哪，侧耳；……地啊，当听——这篇诗歌序言的壮丽、主题的宏伟、频繁而突然的转换、思想与语言的高超格调，使它堪列圣经中最伟大的诗歌典范之中。

摩西之歌

若以 Deuteronomy 32:1-3 为引言、Deuteronomy 32:43 为结语，这首诗的主要内容可归为三项，即：

• 1. Deuteronomy 32:4-18，神的信实，以色列的不忠；
• 2. Deuteronomy 32:19-33，管教，以及神施行管教的必要；
• 3. Deuteronomy 32:34-42，神对他百姓卑微屈辱之境的怜悯。

这首歌在措辞与语体上与前面各章迥然不同；正如一段抒情文字，其构思方式与属于叙事或劝勉的思维模式全然有别，其用语也自不同。

然而，这首歌在思想与措辞上与摩西五经的其他部分、尤其与申命记有众多吻合之处；而它与诗篇 90——“神人摩西的祈祷”——之间的相似，也一向被视为意义重大。

这首歌所论及的事态，直到摩西时代过后许久才发生。在这一点上，它与申命记及摩西五经中同样明确预见背道的其他部分相似（例如 Deuteronomy 28:15；利未记 26:14），并以概括的言辞加以描述。我们一旦承认摩西可能预见以色列日后的背道，便几乎无法想象这预见还能比写成这首歌得到更好的运用。这首歌展示了神先发的怜悯、他百姓的不忠与忘恩、神随之而来的审判，以及神圣恩典计划最终完全的得胜；它构成了后世旧约一切预言的纲要，可说是铺设那些预言的框架。在此处如同在别处一样，摩西五经把自己呈现为日后以色列宗教生活的基础。这首歌的流传，就是对背道的一种持久抗议；这抗议足以遏止动摇的人，并警告忠信的人：别人的背逆，在他们所信靠的那位并非未曾预见、也并非毫无预备。

这首颂歌在各方面都当居于希伯来诗歌的最前列，这是公认的事实。

Deuteronomy 32:1-3

引言。此处与其他地方一样（见页边注）呼唤天地，为要使听者深切感到以下内容的重要性。

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.