VW-Edition Bible (2010)

1Give ear, O Heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers upon the grass. 3For I proclaim the name of Jehovah; ascribe greatness to our God. 4He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a Mighty God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He. 5They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation. 6Do you deal thus with Jehovah, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? 7Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will say to you: 8When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. 9For Jehovah's portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. 10He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the pupil of His eye. 11As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, 12so Jehovah alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him. 13He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him suck honey from the rock, and oil from the rock of flint; 14butter from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the sons of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; and you drank wine, the blood of the grapes. 15But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are gorged! And he forsook the God who had made him, and treated with contempt the Rock of his salvation. 16They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to new gods come lately, that your fathers had not feared. 18Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the Mighty God who brought you forth. 19And when Jehovah saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. 20And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. 21They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not the Mighty God; they have moved Me to anger by their vanities. So I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a people; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. 22For a fire has been kindled in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest Sheol; it shall consume the earth with her produce, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23I will heap evil upon them; I will use up My arrows upon them. 24They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by burning heat and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of the serpents of the dust. 25The sword from outside, and the terror from within, shall bereave the young man and virgin, the nursing child and the man of gray hairs. 26I have said, I will dash them in pieces, I will bring to an end the memory of them from among men, 27had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, our hand is high; and Jehovah has not done all this. 28For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. 29Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! 30How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Jehovah had delivered them up? 31For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. 33Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of vipers. 34Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? 35Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is near, and the things prepared have made haste upon them.  36For Jehovah will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free. 37He will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? 38Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, and be your refuge. 39See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver out of My hand. 40For I raise My hand to the heavens, and say, As I live forever, 41if I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. 42I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the commanders of the enemy. 43Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people. 44And Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people. 45And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46and He said to them: Set your hearts on all the words which I am testifying against you today, that you command your children to take heed to do all the Words of this Law. 47For these are not empty words to you, for it is your life; and by this Word you shall prolong your days in the land where you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. 48And Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day, saying: 49Go up into this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel as a possession; 50and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, even as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; 51because you have trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not honor Me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.


Matthew Henry - Concise Commentary
 1   Moses begins with a solemn appeal to heaven and earth, concerning the truth and importance of what he was about to say. His doctrine is the gospel, the speech of God, the doctrine of Christ; the doctrine of grace and mercy through him, and of life and salvation by him.

 3   He is a Rock. This is the first time God is called so in Scripture. The expression denotes that the Divine power, faithfulness, and love, as revealed in Christ and the gospel, form a foundation which cannot be changed or moved, on which we may build our hopes of happiness. And under his protection we may find refuge from all our enemies, and in all our troubles; as the rocks in those countries sheltered from the burning rays of the sun, and from tempests, or were fortresses from the enemy. His work is perfect: that of redemption and salvation, in which there is a display of all the Divine perfection, complete in all its parts. All God's dealings with his creatures are regulated by wisdom which cannot err, and perfect justice. He is indeed just and right; he takes care that none shall lose by him. A high charge is exhibited against Israel. Even God's children have their spots, while in this imperfect state; for if we say we have no sin, no spot, we deceive ourselves. But the sin of Israel was not habitual, notorious, unrepented sin; which is a certain mark of the children of Satan. They were fools to forsake their mercies for lying vanities. All wilful sinners, especially sinners in Israel, are unwise and ungrateful.

 7   Moses gives particular instances of God's kindness and concern for them. The eagle's care for her young is a beautiful emblem of Christ's love, who came between Divine justice and our guilty souls, and bare our sins in his own body on the tree. And by the preached gospel, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, He stirs up and prevails upon sinners to leave Satan's bondage. In Deut 32:13, Deut 32:14, are emblems of the conquest believers have over their spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, in and through Christ. Also of their safety and triumph in him; of their happy frames of soul, when they are above the world, and the things of it. This will be the blessed case of spiritual Israel in every sense in the latter day.

 15   Here are two instances of the wickedness of Israel, each was apostasy from God. These people were called Jeshurun, an upright people, so some; a seeing people, so others: but they soon lost the reputation both of their knowledge and of their righteousness. They indulged their appetites, as if they had nothing to do but to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it. Those who make a god of themselves, and a god of their bellies, in pride and wantonness, and cannot bear to be told of it, thereby forsake God, and show they esteem him lightly. There is but one way of a sinner's acceptance and sanctification, however different modes of irreligion, or false religion, may show that favourable regard for other ways, which is often miscalled candid. How mad are idolaters, who forsake the Rock of salvation, to run themselves upon the rock of perdition!

 19   The revolt of Israel was described in the foregoing verses, and here follow the resolves of Divine justice as to them. We deceive ourselves, if we think that God will be mocked by a faithless people. Sin makes us hateful in the sight of the holy God. See what mischief sin does, and reckon those to be fools that mock at it.

 26   The idolatry and rebellions of Israel deserved, and the justice of God seemed to demand, that they should be rooted out. But He spared Israel, and continues them still to be living witnesses of the truth of the Bible, and to silence unbelievers. They are preserved for wise and holy purposes and the prophecies give us some idea what those purposes are. The Lord will never disgrace the throne of his glory. It is great wisdom, and will help much to the return of sinners to God, seriously to consider their latter end, or the future state. It is here meant particularly of what God foretold by Moses, about this people in the latter days; but it may be applied generally. Oh that men would consider the happiness they will lose, and the misery they will certainly plunge into, if they go on in their trespasses! What will be in the end thereof? Jer 5:31. For the Lord will in due time bring down the enemies of the church, in displeasure against their wickedness. When sinners deem themselves most secure, they suddenly fall into destruction. And God's time to appear for the deliverance of his people, is when things are at the worst with them. But those who trust to any rock but God, will find it fail them when they most need it. The rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation, is the continuance of their ancient idolatry, apostasy, and rebellion. They shall be brought to humble themselves before the Lord, to repent of their sins, and to trust in their long-rejected Mediator for salvation. Then he will deliver them, and make their prosperity great.

 39   This conclusion of the song speaks, 1. Glory to God. No escape can be made from his power. 2. It speaks terror to his enemies. Terror indeed to those who hate him. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against them. 3. It speaks comfort to his own people. The song concludes with words of joy. Whatever judgments are brought upon sinners, it shall go well with the people of God.

 44   Here is the solemn delivery of this song to Israel, with a charge to mind all the good words Moses had said unto them. It is not a trifle, but a matter of life and death: mind it, and you are made for ever; neglect it, and you are for ever undone. Oh that men were fully persuaded that religion is their life, even the life of their souls!

 48   Now Moses had done his work, why should he desire to live a day longer? God reminds him of the sin of which he had been guilty, for which he was kept from entering Canaan. It is good for the best of men to die repenting the infirmities of which they are conscious. But those may die with comfort and ease, whenever God calls for them, notwithstanding the sins they remember against themselves, who have a believing prospect, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life beyond death.