This chapter contains the song mentioned and referred to in the former, the preface to it, Deut. 32:1–3; the character of the divine and illustrious Person it chiefly respects, Deut.

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…

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew Which some, as Aben Ezra, take to be a prayer or wish, that the doctrine spoken by him might fall upon men like rain and dew on the earth, penetrate into their hearts, and influence them, and produce good effects there; but the…

Because I will publish the name of the Lord Not call on his name, as some, nor call to the heaven and earth in his name, as others, but proclaim his name, even the same that was proclaimed before Moses, (Ex. 34:6, Ex.

He is the rock That is, Jehovah is the rock, whose name Moses proposed to publish; and our God, to whom the heavens and the earth are called upon to ascribe greatness, even Christ the rock of salvation: here begins the song; the first word in it is very emphatic; it has a letter in it larger than…

They have corrupted themselves This and what follows may seem to be the characters of the enemies of Christ, who lightly esteemed and rejected him, set in a contrast with him; who were not only corrupt by nature, as all men are, but were men of corrupt minds in their tenets and principles; who…

Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise This is also a proper character of the Jews in the times of Christ, who are often by him called “fools”, (Matt. 23:17, Matt.

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations That went before the times of Christ, and the Jews’ rejection of him, and observe the instances of divine goodness to them; as in the time of the Maccabees, whom God raised up as deliverers of them, when oppressed by the Syrians and…

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, &c.] In the times of Noah and his sons, in the days of Peleg, who had his name (that is “Division”) from thence, ; “the Most High” is a well known and proper, epithet of God; the dividing of the earth to the several nations of it, and…

For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. ] This is the reason why the Lord so early provided a portion or inheritance for the children of Israel in the land of Canaan; because they were his part, his portion, his inheritance, which he chose by lot for himself, or…

He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness In instances are given of the goodness of God to the people of Israel, when in the wilderness; by which is meant, either “the wilderness of the land of Egypt”, as it is called, ; where they were in a most miserable and forlorn…

As an eagle stirreth up her nest Her young ones in it, to get them out of it: Jarchi says the eagle is merciful to its young, and does not go into its nest suddenly, but first makes a noise, and disturbs them with her wings, striking them against a tree or its branches, that so they being awakened…

So the Lord alone did lead him Out of Egypt, through the wilderness, to the land of Canaan, going before them in a pillar of fire and cloud; though this is not to be understood to the exclusion of the ministry of Moses and Aaron, by whom he led them, ; it may be interpreted of the people being…

He made him to ride on the high places of the earth Or land, the land of Canaan; by which are meant the towers, castles, and fortified places in it, some of which might be built on hills and mountains; and being made to ride on them may denote the delivery of them into their hands, their conquests…

Butter of kine Made of milk, which kine or cows give; Jarchi says, this is the fat that is gathered on the top of milk, he means cream, and which indeed was the butter of the ancients, and is here meant: and milk of sheep: which they give, though not in such plenty as the kine, yet what is very…

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked This is undoubtedly a name of the people of Israel; it is to be met with only in three places more, in (Deut. 33:5, Deut.

They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods Or “with others” [[7]]; the word “gods” is not in the text, nor were the Jews guilty of worshipping strange gods or idols in the times of Christ, nor had they been from the time of their coming out of the Babylonish captivity; but the word, as…

They sacrificed to devils, not to God Their sacrifices being continued, when it was the will of God they should cease, were reckoned by him not as, offered to him, but to demons, and to such that were not God; they being therein under the instigation of Satan, and doing his lusts, ; just as Pagans…

Of the rock that begat thee thou art unmindful The same with the rock of salvation, ; repeated and expressed in different words, that their wretched ingratitude might be taken notice of and observed: begetting is ascribed to this rock, as regeneration is to Christ, ; and was true of some among the…

And when the Lord saw it The disregard of the Jews to Christ, their forgetfulness of him, their disesteem and rejection of him; their continuance of sacrifices, when the great sacrifice was offered up; their setting up other messiahs and saviours, and the idol of their own righteousness, in…

And he said, I will hide my face from them Now the Lord proceeds to pass sentence on the Jews for their ill treatment of his Son, and of his followers; which respects judgments that should come upon them, both spiritual and temporal, or corporeal; the former lies in (Deut. 32:20, Deut.

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God, &c.] With a false messiah; for after the death of Jesus, the true Messiah, God as well as man, many false Christs arose, as he predicted, and were received for a time, who were mere men, and deceivers; and their now vainly expected messiah,…

For a fire is kindled in mine anger Here begins the account of temporal and corporeal judgments inflicted on the Jews for their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah, their contempt of his Gospel, and ill treatment of his followers; and this here respects the destruction of the land of Judea in…

I will heap mischief upon them One calamity upon another, which are after particularly mentioned: I will spewed mine arrows upon them; God is here represented as an enemy to the Jews, as having bent his bow against them like an enemy, ; and as having a quiver, and that full of arrows, and as…

They shall be burnt with hunger This is the arrow of famine, (Ezek. 5:16, Ezek. 5:17) ; the force of which is such that it makes the skin black as if burnt, ; Onkelos paraphrases it, “inflated or swelled with famine,” which is a phrase Josephus [[1]] makes use of in describing the famine at the…

The sword without Either without the city, the sword of the Roman army besieging it, which destroyed all that came out or attempted to go in; or in the streets of the city, the sword of the seditious, which destroyed multitudes among themselves: and terror within; within the city, on account of the…

I said Or could have said, or might have said; that is, determined and resolved, as it was in his power, and in right and justice might have done what follows: I would scatter them into corners; which does not fitly express the sense of the word used, and besides this was what was done; it is…

Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy Satan, the enemy of mankind in general, of the people of God in particular, and especially of the Messiah, the seed of the woman, and of God himself, whom he would dethrone, or at least place himself on an equality with him; this enemy is full of…

For they are a nation void of counsel This is said not of the Jews, whose character is given, ; and instances of their ingratitude, folly, and want of counsel and understanding, have been already mentioned, and punishment for the same inflicted on them, according to this prophetic song; so that the…

O that they were wise These are not the words of God, and so no instances of mere velleities, and unsuccessful wishes in him, and as arguing a power in man to make himself wise if he would; but of Moses, under a spirit of prophecy, foreseeing the ignorance and stupidity of the above persons; or as…

How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight This is said for the conviction of the Pagan Romans of their folly in behaving strangely, attributing to their gods what belonged to the true God; for since the Jews were more numerous than they, both in Judea, in the times of…

For their rock is not as our rock That is, the gods of the Heathens, the rock in which they trusted, are not like the God of Israel, the rock of salvation, in which all true believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, place their confidence; and indeed let that be what it will, that is short of Christ the…

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah This respects the false Christians in the Roman empire, who should have taken warning by the Jews, and not have embraced such sentiments of theirs, which had been resented by the Lord, and condemned in them; such as the doctrines…

Their wine is the poison of dragons Of these creatures, both land and sea dragons, (See Gill on Mic. 1:8); (See Gill on Mal. 1:3); Pliny says [[10]] the dragon has no poison in it; yet, as Dalechamp, in his notes on that writer observes, he in many places prescribes remedies against the bite of the…

Is not this laid up in store with me The fruit of the degenerate vine, its bitter clusters of grapes, and poisonous wine; meaning the evil principles and practices of the apostate church, well known to God, taken notice of by him, and laid up in his mind and memory; for both she and her sins will…

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense Or, I will repay, or recompence, as it is quoted in ; and so all the three Targums, the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, here, and so Jarchi interprets it.

For the Lord shall judge his people The true church and members of it, in opposition to the false and apostate church; his chosen and covenant people, whom he gave to Christ, and who are redeemed by his blood, and effectually called by his grace; the people he shall call out of Babylon, or preserve…

And he shall say, where are their gods? &c.] Not the Lord shall say to Israel, upbraiding them with their idols and their idolatries; but, as the Targum of Jonathan, “the enemy shall say, where is the God of Israel?” and to the same purpose is, the Jerusalem Targum, and which is the sense of other…

Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings Alluding to the fat of the sacrifices under the law, which was claimed by the Lord as his, and represented as his food, (Lev. 3:11, Lev.

See now that I, even I, am he Which words are directed to the people of God in their low estate, to look to Christ, and expect deliverance and salvation from him; or to their enemies that insult them, to the despisers, to look, and wonder, and perish, as they will, when the witnesses slain by them…

For I lift up my hand to heaven Which is a gesture used in swearing, , and is ascribed to a divine Person, ; and particularly to Christ the angel, that is so wonderfully described, ; though sometimes it is used, as Aben Ezra observes, to excite the attention of hearers, but here it signifies…

If I whet my glittering sword That is, I will do it as sure as I live, if I do not, be it so and so; what that is is not said, but left to be concluded.

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood Signifying, that by various judgments he would bring upon them, which, like arrows, would come suddenly, fly swiftly, and pierce deeply, there would be a prodigious effusion of blood like that in ; so that these arrows, which cause it, being plunged and…

Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people Or, “rejoice, ye nations”, who are “his” people; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; the Gentiles, who are the Lord’s chosen and covenant people, redeemed and called, and the fulness of them now brought in, and so matter of great rejoicing; or rather, as…

And Moses came To the people, as the Greek version, the heads of the people being gathered together according to his order, ; The Targum of Jonathan says, he came from the tabernacle, the house of instruction: and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people; which is observed both…

And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel. ] Finished all he had to say to them from the Lord, whether by way of precept, moral, civil, and ceremonial or in the form of a song.

And he said unto them By way of exhortation: set your hearts to all the words which I testify among you this day; it was not enough to hear them, but they were to lay them up in their hearts, and retain them in their memories; and not only so, but reflect on them in their minds, and closely apply…

For it is not a vain thing for you That is, the law is not, and the observance of it in them and their children; it was no light and trifling matter, but of great importance and consequence, obedience to it being attended with rewards, and disobedience with punishment: because it is your life: if…

And the Lord spake unto Moses the selfsame day On which he finished the reading of the law, and the above song, which was the seventh of Adar or February; according to the Targum of Jonathan, the day he died on; according to the Egyptian Calendar [[0]], it was the sixteenth of that month, see ;…

Get thee up into this mountain Abarim Which was near in sight, and pointed at; it was a range of mountains, of which see ; unto Mount Nebo; which was one of the mountains of Abarim, and had its name either from its height, or a city of this name, to which it was near, see ; Jerom says [[1]], in his…

And die in the mount whither thou goest up Immediately after having taken a view of the land, expect to die, prepare for it, and willingly and cheerfully submit to it: and be gathered unto thy people; to the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven, his more immediate and more remote ancestors,…

Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel By their unbelief, doubting whether God would give water or no to such a rebellious people, and by giving way to passion and wrathful expressions: and this was done at the waters of Meribahkadesh; so called, to distinguish it from…

Yet thou shalt see the land before thee Which Jarchi interprets, afar off; and so does Noldius [[2]]; he saw it at a distance, as the Old Testament saints saw the things promised afar off, and were persuaded of them, though they did not enjoy them, : but thou shalt not go thither unto the land…