Deuteronomy 32:26

Amplified Bible

'I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces [scattering them far away], I will remove the memory of them from men,"

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,"

Update Bible Version
I said, I would scatter them far, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among common man;

English Revised Version
I said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:

New Century Version
I will scatter them as I said, and no one will remember them.

New English Translation
"I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. I want to make people forget they ever existed.

Webster's Bible Translation
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men;

World English Bible
I said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y seide, Where ben thei? Y schal make the mynde of hem to ceesse of men.

Young's Literal Translation
I have said: I blow them away, I cause their remembrance to cease from man;

Berean Standard Bible
I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,

Contemporary English Version
"I wanted to scatter you, so no one would remember that you had ever lived.

American Standard Version
I said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men;

Bible in Basic English
I said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I haue sayde, I wyll scatter them abrode, and make the remembraunce of them to ceasse from among men:

Complete Jewish Bible
"‘I considered putting an end to them, erasing their memory from the human race;

Darby Translation
I would say, I will scatter, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men,

Easy-to-Read Version
"‘I thought about destroying the Israelites so that people would forget them completely!

JPS Old Testament (1917)
I thought I would make an end of them, I would make their memory cease from among men;

King James Version (1611)
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease fro among men:

New Life Bible
I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces. I will make all people forget about them."

New Revised Standard
I thought to scatter them and blot out the memory of them from humankind;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I said, I would puff them away, I would destroy from mortals, their memory;

Geneva Bible (1587)
I haue said, I would scatter them abroade: I would make their remembrance to cease from among men,

George Lamsa Translation
And I said, Where are they? I would blot out the memory of them from among men.

Good News Translation
I would have destroyed them completely, so that no one would remember them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.

Revised Standard Version
I would have said, "I will scatter them afar, I will make the remembrance of them cease from among men,"

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I said, I will scatter them, and I will cause their memorial to cease from among men.

Christian Standard Bible®
“I would have said: I will cut them to piecesand blot out the memory of them from mankind,

Hebrew Names Version
I said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;

King James Version
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:

Lexham English Bible
I thought, "I will wipe them out; I will make people forget they ever existed."

Literal Translation
I said, I will dash them to pieces; I will make their memory cease from among men;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I wyll saye: Where are they? I shall make their remembraunce to ceasse from amonge men.

THE MESSAGE
I could have said, "I'll hack them to pieces, wipe out all trace of them from the Earth," Except that I feared the enemy would grab the chance to take credit for all of it, Crowing, "Look what we did! God had nothing to do with this."

New American Standard Bible
'I would have said, "I will wipe them out, I will remove the mention of their name from humanity,"

New King James Version
I would have said, "I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,"

New Living Translation
I would have annihilated them, wiping out even the memory of them.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces, I will remove the memory of them from men,"

Legacy Standard Bible
I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces;I will cause the memory of them to cease from men,"

Contextual Overview

²⁶'I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces [scattering them far away], I will remove the memory of them from men,"²⁷Had I not feared the provocation of the enemy, That their adversaries would misjudge, That they would say, "Our [own] hand has prevailed, And the LORD has not done all this."' ²⁸"For they are a nation devoid of counsel, And there is no understanding in them. ²⁹"O that they were wise, that they understood this, That they could discern their future and ultimate fate! ³⁰"How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the LORD had given them up? ³¹"For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this. ³²"For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter. ³³"Their wine is the venom of serpents, And the deadly poison of vipers. ³⁴'Is it not laid up in store with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries? ³⁵'Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their disaster is at hand, And their doom hurries to meet them.'

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Deuteronomy 28:25, Deuteronomy 28:37, Deuteronomy 28:64, Leviticus 26:33, Leviticus 26:38, Isaiah 63:16, Luke 21:24

Reciprocal: Exodus 32:12 - should Exodus 32:14 - General Exodus 33:3 - for I Numbers 14:16 - General Deuteronomy 9:28 - Because Deuteronomy 28:59 - General Joshua 7:9 - what wilt thou Judges 10:14 - General 1 Samuel 12:22 - for his great 2 Samuel 1:20 - Tell 2 Samuel 22:43 - did spread Ezra 9:14 - no remnant Nehemiah 1:8 - If ye transgress Nehemiah 9:22 - divide Esther 3:8 - scattered abroad Esther 4:14 - then shall Psalms 106:8 - he saved Psalms 106:27 - to scatter Psalms 115:2 - General Isaiah 11:12 - shall assemble Isaiah 24:1 - scattereth Isaiah 26:15 - thou hadst Isaiah 48:11 - for how Jeremiah 9:16 - scatter Jeremiah 13:24 - will Jeremiah 31:10 - He Jeremiah 31:36 - cease Lamentations 4:16 - hath Ezekiel 5:10 - the whole Ezekiel 20:9 - I wrought Ezekiel 20:23 - that I Ezekiel 36:21 - General Hosea 9:17 - and Hosea 11:9 - not execute Acts 7:21 - when Acts 12:6 - the same James 1:1 - scattered 1 Peter 1:1 - scattered

Cross-References

Genesis 32:1
Then as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him [to reassure and protect him].

Genesis 32:6
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him."

Genesis 32:7
Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps;

Genesis 32:8
and he said, "If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the other camp which is left will escape."

Genesis 32:9
Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD, who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your people, and I will make you prosper,'

Genesis 32:12
"And You [LORD] said, 'I will certainly make you prosper and make your descendants as [numerous as] the sand of the sea, which is too great to be counted.'"

Genesis 32:13
So Jacob spent the night there. Then he selected a present for his brother Esau from the livestock he had acquired:

Genesis 32:28
And He said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed."

Genesis 32:29
Then Jacob asked Him, "Please tell me Your name." But He said, "Why is it that you ask My name?" And He declared a blessing [of the covenant promises] on Jacob there.

Exodus 32:10
"Now therefore, let Me alone and do not interfere, so that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you (your descendants) a great nation."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 notorious that the Jews were and are scattered into the several corners of the world, and there is no corner where they are not; whereas the phrase is expressive of something that could and might have been done, but was not: moreover, to disperse them into the several parts of the world does not agree with what follows; for that, instead of making their remembrance to cease, would make them the more known, and the more to be remembered. But the word literally taken may be rendered, "I will corner them" f; drive them up into a corner, and cut them off together, or search for them in, and ferret them out of, every corner in which they should get, and destroy them all: agreeably to which is the Targum of Onkelos,

"mine anger shall rest upon them, and I will destroy them;''

and so Aben Ezra interprets it of the destruction of them, and observes, that otherwise it would not agree with what follows. There may be an allusion in it to the corner of the field, which was ordered to be left to the poor, and not reaped, Leviticus 19:9; and so the sense is, I could and might have determined when the harvest of this land and people was come, or the time of wrath upon them, to cut down every corner, and leave none, no, not one standing stalk of corn, but make clean riddance of them:

I would make the remembrance of them cease from among men; as of the Amalekites, Moabites, Midianites, Edomites, Chaldeans, and others, whose names as well as nations are no more. This is what the enemies of the Jews plotted and conspired to do, Psalms 83:4; and what God could and might have done, but has not; the Jews continue to this day a distinct people, though it is now near 1900 years since the destruction of their city and temple, and their dispersion in the various parts of the world; which is what was never known of any other people in the like circumstances, and which is a most amazing and surprising event; the reasons of it follow.

f אפאיהם "angulabo illos", Oleaster, Vitringa; "ad angulos usque quaeram ipsos, seu ad verbum, angulabo ipsos", Van Till; "ab angulo succidam ipsos", Cocceius. Vid. Gusset. Ebr. Comment. p. 661.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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,

(1) Deuteronomy 32:4-18, the faithfulness of God, the faithlessness of Israel;

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

(3) Deuteronomy 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 Psalms 90:0: “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.

Deuteronomy 32:4

He is the Rock, his work is perfect - Rather, the Rock, perfect is his work. This epithet, repeated no less than five times in the Song Deuteronomy 32:15, Deuteronomy 32:18, Deuteronomy 32:30-31, represents those attributes of God which Moses is seeking to enforce, immutability and impregnable strength. Compare the expression “the stone of Israel” in Genesis 49:24; and see 1 Samuel 2:2; Psalms 18:2; Matthew 16:18; John 1:42. Zur, the original of “Rock,” enters frequently into the composition of proper names of the Mosaic time, e. g., Numbers 1:5-6, Numbers 1:10; Numbers 2:12; Numbers 3:35, etc. Our translators have elsewhere rendered it according to the sense “everlasting strength” Isaiah 26:4, “the Mighty One” Isaiah 30:29; in this chapter they have rightly adhered to the letter throughout.

Deuteronomy 32:5

Render: “It” (i. e. “the perverse and crooked generation”) “hath corrupted itself before Him (compare Isaiah 1:4); they are not His children, but their blemish:” i. e., the generation of evil-doers cannot be styled God’s children, but rather the shame and disgrace of God’s children. The other side of the picture is thus brought forward with a brevity and abruptness which strikingly enforces the contrast.

Deuteronomy 32:6

Hath bought thee - Rather perhaps, “hath acquired thee for His own,” or “possessed thee:” compare the expression “a peculiar people,” margin “a purchased people,” in 1 Peter 2:9.

Deuteronomy 32:8

That is, while nations were being constituted under God’s providence, and the bounds of their habitation determined under His government (compare Acts 17:26), He had even then in view the interests of His elect, and reserved a fitting inheritance “according to the number of the children of Israel;” i. e., proportionate to the wants of their population. Some texts of the Greek version have “according to the number of the Angels of God;” following apparently not a different reading, but the Jewish notion that the nations of the earth are seventy in number (compare Genesis 10:1 note), and that each has its own guardian Angel (compare Ecclus. 17:17). This was possibly suggested by an apprehension that the literal rendering might prove invidious to the many Gentiles who would read the Greek version.

Deuteronomy 32:9-14

These verses set forth in figurative language the helpless and hopeless state of the nation when God took pity on it, and the love and care which He bestowed on it.

Deuteronomy 32:10

In the waste howling wilderness - literally, “in a waste, the howling of a wilderness,” i. e., a wilderness in which wild beasts howl. The word for “waste” is that used in Genesis 1:2, and there rendered “without form.”

Deuteronomy 32:11

Compare Exodus 19:4. The “so,” which the King James Version supplies in the next verse, should he inserted before “spreadeth,” and omitted from Deuteronomy 32:12. The sense is, “so He spread out His wings, took them up,” etc.

Deuteronomy 32:12

With him - i. e., with God. The Lord alone delivered Israel; Israel therefore ought to have served none other but Him.

Deuteronomy 32:13

i. e., God gave Israel possession of those commanding positions which carry with them dominion over the whole land (compare Deuteronomy 33:29), and enabled him to draw the richest provision out of spots naturally unproductive.

Deuteronomy 32:14

Breed of Bashan - Bashan was famous for its cattle. Compare Psalms 22:12; Ezekiel 39:18.

Fat of kidneys of wheat - i. e., the finest and most nutritious wheat. The fat of the kidneys was regarded as being the finest and tenderest, and was therefore specified as a part of the sacrificial animals which was to be offered to the Lord: compare Exodus 29:13, etc.

The pure blood of the qrape - Render, the blood of the grape, even wine. The Hebrew word seems (compare Isaiah 27:2) a poetical term for wine.

Deuteronomy 32:15

Jesbarun - This word, found again only in Deuteronomy 33:5, Deuteronomy 33:26, and Isaiah 44:2, is not a diminutive but an appellative (containing an allusion to the root, “to be righteous”); and describes not the character which belonged to Israel in fact, but that to which Israel was called. Compare Numbers 23:21. The prefixing of this epithet to the description of Israel’s apostasy contained in the words next following is full of keen reproof.

Deuteronomy 32:16

They provoked him to jealousy - The language is borrowed from the matrimonial relationship, as in Deuteronomy 31:16.

Deuteronomy 32:17

Devils - Render, destroyers. The application of the word to the false gods points to the trait so deeply graven in all pagan worship, that of regarding the deities as malignant, and needing to be propitiated by human sufferings.

Not to God - Rather, “not God,” i. e., which were not God; see the margin and Deuteronomy 32:21. Compare Deuteronomy 13:7; Deuteronomy 29:25.

Deuteronomy 32:19

The anger of God at the apostasy of His people is stated in general terms in this verse; and the results of it are described, in words as of God Himself, in the next and following verses. These results consisted negatively in the withdrawal of God’s favor Deuteronomy 32:20, and positively in the infliction of a righteous retribution.

Daughters - The women had their full share in the sins of the people. Compare Isaiah 3:16 ff; Isaiah 32:9 ff; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 44:15 ff.

Deuteronomy 32:20

I will see what their end shall be - Compare the similar expression in Genesis 37:20.

Deuteronomy 32:21

God would mete out to them the same measure as they had done to Him. Through chosen by the one God to be His own, they had preferred idols, which were no gods. So therefore would He prefer to His people that which was no people. As they had angered Him with their vanities, so would He provoke them by adopting in their stead those whom they counted as nothing. The terms, “not a people,” and “a foolish nation,” mean such a people as, not being God’s, would not be accounted a people at all (compare Ephesians 2:12; 1 Peter 2:10), and such a nation as is destitute of that which alone can make a really “wise and understanding people” Deuteronomy 4:6, namely, the knowledge of the revealed word and will of God (compare 1 Corinthians 1:18-28).

Deuteronomy 32:24

Burning heat - i. e., the fear of a pestilential disease. On the “four sore judgments,” famine, plague, noisome beasts, the sword, compare Leviticus 26:22; Jeremiah 15:2; Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 14:21.

Deuteronomy 32:26, Deuteronomy 32:27

Rather, I would utterly disperse them, etc., were it not that I apprehended the provocation of the enemy, i. e., that I should be provoked to wrath when the enemy ascribed the overthrow of Israel to his own prowess and not to my judgments. Compare Deuteronomy 9:28-29; Ezekiel 20:9, Ezekiel 20:14, Ezekiel 20:22.

Behave themselves strangely - Rather, misunderstand it, i. e., mistake the cause of Israel’s ruin.

Deuteronomy 32:30

The defeat of Israel would be due to the fact that God, their strength, had abandoned them because of their apostasy.

Deuteronomy 32:31

Our enemies - i. e., the enemies of Moses and the faithful Israelites; the pagan, more especially those with whom Israel was brought into collision, whom Israel was commissioned to “chase,” but to whom, as a punishment for faithlessness, Israel was “sold,” Deuteronomy 32:30. Moses leaves the decision, whether “their rock” (i. e. the false gods of the pagan to which the apostate Israelites had fallen away) or “our Rock” is superior, to be determined by the unbelievers themselves. For example, see Exodus 14:25; Numbers 23:0; Numbers 24:0; Joshua 2:9 ff; 1 Samuel 4:8; 1 Samuel 5:7 ff; 1 Kings 20:28. That the pagan should thus be constrained to bear witness to the supremacy of Israel’s God heightened the folly of Israel’s apostasy.

Deuteronomy 32:32

Their vine - i. e., the nature and character of Israel: compare for similar expressions Psalms 80:8, Psalms 80:14; Jeremiah 2:21; Hosea 10:1.

Sodom ... Gomorrah - Here, as elsewhere, and often in the prophets, emblems of utter depravity: compare Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 23:14,

Gall - Compare Deuteronomy 29:18 note.

Deuteronomy 32:35

Rather: “Vengeance is mine and recompence, at the time when their foot slideth.

Deuteronomy 32:36

Repent himself for - Rather, have compassion upon. The verse declares that God’s judgment of His people would issue at once in the punishment of the wicked, and in the comfort of the righteous.

None shut up, or left - A proverbial phrase (compare 1 Kings 14:10) meaning perhaps “married and single,” or “guarded and forsaken,” but signifying generally “all men of all sorts.”

Deuteronomy 32:40-42

Render: For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, As I live forever, if I whet, etc. On Deuteronomy 32:40, in which God is described as swearing by Himself, compare Isaiah 45:23; Jeremiah 22:5; Hebrews 6:17. The lifting up of the hand was a gesture used in making oath (compare Genesis 14:22; Revelation 10:5).

Deuteronomy 32:42

From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy - Render, (drunk with blood) from the head (i. e. the chief) of the princes of the enemy.