Deuteronomy 32:31

Amplified Bible

"For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this.

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.

Update Bible Version
For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

English Revised Version
For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

New Century Version
The rock of these people is not like our Rock; our enemies agree to that.

New English Translation
For our enemies' rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.

Webster's Bible Translation
For their rock [is] not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves [being] judges:

World English Bible
For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For oure God is not as the goddis of hem, and oure enemyes ben iugis.

Young's Literal Translation
For not as our Rock [is] their rock, (And our enemies [are] judges!)

Berean Standard Bible
For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.

Contemporary English Version
Even our enemies know that only our God is a Mighty Rock.

American Standard Version
For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

Bible in Basic English
For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For their god is not as our God: our enemies also them selues are iudges.

Complete Jewish Bible
For our enemies have no rock like our Rock — even they can see that!

Darby Translation
For their rock is not as our Rock: Let our enemies themselves be judges.

Easy-to-Read Version
The ‘rock' of our enemies is not strong like our Rock. Even our enemies know that.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

King James Version (1611)
For their rocke is not as our Rocke, euen our enemies themselues being iudges.

New Life Bible
For their rock is not like our Rock. Even those who hate us judge this.

New Revised Standard
Indeed their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, not like our Rock, is their rock, Our enemies themselves, being judges;

Geneva Bible (1587)
For their god is not as our God, euen our enemies being iudges.

George Lamsa Translation
For their strength is not as our strength, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Good News Translation
Their enemies know that their own gods are weak, not mighty like Israel's God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.

Revised Standard Version
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For their gods are not as our God, but our enemies are void of understanding.

Christian Standard Bible®
But their “rock” is not like our Rock,as even our enemies concede.

Hebrew Names Version
For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

King James Version
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Lexham English Bible
For the fact of the matter is, their rock is not like our Rock, and our enemies recognize this.

Literal Translation
For their rock is not our Rock, even our enemies being judges.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For oure rocke is not as their rocke, of this are oure enemies iudges themselues.

New American Standard Bible
"Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock; Even our enemies themselves judge this.

New King James Version
For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

New Living Translation
But the rock of our enemies is not like our Rock, as even they recognize.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this.

Legacy Standard Bible
Indeed their rock is not like our Rock,Even our enemies themselves judge this.

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

Exodus 14:25, Numbers 23:8, Numbers 23:23, 1 Samuel 2:2, 1 Samuel 4:8, Ezra 1:3, Ezra 6:9-12, Ezra 7:20, Ezra 7:21, Jeremiah 40:3, Daniel 2:47, Daniel 3:29, Daniel 6:26, Daniel 6:27

Reciprocal: Exodus 8:10 - there is none Deuteronomy 32:4 - the Rock 2 Samuel 22:32 - For who 2 Samuel 23:3 - the Rock 2 Kings 17:15 - vanity 2 Kings 19:37 - Nisroch Ezra 5:8 - the great God Psalms 18:31 - General Psalms 31:2 - my strong rock Psalms 62:2 - He only Psalms 77:13 - who Psalms 78:35 - God was Psalms 89:8 - like Psalms 91:2 - I will Psalms 144:1 - my strength Proverbs 18:11 - General Song of Solomon 5:10 - beloved Isaiah 30:29 - mighty One Isaiah 31:3 - the Egyptians Isaiah 44:8 - no God Jeremiah 10:6 - there Habakkuk 1:12 - mighty God Luke 6:48 - rock

Cross-References

Genesis 19:15
When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot [to hurry], saying, "Get up! Take your wife and two daughters who are here [and go], or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."

Genesis 19:23
The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Genesis 32:25
When the Man saw that He had not prevailed against Jacob, He touched his hip joint; and Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.

Judges 8:8
He went from there up to Penuel and spoke similarly to them; and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered.

Psalms 38:17
For I am ready to fall; My sorrow is continually before me.

Malachi 4:2
"But for you who fear My name [with awe-filled reverence] the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go forward and leap [joyfully] like calves [released] from the stall.

2 Corinthians 12:7
Because of the surpassing greatness and extraordinary nature of the revelations [which I received from God], for this reason, to keep me from thinking of myself as important, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to torment and harass me—to keep me from exalting myself!

2 Corinthians 12:9
but He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness." Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 rock, men lay the stress of their salvation on, it is no rock, but sand, and will stand them in no stead; see Matthew 7:24;

even our enemies themselves [being] judges; as has been confessed of the God of Israel by the Heathens; see Exodus 14:25; and was by Titus with respect to the destruction of Jerusalem;

Exodus 14:25- :; and by the Roman emperors when conquered by the Christians, who asked pardon of the God of the Christians, and owned that the God of Constantine was the true God;

Exodus 14:25- :.

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 32:31. For their rock — The gods and pretended protectors of the Romans.

Is not as our Rock — Have neither power nor influence like our God.

Our enemies themselves being judges. — For they often acknowledged the irresistible power of that God who fought for Israel. See Exodus 14:25; Numbers 23:8-12; Numbers 23:19-21; 1 Samuel 4:8.

There is a passage in Virgil, Eclog. iv., ver. 58, very similar to this saying of Moses: -

Pan Deus Arcadia mecum si judice certet,

Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum.

"Should the god Pan contend with me," (in singing

the praises of the future hero, the deliverer,

prophesied of in the Sibylline books,) "were even

Arcadia judge, Pan would acknowledge himself to be

vanquished, Arcadia herself being judge."