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Literal Standard Version

Deuteronomy 32:12

YHWH alone leads him, || And there is no strange god with him.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Benjamin;   Death;   God Continued...;   Instruction;   Psalms;   Thompson Chain Reference - Divine;   Leader, Divine;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Eagle;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Hymn;   Pentateuch;   Poetry;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Children (Sons) of God;   Deuteronomy;   Poetry;   Targums;   Zin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Hymn;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hymns;   1910 New Catholic Dictionary - canticle;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Eagle;   Rock;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Deuteronomy;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Other Laws;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - God(s), Strange;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Deism;   God;   Hafá¹­arah;   ḥayyim ben Zebulon Jacob Perlmutter;   Judaism;   Midrashim, Smaller;   Poetry;   Scroll of the Law;   Sidra;   Song of Moses;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for December 31;   Every Day Light - Devotion for January 21;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The Lord alone led him,with no help from a foreign god.
Hebrew Names Version
The LORD alone did lead him, There was no foreign god with him.
King James Version
So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
Lexham English Bible
so Yahweh alone guided him, and there was no foreign god accompanying him.
English Standard Version
the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.
New Century Version
The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god helping him.
New English Translation
The Lord alone was guiding him, no foreign god was with him.
Amplified Bible
"So the LORD alone led him; There was no foreign god with him.
New American Standard Bible
"The LORD alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him.
Geneva Bible (1587)
So the Lorde alone led him, and there was no strange god with him.
Legacy Standard Bible
Yahweh alone guided him,And there was no foreign god with him.
Contemporary English Version
Israel, the Lord led you, and without the aid of a foreign god,
Complete Jewish Bible
" Adonai alone led his people; no alien god was with him.
Darby Translation
So Jehovah alone did lead him, And no strange god [was] with him.
Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord alone led his people. They had no help from any foreign god.
George Lamsa Translation
So the LORD alone did lead Israel, and there was no strange god with him.
Good News Translation
The Lord alone led his people without the help of a foreign god.
Literal Translation
Jehovah alone led him, and there was no strange god with him.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The LORDE onely was his gyde, & there was no straunge God with him.
American Standard Version
Jehovah alone did lead him, And there was no foreign god with him.
Bible in Basic English
So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The Lorde alone was his guyde, and there was no straunge god with hym.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with Him.
King James Version (1611)
So the Lord alone did leade him, and there was no strange God with him.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
the Lord alone led them, there was no strange god with them.
English Revised Version
The LORD alone did lead him, And there was no strange god with him.
Berean Standard Bible
The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The Lord aloone was his ledere, and noon alien god was with hym.
Young's Literal Translation
Jehovah alone doth lead him, And there is no strange god with him.
Update Bible Version
Yahweh alone led him, And there was no foreign god with him.
Webster's Bible Translation
[So] the LORD alone did lead him, and [there was] no strange God with him.
World English Bible
Yahweh alone did lead him, There was no foreign god with him.
New King James Version
So the LORD alone led him, And there was no foreign god with him.
New Living Translation
The Lord alone guided them; they followed no foreign gods.
New Life Bible
The Lord alone led him. There was no strange god with him.
New Revised Standard
the Lord alone guided him; no foreign god was with him.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Yahweh alone did lead him, - And there was with him no GOD of a stranger.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
Revised Standard Version
the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no foreign god with him.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"The LORD alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him.

Contextual Overview

7Remember days of old—Understand the years of many generations—Ask your father, and he tells you; Your elderly, and they say to you: 8In the Most High causing nations to inherit, || In His separating sons of Adam—He sets up the borders of the peoples || By the number of the sons of God [[or sons of Israel]]. 9For YHWH's portion [is] His people, || Jacob [is] the line of His inheritance. 10He finds him in a land—a desert, || And in a void—a howling wilderness, || He turns him around—He causes him to understand—He keeps him as the apple of His eye. 11As an eagle wakes up its nest, || Flutters over its young ones, || Spreads its wings [and] takes them, || Carries them on its pinions— 12YHWH alone leads him, || And there is no strange god with him.13He makes him ride on high places of earth, || And he eats increase of the fields, || And He makes him suck honey from a rock, || And oil out of the flint of a rock; 14Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, || With fat of lambs, and rams of sons of Bashan, || And male goats, with fat of kidneys of wheat; And of the blood of the grape you drink wine!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the Lord: Deuteronomy 1:31, Nehemiah 9:12, Psalms 27:11, Psalms 78:14, Psalms 78:52, Psalms 78:53, Psalms 80:1, Psalms 136:16, Isaiah 46:4, Isaiah 63:9-13

no strange: Isaiah 43:11, Isaiah 43:12, Isaiah 44:7, Isaiah 44:8

Reciprocal: Exodus 19:4 - I bare you Leviticus 7:23 - fat Joshua 24:17 - General Nehemiah 9:35 - fat land Psalms 81:9 - strange Isaiah 46:3 - borne Matthew 23:37 - even Luke 13:34 - as Revelation 12:14 - to the

Cross-References

Genesis 22:17
that blessing I bless you, and multiplying I multiply your seed as stars of the heavens, and as sand which [is] on the seashore; and your Seed possesses the gate of His enemies;
Genesis 32:3
And Jacob sends messengers before him to his brother Esau, toward the land of Seir, the field of Edom,
Genesis 32:4
and commands them, saying, "Thus you say to my lord, to Esau, Thus said your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban, and I linger until now;
Genesis 32:6
And the messengers return to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother, to Esau, and he is also coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him";
Genesis 32:13
And he lodges there during that night, and takes from that which is coming into his hand, a present for his brother Esau:
Genesis 32:15
suckling camels and their young ones thirty, cows forty, and bullocks ten, female donkeys twenty, and foals ten;
Exodus 32:13
Be mindful of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, Your servants, to whom You have sworn by Yourself, and to whom You speak: I multiply your seed as stars of the heavens, and all this land, as I have said, I give to your seed, and they have inherited [it] for all time";
Numbers 23:19
God [is] not a man—and lies, || And a son of man—and relents! Has He said—and He does not do [it]? And spoken—and He does not confirm it?
1 Samuel 15:29
and also, the Preeminence of Israel does not lie nor relent, for He [is] not a man that He should relent."
Matthew 24:35
The heaven and the earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[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, Psalms 77:20; it may be interpreted of the people being alone in the wilderness when led:

and [there was] no strange god with him; with Israel; so Aben Ezra, no idolatry among them then; to which sense are the Targums of Jerusalem and Jonathan; but it may rather signify that the Lord alone was the leader of his people, and he had no assistant in that work, and therefore all the glory should be given to him: he is the leader of his people, in a spiritual sense, out of a state of unregeneracy, which is a state of darkness and bondage; out of the ways of sin, and from the pastures of their own righteousness, into an open state of grace, which is a state of light and liberty; in Christ the way, and in the paths of faith, truth, holiness, and righteousness, unto the heavenly glory, typified by the land of Canaan, the blessings of which are next described: the Jews say z, this will be in the days of the King Messiah; when there will be no abominable thing in Israel, the Lord alone shall lead him.

z Tikkune Zohar, Correct. 18. fol. 32. 2. 36. 2.

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 32:12. So the Lord alone did lead him — By his power, and by his only, were they brought out of Egypt, and supported in the wilderness.

And there was no strange god — They had help from no other quarter. The Egyptian idols were not able to save their own votaries; but God not only saved his people, but destroyed the Egyptians.


 
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