Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 32

Verse 1

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Give ear, O ye heavens, — q.d. , Such is this people’s stupidity and obstinacy, that I may as soon gain audience of these inanimate creatures as of them. See Isaiah 1:2 Joshua 24:27 Jeremiah 22:29 . We may cry till we are hoarse; speak till we spit forth our lungs, and to no more purpose than Bede did, when he preached to a heap of stones. Holy Melancthon, being himself newly converted, thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the gospel. But after he had been a preacher a while, it is said he complained, that "old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon."

Verse 2

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

My doctrine. — Heb., My taking or winning doctrine: according to that in Proverbs 11:30 . "He that winneth" (Heb., taketh) "souls" - as fowlers do birds - "is wise."

Shall drop as the rain. — Drop; not dash: and as the rain, not as the storm, or as the spout, as they call it at sea. Evangelizatum, non maledictum missus es, said Oecolampadins to Farellus, an excellent, but a too earnest preacher. And such a one, say some, was Mr Perkins in his younger time, able almost to make his hearers’ hearts fall down, and their hairs to stand upright. The word damn he would pronounce with such an emphasis, as left a doleful echo in his auditors’ ears a good while after. True it is, that preachers should take the same liberty to cry down sins that men take to commit them. Peccata tanta severitate arguebat, saith one of Chrysostom, acsi ipse etiam per iniuriam laesus esset: but yet moderation must be used, and instruction drop meal distilled, that it may soak and sink, and so soften the heart that all grace may abound, … Such sweet droppers were Mr Bradford, Mr Dod, Dr Sibbs,

Oυ και απο γλωττης μελιτος γλυκιων ρεεν αυδη .

Verse 3

Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

Ascribe ye greatness, — i.e., Tremble at his word, and take it to heart. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13 .

Verse 4

[He is] the Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he.

He is the rock. — A firm and everlasting refuge, a "Rock of Ages." Isaiah 26:4 One age passeth away, and another, and a third, …, but the rock remains. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower"; Proverbs 18:10 "munition of rocks"; Isaiah 33:16 rocks so deep, no pioneer can undermine them; so thick, no cannon can pierce them; so high, no ladder can scale them.

Verse 5

They have corrupted themselves, their spot [is] not [the spot] of his children: [they are] a perverse and crooked generation.

Their spot is not the spot. — Saints also have their spots, but not ingrained; not leopards’ spots, that are not in the skin only, but the flesh and bones, in the sinews, and the most inner parts, and so cannot be cured by any art, or washed away with any water. It is of incogitancy that the saints fall; put them in mind, and they mend all: it is of passion, and passions last not long. They are preoccupated, taken at unawares, … Galatians 6:1 They have ever God for their chief end, and will not forego him upon any terms: only they err in the way, as thinking they may fulfil such a lust, and God keep too; but there is no way of wickedness found in them. Though shaken, yet they are rooted as trees, and though they wag up and down, yet they remove not, - as a ship at anchor. Sin stings the wicked, as the fiery serpents did the Israelites: the sins of the saints are but like the viper on Paul’s hand, that hurt him not. Sin makes wicked men the object of God’s hatred, the saints of his pity: as we hate poison in a toad, but we pity it in a man; in the one it is their nature, in the other their disease.

Perverse and crooked. — They wriggle and writhe after the manner of wrestlers, that wave up and down, and wind the other way: so the Hebrew word signifieth.

Verse 6

Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? [is] not he thy father [that] hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

Do ye thus requite the Lord? — Good turns aggravate unkindnesses, and our guilt is increased by our obligations. Solomon’s idolatry was far worse than that of his wives; he had been better bred, and God had appeared to him twice. It is the ingratitude that makes the godly man’s sin so heinous, which otherwise would be far less than other men’s, since his temptations are stronger, and his resistance greater. Hebricians observe, that in Halaihovah there is in the text one ä greater than ordinary; to show that the wonder was the greater, that they should so evil requite such a Lord, Father, Redeemer, Maker, and Governor, by being so corrupt, perverse, crooked, foolish, and unwise; five opposed to five; ä being used for the number of five. Hebrew Text Note

Verse 7

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

And they will tell thee. — And so they did. Judges 6:13 Psalms 44:1-2

Verse 8

When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

He set the bounds of the people. — Of the seventy nations reckoned, Genesis 10:1-32 and the seventy souls of Israel. Genesis 46:27 Deuteronomy 10:22 The Jews have a saying, that those seventy souls were as much as all the seventy nations of the world, as being the Lord’s portion, for whom he espied out the land of Canaan, which is "the glory of all lands." Ezekiel 20:6

Verse 9

For the LORD’S portion [is] his people; Jacob [is] the lot of his inheritance.

For the Lord’s portion. — Dear to God, though despised of the world. They are the Lord’s "inheritance," Isaiah 19:25 "peculiar" ones, Exodus 19:5 the people of his purchase, that comprehended all his gettings, 1 Peter 2:9 his "glory," Isaiah 46:13 his "ornament," Ezekiel 7:20 his "throne," Jeremiah 4:17 his "diadem," Isaiah 62:3 "heirs of the kingdom," saith St James, James 2:5 heads destinated to the diadem, saith Tertullian.

Verse 10

He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

And in the waste howling wilderness. — A figure of the cries of a thirsty and troubled conscience, and of infernal horrors. See Ezekiel 16:4 , …

He instructed him. — Both by his word and works, both of mercy and justice; for God’s rods also are vocal. Micah 6:9 His house of correction is his school of instruction.

He kept him as the apple of his eye. — The tenderest piece of the tenderest part. The crystal humour, as the philosophers call it. Heb., Ishon, of Ish, as Pupilla of Pupa, because therein appears the likeness of a little man; or because a man is to be prized above all other creatures: so God esteemeth his people above all the world.

Verse 11

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

As an eagle stirreth up her nest. — So doth God stir up his people by his word of promise.

Fluttereth over them. — By the motions of his Spirit, as Genesis 1:2 .

Spreadeth abroad her wings. — Hovereth and covereth them with his protection. Matthew 23:37

Taketh them. — With much tenderness, but nothing comparable to that of God.

Beareth them on her wings. — Aquilae pullos suos in alis portant, alites reliqui inter pedes, saith Munster here, out of Rabbi Solomon. See Trapp on " Exodus 19:4 "

Verse 12

[So] the LORD alone did lead him, and [there was] no strange god with him.

And there was no strange god with him. — Why, then, should any share with him in his service? Be the gods of the heathen good fellows? saith one. The true God will endure no co-rival.

Verse 13

He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

To suck honey out of the rock. — Water as sweet as honey in that necessity; so doth every worthy receiver by faith at the sacrament; whereas whoso comes thereunto without faith, is like a man, saith Mr Tyndale, that thinks to quench his thirst by sucking the ale bowl.

Verse 14

Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

With the fat of kidneys of wheat. — With the very best of the best; figuring heavenly dainties, that full feast. Isaiah 25:6 Judea, for its admirable fertility, is called, Sumen totius orbis: how basely soever Strabo speaks of it, as of a dry barren country, wherein he shows less ingenuity than railing Rabshakeh did.

Verse 15

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness]; then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked. — Jeshurun, hoc est Integellus, saith one, as Shimshon, or Samson, Solilus, a little sun, but a type of the Sun of Righteousness that hath health in his wings - that is, in his beams. Israel should have been Jeshurun - that is, righteous, or upright before the Lord, Israelites indeed; but were nothing less. If ever they had been better in the time of "their espousals, when they went after God in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown," Jeremiah 2:2 yet now that they were full fed, they kicked as young mules when they have sucked, matrem calcibus petunt, kick the dams’ dugs. Fulness breeds forgetfulness, and the best are but too prone to surfeit of things of this life, which by our corruption ofttimes prove a snare to our souls. "I will lay a stumbling block." Ezekiel 3:20 Vatablus’s note there is, Faciam, ut omnia habeant prospera; calamitatibus eum a peccato non revocabo; I will prosper him in all things, and not by affliction restrain him from sin. The most poisonous flies are bred in the sweetest fruit trees. How apt are the holiest to be proud and secure! even as worms and wasps eat the sweetest apples and fruits, Repugnante contra temet ipsam tua faelicitate, saith Salvian: Salvian, lib. i, /@ad Eccles. Catholic./@ to the Church in his time; thy prosperity is thy bane. And Cum ipsis opibus lascivere coepit ecclesia, saith Platina; In Benedict. 4. The Church began to be rich and wanton at once. Religio peperit divitias, et filia devoravit matrem: Religion brought forth riches, and the daughter soon devoured the mother, saith Augustine. The much wool on the sheep’s back is ofttimes his ruin, he is caught in the thorns and famished. The fatter the ox, the sooner to the slaughter. When the Protestants of France began to grow wanton of their prosperity, and to affect a vain frothy way of preaching, then came the cruel massacre upon them. Should we with the fed hawk forget our master? Or being full with God’s benefits, like the full moon, then get farthest off from the sun, and by an interposition of earthly desires become dark? The cords of love are called "the cords of a man." Hosea 11:4 To sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, nay, it is worse. To render good for evil is divine; to render good for good is humane; to render evil for evil is brutish; but to render evil for good is devilish; as a reverend man hath well observed.

Then he forsook God. — Here Moses, weary of speaking any longer to a gainsaying and disobedient people, turneth his speech to the heaven and earth, whom he had called in to bear witness. Deuteronomy 32:1 So, when a certain people of Italy had commanded the Roman ambassador, Ad quercum dicere, se interim alia acturos, to deliver his embassy to the great oak, for they had somewhat else to do than to give him audience: he answered, Et haec sacrata quercus audiat faedus esse a vobis violatum, Livy I will indeed direct my speech to the oak, and tell it in your hearing, that you have basely broken covenant, and shall dearly answer it.

Verse 16

They provoked him to jealousy with strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger.

They provoked him to jealousy. — See Trapp on " Deuteronomy 31:29 "

Verse 17

They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

They sacrificed unto devils. — See Trapp on " Leviticus 17:7 "

To new gods that came newly up. — Such as are all Popish he-saints and she-saints; concerning whom Bellarmine himself cannot but yield, that Cum scriberentur Scripturae, nondum coeperat usus vovendi Sanctis. Bellarm. de cultu sanct., cap. 5. There was no vowing, or bowing either, to saints departed, when the Scriptures were written. And a loaf of the like leaven are those new lights, and all subtleties, whereby our sectaries would distinguish themselves from Brownists. Are they not all, or most of them, borrowed out of Mr H. Jacob’s books, who was but of yesterday? The Antinomians usually call upon their hearers to mark; it may be they shall hear some new truth that they never heard before; when the thing is either false, or, if true, no more than ordinarily is taught by others.

Verse 18

Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

And hast forgotten God that formed thee. — Or, That brought thee forth. Here God is compared to a mother, as in the former clause to a father. So James 1:18 , "Of his own will begat he us," - απεκυησε , He brought us forth, and did the office of a mother to us; which doth notably set forth his love and the work of his grace.

Verse 19

And when the LORD saw [it], he abhorred [them], because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.

Of his sons and of his daughters. — Titular at least; wherefore their sin was the greater. "What? Thou, my son Brutus?" Kαι συ τεκνον Bρουτε . This cut Caesar to the heart.

Verse 20

And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end [shall be]: for they [are] a very froward generation, children in whom [is] no faith.

I will see what their end shall be. — This is spoken after the manner of men; as likewise that in Deuteronomy 32:27 .

In whom is no faith, — i.e., Fidelity; as Matthew 23:23 ; there is no trusting them, or taking their words.

Verse 21

They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

And I will move them to jealousy. — Thus God delights to retaliate and proportion jealousy to jealousy, provocation to provocation; so frowardness to frowardness, Psalms 18:26 contrariety to contrariety. Deuteronomy 28:18 ; Deuteronomy 28:21 , …

With a foolish nation. — With the conversion of the Gentiles, Romans 10:19 which the good Jews could not easily yield to at first. Acts 11:2-3 And the rest could never endure to hear of it. See 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 . At this day they solemnly curse the Christians thrice a day in their synagogues, with a Maledic, Domine, Nazarais. They have a saying in their Talmud, Optimus qui inter gentes est, dignus cui caput conteratur tanquam serpenti; The best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head broke as the serpent had. Yea, they think they may kill any idolater. Therefore Tacitus saith of them, There was Misericordia in promptu apud suos, sed contra omnes alios hostile odium, mercy enough toward their own, but against all others they bare a deadly hatred.

Verse 22

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

For a fire. — See Trapp on " Deuteronomy 10:4 "

Verse 23

I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.

I will spend mine arrows. — Which yet cannot be all spent up, as he feared of his Jupiter, Si quoties peccent heroines, …

Verse 24

[They shall be] burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

Burnt with hunger. — Which makes men’s visages blacker than a coal. Lamentations 4:8

With burning heat, — i.e., With the burning carbuncle, or plague sore. See Habakkuk 3:5 .

Verse 25

The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling [also] with the man of gray hairs.

And terror within. — Warring times are terrible times. By the civil dissensions here in King John’s time, all the kingdom became like a general shambles, or place of infernal terrors and tortures. War, saith one, is a misery which all words, how wide soever, want compass to express. It is, saith another, the slaughter house of mankind, and the hell of this present world. See Trapp on " Genesis 14:2 "

Verse 26

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

I said I will scatter them. — See a like text, Ezekiel 20:8-9 . We are sometimes safe by our enemies’ insolences, and as much beholden to their blasphemies as to our own prayers.

Verse 27

Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, [and] lest they should say, Our hand [is] high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

Were it not that I feared. — See Deuteronomy 32:20 .

Lest their adversaries. — This is that, likely, that moves the Lord hitherto to spare England. God hath dealt with us, not according to his ordinary rule, but according to his prerogative. England, if it may be so spoke with reverence, is a paradox to the Bible. Pererius, the Jesuit, commenting upon Genesis 15:16 , If any marvel, saith he, why England continueth to flourish, notwithstanding the cruel persecution - just execution, he should have said - of Catholics there; I answer, Because their sin is not yet full: Sed veniet tandem iniquitatiscom plementum, … We hope better, though we deserve the worst that can be. But somewhat God will do for his own great name; and lest the enemy exalt himself, Psalms 140:8 and say, "Our hand is high, the Lord hath not done this."

Verse 28

For they [are] a nation void of counsel, neither [is there any] understanding in them.

For they are a nation. — See Trapp on " Deuteronomy 4:6 " was Chrysippus that offered that strict and tetrical division to the world, Aut mentem aut restim comparandum.

Verse 29

O that they were wise, [that] they understood this, [that] they would consider their latter end!

Oh that this people were wise. — Sapiens est, cui res sapiunt prout sunt, saith Bernard.

That they would consider their latter end. — This is a high point of heavenly wisdom. Moses himserf desires to learn it. Psalms 90:12 David also would fain be taught it. Psalms 39:4 Solomon sets a "better" upon it. Ecclesiastes 7:2 "Jerusalem’s filthiness was in her skirts, because she remembered not her latter end; therefore also she came down wonderfully." Lamentations 1:9 The kite by the turning of his tail directs and winds about all his body. Consideratio finis tanquam caudae, ad vitam optime regendam confert, saith Berchorins. I meet with a story of one that gave a prodigal a ring with a death’s head, with this condition, that he should one hour daily, for seven days together, look and think upon it, which bred a strange alteration in his life; like that of Thesposius in Plutarch; or that more remarkable of Waldus the rich merchant of Lyons, … Mr Ward’s Sermons

Verse 30

How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

How should one chase a thousand? — i.e., How should one of the enemies chase a thousand Israelites, who had a promise of better things, Leviticus 26:8 but that having first sold themselves for nought, Isaiah 52:3 they were now sold by God, who would own them no longer? Psalms 31:7-8

Verse 31

For their rock [is] not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves [being] judges.

For their rock is not as our rock. — We may well say, Who is a God like unto thee? Micah 7:18 Contemno minutulos istos deos, mode Iovem (Iehovam) mihi propitium habeam; I care not for those dunghill deities, so I may have the true God to favour me.

Even our enemies. — Exodus 14:25 Numbers 23:8 ; Numbers 23:12 1 Samuel 4:8 .

Verse 32

For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes [are] grapes of gall, their clusters [are] bitter:

For their vine is of the vine. — Vitis non vinifera, sed venenifera. The vine is the wicked nature, the grapes are the evil works. So Isaiah 59:5 ; - "They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web"; vanity or villainy is their whole trade; "he that eateth of their eggs dieth," … Look how the bird that sitteth on the serpent’s eggs, by breaking and hatching them, brings forth a perilous brood to her own destruction: so do those that are yet in the state of nature, being the heirs of original and the fathers of actual sins, which "when they are finished bring forth death." James 1:15

Verse 33

Their wine [is] the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

Their wine, — i.e., Their works, yea, their best works, prove pernicious to them; not their own table only, but God’s table becomes a snare to the unprepared communicant; he sucks there the poison of asps, …, Job 20:16 he eats his bane and drinks his poison: as Henry VII, Emperor, was poisoned in the sacramental bread by a monk; Pope Victor II, by his sub-deacon in his chalice; and one of our Bishops of York, by poison put into the wine at the eucharist.

Verse 34

[Is] not this laid up in store with me, [and] sealed up among my treasures?

Is not this laid up in store? — To wit, for just punishment, though for a while I forbear them. The wicked man is like a thief, which having stolen a horse, rides away well mounted, till, overtaken by hue and cry, he is apprehended, sentenced, and executed. "Your sin will find you out" as a bloodhound; Et patientia Dei erga impios quo diuturnior, eo minacior. Morae dispendium faenoris duplo pensatur; the longer God forbears, the heavier he punishes. Jerome, in Jerem,

Verse 35

To me [belongeth] vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in [due] time: for the day of their calamity [is] at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. — The Hebrew word for vengeance, æäí , signifies comfort also; for God will be comforted in the execution of his wrath. Ezekiel 5:13 See Trapp on " Deuteronomy 28:63 " He shows such severity sometimes as if he had blotted that out of his title, Exodus 34:6 and now took up that Emperor’s motto, Fiat iustitia, pereat mundus.

Their foot shall slide in due time. — "They are set in slippery places"; Psalms 73:18 they ever walk as upon a mine of gunpowder ready to be blown up: Nemo crimen gerit in pectore, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Nemesis dicitur Aδραστεια , quod ουκ αν τις αυτην αποδρασαιτο . God’s wrath is such, as none can avert or avoid.

Verse 36

For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that [their] power is gone, and [there is] none shut up, or left.

And repent himself for his servants. — Thus God mingleth and allayeth the rigour of his justice with the vigour of his mercy.

Verse 37

And he shall say, Where [are] their gods, [their] rock in whom they trusted,

And he shall say, — i.e., He shall upbraid them with the inability of their idols to do for them.

Verse 38

Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, [and] be your protection.

Which did eat. — Put them to a great deal of charge, but for no profit.

Verse 39

See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand.

I, even I am he. — I is emphatical and exclusive.

Verse 40

For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.

And say, I live forever. — God can swear by no greater than himself. Hebrews 6:13

Verse 41

If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.

If I whet my glittering sword. — God first whets, before he smites; and first takes hold on judgment, before his judgments take hold on men. Est piger ad poenas, ad praemia velox. See the like, Psalms 7:12 . God was but six days in making the whole world, yet was he seven days in destroying that one city of Jericho, as Chrysostom observeth. "Fury is not in me." Isaiah 27:4 As a bee stings not till provoked, so God punisheth not "till there be no other remedy." 2 Chronicles 36:16

Verse 42

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; [and that] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

From the beginning of revenges. — I will begin my revenges at the beginning of theirs. Esau began early with his brother Jacob, even in the very womb, and so held on; but God was even with him.

Verse 43

Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, [and] to his people.

Rejoice, O ye nations. — Give God the glory of his just severity, which is no less commendable in a judge than seasonable clemency.

Verse 44

And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.

Of this song. — The Seventy render it, Of this law, as in Deuteronomy 32:46 . So Asaph called his song "a law." Psalms 78:1

Verse 45

And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:

And Moses made an end. — He did, and yet he did not, for he had yet still something more to say to them out of his great desire to speak home to their hearts. So the apostle, in 2 Corinthians 13:11 , and elsewhere, comes in with his το λοιπον , Finally, or, Yet one word more ere we part.

Verse 46

And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

Set your hearts. — And pray God to fix your quicksilver, to put his holy finger upon the hole that is in the bottom of your memories.

Verse 47

For it [is] not a vain thing for you; because it [is] your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong [your] days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

For it is not a vain thing. — God’s favour is no empty favour, it is not like the winter sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little comfort and heat.

For it is not a vain thing for you. — You shall not lose your labour; it is sure you have lost many a worse in pursuing after lying vanities, toilsome toys.