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Text -- Deuteronomy 32:1-43 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
Invocation of Witnesses
32:1 Listen , O heavens , and I will speak ; hear , O earth , the words of my mouth .
32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain , my sayings will drip like the dew , as rain drops upon the grass , and showers upon new growth .
32:3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord ; you must acknowledge the greatness of our God .
32:4 As for the Rock , his work is perfect , for all his ways are just . He is a reliable God who is never unjust , he is fair and upright .
32:5 His people have been unfaithful to him; they have not acted like his children – this is their sin . They are a perverse and deceitful generation .
32:6 Is this how you repay the Lord , you foolish , unwise people ? Is he not your father , your creator ? He has made you and established you.
32:7 Remember the ancient days ; bear in mind the years of past generations . Ask your father and he will inform you, your elders , and they will tell you.
32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance , when he divided up humankind , he set the boundaries of the peoples , according to the number of the heavenly assembly .
32:9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people , Jacob is his special possession .
32:10 The Lord found him in a desolate land , in an empty wasteland where animals howl . He continually guarded him and taught him; he continually protected him like the pupil of his eye .
32:11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest , that hovers over its young , so the Lord spread out his wings and took him, he lifted him up on his pinions .
32:12 The Lord alone was guiding him, no foreign god was with him.
32:13 He enabled him to travel over the high terrain of the land , and he ate of the produce of the fields . He provided honey for him from the cliffs , and olive oil from the hardest of rocks ,
32:14 butter from the herd and milk from the flock , along with the fat of lambs , rams and goats of Bashan , along with the best of the kernels of wheat ; and from the juice of grapes you drank wine .
Israel’s Rebellion
32:15 But Jeshurun became fat and kicked , you got fat , thick , and stuffed ! Then he deserted the God who made him, and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt .
32:16 They made him jealous with other gods , they enraged him with abhorrent idols.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons , not God , to gods they had not known ; to new gods who had recently come along , gods your ancestors had not known about.
32:18 You have forgotten the Rock who fathered you, and put out of mind the God who gave you birth .
A Word of Judgment
32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them because his sons and daughters enraged him.
32:20 He said , “I will reject them , I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation , children who show no loyalty .
32:21 They have made me jealous with false gods , enraging me with their worthless gods ; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger , and it burns to lowest Sheol ; it consumes the earth and its produce , and ignites the foundations of the mountains .
32:23 I will increase their disasters , I will use up my arrows on them.
32:24 They will be starved by famine , eaten by plague , and bitterly stung ; I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust .
32:25 The sword will make people childless outside , and terror will do so inside ; they will destroy both the young man and the virgin , the infant and the gray-haired man .
The Weakness of Other Gods
32:26 “I said , ‘I want to cut them in pieces . I want to make people forget they ever existed.
32:27 But I fear the reaction of their enemies , for their adversaries would misunderstand and say , “Our power is great , and the Lord has not done all this !”’
32:28 They are a nation devoid of wisdom , and there is no understanding among them.
32:29 I wish that they were wise and could understand this , and that they could comprehend what will happen to them.”
32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them, and two pursue ten thousand ; unless their Rock had delivered them up , and the Lord had handed them over ?
32:31 For our enemies’ rock is not like our Rock , as even our enemies concede .
32:32 For their vine is from the stock of Sodom , and from the fields of Gomorrah . Their grapes contain venom , their clusters of grapes are bitter .
32:33 Their wine is snakes ’ poison , the deadly venom of cobras .
32:34 “Is this not stored up with me ?” says the Lord, “Is it not sealed up in my storehouses ?
32:35 I will get revenge and pay them back at the time their foot slips ; for the day of their disaster is near , and the impending judgment is rushing upon them!”
32:36 The Lord will judge his people , and will change his plans concerning his servants ; when he sees that their power has disappeared , and that no one is left, whether confined or set free .
32:37 He will say , “Where are their gods , the rock in whom they sought security ,
32:38 who ate the best of their sacrifices , and drank the wine of their drink offerings ? Let them rise and help you; let them be your refuge !
The Vindication of the Lord
32:39 “See now that I , indeed I , am he!” says the Lord, “and there is no other god besides me . I kill and give life , I smash and I heal , and none can resist my power .
32:40 For I raise up my hand to heaven , and say , ‘As surely as I live forever ,
32:41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword , and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment ; I will execute vengeance on my foes , and repay those who hate me!
32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood , and my sword will devour flesh – the blood of the slaughtered and captured , the chief of the enemy’s leaders !’”
32:43 Cry out , O nations , with his people , for he will avenge his servants ’ blood ; he will take vengeance against his enemies , and make atonement for his land and people .
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
MOSES |
Death |
DEUTERONOMY |
Moab |
Songs |
Instruction |
Song |
TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT |
Religion |
Poetry |
Psalms |
POETRY, HEBREW |
ADAM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT |
Judgments |
God |
Backsliders |
Idolatry |
Rock |
GOD, NAMES OF |
Quotations and Allusions |
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Deu 32:2; Deu 32:3; Deu 32:4; Deu 32:4; Deu 32:4; Deu 32:5; Deu 32:5; Deu 32:5; Deu 32:5; Deu 32:5; Deu 32:6; Deu 32:7; Deu 32:7; Deu 32:8; Deu 32:8; Deu 32:8; Deu 32:9; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:10; Deu 32:11; Deu 32:11; Deu 32:11; Deu 32:12; Deu 32:13; Deu 32:13; Deu 32:13; Deu 32:13; Deu 32:13; Deu 32:15; Deu 32:15; Deu 32:15; Deu 32:16; Deu 32:16; Deu 32:17; Deu 32:18; Deu 32:20; Deu 32:20; Deu 32:21; Deu 32:21; Deu 32:21; Deu 32:21; Deu 32:21; Deu 32:22; Deu 32:22; Deu 32:23; Deu 32:24; Deu 32:25; Deu 32:26; Deu 32:27; Deu 32:27; Deu 32:27; Deu 32:30; Deu 32:30; Deu 32:31; Deu 32:32; Deu 32:32; Deu 32:34; Deu 32:35; Deu 32:36; Deu 32:39; Deu 32:39; Deu 32:41; Deu 32:41; Deu 32:42
NET Notes: Deu 32:2 Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.
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NET Notes: Deu 32:7 Heb “generation and generation.” The repetition of the singular noun here singles out each of the successive past generations. See IBHS 11...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:8 Heb “the sons of Israel.” The idea, perhaps, is that Israel was central to Yahweh’s purposes and all other nations were arranged and...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:9 Heb “the portion of his inheritance.” The LXX and Smr add “Israel” and BHS suggests the reconstruction: “The Lord’...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:10 Heb “the little man.” The term אִישׁוֹן (’ishon) means literally “little man,&...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:11 The form of the suffix on this and the following verb forms (cf. “lifted him up”) indicates that the verbs are preterites, not imperfects....
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NET Notes: Deu 32:12 The distinctive form of the suffix on this verb form indicates that the verb is an imperfect, not a preterite. As such it draws attention to God’...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:13 Olive oil from rock probably suggests olive trees growing on rocky ledges and yet doing so productively. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC), 415; cf...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:15 The LXX reads the third person masculine singular (“he”) for the MT second person masculine singular (“you”), but such alterat...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:16 Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV)...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:18 The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:21 Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by ...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:22 Sheol refers here not to hell and hell-fire – a much later concept – but to the innermost parts of the earth, as low down as one could get...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:24 The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).
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NET Notes: Deu 32:25 A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.
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NET Notes: Deu 32:26 The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:31 Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.
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NET Notes: Deu 32:32 Sodom…Gomorrah. The term “vine” is a reference to the pagan deities which, the passage says, find their ultimate source in Sodom and...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:34 Verses 34-35 appear to be a quotation of the Lord and so the introductory phrase “says the Lord” is supplied in the translation.
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NET Notes: Deu 32:36 The translation understands the verb in the sense of “be grieved, relent” (cf. HALOT 689 s.v. נחם hitp 2); cf. KJV, ASV ...
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NET Notes: Deu 32:41 The Hebrew term שָׂנֵא (sane’, “hate”) in this covenant context speaks of those who reject Yahwe...
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