Deuteronomy 32:39

The Vindication of the Lord

32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, ¹ 

“and there is no other god besides me.

I kill and give life,

I smash and I heal,

and none can resist ²  my power.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ³ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 5:7

5:7 You must not have any other gods ⁴  besides me. ⁵ 

Job 5:18

5:18 For ⁶  he ⁷  wounds, ⁸  but he also bandages;

he strikes, but his hands also heal.

¹ tn Verses 39-42 appear to be a quotation of the Lord and so the introductory phrase “says the Lord” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “deliver from” (so NRSV, NLT).

³ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

⁴ tn Heb “there must not be for you other gods.” The expression “for you” indicates possession.

⁵ tn Heb “upon my face,” or “before me” (עַל־פָּנָיַ, ’al-panaya). Some understand this in a locative sense: “in my sight.” The translation assumes that the phrase indicates exclusion. The idea is that of placing any other god before the Lord in the sense of taking his place. Contrary to the view of some, this does not leave the door open for a henotheistic system where the Lord is the primary god among others. In its literary context the statement must be taken in a monotheistic sense. See, e.g., 4:39; 6:13-15.

⁶ sn Verses 18-23 give the reasons why someone should accept the chastening of God – the hand that wounds is the same hand that heals. But, of course, the lines do not apply to Job because his suffering is not due to divine chastening.

⁷ tn The addition of the independent pronoun here makes the subject emphatic, as if to say, “For it is he who makes….”

⁸ tn The imperfect verbs in this verse describe the characteristic activities of God; the classification as habitual imperfect fits the idea and is to be rendered with the English present tense.