The Song Though not comparable to other masterpieces of Hebrew poetry either for beauty of metaphor, or musical diction, or fineness of spiritual insight, this strong poem is distinguished by the fire, force, and sweep of its superb rhetoric. Granted its limits for it is neither an epic nor a lyric... [ Continue Reading ]
_heavens … earth_ To these he appeals, not as witnesses of the divine events which he is about to declare (so Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 31:28), nor as proofs of the regularity or goodness of the divine action (so frequently in the Prophets and Psalms 1 [150]), but in the feeling that so great a... [ Continue Reading ]
The Exordium 1 Give ear, O Heavens, let me speak, And let Earth hear the words of my mouth. 2 May my message drop as the rain, My speech distil as the dew, Like mists on the grass, And like showers on the herb. 3 For the name of the Lord I proclaim, To our God give the greatness!... [ Continue Reading ]
_My doctrine_ Lit. _my taking_, what I have _received_and _take_to men, my MESSAGE; cp. St Paul 1 Corinthians 11:23, ἐγὼ γὰρ παρέλαβον ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου ὃ καὶ παρέδωκα ὑμῖν. Or alternatively, what I have _apprehended_or _learned_; so commonly in the Wisdom literature for _instruction_or _learning_, Pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_proclaim the name of_ JEHOVAH] See J, Exodus 33:19, where _name_= character and is parallel to _glory_(Deuteronomy 32:18) as above, Deuteronomy 26:19, it is parallel to _praise_and _honour_. Both ideas, _character_and _renown_, are probably included here. Cp. Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 28:58. GI... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Rock_ Or _a Rock_. This name, _Ṣûr_, is applied in Deuteronomy 32:15_; Deuteronomy 32:18; Deuteronomy 32:30; Deuteronomy 32:37_, both to Israel's God and to others. It appears to have been a general Semitic figure for the divine unchangeableness and its refuge for men, and virtually a synonym f... [ Continue Reading ]
God's Faithfulness, Israel's Folly 4 The Rock outright is His working! Yea, all of His ways are Law, The God of troth, without treason, Righteous and upright is He. 5 His sons have dealt corruptly with Him … (?), A twisted and crooked generation! 6 The Lord do ye thus requite, O foolish f... [ Continue Reading ]
The text of the first line is corrupt; lit. _he has dealt corruptly_(as in Deuteronomy 9:12, cp. Deuteronomy 31:29) _with him, not his sons, their blemish_. Sam. LXX: _they dealt corruptly not his sons, blameworthy things_. Possible emendations, _they dealt corruptly with him sons of blemish; his so... [ Continue Reading ]
IS IT JEHOVAH _ye thus requite_ So the emphatic Heb. order. _foolish_ See on Deuteronomy 22:21: _folly_. _bought_ Rather BEGAT or _produced_, Genesis 4:1; Genesis 14:19; Genesis 14:22. _established_ Or _framed, set up, settled_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember_ Heb. Sg.; Sam., LXX Pl. _days of old … generations_ One of many signs of the distance of the generation to which the Song is addressed from the time of the Wilderness and the entrance to the Promised Land. THAT HE SHEW THEE … THAT THEY TELL THEE] So the Heb.... [ Continue Reading ]
Origin and Progress of Israel 7 Remember the days of old, Scan the years, age upon age; Ask of thy sire that he shew thee, Thine elders, that they may tell thee. 8 When the Highest gave nations their heritage, When He sundered the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples By the ta... [ Continue Reading ]
_Most High_ Heb. _-Elyôn_, Numbers 24:16; Isaiah 14:14, and many Pss. _gave … inheritance_ See Deuteronomy 1:38. _separated_ Genesis 10:32 (P). _children of Israel_ The purpose of His division was to leave room for Israel's numbers. But for _the sons of Israel_LXX has ἀγγέλων θεοῦ, _angels of Go... [ Continue Reading ]
_portion_ Or LOT; in Deuteronomy 12:12 with _inheritance_. _his people_ LXX removes _Jacob_to this line, and to the end of the following adds _Israel_. In that case _his people_is superfluous both to the sense and to the rhythm. _lot_ Lit. _measuring-rope_, i.e. _scale_or _range_; cp. Deuteronomy... [ Continue Reading ]
10 In a desert land He found him, In the void and howl of the waste. He swept around him, He scanned him, As the pupil of His eye He watched him. 11 As an eagle stirreth his nest, Fluttereth over his young, Spreadeth his wings, doth catch them, Beareth them up on his pinions, 12 The Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
_eagle_ Heb. _nesher_, see on Deuteronomy 14:12; Deuteronomy 14:17; not _her nest_or _young_, but HIS, the father bird's; Exodus 19:4, cp. above Deuteronomy 1:31. SPREADETH _his wings_, DOTH CATCH _them_, BEARETH, etc.] As in R.V. marg. preferable to R.V. text. All these clauses still describe the... [ Continue Reading ]
_did lead him_ Still the imperf. for vividness. _strange_ Not the adj. in Deuteronomy 32:16, but _foreign_, Deuteronomy 15:3; Deuteronomy 31:16. 13 He made him to ride the highlands, And to eat of the fruit of the hills, Suckled him with honey from the crag And oil of the flinty rock, 14 Cur... [ Continue Reading ]
_ride on the_ HEIGHTS] Cp. Amos 4:12. _and_ TO EAT OF THE FRUIT OF THE HILLS] So Sam. and LXX for the Heb. _he doth eat_; HILLS not _fields_as in Deuteronomy 28:3, Heb. _sadai_, early form _sadeh_, in the earlier sense of that word (see on Deuteronomy 5:21) as in Judges 5:4, parallel to heights or... [ Continue Reading ]
CURD _of kine_ Fermented milk, Ar. _leben_. _fat of lambs and_ OF _rams_ So LXX, bringing forward _rams_from next line. BULLS _of Bashán_ Lit. _the sons_, or _breed_, of Bashán (Deuteronomy 3:1), celebrated for its steers, Psalms 22:12 (13), etc. _fat of_ THE _kidneys_ The richest fat, Leviticus... [ Continue Reading ]
The line (_And_) JACOB ATE AND WAS FULL is added by Sam. to the previous _v_., but by the LXX to this one to which it is more suitable; cp. Deuteronomy 31:20; Nehemiah 9:25. _Jeshurun_ Deuteronomy 33:5; Deuteronomy 33:26; Isaiah 44:2, a name for the people (cp. _Jashar_, Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18)... [ Continue Reading ]
The Fulness and Apostasy of Israel 15 Jacob ate and was full, Fat waxed Jeshurun and kicked, Thou _wast_fat, thou _wast_plump, thou _wast_sleek! He forsook the God who had made him, And befooled the Rock of his succour. 16 With strangers they moved Him to jealousy, With abominations provoke... [ Continue Reading ]
_moved him to jealousy_ This form of the vb. is found only here, and in Deuteronomy 32:21 _b_, Psalms 78:58; another form in Deuteronomy 32:21 _a_. On God's jealousy see Deuteronomy 4:24. _strange_ Jeremiah 2:25; Jeremiah 3:13. See above on Deuteronomy 32:12. _abominations_ See... [ Continue Reading ]
_demons_ Heb. _shedîm_, only here and in Psalms 106:37, -certainly a Babylonian loan-word," _shedu_, a good demon figured in the bull-colossi that guarded the entrances to temples (Zimmern, _KAT_3 [152], 455 f., 460 2, 649); but according to Psalms 106:37 human sacrifices were offered them, which of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rock_ See on Deuteronomy 32:4; God, Heb. _"El_. The predicates used of Him are generally interpreted as if attributing to Him the functions both of father and mother. But the first vb. is more usually in the O.T. of the mother, and is rightly rendered here by R.V. marg. _bare_; the second, _gave th... [ Continue Reading ]
_abhorred_ SPURNED, _contemned, discarded_, Deuteronomy 31:20; Jeremiah 14:21. The next line gives the motive, not as in R.V., but FROM GRIEF _with his sons_, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
God's Vengeance 19 But the Lord saw and He spurned, From grief with His sons and His daughters. 20 -Let me hide my countenance from them, I will see what their end shall be. For an upsetting race are they, Sons without steadfastness in them. 21 They moved me to jealousy with a nó-god, Wit... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he said_ A gloss, it overloads the rhythm. LET ME HIDE, etc.] Deuteronomy 31:17 f. _their end_ Lit. _their afterwards_, see on Deuteronomy 4:30. _a very froward_, etc.] Heb. is stronger, _a generation of upturnings_or _overthrows_(only here and in Prov.); not _perverse_but _subversive_; and... [ Continue Reading ]
_moved … to jealousy_ See on Deuteronomy 32:16. Mark the antitheses: no-god (_lo"-"el_), no-people (_lo"--am_, as hitherto outside the nations known and to be reckoned with, by Israel, as unfit to serve any Divine purpose); and _vanities_(lit. _breaths_, or as we should say, _bubbles_, so in Jer. of... [ Continue Reading ]
_is kindled_ but with the force of flaring up quickly, Jeremiah 15:14; Jeremiah 17:4; Isaiah 50:11; Isaiah 64:2 (1); it is not necessary to render _"aph, anger_, by its original meaning _nostril_. _pit_ Heb. _She'ol, underworld_, Psalms 86:13. _increase_ See Deuteronomy 11:17. _And setteth on fir... [ Continue Reading ]
_heap_ According as we point the consonants of this vb., it may mean _add_, or _gather_, or _sweep up; evils_, Deuteronomy 31:17. 24, 25 define the _arrows_of Deuteronomy 32:23 famine, fever, plague, wild beasts and poisonous, and war. 24 A. The rhythm is irregular whether for a line or couplet, a... [ Continue Reading ]
War the climax to these natural plagues, just as in Amos 7.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Stay of God's Vengeance 26 -I had said, "I will blow them away (?) And still among men their remembrance," 27 Had I feared not the taunt of the foe, Lest their enemies misconstrue, And should say, "Our hand was high, Nor was this the work of Jehovah!" 28 For a rede-lorn people are they... [ Continue Reading ]
I WOULD HAVE SAID, I WILL] The meaning of the ensuing vb _pa'ah_is uncertain: _cleave them in pieces_(Dri. and the _Oxf. Heb. Lex._) is hardly justified by the Ar. _fa-a_, which means only _to split_; A.V., _scatter them into corners_, is founded on a doubtful etymology; R.V., _scatter them afar_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_provocation_ Cp. Deuteronomy 32:19, but here the vexation caused to Himself by the foes" misconstruction. The anthropomorphism is very strong. Sam. reads _my foe_. On the Heb. for _feared_see Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 18:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_void_ More exactly _forlorn_, Heb. _"obed_, cp. Deuteronomy 22:3; Deuteronomy 26:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is doubtful whether these _vv_. relate to Israel or its arrogant foes. The latter I deem the more probable. So already Geddes.... [ Continue Reading ]
_consider their latter end_ This is weak and omits the preposition _to_which conveys the full sense _understand_, or SEE THROUGH, TO THEIR ULTIMATE FATE, past this temporary triumph over Israel to the punishment God has in store for them, Deuteronomy 32:34; Deuteronomy 32:29 are regarded by some as... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW COULD _one_, etc.] Some ignominious rout of Israel. _delivered them up_ Cp. Deuteronomy 23:15 (16).... [ Continue Reading ]
31 For not as our Rock is their rock, Our foes being judges; 32 For their vine's from the vine of S e dóm And out of the tracts of Gomorrah; Their grapes are poisonous grapes, Bitterest clusters are theirs. 33 Their wine is the venom of dragons, The pitiless poison of asps. 31. emphasises... [ Continue Reading ]
These foes of Israel are of the same stock morally (can one produce grapes of thistles?) as the cities whose destruction for their wickedness was proverbial. They are therefore doomed. _fields_ Heb. _sedemôth_, a rare word of uncertain meaning. _Tracts_is probably nearer it. It may have been chosen... [ Continue Reading ]
VENOM _of dragons_ Or, _foam of_. PITILESS POISON _of asps Poison, rôsh_, as in Deuteronomy 29:17; _asps_, or according to some, _cobras_, the hooded kind, in Egypt and the lower parts of Syria, especially S. of Beersheba, Heb. _pethanîm_, Isaiah 11:8, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
_laid up_ Heb. _kamus_not found elsewhere, and probably misread for _kanus, gathered, collected_. In next line read TREASURIES.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is Destined for Israel's Foes 34 Is all that not stored with me, Sealed in my treasuries, 35 For the day of revenge and requital, What time their foot shall slip. Yea, near is their day of disaster, And destiny rushes upon them.... [ Continue Reading ]
MINE ARE _vengeance_, etc.] Sam. and LXX read _for the day of vengeance_, etc.; and perhaps rightly, see Ginsburg, _Intr._p. 168. Here intended as an assurance to Israel, but in Romans 12:19 as a warning against undertaking revenge oneself, cp. Hebrews 10:30. _day of their_ DISASTER] Jeremiah 18:1... [ Continue Reading ]
36 For the Lord shall judge for His people, And relent for His servants" sake, When He sees that their grip is gone, Nor fast nor free remaineth; 37 And shall say, Where be their gods The rock whereon they refuged, 38 Which ate the fat of their sacrifice, Drank the wine of their pouring?... [ Continue Reading ]
TOOK REFUGE] As in R.V. marg., so often in the Pss., e.g. Psalms 2:12; Psalms 46:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEM BE A COVERT ABOVE YOU] So LXX, etc.; Heb. _let it_.... [ Continue Reading ]
39 See now that I, I am He, And never a god beside me. I do to death and revive, I shattered and I shall heal. [With none to save from my hand.] 40 For I lift to heaven mine hand, And say, -As I live for ever, 41 I will whet my lightning sword, And on judgement my hand shall close, Venge... [ Continue Reading ]
_lift up_, etc.] Cp. Genesis 14:22; Exodus 6:8; Numbers 14:30 and many instances in Ezekiel.... [ Continue Reading ]
_whet_ See on Deuteronomy 6:7. Jehovah as warrior, as often in later prophecy, _e.g_. Isaiah 63.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and the captives_ Assigned to death later. _leaders_ So LXX ἀρχόντων, Heb. _para-ôth_, Ar. _fara-, to excel_; A.V. _beginning of revenges_from the analogy of Aram. _phara_. In Numbers 6:5; Ezekiel 44:20, _pere-_= _flowing locks_. Cp. W. R. Smith on Judges 5:2, in Black's _Judges_, in _Smaller Camb... [ Continue Reading ]
For this LXX gives eight lines, part quoted in Romans 15:10. SING] Heb. _harnînû_, the most ringing of the vbs with this meaning. ASSOILS] _Covers_, or _clears, from guilt_, cp. Deuteronomy 21:8. THE LAND OF HIS PEOPLE] So Sam., LXX, etc., doubtless rightly. Heb. as in R.V.... [ Continue Reading ]
Concluding Note. Can hardly be from the same editorial hand as Deuteronomy 31:30. It is probable from the opening words, _And Moses came_, that this is a fragment from the end of a narrative of divine instructions given to Moses regarding the Song, such as we find in Deuteronomy 31:16-22 (cp. Exodus... [ Continue Reading ]
_made an end_, etc.] Deuteronomy 20:9; Deuteronomy 26:12; Deuteronomy 31:24. Whether _all these words_originally referred only to the Code, or are meant by the editor to cover the hortatory addresses added to it, cannot be determined. _All Israel_, D's formula.... [ Continue Reading ]
A Postscript Moses again exhorts all Israel to attend to the Law and enforce it on their children, for it is their life, by which they shall prolong their days in the Land. Both the ideas and the language are deuteronomic, and the passage belongs to one of the hortatory supplements to the Law. Most... [ Continue Reading ]
_Set your heart_ So Exodus 9:21, and with another vb Deuteronomy 7:23. On _heart_= _mind_see Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 11:18; Deuteronomy 29:4. _I testify_ AGAINST _you_ See on Deuteronomy 8:19. THAT YE MAY _command_ THEM TO _your children_ So Heb. and not as in R.V. The idiom is also found in D [ Continue Reading ]
_vain_ Or, _empty_, without profit. _it is your life_ As in Deuteronomy 30:20. _prolong your days … whither ye go over_, etc.] For these formulas see on Deuteronomy 4:26.... [ Continue Reading ]
_that selfsame day_ A standing phrase of P, e.g. Genesis 7:13; Genesis 17:23; Genesis 17:26; Exodus 12:17. Contr. the deuter. _this day_and the like. The day is that stated in Deuteronomy 1:3, also from P; _q.v._... [ Continue Reading ]
Moses" Call to Death He is bidden climb Mt Nebo and view Canaan, and die there like Aaron on Mt Hor, because of his trespass against Jehovah at Ḳadesh. He shall see but not enter the Land. The language (including the place-names) and the reason given for Moses" failure to enter the Land, are those... [ Continue Reading ]
_Abarim_ Lit. the men or regions _beyond_or _over_there. Only in P, Jeremiah 22:20 R.V., and Ezekiel 39:11 (where read _Abarîm_). The name is proof that the people who used it were settled W. of Jordan and looked across the valley of that river and the Dead Sea, to the E. range beyond. See the prese... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto thy people_ Better THY FATHER'S FOLK, as always in this phrase. The word, _-am_, originally meant this, but in Heb. is usually widened to people, while in Ar. it = -father's brother" and -father's brother's children" (Driver). The whole phrase is frequent in P, Genesis 25:8; Genesis 35:29; Num... [ Continue Reading ]
_because ye_ BRAKE FAITH WITH _me_ So Driver. The phrase is chiefly found in P, Ez. and Chron. The judgement on Moses is explained not as in Deut. by the sin of the people, but by that of Aaron and Moses himself. See above, Further Note to Ch. Deuteronomy 1:36-38. _in the midst_ Heb. _betok_, P's s... [ Continue Reading ]
This _v_. is in addition to Numbers 27:12-14. _before thee_ The Heb. is stronger, lit. _from in front of_= _over against_(Deuteronomy 28:66). Scot. -forenenst.... [ Continue Reading ]