Deuteronomy 32:19-33

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 32:19-33

556.

What is meant by the use of the word provocation?

557.

What foreign people are meant in Deuteronomy 32:21?

558.

Where is Sheol? Explain the use of this term here.

559.

Something will restrain God's wrath as mentioned in Deuteronomy 32:26-27. What is it?

560.

Itemize what Israel was as contrasted with what they should have been.

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 32:19-33

19 And the Lord saw it, He spurned and rejected them, from indignation with His sons and His daughters.
20 And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be. For they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have moved Me to jealousy with what is not God; they have angered Me with their idols; so I will move them to jealousy with those not a people; I will anger them with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 And I will heap evils upon them; I will spend My arrows upon them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence; and the teeth of beasts will I send against them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust.
25 From without the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers shall be terror, destroying both young man and virgin, the sucking child with the man of gray hairs.
26 I said, I would scatter them afar, and I would have made the remembrance of them to cease from among men,
27 Had I not feared the provocation of the foe, lest their enemies misconstrue it, and lest they should say, Our own hand has prevailed; all this was not the work of the Lord.
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.
29 O that they were wise, and would see through this [present triumph] to their ultimate fate!
30 How could one have chased 1,000 and two put 10,000 to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had delivered them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of (poisonous) gall, their clusters are bitter;
33 Their wine is the (furious) venom of serpents, and the pitiless poison of vipers;

COMMENT 32:19-33

AND I WILL MOVE THEM TO JEALOUSY WITH THOSE THAT ARE NOT A PEOPLE. A FOOLISH NATION (Deuteronomy 32:21)See also Romans 10:16-19. Those not in God's service are important as eternal souls, but if they are not in fact his children, they are a foolish nationeven as we were no people (1 Peter 2:10) before coming to Christ. They are those having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12).

What nation is referred to here? It is hard to say which of the many invaders of Israel (if a specific one is indeed being referred to) the Holy Spirit intends. Both Assyria and Babylon attacked while Israel was filled with idolatry (note Deuteronomy 32:16-17).

... FIRE. BURNETH UNTO THE LOWEST SHEOL (Deuteronomy 32:22)The A. V. has unto the lowest hell, but in either case the reader might be mislead. the word sheol literally signifies the unseen state, or the unseen place. Baumgartner defines it here, waste, no-country, underworld. The present passage could be a general description of God as a consuming fire. But it seems better to apply it to the immediate case: God's wrath would be upon their whole land when they were disobedient: Their crops, fields, houses, grain-storage binsall would be destroyed; Clarke remarks on this phrase, ... the very deepest destruction; a total extermination, so that the earththeir land and its increase, and all their property should be seized; and the foundations of their mountains [Deuteronomy 32:22]their strongest fortresses, should be razed to the ground. All this was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, so that of the fortifications of that city not one stone was left on another.

AND THE TEETH OF BEASTS WILL I SEND UPON THEM (Deuteronomy 32:24)See also Leviticus 26:22. In Deuteronomy 7:22 we saw the strategy of defeating Israel's enemies was to be little by little lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. But disobedience would also bring them. We do not have a recorded instance of this as far as the Israelites themselves are concerned. But in 2 Kings 17:24-26 we have such an act of God toward the foreign occupants of Samaria brought in by the Assyrians.

I SAID, I WOULD SCATTER THEM AFAR, I WOULD MAKE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THEM TO CEASE (Deuteronomy 32:26)See Exodus 32:9-14, Deuteronomy 9:13-14; Deuteronomy 25-29. The wrath of God was stayed, not because of a deserving Israel, but Lest their adversaries should judge amiss, etc. (Deuteronomy 32:27).. lest their enemies misconstrue it (Amplified).

The translation of The Torah is helpful from Deuteronomy 32:26-30 :

26

I might have reduced them to naught,

Made their memory cease among men,

27

But for fear of the taunts of the foe,

Their enemies who might misjudge
And say, Our own hand has prevailed;
None of this was wrought by the Lord!

28

For they [the heathen nations] are a folk

void of sense,
Lacking in all discernment.

29

Were they wise, they would think upon this,

Gain insight into their future:

30

How could one have routed a thousand,

Or two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their rock had sold them,
The Lord had given them up?

Deuteronomy 32:30 shows the weakness of Israel without Jehovah, No foe can stand before him, but enemies can overrun his own people if he has abandoned them,

Oh! how would one have chased a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Were it not that their Rock had sold them,
And Yahweh had abandoned them;

(Rotherham)

The idea, of course, is that Israel's defeat at the hand of their enemies would have been impossible unless God had abandoned his people.

FOR THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK (Deuteronomy 32:31)a statement equivalent of saying, For their god(s) are not as our God. To foreign nations, whose god (rock) was powerless and dead, his physical presence or non-presence made no actual difference in the outcome of battlesor any other event for that matter. But Israel lost no battles unless their Rock had sold them. The powerless rock of the heathen is not as our Rock, who is omnipotent.

EVEN OUR ENEMIES THEMSELVES BEING JUDGES (Deuteronomy 32:31)i.e., Israel's enemies can testify to the above truth. The Egyptians, for example, were helpless before Israel's God, shouting, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for Jehovah fighteth for them against the Egyptians (Exodus 14:25). See also Exodus 15:14-16, Deuteronomy 2:25.

VINE OF SODOM. FIELDS OF GOMORRAH (Deuteronomy 32:32)To become like these became (Genesis 19:23-28) would be to become a desolate waste, unproductive and sterile. See Deuteronomy 29:22-28, notes. Whatever would be produced in Israel, as in Deuteronomy 32:32-33 would be of the poorest quality. But it is possible that this picturesque phrase means more. Sodom and Gomorrah are here advanced as types of what is depraved, and to the moral taste nauseous (cf. Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 23:14). (Pulpit)

GRAPES OF GALL (Deuteronomy 32:32)See Deuteronomy 29:18-20, notes. Deuteronomy 32:32-33 could be taken to describe a degenerate people as well as a degenerate land.

34

Is not this laid up in store with me,

Sealed up among my treasures?

35

Vengeance is mine, and recompense,

At the time when their foot shall slide:
For the day of their calamity is at hand,

And the things that are to come upon them shall make haste.

36

For Jehovah will judge his people,

And repent himself for his servants;
When he seeth that their power is gone,

And there is none remaining, shut up or left at large.

37

And he will say, Where are their gods,

The rock in which they took refuge;

38

Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices,

And drank the wine of their drink-offering?

Let them rise up and help you,
Let them be your protection.

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;

And there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

40

For I lift up my hand to heaven,

And say, As I live for ever,

41

If I whet my glittering sword,

And my hand take hold on judgment;
I will render vengeance to mine adversaries,
And will recompense them that hate me.

52

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,

And my sword shall devour flesh;
With the blood of the slain and the captives,

From the head of the leaders of the enemy.

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 make expiation for his land, for his people.