Deuteronomy 32:16-26

16 They made God jealous with strange gods, aggravated him with detestable things.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to deities of which they had no knowledge— new gods only recently on the scene, ones about which your ancestors had never heard.
18 You deserted the rock that sired you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you!
19 The LORD saw this and rejected out of aggravation his sons and his daughters.
20 He said: I will hide my face from them— I will see what becomes of them— because they are a confused generation; they are children lacking loyalty.
21 They provoked me with "no-gods," aggravated me with their pieces of junk. So I am going to provoke them with "No-People," aggravate them with a nation of fools.
22 A fire burns in me— it will blaze to the depths of the grave; it will destroy the land and its crops; it will blacken the base of the mountains.
23 I'll throw on them disaster after disaster; I'll destroy them with my arrows:
24 devastating hunger, consuming plague, bitter sickness. I'll send animal fangs after them, venom from dust crawlers too.
25 Outside, in the streets, the sword will bereave! Inside, in the safest room, there will be terror for young men and women, nursing baby and senior citizen.
26 I thought about it: I could have struck them down, erased them from human memory,

Deuteronomy 32:16-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 32

This chapter contains the song mentioned and referred to in the former, the preface to it, De 32:1-3; the character of the divine and illustrious Person it chiefly respects, De 32:4; the ingratitude of the people of the Jews to him, who were a crooked and perverse generation, aggravated by his having bought, made, and established them, De 32:5,6; and which is further aggravated by various instances of divine goodness to them, first in providing and reserving a suitable country for them, at the time of the division of the earth to the sons of men, with the reason of it, De 32:7-9; then by what the Lord did for them in the wilderness, De 32:10-12; after that in the land of Canaan, where they enjoyed plenty of all good things, and in the possession of which they were, when the illustrious Person described appeared among them, De 32:13,14; and then the sin of ingratitude to him, before hinted at, is fully expressed, namely, lightly esteeming the rock of salvation, the Messiah, De 32:15; nor could they stop here, but proceed to more ungodliness, setting up other messiahs and saviours, which were an abomination to the Lord, De 32:16; continuing sacrifices when they should not, which were therefore reckoned no other than sacrifices to demons, and especially the setting up of their new idol, their own righteousness, was highly provoking; and by all this they clearly showed they had forgot the rock, the Saviour, De 32:17,18; wherefore, for the rejection of the Messiah and the, persecution of his followers, they would be abhorred of God, De 32:19; who would show his resentment by the rejection of them, by the calling of the Gentiles, and by bringing the nation of the Romans upon them, De 32:20,21; whereby utter ruin and destruction in all its shapes would be brought upon them, De 32:22-25; and, were it not for the insolence of their adversaries, would be entirely destroyed, being such a foolish and unwise people, which appears by not observing what the enemies of the Messiah themselves allow, that there is no rock like him, whom they despised, De 32:26-31; which enemies are described, and the vengeance reserved for them pointed out, De 32:32-35; and the song closed with promises of grace and mercy to the Lord's people, and wrath and ruin to his and their enemies, on which account all are called upon to rejoice in the latter day, De 32:36-43; and this song being delivered by Moses, the people of Israel are exhorted seriously to attend to it, it being of the utmost importance to them, De 32:44-47; and the chapter is concluded with a relation of Moses being ordered to go up to Mount Nebo and die, with the reason of it, De 32:48-52.

Footnotes 7

  • [a]. Or him
  • [b]. Heb uncertain
  • [c]. LXX, Vulg; Heb uncertain
  • [d]. Or, following LXX, DSS (4QPhyln), and correcting the LORD saw this and was jealous; he spurned his sons and daughters.
  • [e]. Heb Sheol
  • [f]. LXX
  • [g]. Heb uncertain; LXX scattered them
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