Devarim 32:12

12 So Hashem alone did lead him, and there was no el nekhar (strange g-d) with him.

Devarim 32:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 32:12

[So] the Lord alone did lead him
Out of Egypt, through the wilderness, to the land of Canaan, going before them in a pillar of fire and cloud; though this is not to be understood to the exclusion of the ministry of Moses and Aaron, by whom he led them, ( Psalms 77:20 ) ; it may be interpreted of the people being alone in the wilderness when led:

and [there was] no strange god with him;
with Israel; so Aben Ezra, no idolatry among them then; to which sense are the Targums of Jerusalem and Jonathan; but it may rather signify that the Lord alone was the leader of his people, and he had no assistant in that work, and therefore all the glory should be given to him: he is the leader of his people, in a spiritual sense, out of a state of unregeneracy, which is a state of darkness and bondage; out of the ways of sin, and from the pastures of their own righteousness, into an open state of grace, which is a state of light and liberty; in Christ the way, and in the paths of faith, truth, holiness, and righteousness, unto the heavenly glory, typified by the land of Canaan, the blessings of which are next described: the Jews say ^F26, this will be in the days of the King Messiah; when there will be no abominable thing in Israel, the Lord alone shall lead him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Tikkune Zohar, Correct. 18. fol. 32. 2. 36. 2.

Devarim 32:12 In-Context

10 He found him in an eretz midbar, and in a barren and howling wilderness; He encircled him, He granted him discernment, He preserved him as the pupil of His eye.

11 As a nesher stirreth up her ken (nest), fluttereth over her young, spreadeth her wings, taketh them up, beareth them on her wings,

12 So Hashem alone did lead him, and there was no el nekhar (strange g-d) with him.

13 He made him ride on the high places of Eretz, that he might eat the tenuvot sadeh (increase of the fields); and He made to suckle him devash out of the rock, and shemen out of the flinty rock;

14 Butter of cattle, and cholov tzon, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with chittah (wheat) as fat as kidneys; and thou didst drink the pure dahm of the grape.