Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O
earth,
the words of my mouth.
] This song is prefaced and introduced in a very grand and
pompous manner, calling on the heavens and earth to give
attention; by which they themselves may be meant, by a
"prosopopaeia", a figure frequently used in Scripture, when
things of great moment and importance are spoken of; and these
are called upon to hearken, either to rebuke the stupidity and
inattention of men, or to show that these would shed or withhold
their influences, their good things, according to the obedience
or disobedience of Israel; or because these are durable and
lasting, and so would ever be witnesses for God and against his
people: Gaon, as Aben Ezra observes, by the heavens understands
the angels, and by the earth the men of the earth, the
inhabitants of both worlds, which is not amiss: and by these
words of Moses are meant the words of the song, referred to in (
Deuteronomy 31:29 ) ;
here called his words, not because they were of him, but because
they were put into his mouth, and about to be expressed by him,
not in his own name, but in the name of the Lord; and not as the
words of the law, which came by him, but as the words and
doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ, of whom Moses here
writes; whose character he gives, and whose person and office he
vindicates against the Jews, whom he accuses and brings a charge
of ingratitude against for rejecting him, to which our Lord seems
to refer, ( John 5:45 John 5:46 ) ; the
prophecies of their rejection, the calling of the Gentiles, the
destruction of the Jews by the Romans, and the miseries they
should undergo, and yet should not be wholly extirpated out of
the world, but continue a people, who in the latter days would be
converted, return to their own land, and their enemies be
destroyed; which are some of the principal things in this song,
and which make it worthy of attention and observation.
Deuteronomy 32:1
