Deuteronomy 32:13-23

13 ¹He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with ²honey out of the rock, and ³oil out of ⁴the flinty rock.

14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat^[a] of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest^[b] of the wheat—and you drank foaming wine made from ⁵the blood of the grape.

15 “But ⁶Jeshurun grew fat, and ⁷kicked; ⁸you grew fat, stout, and sleek; ⁹then he forsook God ¹⁰who made him and scoffed at ¹¹the Rock of his salvation.

16 ¹²They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.

17 ¹³They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to ¹⁴new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.

18 You were unmindful of ¹⁵the Rock that bore^[c] you, and you ¹⁶forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 ¹⁷“The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of ¹⁸his sons and his daughters.

20 And he said, ¹⁹‘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 ²⁰They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger ²¹with their idols. So ²²I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with ²³a foolish nation.

22 For ²⁴a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to ²⁵the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them; ²⁶I will spend my arrows on them;

Deuteronomy 32:13-23 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.

Cross References

• 1. 32:13 Isa. 58:14; Ezek. 36:2
• 2. 32:13 Ps. 81:16
• 3. 32:13 Job 29:6
• 4. 32:13 ch. 8:15
• 5. 32:14 Gen. 49:11
• 6. 32:15 ch. 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2
• 7. 32:15 [1 Sam. 2:29]
• 8. 32:15 See ch. 31:20
• 9. 32:15 ch. 31:16
• 10. 32:15 ver. 6
• 11. 32:15 2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 89:26; 95:1
• 12. 32:16 Ps. 78:58; See Num. 25:11
• 13. 32:17 Ps. 106:37; [1 Cor. 10:20]
• 14. 32:17 [Judg. 5:8]
• 15. 32:18 2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 89:26; 95:1
• 16. 32:18 Isa. 17:10; Jer. 2:27, 32; Hos. 8:14
• 17. 32:19 [Judg. 2:14]
• 18. 32:19 [Isa. 1:2]
• 19. 32:20 See ch. 31:17
• 20. 32:21 Ps. 78:58; See Num. 25:11
• 21. 32:21 1 Kgs. 16:13, 26; Ps. 31:6; Jonah 2:8; Acts 14:15
• 22. 32:21 Cited Rom. 10:19; [Hos. 1:9, 10]
• 23. 32:21 [Ps. 74:18]
• 24. 32:22 Jer. 15:14; 17:4; Lam. 4:11
• 25. 32:22 Ps. 86:13
• 26. 32:23 Job 6:4; Ps. 7:12, 13; 38:2; Lam. 3:12, 13; Ezek. 5:16

Footnotes

• [a] 32:14 That is, with the best
• [b] 32:14 Hebrew 'with the kidney fat'
• [c] 32:18 Or 'fathered'