Deuteronomy 32:4-14

4 ¹“The Rock, ²his work is perfect, for ³all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and ⁴without iniquity, just and upright is he.

5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children ⁵because they are blemished; they are ⁶a crooked and twisted generation.

6 Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he ⁷your father, who ⁸created you, who ⁹made you and established you?

7 ¹⁰Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ¹¹ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.

8 When the Most High ¹²gave to the nations their inheritance, when he ¹³divided mankind, he fixed the borders^[a] of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. ^[b]

9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

10 “He found him ¹⁴in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he ¹⁵encircled him, he cared for him, he ¹⁶kept him as the apple of his eye.

11 ¹⁷Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions,

12 ¹⁸the Lord alone guided him, ¹⁹no foreign god was with him.

13 ²⁰He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with ²¹honey out of the rock, and ²²oil out of ²³the flinty rock.

14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat^[c] of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest^[d] of the wheat—and you drank foaming wine made from ²⁴the blood of the grape.

Deuteronomy 32:4-14 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. 32:4 ver. 15, 18, 30, 31, 37; Ps. 18:2, 31; Isa. 30:29; Hab. 1:12; See 2 Sam. 22:2
• 2. 32:4 [Ps. 18:30]
• 3. 32:4 Dan. 4:37; Rev. 15:3
• 4. 32:4 Job 34:10
• 5. 32:5 [2 Pet. 2:13]
• 6. 32:5 Matt. 17:17; Luke 9:41; Phil. 2:15
• 7. 32:6 Isa. 63:16; 64:8
• 8. 32:6 Ps. 74:2
• 9. 32:6 ver. 15; Isa. 44:2; 51:13
• 10. 32:7 [Isa. 63:11]
• 11. 32:7 Ps. 44:1
• 12. 32:8 Acts 17:26
• 13. 32:8 Gen. 11:8
• 14. 32:10 ch. 8:15; Jer. 2:6; Hos. 13:5
• 15. 32:10 Ps. 32:10
• 16. 32:10 Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2; Zech. 2:8
• 17. 32:11 Ex. 19:4
• 18. 32:12 Ps. 78:52, 53
• 19. 32:12 Isa. 43:12
• 20. 32:13 Isa. 58:14; Ezek. 36:2
• 21. 32:13 Ps. 81:16
• 22. 32:13 Job 29:6
• 23. 32:13 ch. 8:15
• 24. 32:14 Gen. 49:11

Footnotes

• [a] 32:8 Or 'territories'
• [b] 32:8 Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text 'sons of Israel'
• [c] 32:14 That is, with the best
• [d] 32:14 Hebrew 'with the kidney fat'