Commentary - Deuteronomy 32:1-43

Bird's-eye view

The Song of Moses is the capstone of his ministry, a prophetic oracle delivered on the plains of Moab just before Israel crossed the Jordan. This is not a sentimental farewell ballad; it is a formal, covenantal lawsuit set to music. Its purpose was intensely practical: God commanded Moses to write it and teach it to the Israelites so that it would serve as a future witness against them when they inevitably turned to idolatry. The song, therefore, functions as a prophetic indictment, verdict, and sentence all in one. It opens by calling heaven and earth to witness the trial. It then extols the perfect character and faithfulness of God, repeatedly called "the Rock," contrasting His steadfastness with the corrupt, faithless, and foolish nature of His people. The song details how God's lavish blessings would lead to Israel's apostasy, Jeshurun waxing fat and kicking. This rebellion provokes God's holy jealousy, leading Him to execute covenant curses, raising up a "foolish nation" to discipline them. Yet, the song does not end in judgment. It concludes with God's ultimate vindication of His people, not because of their merit, but for the sake of His own name and glory. He alone is God, and He will have the last word, bringing vengeance on His adversaries and making atonement for His land and people, a finale that includes the rejoicing of the Gentiles.

In essence, this song is a condensed summary of Israel's future history, a theological anchor designed to be memorized and sung, ensuring that when the predicted apostasy and judgment came, they would have no excuse. They would be singing the very words that condemned their actions, a constant, lyrical reminder of God's faithfulness and their own treachery.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

The Song of Moses is strategically placed at the very end of the book of Deuteronomy, which itself is a record of Moses' final sermons to the generation poised to enter the Promised Land. After renewing the covenant (Deut 29), commissioning Joshua (Deut 31:1-8, 14-15, 23), and making provision for the regular reading of the Law (Deut 31:9-13), God gives Moses this song as a final, enduring testimony. It follows the explicit prediction from God that Israel will, after enjoying the blessings of the land, break the covenant and turn to other gods (Deut 31:16-21). The song is thus a divine preemptive strike against Israel's future excuses. It is to be lodged in their hearts and mouths, a permanent internal witness. It precedes only the final blessing of the tribes (Deut 33) and the account of Moses' death (Deut 34). It is, in effect, Moses' last word of warning and his ultimate prophetic statement, encapsulating the entire tragic and glorious sweep of Israel's covenant history before it even unfolds in the land.

Key Issues

A Song for the Courtroom

We must not mistake this for a simple hymn of praise or a lament. The Song of Moses is a legal document, a formal indictment. The setting is a courtroom, and the stakes are life and death. Moses begins by summoning the oldest witnesses imaginable, the heavens and the earth, to hear the proceedings. This is standard treaty language in the ancient Near East, where cosmic elements were called to witness the solemn oaths of kings. Here, the King of Heaven calls creation itself to witness His case against His own people.

The entire song follows the structure of a covenant lawsuit (rîb pattern). First, the witnesses are summoned (v. 1). Second, the character and past faithfulness of the suzerain (God) are rehearsed (vv. 4, 7-14). Third, the infidelity of the vassal (Israel) is detailed (vv. 5, 15-18). Fourth, the covenant curses that will result from this infidelity are pronounced (vv. 19-35). Finally, there is a promise of ultimate restoration, based not on the vassal's worthiness but on the suzerain's own reputation and honor (vv. 36-43). God put this legal brief into the form of a song to make it memorable. Israel was to carry their own indictment on their lips down through the centuries. Whenever they sang it, they were testifying against themselves.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

The song opens with a grand, cosmic summons. Moses, speaking for God, calls the entire created order to serve as the jury in this covenant lawsuit. Heaven and earth were present when God made His covenant with Israel, and they will endure to see Israel's faithfulness or lack thereof. This is not mere poetic flourish; it establishes the gravity of the occasion. The case to be presented is of universal significance.

2 “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb.

Before delivering the substance of the song, Moses prays for its effect. He desires his words, which are God's words, to be like life-giving rain and dew. This is ironic, given the harsh message of judgment to come. But the ultimate purpose of God's word, even His word of judgment, is restorative. The law, the warnings, the curses, they are all intended to fall on the people not to destroy them ultimately, but to produce life, just as rain on parched ground. The goal is repentance and restoration.

3 “For I proclaim the name of the LORD; Ascribe greatness to our God!

Here is the central theme and purpose of the song. It is a proclamation of the name, the character, the reputation, the glory, of Yahweh. Whatever happens to Israel, whether blessing or curse, the ultimate outcome will be that God's greatness is put on display. Israel's story is the theater for the demonstration of God's attributes. The people are called to join in this ascription of greatness, even as the song details their own failures.

4 “The Rock, His work is perfect, For all His ways are justice; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.

The case begins with an affirmation of the plaintiff's character. God is introduced with the first of many uses of the title "the Rock." He is stable, unchanging, reliable, a fortress of salvation. Everything He does is perfect. All His ways are just. He is defined by faithfulness (emunah), and there is no injustice in Him at all. He is righteous and upright. This establishes the baseline for the lawsuit. If things go wrong in this covenant relationship, the fault cannot lie with God. His character is flawless.

5 “They have acted corruptly toward Him, They are not His children, because of their defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation.

Immediately, the character of the defendant, Israel, is contrasted with God's. While God is perfect, they are corrupt. While He is faithful, they are defective. The language is blunt: their actions have demonstrated that they are not truly His children. Their blemish, their defect, has revealed their true nature. They are a "perverse and crooked generation," a phrase the New Testament writers will pick up to describe those who reject Christ. The charge is laid: the fault lies entirely with them.

6 “Do you thus repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.

Moses now addresses the people directly with a series of rhetorical questions designed to expose their ingratitude. Their rebellion is not just a legal infraction; it is utter foolishness. How could they treat their own Father this way? He is the one who "bought" them, a reference to the redemption from Egypt. He is the one who "made" them as a nation and "established" them. Their very existence is a gift of His grace, and they are repaying that grace with contempt.

7-9 “Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

The song now turns to history as evidence of God's faithfulness. Israel is commanded to remember their story. The central truth is God's sovereign election. Long before Israel existed as a nation, when God was scattering the nations after Babel (separating the sons of man), His plan for Israel was already central. He arranged the geography and boundaries of all other nations with an eye toward the future space His chosen people would occupy. This is a staggering claim of God's providence. The entire history of the world revolves around God's purpose for His people. Why? Because Israel is Yahweh's special "portion," His chosen inheritance.

10-12 “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That flutters over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. The LORD alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him.

The imagery shifts from God the sovereign King to God the tender protector. He found Jacob in the wilderness, not a desirable place, but a "howling waste." There, He surrounded them, cared for them, and guarded them with the utmost tenderness, as a man guards the pupil of his own eye. The beautiful simile of the eagle follows. An eagle teaches its young to fly by stirring the nest, forcing them out, but then fluttering beneath them, ready to catch them on its powerful wings. This is what God did for Israel in the wilderness, training them, testing them, but always supporting them. And He did this all by Himself. No other god helped. Their deliverance and preservation were due to Yahweh alone.

13-14 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And He made him suck honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock, Curds of cows, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the finest of the wheat, And of the blood of grapes you drank wine.

The evidence continues, moving from protection in the wilderness to extravagant provision in the land. God gave them victory ("ride on the high places") and incredible agricultural abundance. The language is poetic and hyperbolic to emphasize the sheer lavishness of God's blessing. Honey from the rock and oil from flinty rock suggest miraculous provision in unlikely places. They would have the best of everything: the best dairy, the best meat (fat lambs and rams of Bashan), the best grain, and the best wine. God held nothing back. He showered them with goodness.

15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked, You are grown fat, thick, and sleek, Then he forsook God who made him, And scorned the Rock of his salvation.

Here is the tragic turning point of the song, the great pivot from grace to apostasy. "Jeshurun" is a poetic term of endearment for Israel, likely meaning "the upright one." The irony is thick and bitter. The very uprightness that was Israel's calling is what they abandoned. God's blessings, intended to produce gratitude, instead produced pride and rebellion. Like a well-fed animal that becomes unruly, Israel "grew fat and kicked." Prosperity led directly to apostasy. They forsook the very God who made them and treated the Rock of their salvation with contempt.

16-17 “They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread.

The nature of their rebellion was idolatry. They provoked God to "jealousy." This is covenantal language. God is the husband, and Israel is the bride. Idolatry is spiritual adultery, and it provokes the righteous jealousy of the faithful husband. Their sin was particularly egregious. They sacrificed to demons, not just to blocks of wood and stone. They abandoned the God they knew for gods they didn't know, trendy "new gods" that their forefathers, the patriarchs, had never revered. Their apostasy was both treacherous and stupid.

18 “You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who gave you birth.

Moses returns to the central metaphors. They neglected the Rock who was their source, their stability. They forgot the God who had birthed them as a nation. The sin is presented as a profound act of ungrateful amnesia. They willfully erased the memory of their own origin and salvation.

19-22 “The LORD saw this, and spurned them, Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters. Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Now comes the verdict and sentence. God saw their sin and "spurned them." His response is to "hide His face," which means withdrawing His favor and protection. He will let them go their own way to see what the disastrous "end" of their rebellion will be. The punishment is exquisitely tailored to the crime, a perfect example of divine justice and irony. They made Him jealous with a "not-god," so He will make them jealous with a "not-a-people." They provoked Him with foolish idols, so He will provoke them with a "foolish nation." God will raise up an insignificant, pagan nation to be His instrument of chastisement. The apostle Paul will later apply this very text to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the church (Rom 10:19). God's anger is not a fleeting emotion; it is a consuming fire that reaches from the heights to the depths of Sheol, a holy and terrifying wrath against sin.

23-25 ‘I will heap misfortunes on them; I will use My arrows on them. They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust. Outside the sword will bereave, And inside, terror, For both young man and virgin, The nursing child with the man of gray hair.

The covenant curses are now listed in horrifying detail. These are God's "arrows" of judgment: famine, plague, wild beasts, poisonous snakes, and war. The judgment will be total, affecting everyone without distinction, the sword killing in the streets and terror pervading the homes, taking young and old alike. This is the outworking of the curses promised earlier in Deuteronomy (Ch. 28).

26-27 ‘I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces, I will remove the memory of them from men,” Had I not feared the provocation of the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misjudge, Lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant, And the LORD has not done all this.”’

Here is a crucial theological turning point. God's judgment, as terrible as it is, will be restrained. He says He would have utterly annihilated them, except for one thing: His own reputation among the nations. If He completely destroyed Israel, their pagan enemies would misinterpret the event. They would boast that their own power and their own gods had triumphed, failing to recognize that they were merely instruments in Yahweh's hand. God's concern for His own glory is the ultimate backstop that prevents Israel's total destruction.

28-33 “For they are a nation void of counsel, And there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this; They would discern their future. How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the LORD had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this. For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, And the cruel poison of cobras.

Moses now speaks of the foolishness of both Israel and their enemies. Israel is "void of counsel," unable to understand that their defeat is from God. If they were wise, they would see that their military collapse, where one enemy chases a thousand of them, is a supernatural reversal of the covenant blessing (Lev 26:8). This can only happen because their Rock has "sold them." Even their enemies should be able to see that Israel's God is superior to their own idols ("their rock is not like our Rock"). But the pagan nations are themselves corrupt, their character as poisonous as the fruit of Sodom and Gomorrah.

34-35 ‘Is not this stored up with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries? Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the things prepared for them are hurrying.

God is speaking again. The guilt of the nations He uses to punish Israel is not forgotten. It is "stored up" with Him, like a record in a treasury, awaiting the proper time for judgment. He declares the great principle that the New Testament quotes multiple times: "Vengeance is Mine." God alone has the right and the wisdom to execute ultimate justice. The pagan nations, gloating over Israel, are themselves on slippery ground. Their day of calamity is also near.

36-39 “For the LORD will vindicate His people, And will have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their strength is gone, And there is none remaining, bond or free. And He will say, ‘Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your hiding place! See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal; And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

The song moves toward its climax of restoration. God will ultimately "vindicate" His people. He will have compassion when they are brought to their absolute lowest point, when all their own strength is gone. At that moment of utter helplessness, God will mock their idolatry. He will ask where the gods they trusted in are. Let those gods, who feasted on their offerings, come and save them now. Of course, they cannot. This sets the stage for God's majestic declaration of His own unique sovereignty. "I, I am He." He alone is God. He is the one who controls life and death, wounding and healing. His power is absolute.

40-42 ‘Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever, If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold of judgment, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword will devour flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’

God now takes a solemn oath, lifting His hand to heaven and swearing by His own eternal existence. He promises to execute vengeance on His adversaries, which now refers to the pagan nations who oppressed Israel and defied Him. The language is that of a divine warrior, sharpening His sword and preparing His arrows. The judgment will be fierce and total.

43 “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will make atonement for His land and His people.”

The song concludes with a surprising and glorious invitation. The nations, the Gentiles, are called to rejoice with God's people. This is a radical thought at the end of a song that has detailed so much conflict between Israel and the nations. Why should they rejoice? Because the one true God is bringing justice to the world. He is avenging the righteous and judging His adversaries. And most importantly, He "will make atonement" for His land and His people. The final note is one of reconciliation and cleansing, a hope that extends beyond the borders of Israel to include the nations. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 15:10 as a prophecy of the gospel going to the Gentiles. The final restoration will be an international celebration of God's saving justice.

Application

The Song of Moses is a sobering mirror for the church today. The central warning is that blessing and prosperity are spiritually dangerous. Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. When God blesses us with peace, wealth, and comfort, our natural inclination is not toward gratitude but toward self-sufficiency, pride, and forgetfulness. We begin to think we have secured these things for ourselves, and we subtly, or not so subtly, forsake the Rock of our salvation for the flimsy idols of our age: security, entertainment, political power, or personal autonomy. This song forces us to ask whether we are repaying the Lord's goodness with foolishness.

Second, this song is a profound lesson in the sovereignty of God. God is in control of both the blessings and the curses. He raises up nations to bless and raises up other nations to judge. He wounds and He heals. There are no accidents in history. This should give us a profound sense of stability in chaotic times. Our ultimate hope does not rest on our own faithfulness, which, like Israel's, is fickle at best. Our hope rests on the character of our God, the unshakeable Rock, who has sworn to vindicate His people for the sake of His own great name.

Finally, the song ends with the gospel. The final word is not vengeance but atonement. And this atonement is so powerful that it draws in the very nations that were once the instruments of judgment. The call for the nations to rejoice with His people is a direct pointer to the work of Christ, who broke down the dividing wall of hostility and made one new man out of two. The story of Israel's failure is our story, but the story of God's triumphant, atoning grace is our story as well. We are the Gentiles who have been invited to the party, and our only proper response is to join the song, ascribing greatness to our God.