Deuteronomy 32

KJV · Chapter 32/34

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

2My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

3Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

5They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.

6Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

7Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

8When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

9For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

10He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

11As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

12So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

13He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

14Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

15But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

16They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.

17They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

18Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

19And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.

20And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

22For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.

24They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

25The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

26I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:

27Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this.

28For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.

29O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

30How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?

31For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

33Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

34Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?

35To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

36For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.

37And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,

38Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

39See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

40For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.

41If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.

42I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

43Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

44And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.

45And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:

46And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

47For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

48And the Lord spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,

49Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:

50And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:

51Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah–Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.

52Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Moses recites the extensive Song of Moses, a powerful and poetic recounting of God's faithfulness set against Israel's foreseeable unfaithfulness, ending with a prophetic vision of judgment and, finally, God's restoration and vindication of his people.

Explanation

This song functions as a condensed poetic and theological summary of the entire Torah: it begins by celebrating God's perfect character as 'the Rock' (a metaphor for stability and reliability used repeatedly), recounts the story of God's care for Israel from the wilderness to the promised land, and then anticipates with painful precision how prosperity would lead to spiritual complacency and the abandonment of God for empty idols. The image of God as an eagle who 'stirs up her nest... spreads abroad her wings, takes them up, and bears them on her wings' (v. 11) is one of the most tender and maternal metaphors in all of Scripture for God's protective care over his people. Despite the severe tone of judgment through most of the song, it ends in hope: God would ultimately have compassion and vindicate his people against the enemies who oppressed them, showing that divine discipline would never be the final word.

Fun facts

  • This song uses the poetic name 'Jeshurun' (meaning roughly 'the upright one' or 'the just one') to refer to Israel (v. 15), a rare term used only four times in the entire Bible, always in elevated poetic contexts about the people's idealized identity.
  • The line 'I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal' (v. 39) is one of the most direct statements in the Bible about God's absolute sovereignty over life and death, and it is echoed in 1 Samuel 2:6 in Hannah's song, showing how this theological theme recurred in Hebrew poetry across different eras.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Deuteronomy 32:1Opens the Song of Moses by calling heaven and earth as audience and witnesses — a grand poetic opening for the book’s final hymn.
  2. Deuteronomy 32:2Compares his own teaching to rain and dew falling on the grass: an image of something that nourishes gently, without forcing.
  3. Deuteronomy 32:3States the song’s purpose right from the start: to proclaim God’s name and exalt Him before everyone.
  4. Deuteronomy 32:4Calls God “the Rock” for the first time in the poem — a symbol of firmness and reliability — describing Him as perfect, just, and without fault.
  5. Deuteronomy 32:5Contrasts God’s perfection with the people’s corruption, called here a crooked and twisted generation, unworthy of being called His children.
  6. Deuteronomy 32:6Asks with irony how the people could repay such care with foolishness, recalling that it was God who formed them, like a father.
  7. Deuteronomy 32:7Invites them to look to the past through the memory of the elders, an old way of preserving history without written records.
  8. Deuteronomy 32:8The phrase about God dividing the nations “according to the number” of the children of Israel has an important variant: some ancient manuscripts, such as those from Qumran, and the Greek translation read “sons of God” instead, suggesting an older image of a divine council apportioning the peoples. Scholars still debate which version is the more original.
  9. Deuteronomy 32:9Uses the image of “portion” and “the lot of his inheritance” — terms for dividing land — to describe Jacob as God’s own special possession.
  10. Deuteronomy 32:10Describes finding Israel in an empty, hostile wilderness, cared for as the most precious and protected part of the body: the apple of the eye.
  11. Deuteronomy 32:11Compares God’s care to that of an eagle teaching its young to fly, carrying them on its own wings.
  12. Deuteronomy 32:12Reinforces that this guidance came from God alone, without any help or interference from a foreign god.
  13. Deuteronomy 32:13Describes the abundance of the promised land in rich imagery: riding on the heights, honey flowing from the rock, oil from the flinty stone.
  14. Deuteronomy 32:14Continues the poetic feast with butter, milk, rams of Bashan, and “the blood of the grape” — a poetic way of describing wine.
  15. Deuteronomy 32:15“Jeshurun” is a poetic nickname for Israel, something like “the upright one,” used here in an almost ironic way: the people grew fat on the blessings and “kicked,” forgetting who had sustained them.
  16. Deuteronomy 32:16Describes idolatry as something that stirs up jealousy in God, comparing it to a betrayal within a loving relationship.
  17. Deuteronomy 32:17Calls the foreign gods “devils,” new and unknown gods that not even the ancestors feared.
  18. Deuteronomy 32:18Again uses the image of God as the Rock who fathered the people, now forgotten — an accusation of deep ingratitude.
  19. Deuteronomy 32:19Describes God’s reaction to seeing this unfaithfulness: an angry rejection of His own sons and daughters.
  20. Deuteronomy 32:20God decides to hide His face from the people, leaving them to themselves to see where this disloyalty would lead.
  21. Deuteronomy 32:21Creates a poetic parallel of revenge: just as the people provoked God with false gods, God would provoke the people by using an insignificant nation.
  22. Deuteronomy 32:22Uses the image of a fire spreading from God’s anger down to the depths of the earth, consuming everything in its path.
  23. Deuteronomy 32:23Describes the punishment as a rain of arrows and piled-up disasters against the unfaithful people.
  24. Deuteronomy 32:24Lists hunger, plagues, disease, and even “the teeth of beasts” and serpents’ venom as part of the poetic punishment.
  25. Deuteronomy 32:25Describes the devastation striking everyone, without regard to age: young men, young women, nursing children, and the elderly.
  26. Deuteronomy 32:26God even considers scattering the people so completely that their memory would vanish from humanity.
  27. Deuteronomy 32:27But He holds back that impulse for a strategic reason: not to give the enemies the false impression that they won on their own, without God.
  28. Deuteronomy 32:28Criticizes Israel’s enemies as a nation without counsel and without understanding, despite their apparent victories.
  29. Deuteronomy 32:29Laments that Israel’s own people also lacked the wisdom to understand what these consequences meant.
  30. Deuteronomy 32:30Asks rhetorically how a single enemy could defeat a thousand, unless their “Rock” (God) had handed the people over because of their unfaithfulness.
  31. Deuteronomy 32:31Ironically contrasts the enemies’ “rock” (their gods) with the true Rock, admitting that even the adversaries can see the difference.
  32. Deuteronomy 32:32Compares the enemies to a vine from Sodom and Gomorrah, producing bitter, poisonous grapes — a symbol of total corruption.
  33. Deuteronomy 32:33Continues the image with wine compared to serpents’ venom, reinforcing the destructive nature of these peoples.
  34. Deuteronomy 32:34God declares that all this judgment is already stored up and sealed, like a treasure reserved for the right moment.
  35. Deuteronomy 32:35Claims vengeance as God’s exclusive right, promising that the enemies’ ruin is near and unavoidable.
  36. Deuteronomy 32:36Promises that, in spite of everything, God will bring justice to His people and have compassion when He sees their utter weakness.
  37. Deuteronomy 32:37Anticipates an ironic question from God to the people: where are the foreign gods they trusted so much?
  38. Deuteronomy 32:38Continues the irony: these idols that ate the fat of sacrifices and drank the wine of offerings should now help, if they could.
  39. Deuteronomy 32:39The declaration “I kill,” and make alive, is one of the most direct statements in the book about God’s uniqueness: no other power, over life or death, rivals Him.
  40. Deuteronomy 32:40God swears by His own eternity, lifting His hand to heaven as a solemn gesture of oath-taking.
  41. Deuteronomy 32:41Uses the image of sharpening a glittering sword to describe the sure vengeance against God’s adversaries.
  42. Deuteronomy 32:42Intensifies the war imagery with arrows soaked in blood and a sword that devours flesh — vivid battle poetry.
  43. Deuteronomy 32:43Ends the song by calling the nations to rejoice together with Israel, since God would avenge the blood that was shed and have mercy on the land.
  44. Deuteronomy 32:44Marks the moment when Moses publicly recites the entire song, accompanied by Joshua (called here Hoshea, his original name).
  45. Deuteronomy 32:45Formally concludes the recitation of the song before all the people of Israel.
  46. Deuteronomy 32:46Moses asks for full attention to the words spoken, so that they would be taught to the children and carefully put into practice.
  47. Deuteronomy 32:47Reinforces that these words are not empty: they are the very life of the people, the guarantee of a long stay in the promised land.
  48. Deuteronomy 32:48Marks a new word from God to Moses, that same day, preparing the announcement of his imminent death.
  49. Deuteronomy 32:49God tells Moses to go up Mount Nebo, in the Abarim range, to view Canaan from a distance, without being able to enter it.
  50. Deuteronomy 32:50Moses is reminded here of the exact reason he will not enter the land: the episode at Meribah, when he struck the rock instead of simply speaking to it, told earlier in Numbers 20. The detail reinforces that not even the people’s greatest leader was exempt from the consequence of that moment.
  51. Deuteronomy 32:51Repeats the reason for the punishment: Moses’ disobedience at the waters of Meribah, in Kadesh, when he did not honor God’s holiness in front of the people.
  52. Deuteronomy 32:52Closes the chapter confirming Moses’ fate: to see the promised land from a distance, but never to set foot on it.

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