Deuteronomy 32 · WEB
The Song of Moses: Creation, Rebellion, Judgment, and Vindication
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Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
3For I will proclaim the LORD's name. Ascribe greatness to our God!
4The Rock—his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.
6Do you thus repay the LORD, you foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.
7Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples 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, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.
12So the LORD alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
13He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
14butter of cattle and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, the rams of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat; and of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You are obese and sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn't know, to new gods that came up recently, whom your fathers didn't dread.
18Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
19The LORD saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20He said, "I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22For a fire is kindled in my anger and burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
24They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust.
25Outside, the sword will bereave them; and in the rooms, terror will be on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the man of gray hair.
26I said, 'I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men';
27were it not that I feared the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, 'Our hand is exalted, and the LORD has not done all this.'"
28For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.
29Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had delivered them up?
31For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison. Their clusters are bitter.
33Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
34"Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that are to come on them shall make haste."
36For the LORD will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
37He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
38who 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 protection.
39"See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare: as I live forever,
41if I sharpen my glittering sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.
42I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh; with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy."
43Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
45When Moses had made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel,
46he said to them, "Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, even all the words of this law.
47For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it."
48The LORD spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
49"Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is over against Jericho, and see the land of Canaan which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.
50You shall die on the mountain where you go up and shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people,
51because you trespassed against me in the middle of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you didn't treat me as holy in the middle of the children of Israel.
52For you shall see the land from a distance, but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel."
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Summary
The Song of Moses is a magnificent poem covering Israel's entire story: God's perfection and faithfulness contrasted with Israel's corruption; God's tender founding and sustaining of Israel as his treasured people; Israel's betrayal through prosperity and idolatry; God's judgment through enemy nations; and God's ultimate vindication of his name and his people. The song was to be memorized and sung for generations — a permanent witness against Israel and for God. The chapter closes with God commanding Moses to ascend Mount Nebo to see the land and die.
Themes
- God as "the Rock" — the title used seven times in this song: unchanging, reliable, just
- The pattern of divine election, gracious provision, human betrayal, and divine judgment
- Prosperity as a spiritual hazard: "Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked"
- God's ultimate sovereignty over history — even judgment serves redemptive purposes
- The song as a theological witness: beauty as a vehicle for covenant truth
Key verses
- Deut 32:10-11 — “He found him in a desert land...He surrounded him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle that stirs up her nest...he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.”
- Deut 32:39 — “See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.”
- Deut 32:4 — “The Rock — his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
Context & background
The Song of Moses is one of the oldest pieces of Hebrew poetry in the Bible and one of the oldest literary texts in the world. The name "Jeshurun" (v. 15) is a poetic name for Israel meaning "the upright one" — deeply ironic in this context of betrayal. Mount Hor (where Aaron died) is traditionally identified with Jebel Haroun in modern Jordan, near Petra. Mount Nebo, where Moses is commanded to ascend, is in modern Jordan, about 10 km west of Madaba — visitors today can still climb Nebo and see a memorial marking the site of Moses' death. From its summit, the hills of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea are visible on a clear day. Paul quotes verse 43 in Romans 15:10, applying the "rejoice, you nations" to Gentile inclusion in the covenant people.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 10:30 — The author quotes Deut 32:35: "Vengeance is mine"
- Revelation 15:3 — The "Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb" in the heavenly worship scene
- Romans 10:19 — Paul quotes Deut 32:21 about provoking Israel to jealousy through "not a people"
- Romans 12:19 — Paul quotes Deut 32:35: "Leave room for God's wrath"
- Romans 15:10 — Paul quotes Deut 32:43 in his argument for Gentile inclusion