20“When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves oand grown fat, pthen they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant.
21“Then it shall be, qwhen many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for rI know the inclination sof their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.”
22Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
23tThen He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, u“Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
24So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished,
25that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying:
26“Take this Book of the Law, vand put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there was a witness against you;
27x“for I know your rebellion and your ystiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD, then how much more after my death?
28“Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing zand call heaven and earth to witness against them.
29“For I know that after my death you will abecome utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And bevil will befall you cin the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”
The Song of Moses
30Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:
Deuteronomy 32
The Song of Moses
1“Give aear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O bearth, the words of my mouth.
2Let cmy 1teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
d As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
3For I proclaim the ename of the LORD:
f Ascribe greatness to our God.
4He is gthe Rock, hHis work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
i A God of truth and jwithout injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.
5“Theyk have corrupted themselves;
They are not His children,
Because of their blemish:
A lperverse and crooked generation.
6Do you thus mdeal2 with the LORD,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is He not nyour Father, who obought you?
Has He not pmade you and established you?
7“Rememberq the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations.
r Ask your father, and he will show you;
Your elders, and they will tell you:
8When the Most High sdivided their inheritance to the nations,
When He tseparated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the 3children of Israel.
9For uthe LORD’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
10“He found him vin a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He wkept him as the 4apple of His eye.
11x As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12So the LORD alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
13“Hey made him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;
14Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
z With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
And you drank wine, the ablood of the grapes.
15“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
b You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he cforsook God who dmade him,
And scornfully esteemed the eRock of his salvation.
16f They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With 5abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17g They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18h Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have iforgotten the God who fathered you.
19“Andj when the LORD saw it, He spurned them,
Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
20And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
k Children in whom is no faith.
21l They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger mby their 6foolish idols.
But nI will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
22For oa fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the 7lowest 8hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23‘I will pheap disasters on them;
q I will spend My arrows on them.
24They shall be wasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
I will also send against them the rteeth of beasts,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25The sword shall destroy outside;
There shall be terror within
For the young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26s I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,
I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
27Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
Lest they should say, t“Our hand is high;
And it is not the LORD who has done all this.” ’
28“For they are a nation void of counsel,
Nor is there any understanding in them.
29u Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their vlatter end!
30How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock whad sold them,
And the LORD had surrendered them?
31For their rock is not like our Rock,
x Even our enemies themselves being judges.
32For ytheir 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 zthe poison of serpents,
And the cruel avenom of cobras.
34‘ Is this not blaid up in store with Me,
Sealed up among My treasures?
35c Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
d For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’
36“Fore the LORD will judge His peo
ple
f And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And gthere is no one remaining, bond or free.
37He will say: h‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you,
And be your refuge.
39‘Now see that iI, even I, am He,
And jthere is no God besides Me;
k I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.
40For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “As I live forever,
41l If I 9whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And 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 heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’
43“Rejoice,m O Gentiles, with His 10people;
For He will navenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He owill provide atonement for His land and His people.”
44So Moses came with 11Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
45Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
46and he said to them: p“Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your qchildren to be careful to observe—all the words of this law.
47“For it is not a 12futile thing for you, because it is your rlife, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
Moses to Die on Mount Nebo
48Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying:
49s“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession;
50“and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be 13gathered to your people, just as tAaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;
51“because uyou trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of 14Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you vdid not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel.
52w“Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”
Deuteronomy 33
Moses’ Final Blessing on Israel
1Now this is athe blessing with which Moses bthe man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
2And he said:
c“The LORD came from Sinai,
And dawned on them from dSeir;
He shone forth from eMount Paran,
And He came with ften thousands of saints;
From His right hand
Came a fiery law for them.
3Yes, gHe loves the people;
h All His saints are in Your hand;
They isit down at Your feet;
Everyone jreceives Your words.
4k Moses 1commanded a law for us,
l A heritage of the congregation of Jacob.
5And He was mKing in nJeshurun,
When the leaders of the people were gathered,
All the tribes of Israel together.
6“Let oReuben live, and not die,
Nor let his men be few.”
7And this he said of pJudah:
“Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah,
And bring him to his people;
q Let his hands be sufficient for him,
And may You be ra help against his enemies.”
8And of sLevi he said:
t“ Let Your 2Thummim and Your Urim be with Your holy one,
u Whom You tested at Massah,
And with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah,
9v Who says of his father and mother,
‘I have not wseen them’;
x Nor did he acknowledge his brothers,
Or know his own children;
For ythey have observed Your word
And kept Your covenant.
10z They shall teach Jacob Your judgments,
And Israel Your law.
They shall put incense before You,
a And a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.
11Bless his substance, LORD,
And baccept the work of his hands;
Strike the loins of those who rise against him,
And of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”
12Of Benjamin he said:
“The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by Him,
Who shelters him all the day long;
And he shall dwell between His shoulders.”
13And of Joseph he said:
c“Blessed of the LORD is his land,
With the precious things of heaven, with the ddew,
And the deep lying beneath,
14With the precious fruits of the sun,
With the precious produce of the months,
15With the best things of ethe ancient mountains,
With the precious things fof the everlasting hills,
16With the precious things of the earth and its fullness,
And the favor of gHim who dwelt in the bush.
Let the blessing come h‘on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.’
17His glory is like a ifirstborn bull,
And his horns like the jhorns of the wild ox;
Together with them
k He shall push the peoples
To the ends of the earth;
l They are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.”
18And of Zebulun he said:
m“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
And Issachar in your tents!
19They shall ncall the peoples to the mountain;
There othey shall offer sacrifices of righteousness;
For they shall partake of the abundance of the seas
And of treasures hidden in the sand.”
20And of Gad he said:
“Blessed is he who penlarges Gad;
He dwells as a lion,
And tears the arm and the crown of his head.
21q He provided the first part for himself,
Because a lawgiver’s portion was reserved there.
r He came with the heads of the people;
He administered the justice of the LORD,
And His judgments with Israel.”
22And of Dan he said:
“Dan is a lion’s whelp;
s He shall leap from Bashan.”
23And of Naphtali he said:
“O Naphtali, tsatisfied with favor,
And full of the blessing of the LORD,
u Possess the west and the south.”
24And of Asher he said:
v“Asher is most blessed of sons;
Let him be favored by his brothers,
And let him wdip his foot in oil.
25Your sandals shall be xiron and bronze;
As your days, so shall your strength be.
26“ There is yno one like the God of zJeshurun,
a Who rides the heavens to help you,
And in His excellency on the clouds.
27The eternal God is your brefuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
c He will thrust out the enemy from before you,
And will say, ‘Destroy!’
28Then dIsrael shall dwell in safety,
e The fount
ain of Jacob falone,
In a land of grain and new wine;
His gheavens shall also drop dew.
29h Happy are you, O Israel!
i Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD,
j The shield of your help
And the sword of your majesty!
Your enemies kshall submit to you,
And lyou shall tread down their 3high places.”
Deuteronomy 34
Moses Dies on Mount Nebo
1Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab ato Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan,
2all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the 1Western Sea,
3the South, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho, bthe city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
4Then the LORD said to him, c“This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ dI have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”
5eSo Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.
6And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but fno one knows his grave to this day.
7gMoses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. hHis 2eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor 3diminished.
8And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab ithirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended.
9Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the jspirit of wisdom, for kMoses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
10But since then there lhas not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, mwhom the LORD knew face to face,
11in all nthe signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land,
12and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
Deuteronomy Commentaries
Deuteronomy 1
1:1–4 This introduction gives the setting of Deuteronomy and its purpose.
1:1 the words which Moses spoke. Almost all of Deuteronomy consists of speeches given by Moses at the end of his life. According to v. 3, Moses acted upon the authority of God since his inspired words were in accordance with the commandments that God had given. to all Israel. This expression is used 12 times in this book and emphasizes the unity of Israel, and the universal applications of these words. the plain opposite Suph. Except for Jordan and the Arabah (see marginal note), the exact location of the places named in 1:1 is not known with certainty, although they may have been along Israel’s route N from the Gulf of Aqabah (cf. Num. 33). The plain referred to is the large rift valley that extends from the Sea of Galilee in the N to the Gulf of Aqabah in the S. Israel was encamped to the E of the Jordan River in this valley.
The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV Page 99