LISTEN
32 1Listen, skies, so I may speak and let the earth hear what my mouth says.
2Let my teaching come down like showers; let my saying emerge like dew, like raindrops on plants and like rainfalls on herbs.
32:2. plants. This word, too, occurs among the first words of the Torah and does not occur again until its appearance here. In Genesis, God causes the earth to produce plants by His word (Gen 1:11–12). Now Moses turns this image and sings of his words dropping like rain on the plants.
3When I call YHWH’s name, avow our God’s greatness.
4The Rock: His work is unblemished, for all His ways are judgment. A God of trust, and without injustice, He’s virtuous and right.
32:4. The Rock. The first letter of the word is oversized in the Torah, possibly to distinguish it from other uses in the song. The song plays on this word, using it seven more times with several different meanings.
5It corrupted at Him—not His children, their flaw— a crooked and twisted generation.
32:5. It corrupted at Him—not His children, their flaw. The noun, Hebrew mûm, means an injury of the sort that makes a man unacceptable for the priesthood, or an animal unacceptable for sacrifice. Here I understand it to be some such damage in humans’ nature, as God and Moses have just said (31:21,27,29). It is not humans, “His children,” as such, but rather this inherent shortcoming in their nature that brings about corruption in the eyes of the deity.
6Is it to YHWH that you repay like this?! Foolish people and unwise! Isn’t He your father, who created you, He who made you and reared you?
32:6. Is it to YHWH … ?! The first letter (the Hebrew interrogative h, which makes the line a question) is oversized in many manuscripts. This seems to underscore the question, to make it incredible: “You’d repay God this way?!”
7Remember the days of old. Grasp the years through generations. Ask your father, and he’ll tell you, your elders, and they’ll say to you:
8When the Highest gave nations legacies, when He dispersed humankind, He set the peoples’ borders to the number of the children of Israel.
32:8. dispersed humankind. The term “dispersed” refers to the separation of humankind into nations in Genesis (10:5,18,32; 25:23).
32:8. to the number of the children of Israel. In light of the other occurrences of the phrase “to the number” in the Tanak (Josh 4:5,8; Judg 21:23), it means here “equal to the number of the children of Israel.” This makes little sense: that the number of nations is equal to the number of the children of Israel. Traditional commentators have taken this to mean that there are seventy nations (as in Genesis 10), matching the seventy souls of Jacob’s (Israel’s) family who go to Egypt (Exod 1:5), or that there are twelve Canaanite peoples, matching Israel’s twelve sons.
Contemporary scholars have taken account of a Qumran (Dead Sea) scroll (4QDeutj) that says instead: “to the number of the children of the gods” (or “children of God”—b
nê ’l
hîm). The phrase “children [or: sons] of the gods” normally means: the gods. Scholars have hypothesized that this was the original reading of this verse and that later scribes or editors were distressed by this meaning so they changed “children of the gods” to “children of Israel.” If so, then the original meaning was that God allotted a nation to each of the gods—and He took Israel as His own people. Thus the next verse reads: “YHWH’s portion is Israel.” One may take this to mean that the author of this song believed that there were in fact other gods but that YHWH was supreme. (This is known as henotheism, a step between polytheism and monotheism.) Or one may understand it to mean that the author’s view was that YHWH allotted the peoples their gods in whom to believe, but that these gods did not really exist.
To complicate this picture further, the Greek text reads “to the number of the angels of God.” And there are cases in which the bnê ’lhîm are thought to be the angels (Gen 6:2; Job 1:6). It is likely that the Greek translator had the “children of the gods” reading and changed it to “angels of God” to establish that these were in fact the angels and not the pagan gods. On this understanding of the bnê ’lhîm, God allots a nation to each of the angels but retains Israel for Himself.
I believe that Psalm 82 is particularly relevant to this matter. It pictures the following: “God is standing in the divine council. He judges among the gods” (82:1). In this extraordinary scene, God criticizes the gods for failing to judge justly, and He takes away their immortality, condemning them to die like humans: “I had said you are gods, children of the Highest, all of you; but you shall die like a human!” (82:6). Whether meant literally or figuratively, this psalm tells a myth of the death of the gods. And note that it refers to God as “the Highest” (‘elyn), as in our verse here in the Song of Moses (and it refers to the gods as the children of the Highest); and it ends with God giving legacies to the nations (82:8)—which is also what our verse here says: “When the Highest gave nations legacies....” It is likely, therefore, that the passage in the Song of Moses reflects the idea of Psalm 82: that there once were lesser gods along with YHWH, and that each was the god of a people, but they were inadequate, and they no longer exist. This may have been believed literally, or it may have been conceived as an answer to those who asked, “What happened to the gods we used to worship?” Or it may have been conceived as a metaphor for the replacement of the belief in many gods by the belief in one.
9For YHWH’s portion is His people. Jacob is the share of His legacy.
10He found it in a wilderness land and in a formless place, a howling desert. He surrounded it. He attended to it. He guarded it, like the pupil of his eye.
32:10. a formless place. Hebrew tôhû. The word has not occurred since its mention at the very beginning of the Torah: “the earth had been formless and shapeless” (Gen 1:2). Now Israel’s environment in the wilderness is pictured comparably to the condition of the universe prior to the acts of creation: a condition of chaos.
11As an eagle stirs its nest, hovers over its young, spreads its wings, takes it, lifts it on its pinion,
32:11. hovers. This word, too, occurred in Gen 1:2 (see the preceding comment) and never again in the Torah until its appearance here. YHWH’s protection of Israel in its infancy in the wilderness (like an eagle hovering over its young) is pictured comparably to the divine spirit hovering over the still-shapeless waters in which the earth and skies will be formed.
12YHWH, alone, led it, and no foreign god with Him.
13He had it ride over earth’s high places and fed it the field’s bounties and had it suck honey from a rock and oil from a flint rock
14and curds of cattle and milk of the flock and fat of lambs and Bashan rams and he-goats with fat of innards of wheat —and from grape’s blood you drank wine.
15And Jeshurun got fat and kicked —you got fat, you got wide, you got stuffed!— and it left God who made it and took its saving rock for granted.
32:15. Jeshurun. Israel.
32:15. got fat. This is a pun. The Hebrew consonants y
mn are the same as in the word “desert” (yimn) in v. 10. But the wordplay is that the same words consonantally have nearly opposite meanings: the people ironically go from a desert (ymn) to getting fat (ymn).
16They made Him jealous with outsiders. With offensive things they made him angry.
17They sacrificed to demons, a non-god, gods they hadn’t known; new ones, they came of late; your fathers hadn’t been acquainted with them.
18The rock that fathered you, you ignored, and you forgot God who bore you.
19And YHWH saw and rejected from His sons’ and His daughters’ angering.
20And He said, “Let me hide my face from them; I’ll see what their future will be. For they’re a generation of overthrows, children with no trust in them.
32:20. Let me hide my face. See the comment on Deut 31:17.
32:20. I’ll see what their future will be. Hebrew ’a
rît, often understood as “end,” does not mean this in the sense of humankind’s coming to an end. Rather, it refers to what will happen in the distant future, the long run. There are two sides to the hiding of the face. It is a fearful period of estrangement from their creator. It has been called divine eclipse, Deus Absconditus, and “death” of God. But, after living through it, humans are forced to grow up, to become more responsible for their world. The words of the Song of Moses declare that God is not simply hiding His face to bring His relationship with humans to an end. There are rather two halves to the statement: “I’ll hide my face from them; I’ll see what their future will be.” God gives humans responsibility for their world. And the only way that they can be forced to take that responsibility is if God is hidden. At whatever price (even world wars, even the holocaust?!) and with whatever successes (rebuilding Israel, conquering diseases, discovering secrets of the creation of the universe), humans must grow up. And God will see what their destiny will be.
The Torah does not end with the natural conclusions of the story: the promised land has not been reached, but it is in sight. Everything lies in the future: finding a home, fulfillment of the promises, bringing blessing to all the families of the earth. The divine words resound: “I’ll see what their future will be.” The Torah ends leaving us looking forward to what we can do and what we can be.
21They made me jealous with no-god. They made me angry with their nothings. And I: I’ll make them jealous with no-people. I’ll make them angry with a foolish nation.
22For fire has ignited in my anger and burned to Sheol at bottom and consumed land and its crop and set the mountains’ foundations ablaze.
23I’ll mass bad things over them. I’ll exhaust my arrows on them,
24sapped by hunger and devoured by flame. And bitter destruction and animals’ teeth I’ll let loose at them with venom of serpents of the dust.
32:24. serpents of the dust. Or: things that crawl in the dust. This is reminiscent of the story of Eden, in which the snake and its descendants are condemned to be legless, going on their bellies and eating dust (Gen 3:14); and in which the descendants of the humans and the snake are cursed with mutual enmity, so that the snake will bite the human’s heel (3:15).
25Outside: a sword will bereave, and inside: terror, both young man and virgin, suckling with aged man.
26I’d say, ‘I’ll erase them. I’ll make their memory cease from mankind,’
32:26. erase them … make their memory cease. To capture the full irony and horror of these words, one must recall that this is what is supposed to happen to Amalek, the people who symbolize Israel’s worst enemies: “wipe out the memory of Amalek” (Deut 25:19).
27if I didn’t fear the enemy’s anger, in case their foes would misread, in case they’d say, ‘Our hand was high, and it wasn’t YHWH who did all this!’
28For they’re a nation void of counsel, and there’s no understanding in them.
29If they were wise they’d comprehend this; they’d grasp their future.
30How could one pursue a thousand and two chase ten thousand if not that their rock had sold them, that YHWH had turned them over?”
32:30. turned them over. This is the same word that is used to refer to turning an escaped slave over to his master (Deut 23:16). The preceding colon, which parallels this, refers to selling the people. That is, both lines convey an image of God selling Israel back into slavery, when it was God who had freed them from slavery in the first place. Like the last curse of the list in Deuteronomy 28, it is the ultimate horror for Israel: to return to slavery.
31For their rock is not like our rock, though our enemies are the judges.
32For their vine is from Sodom’s vine and from Gomorrah’s fields. Their grapes are poison grapes. They have bitter clusters.
33Their wine is serpents’ venom and cruel poison of cobras.
34“Isn’t it stored with me, sealed in my treasuries?
35Vengeance and recompense are mine, for the time their foot will slip; for the day of their ordeal is close and comes fast: things prepared for them.”
36For YHWH will judge His people and regret about His servants when He’ll see that their strength is gone and there’s none: held back or left alone.
37And He’ll say, “Where are their gods, the rock in whom they sought refuge,
38who would eat the fat of their sacrifices, would drink the wine of their libations? Let them get up and help you! Let that be a shelter over you.
39See now that I, I am He, and there is no god with me. I cause death and give life. I’ve pierced, and I’ll heal. And there’s no deliverer from my hand,
32:39. there is no god with me. It is possible that this might mean that other gods exist but that they just do not happen to be present with YHWH at this time, but that seems to me to be a stretch. Where would a god be who is not in YHWH’s presence?! The plain sense of these words (and other passages on which I have commented) is monotheistic. It comes in a context of calling on gods to show themselves if they exist: “Where are their gods.... Let them get up and help you!” And this poem shows well-known linguistic signs of being an early composition. The persistent view in biblical scholarship that monotheism is a late development in biblical Israel (coming during or after the Babylonian exile) is contrary to such explicit statements as this.
40when I raise my hand to the skies, and I say, ‘As I live forever,
41if I whet the lightning of my sword, and my hand takes hold of judgment, I’ll give back vengeance to my foes and pay back those who hate me.
42I’ll make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will eat flesh from the blood of the slain and captured, from the head of loose hair of the enemy.’”
43Nations: cheer His people! For He’ll requite His servants’ blood and give back vengeance to His foes and make atonement for His land, His people.
44And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the people’s ears, he and Hoshea son of Nun.
32:44. Hoshea. Joshua.
45And Moses finished speaking all these things to all of Israel.
46And he said to them, “Pay attention to all the things that I testify regarding you today, that you’ll command them to your children, to observe and to do all the words of this instruction.
47Because it’s not an empty thing for you, because it’s your life. And through this thing you’ll extend days on the land to which you’re crossing the Jordan to take possession of it.”
32:47. it’s your life. Again we are reminded here at the end of the Torah that these things are a path back to the tree of life that was lost at the Torah’s beginning. See the comment on Deut 30:19.
48And YHWH spoke to Moses in this very day, saying,
49“Go up to this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is facing Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I’m giving to the children of Israel for a possession.
50And die in the mountain to which you’re going up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron, your brother, died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,
51because you made a breach with me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh at the wilderness of Zin, because you didn’t make me holy among the children of Israel.
52Because you’ll see the land from opposite, but you shall not come there, to the land that I’m giving to the children of Israel.
