Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
They 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.
For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
“I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.’ ”
For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.
Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
“Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
For Yahweh 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.
He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge;
which 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.
“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.
For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,
if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”
Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv19, 21, 25, 27, 29, 30, 33, 36, 40, 43 He calleth them God’s children, not to honor them,…
He calleth them God’s children, not to honor them, but to show them from what dignity they are fallen.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19–43 Deu 32:19 And when the LORD saw [it], he…
Deu 32:19 And when the LORD saw [it], he abhorred [them], because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
Ver. 19. Of his sons and of his daughters.] Titular at least; wherefore their sin was the greater. "What? Thou, my son Brutus?" {a} This cut Caesar to the heart.
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{a} Kαι συ τεκνον Bρουτε.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 Because of their sins, whereby they provoked him to…
Because of their sins, whereby they provoked him to anger. Or, by reason of his great and just anger against them he abhorred, or reprobated, or cast off his sons and his
daughters, for such they were by calling and profession, but not in truth and reality, Deu 32:5.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv19, 26, 39 The method of this song follows the method of…
The method of this song follows the method of the predictions in the foregoing chapter, and therefore, after the revolt of Israel from God, described in the foregoing verses, here follow immediately the resolves of divine Justice concerning them; we deceive ourselves if we think that God will be thus mocked by a foolish faithless people, that play fast and loose with him.
I. He had delighted in them, but now he would reject them with detestation and disdain, Deu 32:19. When the Lord saw their treachery, and folly, and base ingratitude, he abhorred them, he despised them, so some read it. Sin makes us odious in the sight of the holy God; and no sinners are so loathsome to him as those that he has called, and that have called themselves, his sons and his daughters, and yet have been provoking to him. Note, The nearer any are to God in profession the more noisome are they to him if they are defiled in a sinful way, Psa 106:39, Psa 106:40.
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II. He had given them the tokens of his presence with them and his favour to them; but now he would withdraw and hide his face from them, Deu 32:20. His hiding his face signifies his great displeasure; they had turned their back upon God, and now God would turn his back upon them (compare Jer 18:17 with Jer 2:27); but here it denotes also the slowness of God's proceedings against them in a way of judgment. They began in their apostasy with omissions of good, and so proceeded to commissions of evil. In like manner God will first suspend his favours, and let them see what the issue of that will be, what a friend they lose when they provoke God to depart, and will try whether this will bring them to repentance. Thus we find God hiding himself, as it were, in expectation of the event, Isa 57:17. To justify himself in leaving them he shows that they were such as there was no dealing with; for, 1. They were froward and a people that could not be pleased, or obstinate in sin, and that could not be convinced and reclaimed. 2. They were faithless, and a people that could not be trusted. When he saved them, and took them into covenant, he said, Surely they are children that will not lie (Isa 63:8); but when they proved otherwise, children in whom is no faith, they deserved to be abandoned, and that the God of truth should have no more to do with them.
III. He had done every thing to make them easy and to please them, but now he would do that against them which should be most vexatious to them. The punishment here answers the sin, Deu 32:21. 1. They had provoked God with despicable deities which were not gods at all, but vanities, creatures of their own imagination, that could not pretend either to merit or to repay the respects of their worshippers; the more vain and vile the gods were after which they went a whoring the greater was the offence to that great and good God whom they set them up in competition with and contradiction to. This put two great evils into their idolatry, Jer 2:13. 2. God would therefore plague them with despicable enemies, that were worthless, weak, and inconsiderable, and not deserving the name of a people, which was a great mortification to them, and aggravated the oppressions they groaned under The more base the people were that tyrannised over them the more barbarous they would be (none so insolent as a beggar on horseback), besides that it would be infamous to Israel, who had so often triumphed over great and mighty nations, to be themselves trampled upon by the weak and foolish, and to come under the curse of Canaan, who was to be a servant of servants. But God can make the weakest instrument a scourge to the strongest sinner; and those that by sin insult their might Creator are justly insulted by the meanest of their fellow-creatures. This was remarkably fulfilled in the days of the judges, when they were sometimes oppressed by the very Canaanites themselves, whom they had subdued, Jdg 4:2. But the apostle applies it to the conversion of the Gentiles, who had been a people not in covenant with God, and foolish in divine things, yet were brought into the church, sorely to the grief of the Jews, who upon all occasions showed a great indignation at it, which was both their sin and their punishment, as envy always is, Rom 10:19.
IV. He had planted them in a good land, and replenished them with all good things; but now he would strip them of all their comforts, and bring them to ruin. The judgments threatened are very terrible, Deu 32:22-25. 1. The fire of God's anger shall consume them, Deu 32:22. Are they proud of their plenty? It shall burn up the increase of the earth. Are they confident of their strength? It shall destroy the very foundations of their mountains: there is no fence against the judgments of God when they come with commission to lay all waste. It shall burn to the lowest hell, that is, it shall bring them to the very depth of misery in this world, which yet would be but a faint resemblance of the complete and endless misery of sinners in the other world. The damnation of hell (as our Saviour calls it) is the fire of God's anger, fastening upon the guilty conscience of a sinner, to its inexpressible and everlasting torment, Isa 30:33. 2. The arrows of God's judgments shall be spent upon them, till his quiver is quite exhausted, Deu 32:23. The judgments of God, like arrows, fly swiftly (Psa 64:7), reaching those at a distance who flatter themselves with hopes of escaping them, Psa 21:8, Psa 21:12. They come from an unseen hand, but wound mortally, for God never misses his mark, Kg1 22:34. The particular judgments here threatened are, (1.) Famine: they shall be burnt, or parched, with hunger. (2.) Pestilence and other diseases, here called burning heat and bitter destruction. (3.) The insults of the inferior creatures: the teeth of beasts and the poison of serpents, Deu 32:24. (4.) War and the fatal consequences of it, Deu 32:25. [1.] Perpetual frights. When the sword is without, there cannot but be terror within. Co2 7:5, Without were fightings, within were fears. Those who cast off the fear of God are justly exposed to the fear of enemies. [2.] Universal deaths. The sword of the Lord, when it is sent to lay all waste, will destroy without distinction; neither the strength of the young man nor the beauty of the virgin, neither the innocency of the suckling nor the gravity or infirmity of the man of gray hairs, will be their security from the sword when it devours one as well as another. Such devastation does war make, especially when it is pushed on by men as ravenous as wild beasts and as venomous as serpents, Deu 32:24. See here what mischief sin does, and reckon those fools that make a mock at it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–43 And he said, I will hide my face from…
And he said, I will hide my face from them,.... Now the Lord proceeds to pass sentence on the Jews for their ill treatment of his Son, and of his followers; which respects judgments that should come upon them, both spiritual and temporal, or corporeal; the former lies in Deu 32:20, and the latter in Deu 32:22; and this the Lord said in his own heart and mind, decreed and determined it within himself, and declared it in his word by his prophets, as here and in other places: and this first part of the sentence denotes the withdrawing of the gracious presence of God, and the manifestation of his favour, from the people of the Jews, his dislike and contempt of them, having taken out from among them the remnant according to the election of grace, the disciples and followers of Christ; and the removal of the Gospel, and the ordinances of it, from them, the means of light and knowledge, joy and comfort, and the giving of them up to blindness and hardness of heart, which continues to this day; they have a vail of darkness and ignorance upon their hearts while reading the books of the Old Testament, which will be done away when they turn to the Lord, and not before; likewise this was fulfilled when all the symbols of the divine Presence were removed, when the temple was destroyed, and all things in it, or carried away; and this house, which was formerly the house of God, and where he dwelt, was left desolate by him; and it is remarkable, that a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, a voice was heard in the temple, "let us go hence", as Josephus relates (z):
I will see what their end shall be: their destruction, called in the New Testament "the end of the world"; the end of the Jewish church state and commonwealth: this the Lord said, not as ignorant what it should be, or when it would be; but the sense is, either that he would cause them and others to see it, when he should bring wrath upon them to the uttermost; or that he would look upon it with pleasure and delight, which would be an aggravation of their punishment, Pro 1:26,
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for they are a very froward generation; men of perverse spirits, of a contrary and contradictory temper and disposition, who pleased not God, and were contrary to all men; as well as contradicted and blasphemed the Gospel of Christ, were men of distorted principles in religion, implicated and inconsistent, they wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction; and were obstinate, stubborn, and inflexible in their notions and practices, and that to the last, which was their ruin:
children in whom is no faith; for though they had faith in one God, in the Scriptures of the Old Testament as the word of God, in the law of Moses, and in a future state, the resurrection of the dead, and judgment to come; especially the Pharisees, the greater part of the Jews; yet though they were the children of Abraham, and would be thought to be the children of God, they had no faith in Jesus, the true Messiah; him they disbelieved and rejected; and as their fathers could not enter into the land of Canaan, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, because of unbelief; so these were cast out of the land, and from the Lord, because of their unbelief in the rejection of the Messiah. Aben Ezra observes, that it may be interpreted there is no men of faithfulness, or no faithful men among them, as in Psa 12:1; they were a faithless generation, covenant breakers, broke their covenant with God, and therefore he rejected them.
(z) De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 5. sect. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 His sons and daughters - Such they were by…
His sons and daughters - Such they were by calling and profession.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43 Verse 19. When the Lord saw it, &c.] More…
Verse 19. When the Lord saw it, &c.] More literally, And the Lord saw it, and through indignation he reprobated his sons and his daughters. That is, When the Lord shall see such conduct, he shall be justly incensed, and so reject and deliver up to captivity his sons and daughters.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 43 Deu 32:20. I will see what their end will…
Deu 32:20. I will see what their end will be — I will make them and others see what the fruit of such actions shall be. No faith — No fidelity. They were notoriously perfidious, and had so often broke their covenant with God, that they were not to be trusted when they made profession of repentance. To the truth of this their whole history bears witness. But besides this, in another sense they were destitute of faith. They did not truly believe the words God had spoken to them; they had not faith either in his promises or threatenings. And they put no trust or confidence in his glorious perfections, in his power, love, or faithfulness. Alas! how justly may God make the same complaint concerning many professors of Christianity! They are children in whom is no faith. They have not a firm reliance on the truth and importance of what God has spoken, and on the divine attributes engaged to make it good. Whatever is not the object of their senses, they either believe but faintly, or not at all. Here is the great failing of most professors of the true religion, the grand source of their sins and miseries. For it is faith only that can unite man to God, and produce love and obedience: it is this only that can raise him from earth to heaven! Reader, hast thou faith? Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God. From this verse to the 29th, Moses personates God speaking.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people - Some…
Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people - Some prefer the marginal rendering.
In this profound passage, there is shadowed forth the purpose of God to overrule:
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(1) the unbelief of the Jews to the bringing in of the Gentiles; and
(2) the mercy shown to the Gentries to the eventual restoration of the Jews (compare Rom 11:25-36).
The Song closes as it began Deu 32:1-3, with an invitation to praise. It has reached, through a long series of divine interpositions, its grandest theme in this call to the Gentiles, now pagan no more, to rejoice over God’s restored people, the Jews.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43 Daughters. The women of Israel, who were not less…
Daughters. The women of Israel, who were not less addicted to idolatry than the men. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv21, 23, 29, 32 those which are not a people--that is, not favored…
those which are not a people--that is, not favored with such great and peculiar privileges as the Israelites (or, rather poor, despised heathens). The language points to the future calling of the Gentiles.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 19. The Lord… abhorred them — And Jehovah saw…
19. The Lord… abhorred them — And Jehovah saw it and rejected them, because he was angry with his sons and his daughters. Jehovah saw their idolatry. In the apostasy of Israel the women became luxurious and corrupt. See Isa_3:16, and the following verses; also Isa_32:9; Jer_7:18; Jer_44:15.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 19. abhorred] Spurned, contemned, discarded, Deu_31:20, Jer_14:21. The next…
19. abhorred] Spurned, contemned, discarded, Deu_31:20, Jer_14:21. The next line gives the motive, not as in R.V., but from grief with his sons, etc.
19–25. God’s Vengeance
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19 But the Lord saw and He spurned,
From grief with His sons and His daughters.
20 ‘Let me hide my countenance from them,
I will see what their end shall be.
For an upsetting race are they,
Sons without steadfastness in them.
21 They moved me to jealousy with a nó-god,
With their vanities vexed me
And I make them jealous with a no-people,
With an infidel nation will vex them.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43 (19) The Lord saw . . . abhorred.—Comp. Jer_14:21.
(19) The Lord saw . . . abhorred.—Comp. Jer_14:21.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43 Vers. 19-33. Because of their rebellion. God would cast…
Vers. 19-33. Because of their rebellion. God would cast them off and visit them with terrible calamities.
When the Lord saw how they had departed from him to serve idols, he abhorred (rather, spurned or rejected) them in consequence of the provocation which their unworthy conduct had given him.
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Vers. 19-27. A God provoked.
Consider here
I THE REALITY OF WRATH IN GOD. Let it not be minimized or explained away. "Instead of being shocked at the thought that God is wrathful, we should rather ask, With whom? and For what? A God without wrath, and a God who is wrathful on other accounts than for sin, is not a God, but an idol" (Hengstenberg). It is only, as this writer observes, when "man himself is not displeased with sin, when it assumes to him the appearance of a bagatelle," that he no longer perceives why God should feel wrath at it. But man, we may observe, is by no means disposed to treat lightly sins against himself. He never feels that he does not "do well to be angry" on account of these or against the person who does them. A very slight wound to his honor makes him clamor for satisfaction. A God who is incapable of moral indignation would be equally incapable of moral love, and could not, with truth, be spoken of as dispensing mercy. Wrath and love are opposite poles of one affection. Where there is no offence, there needs no forgiveness.
II WRATH IN GOD, WHEN IT BURNS AGAINST MEN, IS TERRIBLE IN ITS EFFECTS. Two aspects of its operation:
1. Leaving men to themselves (ver. 20). When God hides his face from them, there need be little doubt what the "end" will be. Yet can the sinner complain if he is at length permitted to eat the fruit of the devices which nothing will persuade him to give up?
2. Heaping on them positive inflictions (vers. 22-25). It is a fire, burning to destroy them. It is noteworthy that the conflagration of the Divine wrath is represented as not only taking in sheol, but as widening till it embraces the whole earth (ver. 22). This, in connection with the glimpse at the calling of the Gentiles in ver. 21, points to the future universal extension of the outward dispensation of grace. The extension of the kingdom of God brings all nations within the range of the Messianic judgment. (Mat_25:31) The wrath of God is not represented in less terrible colors in the New Testament than it is in the Old. The individualized description of these verses (vers. 24, 25) figures out terrors of a future life too painful to allow the mind to dwell upon them.
III WRATH IN GOD IS, IN THIS LIFE, NOT DIVORCED FROM MERCY. Not at least so long as hope of recovery remains. He would fain make punishment subservient to conversion. This is the thought in ver. 21. Israel is not cast off forever. God is seeking to provoke it to jealousy by a transference of his regard to the Gentiles. His retaliation has a merciful as well as a wrathful design. Mercy waits on every sinner, courting his repentance.
IV THE MANIFESTATION OF WRATH IN GOD IS LIMITED BY REGARD TO HIS HONOR. (Vers. 26, 27.) God is jealous of his honor. He will take from his adversaries the power of boasting against him, by marvelously restoring those who, had they received their full deserts, would have been utterly destroyed. This stays his hand from expending his wrath against them to the uttermost. We may read this otherwise, and say that zeal for his honor leads God to spare them, that he may glorify his Name by causing mercy to rejoice over judgment. There is more honor to God in saving men than in destroying them.
And what provokes this wrath in God? Sin sin only. Most especially the sins of his own people.
1. "No faith want of fidelity to vows.
2. "Frowardness" persistence in sin (ver. 20).
Those who have stood in nearest relations to him, who have enjoyed most favors, are those who will be most severely punished. J.O. (Amo_3:2)
Vers. 19-47. Vengeance and recompense.
The reasonableness of the Divine jealousy being shown already, we can have little difficulty in recognizing the further reasonableness of the Divine vengeance. Paul"s treatment of the question is concise and conclusive. "Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man). God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?". (Rom_3:5, Rom_3:6) Vengeance is recognized, therefore, as belonging to God"s justice, which shall be called into play as vengeance through the ingratitude and folly of many of mankind. Let us briefly indicate the course of the Divine vengeance as presented in the remainder of this song.
I GOD PROPOSES TO MOVE HIS UNGRATEFUL PEOPLE BY INTRODUCING GENTILES TO THEIR PRIVILEGES. This is the first experiment of the holy jealousy, to see what effect the ingathering of the Gentiles will have. And to a Jewish mind there must be something striking and convincing in the history of Christianity. Surely the elevation and civilization of the heathen world must be due in large measure to that Divine favor which, as Jews, they despised and forfeited. Such a spectacle is calculated to lead them to earnest thought and deep contrition. Were their hearts not dull and gross, they would humble themselves before God, and acknowledge that they deserve other heirs to be put into their room.
II THE ACTUALITIES OF THE DIVINE VENGEANCE HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE. The Lord represents his anger as burning to the lowest hell (tyTijT lwOav), reaching manifestly to that "under world," as Kahle would call it, where the spirits of the faithless are confined. But in the present life there is a foretaste given of the vengeance which embraces the life to come, which may be summed up, as given in these verses (vers. 2325), in the terms hunger, pestilence, wild beasts , and war. The faithless nation experienced all these, as an earnest of the Divine vengeance which justly burns even to the lowest hell. The only limit to it is lest the enemies employed to execute part of the vengeance should say, "Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this" (vers. 26, 27). The Lord will modify and limit his vengeance, lest his instruments should regard it as their work and not his.
III THE REGRET ABOUT POSSIBILITIES THROWN AWAY WILL FORM PART OF THE DIVINE VENGEANCE. Very pathetically is this put in this song (vers. 29-31). The Israelites, though in a vast minority sometimes, had been carried by their most faithful Father and God to victory, and this would have still characterized them had they remained faithful to him. They would have proved his "invincibles." And no effort of faithless souls can keep regret at bay. We see Milton very properly putting it into the mouth of the archangel when he says
Farewell, happy fields, Where joy forever dwells!
and subsequently summons his associates from "the oblivious pool," where they are lying astonished. Unholy spirits may doubtless see the vanity of regret, but they cannot dismiss it. Indeed, it is one of the test struggles of the Christian life to put regret away. We need the rousing words of the poetess continually
Rise! if the past detains you, Her sunshine and storms forget; No chains so unworthy to hold you As those of a vain regret.
Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever; Cast her phantom arms away, Nor look back, save to learn the lesson Of a nobler strife today.
How deep a sorrow this regret must be to all who despise God and reject his love we cannot in this life tell.
IV APPARENT PROSPERITY WILL PROVE REAL DISASTER. Just as the osher plant, which flourishes best near the site of Sodom and Gomorrha, presents apparently most luscious and attractive fruit, which yet prove but bags of air and ashes, so the apparent prosperity of the faithless souls proves emptiness and bitter disappointment at last. All the investments, so to speak, which seem so fortunate turn into splendid mistakes and miseries. Upon the whole life, opposed as it is to God, there broods a curse.
V THE PROGRAM OF VENGEANCE IS CAREFULLY PREPARED. This is the spirit of the remaining verses (vers. 35-43). God makes his calculations calmly and deliberately. The foot of his enemies shall slide in due time, and his work of vengeance, like all his other work, prove perfect. As God refuses to exercise "unprincipled mercy," so will he refuse to execute random wrath. The great Jonathan Edwards has a remarkable sermon on ver. 35, entitled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which may be distasteful to some easy-going theologians, but is nevertheless weighty with doctrinal and convincing truth. The idea should surely be got rid of that there is any difference in principle between the Old Testament and the New. The prerogative of vengeance so powerfully asserted in this song of the Lord, put into the mouth of Moses, has not been renounced nor laid down for an instant. The Lord still claims it, as Rom_12:19; Heb_10:30, and other passages show.
VI THE POLICY OF THE LORD SHALL HAVE A SPLENDID CONSUMMATION. After the cycle is complete, Jews and Gentiles, as ver. 43 distinctly indicates, shall be found rejoicing in concert before the Lord, who has shown himself merciful to his land and his people. We need not in this Homily enter upon the discussion of the great difference between the Hebrew of ver. 43 and the LXX It does not affect the truth we draw from the remarkable passage. However the individuals may suffer through the Divine vengeance, it will not be lost as a lesson upon the race. Jew and Gentile shall alike recognize its justice and the compensating mercy which always lay for men in the tender hands of God. The vengeance is forced upon him the judgment is his strange work; but he delighteth in mercy.
VII MOSES SUMS UP THE LESSON OF THE SONG BY URGING OBEDIENCE UPON THE PEOPLE AS THEIR LIFE. And when we remember that God is the source of life; that spiritual life lies in his favor and fellowship; then it is clear that the Israelites had but one duty to discharge to obey God and live. All the energy of Moses and all the urgency of God are devoted to secure this obedience. The remembrance of God"s love, the recognition of his vengeance and deserved wrath, and the consummate wisdom manifested in the whole policy pursued, should move our hearts to love and obey. Let us accept of the mercy, and not force the Lord to judgment! R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv20, 31, 35, 36, 39 A very froward generation.
Deu_32:20
A very froward generation.
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The frowardness of unbelief
1. Unbelief is a very froward thing, because, in the first place, it gives God the lie. Can anything be worse than this? God saith, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt, be saved, and the unbeliever replies, I cannot believe that Jesus will save me. Oh, soul, can you dare to look up to the Cross of Jesus and say, There is no life in a look at the Crucified One for me? Can you even think of the Holy Spirit, and then say that He has no power to change a heart so black and hard as yours?
2. Again, unbelief is great frowardness, because it refuses Gods way of salvation. No man can read the Scriptures without seeing that Gods way of salvation is not by work nor by feelings, but by trusting in the Son of God, who has offered a full atonement for sin. Now the sinner says, Lord, I would do or suffer anything if I might thereby be saved.
3. Unbelief is a very froward thing, again, because it very often makes unreasonable demands of God. When Thomas said, Except I put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe, he was speaking very frowardly. I have heard the sinner say, Oh, sir, if I could have a dream, if I could be broken down with anguish, or if I could enjoy some remarkable revelation, then I would believe God; this also is frowardness.
4. Unbelief is very froward, next, because it indulges hard thoughts of God. Do you say that Salvation by faith is too good to be true? Is anything too good to come from God, who is infinitely good?
5. And yet again, unbelief is a very froward thing because it disparages the Lord Jesus. Oh, soul, dost thou doubt the infinite virtue of the Divine sacrifice? Dost thou question the power of the intercession of the risen Lord?
6. And do you not think it is another instance of great frowardness that unbelief casts reflections upon the Holy Spirit? Not save thee? Who art thou that thou shouldst stand out against the witness of the Spirit of truth? Wilt thou refuse the three-fold witness of the Spirit, the water, and the blood? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Children in whom is no faith.
Faith in its higher sense
Do not misunderstand that word faith. It is a Christian word; here it does not occur in its spiritual or Christian sense. Faith is a word which belongs to Christ, not to Moses. The word faith here means covenant-keeping, reality, honesty to vows. They have signed a paper, but they will break the bond: they are children in whom is no faith, no reliance, no trust. This is not the sixth sense, this is not reason on wings; this is simple truthfulness and covenant-keeping honour. Faith is not born yet in the Bible, as to name and definite influence--though many a man in the old book was moved by faith who could not account for his own motives and impulse. We are called to faith in its highest sense; and in being called to faith in its highest sense, we are not called upon to renounce reason. Should I say to a child, Dear little one, your two hands are not strong enough to take up that weight, even of gold, but I could find you a third one, and with that you could lift it easily, and with that it would be no weight; you could carry it always without weariness and without fatigue--do I dishonour the other hands? Do I put the child to some humiliation? Do I ignore what little power it has? Certainly not: I increase it, I magnify it, I honour it; so does the great and loving One, who wishes us to pray without ceasing, magnify reason by saying, It wants faith; faith magnifies the senses by saying, They are five in number, and I can make them six; do not dispense with any one of them, keep them all in their integrity, but you want the sixth sense that lays hold upon the invisible and the eternal. We cannot, therefore, keep covenants and honour vows in the sense in which the word faith is used here, with any completeness, until we are inspired by the higher faith--that all-encompassing trust in God, that marvellous sixth sense which sees God. Lord, increase our faith! May our prosperity never interfere with our prayer! Give us what Thou wilt--poverty, riches, health, disease, strength, or weakness, but take not Thy Holy Spirit from us. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The faithless generation
Without faith it is impossible to please God,--impossible to do that which is the proper end of our being; in which, if we should fail, it were far better for us that we had never been born. The like is not said of charity, or any other Christian grace, but faith only. Not that we can expect to please God, if any of the ornaments of a meek, gentle, and Christian spirit be wanting in our character; but because there is a peculiar necessity for the addition of faith, which entitles it to this mark of distinction. There is not a single link in the chain of evangelical virtues and graces which can be said to be unnecessary; but that link is necessary above all which is the end of the chain, and which connects it with God Himself. In the text, God complains of the provoking of His sons and daughters, the rebellious seed of Abraham; and He lays all the faults of their character to this capital defect, that they are children in whom is no faith.
I. The want of faith in the present state of the Christian world.
1. The excessive attention bestowed upon mere earthly and sensible objects. The common phrase Seeing is believing is a plain confession that we walk by sight, not by faith. The sum of our creed is this: that the good things of this world are solid and substantial; those of the next world, visionary and chimerical.
2. The prevailing and increasing neglect, of ordinances. This springs out of the faithless and infidel notion that they are not material, that they are mere ceremonies, that there is no virtue in them. Here is a direct denial of faith.
3. The general shyness and reserve which prevails among religious persons. If it cannot be said of us, as of the ungodly and profane, that God is not in all our thoughts, it cannot surely be denied that He is not in all our talk. The want of faith is at the bottom of this. We are not fully persuaded in our own minds, and therefore we feel an awkwardness and reserve in communicating our thoughts to each other.
4. The carelessness and indifference which generally prevails in regard to the sacraments of the Church.
II. What is the natural conclusion of all this? If the want of faith be the cause of all our disorders, the plain remedy is to go where we may get more faith; to take what little we have, and to throw ourselves at the feet of Christ, saying, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. And your minister, as in all your prayers, will go before you in this likewise. Lord, increase my faith; that I may, both by my life and doctrine, set forth Thy true and lively Word, and rightly of these solemn things. (Homilist.)
Considering the latter end
I. An implied lamentation.
II. A description of true folly.
III. An all-important duty. Considering our latter end--
1. Reminds us of its certainty.
2. Urges preparation.
3. Will prevent us from being taken by surprise. (Homilist.)
On the remembrance of death
I. In the first place, death, were it seriously attended to, would direct our judgment and correct those false things which are the great sources of all our mistakes in life. Would it not lower our opinion of temporal enjoyments if this sentiment were familiar to our minds that we must shortly be torn from them? How would it raise our esteem of Christian dispositions! In what lively colours would we see the evil of sin, and the danger of practising it, did we live in the remembrance of that awful event which will fix our eternal condition! Would we not see the great importance of time, and the absolute necessity of improving it, if we thought that it is short and uncertain, and that eternity depends upon it?
II. The serious contemplation of death, besides correcting our mistaken notions, would help to moderate our unruly passions, which are so difficult to be restrained. At the lively idea of death all the passions subside and leave the soul in a state of serious tranquillity. Pride falls; vanity is extinguished; envy dies; resentment cools; and the fond admiration of worldly things decays and vanishes.
III. An habitual attention to our latter end, as it would wean our affections from the things of time and sense, would fix them upon objects of a spiritual and eternal nature. The great virtues of the Christian life, such as love to God and love to man, are not, like worldly possessions, of a perishing kind. They continue after this life; they are the qualifications for admission into the kingdom of glory; nay, they constitute the very temper of heaven itself, and are the essential ingredients of future and eternal happiness. Death guides the imagination forward into futurity; it gives the rewards and punishments of the world to come their full weight and impression upon us. Thus, by suggesting the most powerful motives to a godly life, it will naturally deter men from sin and enforce the practice of holiness and virtue. It will engage them to avoid that course of life which would expose them to the future punishment. And it will excite them, by a patient continuance in well doing, to seek for glory, honour, and immortality in the kingdom of heaven. As death, from the consideration of its awful consequences, enforces a holy life; so by representing the shortness and uncertainty of time, it would lead us instantly to set about the great business of human life, and to pursue it with unremitting attention. Why do men allow themselves the continued practice of vice? It is because they flatter themselves with the hopes of living still longer, and with designs of future repentance: and thus the great business of eternity is frequently put off, from day to day, till sickness or death overtakes them. Now there is not a surer, there is not a more effectual, way of avoiding this fatal mistake, than by remembering our latter end.
IV. It would cause us to take heed lest at any time we should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this world, and thus the dart of death come upon us unawares. It is one of the great advantages of considering death that it would help to keep our temper even and composed in every condition of life. As in prosperity, it would preserve us from insolence, so under adversity, from dejection of mind.
V. In the last place, by frequently meditating on our latter end, we might make the idea of death familiar to our minds, and overcome the fear of it. The awe which it naturally strikes upon the mind wears off in proportion as we increase our acquaintance with it. But instead of cultivating this acquaintance, we industriously avoid it; and the surprise must add to the horror of its appearance whenever it constrains, as sometimes it will constrain, our attention. There are certain occasions on which it is impossible for us to shun the remembrance of death. (Andrew Donnan.)
The consideration of death
I. What it is for a man to consider his latter end. By the latter end of a particular person I understand the same that Balaam does in his wish (Num_23:10), where it is plain by his last end he means the time of his death, which Solomon, in Ecc_7:2, calls the end of all men. And so indeed it is, as to all the concerns of this life and opportunities of providing for another. It puts an end to all the projects, the labours, the cares of the men of this world for the obtaining of the good things of it, and to the satisfaction they take in the enjoying those they have gotten. It puts an end to the work of good men, to all the hardships and their conflicts with their spiritual enemies. Finally, it puts an end to all that good or bad can do or suffer, which shall come into their future account. But though a mans latter end be the dissolution of the present union of soul and body, and puts a final period to all the actions of this life, yet is it the opening of a new scene, the entrance upon another state. Before I proceed to show what is implied in the word consider, it may not be amiss to form some propositions of our latter end, which may be the objects of your consideration. As--
1. That it is very certain that such a time as this will once happen to every one of us.
2. That, though it be certain that such a time will once come, it is not certain when it will come.
3. That as it is certain that such a time will once happen to every one of us, but uncertain when, so it is sure that it cannot be long first; for what is our life--the longest life that anyone arrives to? This is to be the object of our consideration, which implies three things.
(1) An undoubting assent to the truth of it, for propositions, however true in themselves, if they are not so to me, can make no great impression upon me.
(2) A frequent reflecting upon and revolving in my mind; for propositions which I have assented to, if I think not of them, are not like to have much more influence upon me than those which I deny or question.
(3) And chiefly, a diligent application of it to the government of my life, and the conducting it by such measures as that belief will suggest; for only such a practical consideration of this latter end will make a man wise.
II. How wise it will make him; what wise practices will be the effects of such consideration. And surely it will be allowed that it will make him very wise if it makes him wise for this world and the next too.
1. As to this world, that is certainly true wisdom which will carry a man most quietly through it with the least vexation. Now, most of the disturbances and uneasiness we meet with here arise either from our own false notions and imprudent pursuit of the good things of this world, or from those evils which befall us by the permission of providence; and the consideration of our latter end will go a great way towards the preventing or removing the former, and the alleviating and supporting us under the latter.
2. But the greatest advantage of the consideration of our latter end is that it makes us wise for the other world.
(1) To be frugal of our time, and husband it to the best advantage. This short day is all the season of working; when the night comes no one can work. Have I a great work to do in that short time? Does my eternal bliss or woe depend upon my finishing that work? And can I be so foolish as to squander away this time in idleness or riot, in vain recreations and loose conversation? Shall I suffer sleep and pleasure and sin to share it among them?
(2) Not to defer our repentance.
(3) To make use of all the means of grace that are offered us, and not neglect one opportunity that is put into our hands of waiting upon God in His holy ordinances, or of doing good to our neighbour according to our power.
(4) To go on with the work and service of God, and persevere to the end with alacrity; for it shows me these two things--
(a) That my service can be but short. And--
(b) That I shall quickly receive my wages. (Bp. Wm. Talbot.)
Memento mori
Some years ago a celebrated author--Drelincourt--wrote a work on Death, a valuable work in itself, but it commanded no sale whatever. Anything men will think of rather than death--any fiction, any lie. But this stern reality, this master truth, he puts away, and will not suffer it to enter his thoughts. The older Egyptians were wiser than we are. We are told that at every feast there was always one extraordinary guest that sat at the head of the table. He ate not, he drank not, he spake not, he was closely veiled. It was a skeleton which they had placed there to warn them that even in their feastings they should remember there would be an end of life. Yet our text tells us that we should be wise if we would consider our latter end. And certainly we should be, for the practical effect of a true meditation of death would be exceedingly healthful to our spirits. It would cool that ardour of covetousness, that fever of avarice, if we did but remember that we should have to leave our stores. It would certainly help us to sit loose by the things which we here possess. Perhaps it might lead us to set our affections upon things above, and not upon the mouldering things below. At any rate, thoughts of death might often check us when we are about to sin.
I. Consider death.
1. Its origin. Man is a suicide. Our sin, the sin of the human race, slays the race. We die because we have sinned. How this should make us hate sin!
2. Its certainty. Die I must. There is a black camel upon which Death rides, say the Arabs, and that must kneel at every mans door. I must cross that river Jordan. I may use a thousand stratagems, but I cannot escape. Even now I am today like the deer surrounded by the hunters in a circle, a circle which is narrowing every day; and soon must I fall and pour out my life upon the ground. Let me never forget, then, that while other things are uncertain, death is sure.
3. Then, looking a little further into this shade, let me remember the time of my death. To God it is fixed and certain. He has ordained the hour in which I must expire. But to me it is quite uncertain. I know not when, nor where, nor how I shall breathe out my life. Oh, let us bethink, then, how uncertain life is. Talk we of a hair; it is something massive when compared with the thread of life. Speak we of a spiders web; it is ponderous compared with the web of life. We are but as a bubble; nay, less substantial. As a moments foam upon the breaker, such are we. Oh, let us, then, prepare to meet our God, because when and how we shall appear before Him is quite unknown to us.
4. The terrors which surround death. To the best men in the world, dying is a solemn thing--a launching on an unknown sea. Farewell! to that house which I have so fondly called my home. Farewell! to her who has shared my life and been the beloved one of my bosom. Farewell all things--the estate, the gold, the silver. Farewell! earth. The fairest beauties melt away, thy most melodious strains die in the dim distance. I hear no more and see no more. No church bell now shall summon me to the house of God. If I have neglected Christ I shall hear of Christ no more. No grace presented now; no strivings of the Spirit.
5. The results of death. For, verily, its results and terrors to the wicked are the same. Oh, that ye were wise to consider them! Let me, however, remind the Christian that death to him should never be a subject upon which he should be loath to meditate. To die!--to shake off my weakness and to be girded with omnipotence. Say unto them your warfare is accomplished, your sin is pardoned, and you shall see your Lords face without a veil between.
II. I desire you now to consider the warning which death hath already given to each one of us. Death hath been very near to many of us; he has crossed the ecliptic of our life many and many a time. That baleful planet has often been in close conjunction with us. Let us just observe how frequently he has been in our house. Think, again, what solemn and repeated warnings we have had of late, not in our families, but, in the wide, wide world. Here, there, everywhere, O Death! I see thy doings. At home, abroad, on the sea, and across the sea, thou art doing marvels. Death has given home-strokes to all of us. Put thy finger in thy own mouth, for thou hast Deaths mark there. What mean those decaying teeth, those twitching pains in the gums?--an agony despised by those alone who feel it not. Why do some parts of the house tremble and hurry to decay? Because the rottenness that is in the teeth is in the whole body. You talk of a decayed tooth: remember it is but part of a decayed man. What mean those lungs that are so soon exhausted of their breathing if you travel up a flight of stairs to your bed? Why is it you need your optic glasses to your eyes, but that they that look out of the windows are darkened? Why that affected hearing?
III. And now will you, in the last place, picture yourself as dying now. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
True wisdom desirable
I. Lack of wisdom. Wisdom is sometimes used for religion, and the connection between them is very close. Sin is--
(1) Ignorance of self.
(2) Ignorance of God.
(3) Ignorance of future consequences.
And ignorance is folly--inasmuch as it is the cause of folly, the spirit of folly, and the seed of folly.
II. A neglected duty. The latter end is the great crisis of existence. Why do men neglect its consideration?
(1) Because the prospect is not pleasant.
(2) Because of the natural buoyancy of human life.
(3) To look at our latter end will give us a true estimate of our own worth.
(4) To look at our latter end will cause us to use the time that remains for the highest ends. (Homilist.)
The habitual consideration of death
I. The event that is to be contemplated. This is his last end: no other changes shall happen to him on earth; no more shall he be visible among the children of men; no more shall he be occupied in its business, encumbered by its cares, entangled by its temptations, and fettered by its engagements. It is all gone and past.
II. The consideration which it demands.
1. We are to consider that this change must happen to us all.
2. We are to consider that this may happen at any time. It may happen to you in manhood, amidst all the cares and duties of life. It may happen to you in youth. It may appear to you in childhood. Death waits not for confirmed age and trembling years to realise his triumphs, but smites when and where he will.
3. We are to consider our latter end so as to ascertain whether we are prepared to meet it. Are you ready to renounce the things of the present life?
4. Then consider not only whether you are prepared to renounce the things of this life, but whether you are prepared for the events which will immediately follow. Scripture teaches us that two great events will follow immediately upon this latter end of our life; we must meet God, and we must stand in judgment.
5. We are not only to consider whether we are prepared for the great change, but we are deeply to ponder the consequences of being unprepared to meet it.
6. Then consider the method by which alone we can be prepared to meet this last end. Happily we are blessed with a revelation from God; happily that revelation contains within itself the grand preparation of redeeming and recovering mercy; and happily this is the only sovereign remedy, whilst all others are excluded from our confidence and our hope. The method, therefore, by which we can expect to meet God in peace is the method of His own device; devised by His infinite wisdom, and accomplished by a power also infinite, becoming the proof of a love also infinite. Consider that your hope and security lie in not devising your own method of happiness, but in accepting Gods method of happiness, in bowing to Gods proposition, and believing in Gods dear Son. (A. Reed.)
On death
I. In what manner should we consider our latter end?
1. Thoroughly; I mean with judgment and understanding, so as to form just and regular apprehensions concerning its causes and consequences.
2. Seasonably. It must be thought of and provided for beforehand.
II. The wisdom and advantage of considering our latter end.
1. It would help us to form a truer estimate of life.
2. It would dispose us to reason and to act. (S. Lavington.)
The latter end
I. Reflect upon this consideration as a course of wisdom. Mans comparative wisdom in the affairs of this life is wholly estimated by his disposition to anticipate the results of his own actions, and his ability to calculate upon those results with success.
II. Reflect upon the circumstances connected with this latter end, which are especially to be considered. Consider the trials which will be involved in it, the peculiar wants which it will manifest, the results which must flow from it, the provisions which it will require.
III. Upon the authority of the truths which have been thus presented to you, I trust I may now urge you to a practical fulfilment of this duty. When you consider the latter end of others, and contrast together the various issues of their lives; when you behold the piety of youth and active life rising into the joy and peace of a Christians departure, and mark the final triumph of a soul which has wisely considered and provided for its whole responsibility, you cannot fail to see how much has been gained by adopting the Gospel as the powerful and practical principle of conduct in the morning of mans day of grace. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
The consideration of death
That there is very generally a strange want of reflection and concern respecting our condition as mortal is most apparent in many plain familiar truths. Perhaps nothing in the world that appears so out of consistency is so obvious. The fact of a whole race dead, from the beginning of time to the present generation, comes with but little impression on us, except at occasional moments. In surveying history it is with the men of past ages as living that our thoughts are busy. But there is no need of illustrations of such wide reference. The insensibility may be shown in more familiar exemplifications. Persons inhabiting a house of considerable age--how often are they reminded that persons formerly occupying its apartments, treading its avenues, are dead, with a pointed application of this thought to themselves? And so of places of worship, and of other resort. But there is still more immediate evidence. How little effect, in the way of reflection on ourselves, appears to be produced by the instances and spectacles of actual mortality; the termination of a life in our near neighbourhood, or among those whom we well knew! Persons frequently and officially conversant with circumstances of death are often very remarkably estranged from reflection upon it, as applied to themselves. Consider, again, how little and seldom we are struck with the reflection, how many things we are exposed to that might cause death! what little things might be fatal! But we go forward just as if none of these smaller poisoned arrows of death were flying, or of the greater darts either. Observe, too, how soon a recovery from danger sets aside the serious thought of death. Observe, again, how schemes are formed for a long future time, with as much interest and as much anticipating confidence as if there were no such thing in the world as death. And when it is asked, And how comes this to be? the general explanation is that which accounts for everything that is wrong--namely, the fearful radical depravity of our nature. But to assign this general cause does not suffice to the inquiry. There doubtless are special causes, through which that great general one operates, availing itself of them.
1. One of these may be the perfect distinctness of life and death. They do not partially co-exist in the individual like imperfect health with a degree of illness. We have life absolutely, and death not at all; so that we can make no experimental comparison between them; we cannot know by means of the one what the other is.
2. Again, we think that even the certainty and the universality of death may be numbered among the causes tending to withdraw mens thoughts from it.
3. We might specify another thing as one of the causes sought for; that is, the utter inability to form any defined idea of the manner of existence after death. The thoughts sent onward to that boundary of life cannot stop there; the mere termination itself is nothing; they look beyond; but beyond is thickest darkness, as often as they go there; so that there is, as it were, nothing shown to draw the mind thither to look over the limit. But, after all, the chief causes that there is so little thought and concern on this great subject are of a much more obvious kind, and involving guilt.
4. One is a general presumption of having long to live. In each stage of life still this beguiled confidence is indulged.
5. Another great cause of the thoughtlessness and insensibility (indeed, it is both cause and effect) is that men occupy their whole soul and life with things to preclude the thought of its end.
6. We may add to these causes an inadequate, contracted notion of what is necessary as a preparation for the event.
7. And to give full force to all these causes, there is, in a large proportion of men, a formal, systematic endeavour to keep off the thought of death. A strong action to turn the thoughts in another direction--an amusing book seized, or a hasty recourse to occupation, or an excursion, or a going into a gay circle, possibly a plunge into intemperance. And all the unfortunate things that may have befallen have not been a measure of calamity equal to that involved in the success of this endeavour! We have hardly a moment left for the topics of admonition and remonstrance against indulging such a habit of the soul. But let it be impressed upon us that to end our life is the mightiest event that awaits us in this world. And it is that which we are living but to come to. It holds out a grand protest against being absorbed and lost in this world. It is the termination of a period confessedly introductory and probationary. Without thinking of it, often and with deep interest, there is no possibility that our scheme and course of life should be directed to the supreme purpose of life. To have been thoughtless of it, then, will ultimately be an immense calamity; it will be to be in a state unprepared for it. (J. Foster.)
Of the consideration of our latter end, and the benefits of it
1. Men are not willing to entertain this unwelcome thought of their own latter end; the thought whereof is so troublesome a guest, that it seems to disparage all those present enjoyments of sense that this life affords.
2. A vain foolish conceit that the consideration of our latter end is a kind of presage and invitation of it.
3. A great difficulty that ordinarily attends our human condition, to think otherwise concerning our condition than what at present we feel and find.
4. It is true, this is the way of mankind to put from us the evil day, and the thoughts of it; but this our way is our folly, and one of the greatest occasions of those other follies that commonly attend our lives; and therefore the great means to cure this folly and to make us wise, is wisely to consider our latter end.
I. The consideration of our latter end doth in no sort make our lives the shorter, but it is a great means to make our lives the better.
1. It is a great monition and warning of us to avoid sin, and a great means to prevent it. When I shall consider that certainly I must die, and I know not how soon, why should I commit those things, that if they hasten not my latter end, yet they will make it more uneasy and troublesome by the reflection upon what I have done amiss? I may die tomorrow; why should I then commit that evil that will then be gall and bitterness unto me? Would I do it if I were to die tomorrow? why should I then do it today? Perchance it may be the last act of my life, and however let me not conclude so ill; for, for aught I know, it may be my concluding act in this scene of my life.
2. It is a great motive and means to put us upon the best and most profitable improvement of our time.
3. Most certainly the wise consideration of our latter end, and the employing of ourselves, upon that account, upon that one thing necessary, renders the life the most contenting and comfortable life in the world: for as a man, that is aforehand in the world, hath a much more quiet life in order to externals, than he that is behindhand; so such a man that takes his opportunity to gain a stock of grace and favour with God, that hath made his peace with his Maker through Christ Jesus, hath done a great part of the chief business of his life, and is ready upon all occasions, for all conditions, whereunto the Divine Providence shall assign him, whether of life or death, or health or sickness, or poverty or riches; he is, as it were, aforehand in the business and concern of his everlasting, and of his present state also.
II. As thus this consideration makes life better, so it makes death easy.
1. By frequent consideration of death and dissolution, he is taught not to fear it; he is, as it were, acquainted with it aforehand, by often preparation for it.
2. By frequent consideration of our latter end, death comes to be no surprise unto us.
3. The greatest sting and terror of death are the unrepented sins of the past life; the reflection upon these is that which is the strength, the venom of death itself. He, therefore, that wisely considers his latter end, takes care to make his peace with God in his lifetime; and by true faith and repentance to get his pardon scaled; to husband his time in the fear of God; to observe His will, and keep His laws; to have his conscience clean and clear. And being thus prepared, the malignity of death is cured, and the bitterness of it healed, and the fear of it removed.
4. But that which, above all, makes death easy to such a considering man is this: that by the help of this consideration, and the due improvement of it, as is before shown, death to such a man becomes nothing else but a gate unto a better life. Not so much a dissolution of his present life, as a change of it for a far more glorious, happy, and immortal life. So that though the body dies, the man dies not; for the soul, which is indeed the man, makes but a transition from her life in the body to a life in heaven. I shall now add some cautions that are necessary to be annexed to this consideration.
We are to know, that although death be thus subdued, and rendered rather a benefit than a terror to good men; yet--
1. Death is not to be wished or desired, though it be not an object to be feared, it is a thing not to be coveted; for certainly life is the greatest temporal blessing in this world.
2. As the business and employments of our life must not estrange us from the thought of death, so again we must be careful that the overmuch thought of death do not so possess our minds as to make us forget the concerns of our life, nor neglect the business which that portion of time is allowed us for. As the business of fitting our souls for heaven; the sober businesses of our callings, relations, places, stations? Nay, the comfortable, thankful, sober enjoyments of those honest lawful corn forts of our life that God lends us; so as it be done with great sobriety and moderation, as in the presence of God, and with much thankfulness to Him; for this is part of that very duty we owe to God for those very external comforts and blessings we enjoy. (Sir M. Hale.)
The wisdom of considering our latter end
I. The duty here mentioned. To consider our latter end is--
1. To familiarise our minds to the thought of death, and of that eternal state on which death is the entrance.
2. To consider how we may provide for our welfare in our latter end.
3. To devote ourselves mainly to the great work of providing for our welfare in our latter end.
II. The wisdom of attending to it.
1. Because such attention is pleasing to the Most High.
2. Because the neglect of it will infallibly expose us to the tremendous effects of Gods righteous indignation.
3. Because it serves to facilitate our victory over the delusions of the world.
4. Because it tends to administer support under every affliction which assails us.
5. Because it will be the means of giving us a good hope in death. (J. Natt, B. D.)
The close of the year
The wish which Moses here utters for the congregation of Israel is a wish to which a minister of the Gospel may also give utterance in behalf of his congregation, more especially at the present season. For surely it behoves us also--who have been brought to the knowledge of Christ, and of the power of His resurrection--to consider our latter end: and so much the more as we have received a fuller and clearer assurance of what that end is to be, both of the glory to which we are called, and of the misery which we may draw down on our souls. The advance of time itself is unseen, unfelt. Its footsteps fall so lightly that they do not strike on any of our senses. Drop after drop bubbles up from the sightless fountain of eternity; and yet their bubbling is not heard. Wave rolls on after wave in never-resting, never-ending flow; and yet there are no sounds of their breaking against the shore. Time never halts so that we should catch hold of it, has no voice that we should hear it, no outward form or body that we should see it. But man for his own purposes has gathered it up into hours and days and weeks and months and years; inasmuch as without such measures of time none of the business of this world could be carried on. Hardly without them could we hold any intercourse with our neighbours, or have any orderly knowledge whatsoever. This division of time, it is true, is little heeded by most persons, except with reference to the concerns of their worldly life. Yet none who have a right notion of the importance of good housekeeping for the management of Our heavenly, no less than of our earthly concerns, will fail to do that with regard to their spiritual life, without which there can be no good housekeeping anywhere. At the end of every day they who are anxious to do well and to prosper in this world will cast their thoughts over what they have done, and will consider what they have left undone that they ought to have done; they will calculate what they have spent, what they have sold, what they have gained, what they have lost, and will strike a balance. At the end of a week they take in a wider field; they cast up the accounts of the whole week, and estimate its profit and its loss. But at the close of the year the range is a great deal wider still; then the accounts of the whole year are to be got in, and put in order and cast up and settled. No one who has any portion of the riches of this world, and who desires to keep out of difficulties will neglect this; no one who is engaged in the traffic of this world can neglect it without bringing on certain ruin. This, too, is the very work which you ought now to be engaged in. The old year is on its last legs, and will soon be laid with the multitude of those that have passed away before it. That we have all of us been far too forgetful of God during the past year, no one will deny. The very best and godliest amongst us will be the first to acknowledge this. Others may make the acknowledgment carelessly; but the pious will be stricken with grief and shame. Yet surely there is something very strange in this forgetfulness. For would it not be strange if a servant were to forget his master, in whose house he was living and who fed and clothed him? Would it not be strange if a son were to forget his father, to whom he owed his life, his nurture and support, his education, all that he has and all that he knows? Now, God is in a far higher sense our Master and Father, and has done far more for us than any earthly master ever did for his servants, or any Earthly father for his children. What I wish to urge upon you is the pressing importance of undertaking a strict and solemn examination of the whole flame and fashion of your life during the last year of your actions, of your feelings, of your thoughts. Take care that the account be a true one; it is a matter of life and death. Try your heart at the bar of your conscience, as though before a judge; and do not exercise your subtilty in trying to diminish or excuse or conceal your offences, but rather in drawing them forth to the light, in uncovering their nakedness and exposing their enormity. Endeavour to look into your hearts with the same eye with which God looks into them; and then to confess all your sins to God. Throw yourself on the mercy of your Saviour; beseech Him to forgive you; beseech Him to heal you; beseech Him to grant you His Spirit, that you may be purified from these your sins. Reckon up the list of them, and write it on your hearts, that it may ever be before you to put you on your guard in the hour of temptation. Weigh your actions with reference, not to the fruit they are to bear in this world, but to the fruit they are to bear in the next world; and in all your plans and purposes, in all your hopes and wishes, whatever their immediate purposes may be, consider your latter end. (J. C. Hare, M. A.)
The usefulness of consideration, in order to repentance
I. That God doth really and heartily desire the happiness of men and to prevent their misery and ruin. For the very design of these words is to express this to us, and it is done in a very vehement and, as I may say, passionate manner.
II. That it is a great point of wisdom to consider seriously the last issue and consequence of our actions, whither they tend, and what will follow upon them. And therefore wisdom is here described by the consideration of our latter end.
III. That this is an excellent means to prevent that misery which will otherwise befall us. And this is necessarily implied in this wish, that if they would but consider these things they might be prevented.
IV. That the want of this consideration is the great cause of mens ruin. And this is likewise implied in the words, that one great reason of mens ruin is because they are not so wise as to consider the fatal consequences of a sinful course. This is the desperate folly of mankind, that they seldom think seriously of the consequence of their actions, and least of all such as are of greatest concernment to them, and have the chief influence upon their eternal condition. They do not consider what mischief and inconveniency a wicked life may plunge them into in this world, what trouble and disturbance it may give them when they come to die.
1. That consideration is the proper act of reasonable creatures, and that whereby we show ourselves men. So the prophet intimates (Isa_46:8).
2. Whether we consider it or not, our latter end will come; and all those dismal consequences of a sinful course, which God hath so plainly threatened, and our own consciences do so much dread, will certainly overtake us at last; and we cannot by not thinking of these things ever prevent or avoid them. (Archbishop Tillotson.)
The wise man for futurity
I. Some circumstances of our latter end which it becomes us to consider.
1. Death will part asunder the body and the soul.
2. Death will dissolve all our earthly ties.
3. Death will strip us of all our titles, and of that office, power, and influence which they imply.
4. Death will level all distinctions.
5. Death will strip us of our earthly possessions.
6. Death must bring all our schemes to a close.
7. Death will finish our period of usefulness.
8. Death will finish our character, and close our accounts for the judgment.
II. The wisdom of properly considering the circumstances of our latter end.
1. God has pronounced it wise to consider our latter end, and act with constant and careful reference to the life to come.
2. The wisdom of such a course is inferred from the fact that in all other things we consider it indispensable.
3. To make death a matter of previous calculation is necessary to the promotion of our temporal interest and that of our heirs.
4. To well consider our latter end will tend to forward our preparation for the scenes of death. (D. A. Clark.)
The inevitable beyond
Most impractical must every man appear who genuinely believes in the things that are unseen. The man called practical by the men of this world is he who busies himself building his house in the sand, while he does not even bespeak a lodging in the inevitable beyond. (George Macdonald.)
Living without thought of death
In a good pasture where many good oxen are, the butcher comes and fetcheth away one and kills it; next day he fetcheth away another, and kills that toe. Now, those which he leaves behind feed and fat themselves till they are driven to the slaughter, not considering what is become of their fellows or what shall become of themselves. So when death coming amongst a multitude of men, here taking one, and there another, we pamper up ourselves till he overtakes us also; we live as though, like Adam and Abel, we never saw a man die before us, whereas every churchyard, every age, every sickness should be a preacher of mortality unto us. (J. Spencer.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v31
Deuteronomy
THEIR ROCK AND OUR ROCK
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Deu 32:31.
Moses is about to leave the people whom he had led so long, and his last words are words of solemn warning. He exhorts them to cleave to God. The words of the text simply mean that the history of the nation had sufficiently proved that God, their God, was ‘above all gods.’ The Canaanites and all the enemies whom Israel had fought had been beaten, and in their awe of this warrior people acknowledged that their idols had found their lord. The great suit of ‘Jehovah versus Idols’ has long since been decided. Every one acknowledges that Christianity is the only religion possible for twentieth century men. But the words of the text lend themselves to a wider application, and clothe in a picturesque garb the universal truth that the experience of godless men proves the futility of their objects of trust, when compared with that of him whose refuge is in God.
I. God is a Rock to them that trust Him.
We note the singular frequency of that designation in this song, in which it occurs six times. It is also found often in the Psalms. If Moses were the singer, we might see in this often-repeated metaphor a trace of influence of the scenery of the Sinaitic peninsula, which would he doubly striking to eyes accustomed to the alluvial plains of Egypt. What are the aspects of the divine nature set forth by this name?
{1} Firm foundation: the solid eternity of the rock on which we can build.
Petra: faithfulness to promises, unchanging.
{2} Refuge: ‘refuge from the storm’; ‘my rock and my fortress and my high tower.’
{3} Refreshment: rock from which water gushed out; and {4} Repose: ‘shadow of a great rock’; ‘shadow from the heat.’
Trace the image through Scripture, from this song till Christ’s parable of the man who ‘built his house on a rock.’
II. Every man’s experience shows him that there is no such refuge anywhere else.
We do not assert that every man consciously comes to that conclusion. All we say is that he would do so if he rightly pondered the facts. The history of every life is a history of disappointment. Take these particulars just stated and ask yourselves: What does experience say as to the possibility of our possessing such blessings apart from God? There is no need for us to exaggerate, for the naked reality is sad enough. If God is not our best Good, we have no solid good. Every other ‘rock’ crumbles into sand. Else why this restless change, why this disquiet, why the constant repetition, generation after generation, of the old, old wail, ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’? Why does every heart say Amen to the poet and the dramatist singing of ‘the fever and the fret,’ the tragic fare of man’s life?
Our appeal is not to men in the flush of excitement, but to them in their hours of solitary sane reflection. It is from ‘Philip drunk to Philip sober.’ We each have material for judging in our own case, and in the cases of some others. The experiment of living with other ‘rocks’ than God has been tried for millenniums now. What has been the issue? You know what Christianity claims that it can do to make a life stable and safe. Do you know anything else that can? You know what Christian men will calmly say that they have found. Can you say as much? Let us hear some dying testimonies. Hearken to Jacob: ‘The God which hath fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.’ Hearken to Moses: ‘The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He.’ Hearken to Joshua: ‘Not one good thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake.’ Hearken to David: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want . . .. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’ Hearken to Paul: ‘The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, and I was delivered . . . the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom.’ What man who has chosen to take refuge or build on men and creatures can look backward and forward in such fashion?
III. Every man’s own nature tells him that God is his true Rock.
Again I say that here I do not appeal to the surface of our consciousness, nor to men who have sophisticated themselves, nor to people who have sinned themselves, into hardness, but to the voice of the inner man which speaks in the depths of each man’s being.
There is the cry of Want: the manifest want of the soul for God.
There is the voice of Reason.
There is the voice of Conscience.
IV. Yet many of us will not take God for our Rock.
Surely it is a most extraordinary thing that men should be ‘judges,’ being convinced in their deepest consciousness that God is the only Foundation and Refuge, and yet that the conviction should have absolutely no influence on their conduct. The same stark, staring inconsequence is visible in many other departments of life, but in this region it works its most tragic results. The message which many of my hearers need most is-follow out your deepest convictions, and be true to the inward voice which condenses all your experience into the one counsel to take God for the ‘strength of your hearts and your portion for ever,’ for only in Him will you find what you need for life and strength and riches. If He is ‘our Rock,’ then we shall have a firm foundation, a safe refuge, inexhaustible refreshment and untroubled rest. Lives founded on aught beside are built on sand and will be full of tremors and unsettlements, and at last the despairing builder and his ruined house will be washed away with the dissolving ‘sandbank and shoal of time’ on which he built.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv36–37 (See Scofield "Zec 8:14").
repent
(See Scofield "Zec 8:14").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v19 Jehovah’s Sentence and its Execution
Jehovah’s Sentence and its Execution
v. 19. And when the Lord saw it, by the testimony of His own personal observation, He abhorred them, He rejected them with a feeling of bitterness, because of the provoking, the vexation, the grief, of His sons and of His daughters. The behavior of the children of Israel caused the Lord to plan their rejection with a severe punishment.
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v. 20. And He said, I will hide My face from them, withdraw His mercy, be inaccessible to all their pleading for mercy. I will see what their end shall be, for their apostasy was bound to bring them everlasting destruction; for they are a very froward generation, perverse, wicked, children in whom is no faith, upon whom one cannot depend.
v. 21. They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, by turning and clinging to idols of men’s imagination; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities, literally, "their nothingnesses," Lev 19:4; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, by turning in mercy to such as did not belong to the chosen nation; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, by laying the blessing rejected by Israel upon a people who till then were godless. Cf Rom 10:19.
v. 22. For 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; for the judgment of God, as realized in the course of the centuries, not only upon Israel, but upon all those that rejected Him, in every form of severe punishment, extends beyond the earthly life and continues throughout eternity.
v. 23. I will heap mischiefs upon them, evils of every kind; I will send Mine arrows upon them, use them up in bringing retribution upon them.
v. 24. They shall be burned with hunger, become thin for lack of food, and devoured with burning heat, with a consuming pestilence, and with bitter destruction, an infectious epidemic; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, raging beasts of prey, with the poison of serpents of the dust. Cf Lev 26:22.
v. 25. The sword without and terror within, on account of the utter helplessness and the terrible fate which would await them in the hands of the victorious and cruel enemy, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, cutting them off in the bloom of their youth, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs, the land thus being bereaved of its inhabitants.
v. 26. I said I would scatter them into corners, blow them away, exterminate them, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men;
v. 27. were it not that I feared the wrath of, that is, over, the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, misunderstanding or ignoring the fact that Jehovah’s interference and not their power had destroyed Israel, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, has shown itself mighty, and the Lord hath not done all this. The transgression of Israel would be such as to merit annihilation, and it would be only the probable arrogance of the enemy in ascribing to themselves the punishment which was God’s alone that would prevent His carrying out that intention.
v. 28. For they, Israel, are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them; they were utterly lacking in spiritual insight and wisdom.
v. 29. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Complete destruction is their inevitable lot if Jehovah for His name’s sake does not turn away His wrath.
v. 30. how 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? If they would only cling to Jehovah, the Rock of their salvation, then it would be a small matter for them to overthrow all their enemies; but now their apostasy would result in their being sold into the power of their enemies, deprived of all their strength by the Lord.
v. 31. For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. The heathen themselves were obliged to confess that the gods in whom they put their trust could not really be compared with Jehovah, the true God.
v. 32. For their vine, that upon which Israel was placing its trust, is the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah, Isa 1:10; Isaiah 3-9; Jer 23:14; their grapes are grapes of gall, on account of the bitterness of their transgressions, their clusters are bitter;
v. 33. their wine is the poison of dragons, of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps, of a very poisonous, deadly snake. Thus the vine and its fruits are a picture of the people and of its works. Cf Isa 5:2-4. In this entire section the punishment upon Sodom is suggested, as the formal announcement of the coming judgment, which now follows, indicates.
v. 34. Is not this laid up in store with Me, both the sins of the people and the judgments of God, and sealed up among my treasures? The registers of guilt were still secret, but would be opened in due time.
v. 35. To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time, at that time, when the foot would begin to be uncertain, when their fall would be imminent, then God would prove Himself the avenger, the rewarder, then the secrets with regard to their punishment, which He had kept hidden, would be revealed. For the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste; then the judgment, the vengeance of God, would strike Israel, bringing them to the verge of destruction.
v. 36. For the Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for (comfort) His servants, by punishing those who are only outward members of His people, and by saving those who are found true worshipers of Jehovah, when He seeth that their power is gone, when all the earthly props of Israel’s power upon which it relied are taken away, and there is none shut up or left, that is, all men, all defenders, both married and single, are taken away.
v. 37. And He shall say, when He has thus brought punishment upon His people and avenged Himself upon His enemies in their midst, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
v. 38. which, namely, the idols of the false Israelites, did eat the fat of their sacrifices, accepting what the foolish Israelites consecrated to them, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? Let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. Thus the helplessness and vanity of the idols are brought out.
v. 39. See now, by contemplating the fate which struck the foolish idolaters, that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me; Jehovah alone is the true God. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. To Him, as the almighty God, pertains the absolute power over the creatures of His hand.
v. 40. For I lift up My hand to heaven, in the gesture of one swearing a solemn oath, and say, I live forever.
v. 41. if I whet My glittering sword, in the capacity of champion of His people, and Mine hand take hold on judgment, namely, for the purpose of carrying it out, I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me, punish all the godless, not only among the heathen, but also among the Israelites.
v. 42. I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, a very strong figure denoting the complete overthrow of the enemies; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy, literally, "from the unbarbered head of the enemy," said of one possessing vigorous strength and exhibiting proud arrogance.
v. 43. Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, since all men are included in God’s love; 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. By the punishment of the bold offenders and by the extirpation of idolatry God intended to expiate the guilt resting upon His people and their country, and thus to consecrate and sanctify both the land and the people, His congregation of believers. Thus Moses, at the end of his song, prophesies of the Church of the New Testament, which will serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43 General Information:
General Information:
Moses speaks a poetic song to the people of Israel. (See: Parallelism)
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his sons and his daughters
This refers to the people of Israel whom Yahweh gave life to and made into a nation. (See: Metaphor)
I will hide my face from them
This is an idiom. AT: "I will turn away from them" or "I will stop helping them" (See: Idiom)
I will see what their end will be
"I will see what happens to them"
translationWords
Yahweh
reject
son
face
perverse
generation
children
faithful
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 21, 22, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42 32:20 The phrase without integrity indicates disloyalty to the…
32:20 The phrase without integrity indicates disloyalty to the covenant. Israel had promised to be true to the Lord but had consistently been unfaithful (see Exod 19:8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.