CHAP. XXXII. 1-25.

Moses' song, which sets forth the perfections of God; his special goodness to his people; their ingratitude and apostacy; and God's displeasure and vengeance. The Jews call this song the epitome of the whole pentateuch. It contains a very useful and constant admonition to Israel. The first three verses are the preface to it.

1

GU

IVE ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. He calls on the whole creation to attend, and witness the truth of what he said, 2 and the perverseness of Israel if they forsook God. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass; or rather, let it do so; let it become profitable 3 to mollify and make you fruitful: Because I will publish the name of the LORD, celebrate his attributes, and publish his glorious excellency: ascribe ye greatness unto our God; do you also own and acknowledge them, and attend with diligence and 4 reverence. [He is] the Rock, a firm, everlasting refuge; his work [is] perfect, his works of creation and providence: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right [is] he; righteous in whatsoever he doeth ; his dealings with his people have been exactly just and holy, in 5 the highest degree of perfection. They have corrupted themselves, their spot [is] not [the spot] of his children: [they are] a perverse and crooked generation; they are an untoward generation, that walk contrary to God in all their ways; they did not behave like God's children. He then expostulates with them; 6 Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? [Is] not he thy Father [that] hath bought thee, delivered thee from Egyptian slavery? hath he not made thee, and established thee, formed thee into a people, given thee good laws, and often confirmed his grace toward thee?

7

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee; consult ancient records, advise with old men who have seen God's wonders in Egypt; ask Caleb and • Joshua, and the Levites, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel; he thought of them when he divided the earth among the sons of Noah, when he scattered the nations into various parts of the earth, and gave. those that were to inhabit Canaan so large a share, as might be fully sufficient for his own numerous people, when they came to 9 possess it. For the LORD's portion [is] his people; Jacob [is] VOL. II. Dd

the lot of his inheritance; they are his special care, his peculiar 10 people, and have distinguished privileges. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye; he found him in a place destitute of convenience and comfort, amidst the howling of birds and beasts of prey; he conducted him from place to place, and gave him good laws; protected him from danger, in the kindest manner, as a man takes care of his eye, the tenderest and most useful part: and this he illustrates by a most 11 beautifid image; As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; as an eagle forces her young ones from the nest, teaching them how to fly, and carries them on her 12 wings when they are in danger; [So] the LORD alone did lead him, and [there was] no strange god with him; with such tenderness and care did the Lord deliver them out of Egypt, 13 and carry them to Canaan. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, subdue the mountainous places and strong holds of their enemies, and possess a land far excelling others for all commodities; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, pleasant, delicious fruits of trees growing upon 14 rocky ground; Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape; they had abundance of the finest cattle, the largest wheat, and richest wines.

15

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked; Israel, who had the vision of God, and a clear revelation, grew proud, and, like a fat beast, kicked against the ground; thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness ;] then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation; they forsook God who was so kind to them; abhorred their Creator, contemned his laws, grew insolent and rebellious; 16 and those light thoughts of God begat idolatry. They provoked

him to jealousy with strange [gods,] with abominations pro17 voked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, to demons, the souls of departed men, or evil spirits, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not; or, which were not God; such as the golden calf, Baal, or Molech; new invented gods, 18 who never gave them any good thing. Of the Rock [that] begat thee, thy strong and almighty God, thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee, thy Maker and benefactor.

19

And when the LORD saw [it,] he abhorred [them,] because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters; they discovered the ingratitude and rebellion of a wicked child, to a kind, 20 indulgent parent, And he said, I will hide my face from

them, I will see what their end [shall be :] for they [are] very froward generation, children in whom [is] no faith; this was a punishment answerable to their sin: I will show my displeasure; I will let them see what a friend they have lost, and what will become of them when I forsake them, because they are children of no faith, who have broken their covenant so often that 21 they are not to be trusted. They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation; they had provoked God with vain and despicable deities, and he would vex them with a despicable 22 people, that is, the Canaanites that were left among them, 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; vehement and dreadful judgments shall come upon them, which should ruin all their enjoyments, make utter desolation of their country, even the strongest places of the land; yea, Jerusalem itself, founded on the holy mountains, was destroyed by the fire of God's wrath. 23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them; one evil shall be heaped upon another, and all his dreadful arrows should come swiftly and suddenly, till the whole quiver was exhausted; these arrows are then particularly men24 tioned. [They shall be] burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents 25 of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling (also] with the man of gray hairs; the famine, the pestilence, and the sword, should destroy all without distinction.

1.

WE

REFLECTIONS.

E learn hence, that we should endeavour to cultivate a due sense of the divine attributes. Greatness is ascribed to God, v. 3. High and honourable thoughts of him may keep us from sin, and lead us to duty. It is a delightful view that is given of him, v. 4. He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. All his works are perfect, but men's works are imperfect. What are all men compared with this wise, just, and faithful God! May we trust in him, and devote ourselves to him.

2. To neglect this God is the highest degree of folly and ingratitude. He bought us; he purchased us with the blood of his son; he gives us every blessing. What then does he deserve at our hands! to sin against him, and to neglect him, is the

basest ingratitude, the greatest folly; because there is none so good, or so great as he is; he is able both to save and to destroy.

3. The hand of God is to be owned in the divisions of nations, and in fixing the abodes of men. This is not the work of chance; we see much wisdom at present displayed in it. How very extensive his views with respect to the Canaanites and Israelites! Known to God are all his works from the beginning. This thought should make us contented with our lot, and comfort our hearts amidst the confusions of the world. All things are ordered by Providence, and tend to the good of the church.

4. The sins of God's peculiar people are greatly aggravated : The Lord abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters, The more favours we have received, the more solemn obligations we are under, the more will he be displeased if we sin against him, and the more remarkable will be our punishment. Therefore, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling.

CHAP. XXXII. 26, to the end.

The song proceeds with threatenings of punishment for their impiety, but with intimations of mercy; Moses advises the people to set their hearts to all the words of this law, and he is sent up to mount Nebo to see the promised land, and die.

26

ISAID, I would scatter them into corners, I would make

the remembrance of them to cease from among men : 27 God could easily, and might justly have done this: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, [and] lest they should say, Our hand [is] high, and the LORD hath not done all this; lest their enemies should ascribe all the praise to their idols, and 28 attribute nothing to the Most High: For they [are] a nation void of counsel, neither [is there any] understanding in them; they are a foolish nation, who go on in a course that will end in 29 their ruin. O that they were wise, [that] they understood this, [that] they would consider their latter end! Moses feared the worst, yet earnestly wishes their reformation; that they would seriously consider where their iniquities would lead them. 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? He declares they might easily have escaped those calamities, if God had not been provoked to forsake them; formerly, with a few they destroyed vast armies ; but now, a few enemies should conquer them; for the Lord hath shut them 31 up so that they could not escape. For their rock [is] not as our

Rock, even our enemies themselves [being] judges; they should often be brought to confess that their gods were not like 32 Jehovah. For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes [are] grapes of gall, 33 their clusters [are] bitter: Their wine [is] the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Israel had been planted and cultivated like a vine, and good fruit was expected ; but instead of this, their fruits and actions, like Sodom of old, were hateful to God and deatly to themselves. Some understand this of the enemies of Israel, and then the next verse fortells their 34 destruction. [Is] not this laid up in store with me, [and] sealed up among my treasures? though I seem to forget it, 35 yet I have a fixed time to execute my purpose. To me [belongeth] vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in [due] time for the day of their calamity [is] at hand; and the things that shall come upon them make haste; though they may think themselves secure, yet at an hour when 36 they think not, I will bring sudden destruction upon them. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants; here mercy begins to dawn, and the day of deliverance shall arise; when he seeth that [their] power is gone, and [there is] none shut up, or left; when they have no hope of deliverance, but begin to despair that no garrisons or fenced cities are left them, when all seem to be quite destroyed, and 37 none able to do any thing toward their help. And he shall say,

that is, he will teach his people to say to the heathen, Where [are] 38 their gods, [their] rock in whom they trusted, Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink offerings? that is, to whom ye offered the fat of your sacrifices, and on the fumes of which you suppose your deities feast. Let them rise up and help you, [and] be your protection; they should cry to those gods, but in vain. From hence they 39 were to learn, that God only could help and deliver them. See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is 40 there any] that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever; as sure as I live for ever, I will deliver my people, and fully avenge myself on all 41 my enemies. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. Whetting his glittering or flaming sword imports deliberation, and a steady, 42 purpose to make terrible destruction. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh : [and that] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, of those slain in the field, and of those, who being wounded only, are taken captives; from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy, from the time that I begin to take vengeance ; or rather,