Deuteronomy 32:18

Deu 32:18 Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

Ver. 18. And hast forgotten God that formed thee.] Or, That brought thee forth. Here God is compared to a mother, as in the former clause to a father. So Jas 1:18, "Of his own will begat he us," - απεκυησε, He brought us forth, and did the office of a mother to us; which doth notably set forth his love and the work of his grace.

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.

Deu_32:18

Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful.

Forgetful of the Rock

How is it that men soon forget the solid, the real, the substantial? What is it that delights men in spluttering rockets, in coloured fountains, in lamps swinging upon trees that are offended by their presence? See the great seething crowd waiting for the coloured fountains to spring up, and for all the little electric lamps confined in tinted globes to shine among swaying branches! What exclamations of idiotic delight! How stunned is modern intelligence at the marvellous display of colour! Who heeds the quiet moon that looks on with unutterable amazement, and that in her motherly heart is saying, Oh, that they were wise, that they were less given to toy worship and playfulness of that kind! Here I have been shining ages upon ages--who heeds me? Which of all the sweltering, overfed throng turns a bleared eye to my course to watch me in my gentle sovereignty? And the stars, too, look down upon the coloured fountains without being moved to envy by their momentary blush and by their unheard splash! We forget the Rock so soon; we prefer the toy; we want something light, something that can be spoken trippingly on the tongue--an easy fluent nothing. We do not care to bow down the head to study, to criticism, to the examination and estimation of evidence, and commit ourselves to the acceptance of sound conclusions. Can we go anywhere to see a coloured fountain? Men who do not travel half a mile to the greatest pulpit in the world, or the greatest altar ever built to the God of heaven, would put themselves and their families to any amount of inconvenience and expense to gaze with the admiration of idiocy upon a coloured fountain! Blessed are they who love the permanent stars, the lamps of heaven, and who set their feet broadly and squarely on Gods everlasting Rock. Let us turn to the real, to the substantial, to the very revelation of Gods truth, and abide there; Ore coloured fountain can only come now and again, but the eternal heavens are always full of light or rich with beauty. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 32:18-19. Of the Rock that begat thee — Of God, one of whose titles this is; or of Christ, the rock that is said to have followed the Israelites in the wilderness, (1Co 10:4,) of which they drank, and whom they tempted. Moses still speaks in the prophetic style, representing what appeared present to his prophetic view as if it had already happened. The provoking of his sons and daughters — Such they were by calling and profession. Daughters are here expressly named, because the women were notoriously guilty of provoking God by idolatry. Thus we read, (Jer 7:18,) “The women knead dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.” And again, (Jer 44:15,) “The women burned incense to other gods.” And in Eze 8:14, “The women sat weeping for Tammuz.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32:18 the Rock: This expression draws attention to God’s reliability as Father (see 32:4, 9).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Of the Rock that begat thee] צור tsur, the first cause, the fountain of thy being. See Clarke on De 32:4.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Of the Rock that begat thee.—“The Rock hath begotten thee forgetful, and thou hast forgotten God that travailed with thee” is another possible translation of this verse. The expression in the second clause is found also in Psa_90:2 (a prayer of Moses), “Before the mountains were brought forth, while Thou wast yet in travail with earth and world, and from eternity unto eternity Thou art God!” The word which I have rendered “forgetful” is usually taken as a verb. But the verb is not found elsewhere (i.e., it is invented for the sake of this passage), and the word may not impossibly be an adjective.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. Rock] See on Deu_32:4; God, Heb. ’El. The predicates used of Him are generally interpreted as if attributing to Him the functions both of father and mother. But the first vb. is more usually in the O.T. of the mother, and is rightly rendered here by R.V. marg. bare; the second, gave thee birth, is rather was in travail with thee; cp. Num_11:12.

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.

And when the Lord saw it,.... The disregard of the Jews to Christ, their forgetfulness of him, their disesteem and rejection of him; their continuance of sacrifices, when the great sacrifice was offered up; their setting up other messiahs and saviours, and the idol of their own righteousness, in opposition to the righteousness of Christ; all which not only as the omniscient God he saw, but took notice of, and considered, and did not at once pass judgment on them, at least did not immediately execute it, but waited some time to see how they would afterwards behave; for it was thirty years or more after the crucifixion of Christ that the utter destruction of the Jews came upon them:

he abhorred them; in his heart, despised them, and at last rejected them with contempt and abhorrence, very righteously and in just retaliation, see Zac 11:8; as for what before observed, so for what follows:

because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters; which is not to be understood of the Lord being provoked to wrath by the sins of those who called themselves or were called his sons and daughters; for these are such who were truly his sons and daughters, and different from those in Deu 32:20, said to be "children in whom is no faith": these are no other than the disciples and followers of Christ, that believed in him, both men and women, and so the children of God, his sons and his daughters by special grace; and the "provoking" of them is the wrath of the enemy against them, as the same word is used and rendered in Deu 32:27; and should be here, "because of wrath", or "indignation against his sons and his daughters" (m); meaning the affliction, distress, and persecution of them, through the wrath of the unbelieving Jews; for after the death of Christ they persecuted his apostles, they beat them and cast them into prison, and put some to death; a persecution was raised against the church at Jerusalem, in which Saul was concerned, who breathed out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples of the Lord, and haled men and women, the sons and daughters of God, and committed them to prison, and persecuted them to strange cities, and gave his voice to put them to death; and in the Gentile world, when the Gospel was carried there, the Jews stirred up the Gentiles everywhere against the followers of Christ, to harass and distress them; and this the Lord saw, and he abhorred them for it, and rejected them.

(m) "prae ira in filios suos", Pagninus; "propter iram in filios suos", Van Till; so Maimon. Moreh Nevochim, par. 1. c. 36.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Created. Septuagint, "gave thee food." Hebrew, "of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee, (Haydock) or praises thee," the source of thy felicity. (Calmet) --- Calvin (Institutes i. 11. 9,) to insinuate that Catholics adore pictures, as the Israelites did the golden calf, pretends that they could not have forgotten that God delivered them out of Egypt. Thus he contradicts the Scriptures! (Worthington)

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).

Of the Rock, i.e. of God, one of whose titles this is, above, Deu 32:4; Isa 44:8; or of Christ, who is called the Rock, 1Co 10:4, whom the Israelites are said to have tempted, there, Deu 32:9.

That begat thee, i.e. who hath adopted you to be his people, and hath showed as much care and kindness to you as if he had begotten you.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee — Moses emphasizes the ingratitude of the nation in that they forsake Him who has shown paternal and maternal love to them. Rock is put for the founder of the nation. Jehovah is Israel’s founder. “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.” Isa_51:1.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Moses here returns to the thought of ver. 15, for the purpose of expressing it with greater force, and also of leading on to the description he is about to give of the Lord"s acts towards the nation who had so revolted from him. Thou art unmindful; LXX, ejgkatelipev: Vulgate, dereliquisti. The Hebrew word hyv occurs only here, and the meaning is doubtful. From the rendering of the versions, it would seem to be allied to the Arabic, saha, oblitus est. That formed thee; literally, that brought thee forth or caused thee to be born; "qui te eduxit ex utero materno". (Jarchi. Cf. for the use of the verb, Psa_29:9) In the Samaritan Codex, llhm, "who hath glorified or praised thee," is the reading, instead of lljm; and this the Syriac also expresses. The other versions, however, support the Masoretic reading.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of the rock - Of God, one of whose titles this is, or of Christ, who is called the rock, 1 Cor. x, 4, whom the Israelites tempted.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

תשי means THOU HAST FORGOTTEN. But our Rabbis explained it thus: whenever He was about to bestow good upon you, you provoked Him to anger and, as it were, weakened (תש) His power so that He could not do you good (Sifrei Devarim 319:3).

אל מחללך means, God Who has brought you forth out of the womb. It has the same meaning as in (Psalms 29:9) “[The voice of the Lord] makes hinds to bring forth (יחולל)”, and (Psalms 48:7) “travail (חיל) as that of a woman in childbirth”.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.