Deuteronomy 32:43

Deu 32:43 Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: 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.

Ver. 43. Rejoice, O ye nations.] Give God the glory of his just severity, which is no less commendable in a judge than seasonable clemency.

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 32:43. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people — So the Seventy, a translation followed by St. Paul, (Rom 15:10,) where this passage is quoted, and where we are directed to consider it as a prediction of the bringing in of the Gentiles to share the privileges of the gospel, and become one church of God in conjunction with the Jews. Or, if it be translated more literally, according to the Hebrew, Rejoice, O ye nations, (or Gentiles) his people; that is, being now his people, the sense will be much the same. Either way the words seem evidently to relate to the last great deliverance of the Jews, and their conversion to Christianity, and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles, which undoubtedly will be the completion of the divine dispensations, and will spread peace and happiness over all the earth. He therefore calls upon all the nations of the earth to rejoice in prospect of this great event, which they had all reason to do, considering the singular advantages which all nations would enjoy at that time and upon that occasion.

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

Whether the blood of God’s people be shed for their sins or trial of their faith, he promiseth to revenge it.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 43. Rejoice, O ye nations] Ye Gentiles, for the casting off of the Jews shall be the means of your ingathering with his people, for they shall not be utterly cast off. (See Ro 15:9, for in this way the apostle applies it.) But how shall the Gentiles be called, and the Jews have their iniquity purged? He will be merciful unto his land and to his people, vechipper, he shall cause an atonement to be made for his land and people; i. e., Jesus Christ, the long promised Messiah, shall be crucified for Jews and Gentiles, and the way to the holiest be made plain by his blood.

The people have long been making atonements for themselves, but to none effect, for their atonements were but signs, and not the thing signified, for the body is Christ; now the Lord himself makes an atonement, for the Lamb of God alone taketh away the sin of the world. This is a very proper and encouraging conclusion to the awfully important matter of this poem.

Israel shall be long scattered, peeled, and punished, but they shall have mercy in the latter times; they also shall rejoice with the Gentiles, in the common salvation purchased by the blood of the Saviour of all mankind.

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

(43) Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people.[9]—This is cited by St. Paul to show that the Gentiles must also “glorify God for His mercy” in sending Jesus Christ. But it is not wholly fulfilled yet. “If the fall of God’s people was the wealth of the world . . . what will the receiving of them be. but life from the dead?” (See Rom_11:12; Rom_11:15; Rom_15:10.)

[9] The LXX. have a longer version of this verse, “Rejoice, ye heavens, with Him, and let all the angels of God worship Him (Heb_1:7); Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people, and let all the sons of God be strong in Him; for,” &c.

And will be merciful unto.—Literally, will reconcile or make atonement for His land, the land of His people, or for the land of His people. He will cleanse, forgive, and be merciful to it. The very last words speak of local restoration of the land to the people, and the people to the land. Of no other land has He said “The land is mine” “Israel” alone is called His “firstborn.”

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

43. For this LXX gives eight lines, part quoted in Rom_15:10.

Sing] Heb. harnînû, the most ringing of the vbs with this meaning.

assoils] Covers, or clears, from guilt, cp. Deu_21:8.

the land of His people] So Sam., LXX, etc., doubtless rightly. Heb. as in R.V.

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 Moses came,.... To the people, as the Greek version, the heads of the people being gathered together according to his order, Deu 31:28; The Targum of Jonathan says, he came from the tabernacle, the house of instruction:

and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people; which is observed both before and after the reading of it, to show the certainty of it, and how punctually and faithfully he had delivered it:

he, and Hoshea the son of Nun; the same with Joshua, whose name at first was Hoshea, Num 13:16, probably Joshua read the song to one part of the people, while Moses read it to the other.

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

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:

(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.

People. Though God afflicted the Israelites for a time, he was always disposed to receive them to his favour again upon their repentance; and he will even receive them into his Church before the day of judgment, Romans xi. 25. (Calmet) --- This decided predilection for them, would naturally induce other nations to praise them. Grabe’s Septuagint reads, "Rejoice ye heavens with him, and let all the sons of God adore him, and let all the angels of God strengthen them, because He revengeth the blood of his sons; and he will continue to do so, and he will punish his enemies, and will render to those who hate him; and the Lord will purify the land of his people." (Haydock) --- In some editions, after Let all the angels of God adore him, (cited [in] Hebrews i. 6.; Cappel.) they read, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people, which St. Paul quotes, Romans xv. 10; and then they add, "And Moses wrote this canticle on that day, and he taught it to the children of Israel; (Calmet) (Ver. 44.) and Moses came forth to the people, and spoke all the words of this law, in the ears of the people, he and Jesus, the son of Nave," by which name they designate Josue, the son of Nun. (Haydock) --- He assisted Moses in singing the canticle, as his colleague in office, to whom the obligation of withdrawing the people from idolatry would henceforth devolve. (Menochius) --- God always preserved some of the Jews from the general corruption, till the time of the Messias. (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).

With his people. This translation is justified by St. Paul, Rom 15:10, the particle with being oft understood, as Lev 26:42. He calls upon the nations to rejoice and bless God for his favours, and especially for the last wonderful deliverance which shall be given to the Jews when they shall be converted unto the gospel in the last days, which they have all reason to do, not only kern that duty of sympathy which they owe to all people, and especially to God’s ancient people, whereby they are to rejoice with them that rejoice, but because of that singular advantage and happiness which all nations will have at that time, and upon that occasion. Or, Rejoice, O ye Gentiles, his people; i.e. O you Gentiles, who once were not God’s people, but now are his people, do you rejoice for God’s mercies to the Jews his ancient people, bless God for their conversion and salvation.

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

43. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people — Or, rather, Praise, O ye nations, his people. The English versions follow the reading of the Septuagint. And the passage is thus quoted in Rom_15:10.

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

"As this song commenced with an appeal to heaven and earth to give glory to the Lord (vers. 1-3), so it very suitably closes with an appeal to the heathen to rejoice with his people on account of the acts of the Lord" (Keil). Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people. The Authorized Version here follows the LXX, eujfranqhte eqnh meta tou laou aujtou, and so St. Paul cites the passage in Rom_15:10. The Jewish interpreters generally render, Praise his people, O nations; and this several Christian interpreters adopt. But as Rosenm remarks, it is the Divine righteousness manifested in the vindication of his people from their enemies that is to be celebrated, and not the people themselves, as what follows shows. Here as elsewhere the nations and the people are in contrast.

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

Rejoice - He calls upon the nations to rejoice and bless God for his favours, and especially for the last wonderful deliverance which shall be given to the Jews, when they shall be converted to the gospel in the last days; which they have all reason to do, because of that singular advantage which all nations will have at that time and upon that occasion.

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

General Information:

This is the end of Moses' song. (See: Parallelism)

Rejoice, you nations

Moses addresses the peoples of all the nations as if they were there listening. (See: Metonymy and Apostrophe)

for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will render vengeance on his enemies

Here "blood of his servants" represents the lives of his innocent servants who were killed. AT: "for he will take revenge on his enemies, who killed his servants" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

joy

nation

people of God

avenge

blood

servant

adversary

atonement

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

הרנינו גוים עמו SING ALOUD, O YE NATIONS, OF HIS PEOPLE — At that time (when I shall take vengeance on them) the nations will praise Israel (Sifrei Devarim 333:2): “See, how praiseworthy is this people, — that they have cleaved to the Holy One, blessed be He, amidst all the troubles which have passed over them, and have not forsaken Him, for they had constantly experienced His goodness and His excellence”.

כי דם עבדיו יקם FOR HE WILL AVENGE THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS — i.e., the shedding of their blood, as the phrase usually implies.

ונקם ישיב לצריו AND HE WILL RENDER VENGEANCE TO HIS ADVERSARIES for their robbery and their violence, just as it is stated, (Joel 4:19) “Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah …”, and it states in another passage (Obadiah 10) “For the violence against thy brother Jacob [shame shall cover thee]” (cf. Sifrei Devarim 333:3).

וכפר אדמתו עמו means, and He will appease His land and His people for the miseries that have passed over them and for that which the enemy has caused them.

וכפר is an expression denoting appeasing and calming, as e.g. (Genesis 32:21) אכפרה פניו which is rendered in the Targum by “I will appease his anger” (cf. Rashi on that verse).

וכפר אדמתו AND HE WILL PROPITIATE HIS LAND — and what is His land? עמו HIS PEOPLE — when His people receives comfort His land, too, receives comfort, and so, too, it states, (Psalms 85:2) “Thou hast been favourable, O Lord, unto Thy land” — whereby hast Thou been favourable unto Thy land? The words that follow in the text give the answer: “Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob” (Thy people).

— In a different manner is it (the section from v. 26 onwards) expounded in Sifrei, and there is a difference of opinion regarding it between R. Judah and R. Nehemiah. R. Judah expounds the whole of it as having reference to Israel, whilst R. Nehemiah refers the whole of it as referring to the other nations (Sifrei Devarim 327). R. Judah explains it as referring to Israel as follows: (26) אמרתי אפאיהם in the same manner as I have explained it, up to (27) כי גוי אבד עצות המה (28).ולא ה' פעל כל זאת FOR THEY ARE A NATION LOSING COUNSEL, i.e., they have lost My Torah, which was a fitting counsel for them, ואין בהם תבונה AND THERE IS NO UNDERSTANDING IN THEM to consider,# (30) איכה ירדף אחד HOW ONE MAN of the nations COULD PURSUE אלף A THOUSAND of them, אם לא כי צורם מכרם EXCEPT THAT THEIR ROCK HAD DELIVERED THEM into their power.# (31) כי לא כצורנו צורם — all as I have explained, right up to the end. — R. Nehemiah expounds it as referring to the other nations as follows: (28) כי גוי אבד עצות המה — This he explains as I have explained it at first up to (31): ואיבינו פלילים

— (‎32) כי מגפן סדם גפנם FOR AS THE VINE OF SODOM IS THEIR VINE — i.e. the vine of the other nations.

ומשדמת עמרה AND OF THE FIELDS OF GOMORRAH etc., — and they do not set their mind to attribute the greatness to Me.

ענבמו ענבי רוש THEIR GRAPES ARE GRAPES OF GALL — This is what it stated above לולא כעס אויב אגור WERE IT NOT THAT THE ANGER OF THE ENEMY IS HEAPED UP against Israel to destroy them (cf. Rashi’s explanation of אגור above) — so, too, here: "their grapes are grapes of gall”, to make them (the Israelites) reel and to embitter their lives, and therefore אשכלות מררות למו BITTER CLUSTERS ARE FOR THEM to make them swallow them for what they have done to My children.

(33) חמת תנינם יינם WINE OF DRAGONS IS THEIR WINE — i.e., the wine prepared to give them to drink for what they have done to them (יינם “their wine” is not the wine which they prepare, but that which is prepared for them).

(34) כמס עמדי IS IT NOT LAID WITH ME — “it” means that cup (which is implied in the word יינם, “the wine prepared for them”), as it states. (Psalms 75:9) “For in the hand of the Lord is a cup … [and the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall drink them]”.

(35) לעת תמוט רגלם AT THE TIME THEIR FOOT (i.e., of the enemies) SHALL TOTTER — this is similar to what is said, (Isaiah 26:6) “The foot shall tread it down”.

(36) כי ידין ה׳ עמו — In this explanation, in the phrase כי ידין the word כי is used in the meaning of “because” (not as in the former explanation where it means “when”), and ידין is not an expression for sufferings (the meaning it was given above) but it means as much as: For He (God) will plead their cause (take their parts) against the power of their oppressors, כי יראה כי אזלת יד וגו׳, when He sees that the hand of the enemy waxes mighty, etc.

(37) ואמר אי אלהימו AND HE SAYS WHERE IS THEIR GOD — i.e., when the enemy (cf. this with Rashi’s previous explanation) will say, “Where is the God of Israel?” — even as Titus, the wicked, asked, when he pierced the curtain of the Holy of Holies (cf. Gittin 56b), just as it is said, (Micah 7:10) “Then my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto Me, Where is the Lord, thy God?”

(39) ראו עתה כי אני וגו׳ means, then the Lord will display His saving power and will say, SEE NOW, THAT IT IS I, EVEN I — from Me came the evil upon them (the Israelites) and from Me will good come upon them.

ואין מידי מציל AND THERE IS NONE THAT CAN DELIVER OUT OF MY HAND — i.e. that can deliver you (the nations) from the evil which I shall now bring upon you.

(40) כי אשא אל שמים ידי — The first two words (continuing this exposition) are as much as כי נשאתי, “Because I have lifted up”, and the text means: everlasting I made the heaven the dwelling-place of My Glory, — as the Targum takes it (“For I have established in heaven the place of My Divine Glory”) — therefore there will surely be none that can deliver you, for even when the weak person is above and the strong below, the fear of him that is above lies upon him that is below; how much more is this so when “I”, the strong, am above and you, the weak, are below.

— ידי means the place of My Divine Glory, as (Numbers 2:17) “every man by his place (ידו)”, — therefore I had the power to punish you immediately, but I said that I shall live forever, therefore I need not hasten to exact punishment, because I have time for this matter: I live for ever and in later generations can punish them, for I have the power to exact punishment both from the living and the dead. A human king who is always going to die (may die at any moment), takes quick vengeance to punish during his lifetime, because either he or his enemy may die with the result that he would never exact his vengeance from him; but I live for ever, and if they (My enemies) should die and I shall not have exacted punishment from them during their lifetime, I can exact it when they are dead.

(41) אם שנותי ברק חרבי — There are many instances where the particle אם is not used conditionally (i.e., it does not signify “if”). Here, also: when I shall whet ברק חרבי MY GLITTERING SWORD AND MY HAND SHALL HOLD FAST ON JUSTICE, etc., etc., all as I have explained above.

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.