Comments on Deuteronomy 32 For this chapter, I am inserting the JPS rendering as that presents the poetry in a much easier to read format. Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter! 2 May my discourse come down as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, Like showers on young growth, Like droplets on the grass. 3 For the name of the Lord I proclaim; Give glory to our God! 4 The Rock! His deeds are perfect, Yea, all His ways are just; A faithful God, never false, True and upright is He. 5 Children unworthy of Him That crooked, perverse generation Their baseness has played Him false. 6 Do you thus requite the Lord, O dull and witless people? Is not He the Father who created you, Fashioned you and made you endure! 7 Remember the days of old, Consider the years of ages past; Ask your father, he will inform you, Your elders, they will tell you: 8 When the Most High gave nations their homes And set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of peoples In relation to Israel's numbers. 9 For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment. 10 He found him in a desert region, In an empty howling waste. He engirded him, watched over him, Guarded him as the pupil of His eye. 11 Like an eagle who rouses his nestlings, Gliding down to his young, So did He spread His wings and take him, Bear him along on His pinions; 12 The Lord alone did guide him, No alien god at His side. 13 He set him atop the highlands, To feast on the yield of the earth; He fed him honey from the crag, And oil from the flinty rock, 14 Curd of kine and milk of flocks; With the best of lambs, And rams of Bashan, and he-goats; With the very finest wheat And foaming grape-blood was your drink. 15 So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked You grew fat and gross and coarse He forsook the God who made him And spurned the Rock of his support. 16 They incensed Him with alien things, Vexed Him with abominations. 17 They sacrificed to demons, no-gods, Gods they had never known, New ones, who came but lately, Who stirred not your fathers' fears. 18 You neglected the Rock that begot you, Forgot the God who brought you forth. 19 The Lord saw and was vexed And spurned His sons and His daughters. 20 He said: I will hide My countenance from them, And see how they fare in the end. For they are a treacherous breed, Children with no loyalty in them. 21 They incensed Me with no-gods, Vexed Me with their futilities; I'll incense them with a no-folk, Vex them with a nation of fools. 22 For a fire has flared in My wrath And burned to the bottom of Sheol, Has consumed the earth and its increase, Eaten down to the base of the hills. 23 I will sweep misfortunes on them, Use up My arrows on them: 24 Wasting famine, ravaging plague, Deadly pestilence, and fanged beasts Will I let loose against them, With venomous creepers in dust. 25 The sword shall deal death without, As shall the terror within, To youth and maiden alike, The suckling as well as the aged. 26 I might have reduced them to naught, Made their memory cease among men, 27 But for fear of the taunts of the foe, Their enemies who might misjudge And say, "Our own hand has prevailed; None of this was wrought by the Lord!" 28 For they are a folk void of sense, Lacking in all discernment. 29 Were they wise, they would think upon this, Gain insight into their future: 30 "How could one have routed a thousand, Or two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, The Lord had given them up?" 31 For their rock is not like our Rock, In our enemies' own estimation. 32 Ah! The vine for them is from Sodom, From the vineyards of Gomorrah; The grapes for them are poison, A bitter growth their clusters. 33 Their wine is the venom of asps, The pitiless poison of vipers. 34 Lo, I have it all put away, Sealed up in My storehouses, 35 To be My vengeance and recompense, At the time that their foot falters. Yea, their day of disaster is near, And destiny rushes upon them. 36 For the Lord will vindicate His people And take revenge for His servants, When He sees that their might is gone, And neither bond nor free is left. 37 He will say: Where are their gods, The rock in whom they sought refuge, 38 Who ate the fat of their offerings And drank their libation wine? Let them rise up to your help, And let them be a shield unto you! 39 See, then, that I, I am He; There is no god beside Me. I deal death and give life; I wounded and I will heal: None can deliver from My hand. 40 Lo, I raise My hand to heaven And say: As I live forever, 41 When I whet My flashing blade And My hand lays hold on judgment, Vengeance will I wreak on My foes, Will I deal to those who reject Me. 42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood As My sword devours flesh Blood of the slain and the captive From the long-haired enemy chiefs. 43 O nations, acclaim His people! For He'll avenge the blood of His servants, Wreak vengeance on His foes, And cleanse the land of His people. 44 Moses came, together with Hosea son of Nun, and recited all the words of this poem in the hearing of the people. 45 And when Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them: Take to heart all the words with which I have warned you this day. Enjoin them upon your children, that they may observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching. 47 For this is not a trifling thing for you: it is your very life; through it you shall long endure on the land that you are to possess upon crossing the Jordan. 48 That very day the Lord spoke to Moses: 49 Ascend these heights of Abarim to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. 50 You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; 51 for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people, at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to uphold My sanctity among the Israelite people. 52 You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it the land that I am giving to the Israelite people. v1-6 draws a contrast between the exalted perfect Lord and the less than perfect Israel. While the Lord has been ever-faithful, Israel has been less than perfect in their response. v2 The footnote in the JPS translation of this verse states, "I.e., may my words be received eagerly; cf. Job 29:22-23." v7-9 Moses tells Israel to ask their fathers concerning their allotment. In other words, Moses is reminding Israel that they enjoy a special covenant relationship with the Lord, and He has chosen them. v10-12 I would assume this strophe is referring to the history of the early patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Verse 12 reminds Israel their fathers worshiped the Lord, not any false gods. v13-14 I would assume this is referring to the contemporary Israelites inheriting the land of Canaan, as Canaan is described in a similar fashion in the chapters addressed above. v15-18 Here Moses predicts that Israel in Canaan will do exactly what he has been warning them not to do in the chapters addressed above, namely forget the Lord and worship idols. Unfortunately, history indicates this prediction was fulfilled. v19-31 is a legal indictment where Israel's sins and attendant punishments are listed according to the covenant curses of Lev. 26 and Deut. 28. v26-27 is saying the Lord would utterly wipe out Israel if it wasn't for Him wanting to preserve the renown of His own name, cp. Exod. 32:10-14. v26 "Made their memory cease from among men", one of the classical covenant curses of the OT is to have your lineage annihilated so you are left no posterity. Thus, your name is forgotten among men. For this idea compare Exod. 17:14, Deut. 7:24, Isa. 26:13, Ezek. 21:32, Eccl. 9:5. v28-31 The JPS translation footnotes state, "Here, apparently, Moses is the speaker; God resumes in v. 32." v30 This verse is citing the opposite case of that described in Lev. 26:8. Instead of Israel routing their enemies with great ease as was promised, they are routed with great ease because the Lord has abandoned them. v31 "In our enemies own estimation", the JPS translation footnotes on this line state, "I.e., as everyone must admit." v32-35 Where the Lord has promised them the bounty of Canaan if obedient, they have instead chosen to eat of the fruits of Gomorrah (cp. Isa. 1:10). In other words, they will embrace the Canaanite practices rather than adhering to the Lord. As a result the Lord will cut them off from His promised bounty (v. 34), and they will be left to falter without His support (v. 35). v36-43 contrasts the faithful servants among Israel with the rebels among Israel. The text also suggest that the faithful servants among Israel were martyred by the rebellious, and the Lord will take vengeance for their blood upon Israel (v. 43). He will summon up nations to come and strike Israel (v. 40-42), destroying the wicked, and cleansing the land of their rebellions just as Israel was supposed to cleanse the land of the Canaanite's idolatrous filth. Instead, they have adopted it (v. 37-39). v40-47 Moses emphasizes that this is no mere poem, but the subject of which spells life and death for them and their posterity. v48-52 Moses is summoned up into a mount to be gathered to his kin. He is not permitted to enter the Promised Land as a result of the events recounted in Num. 20. Moses makes it plain to all Israel why he is not permitted to enter the Promised Land because that is part of his punishment. The Lord upholds the sanctity of His name in keeping Moses out (i.e., the Lord is showing who has the real power in this relationship in the eyes of Israel), so Moses is following through humbly by admitting his mistake. Here the text states very plainly that Moses is going to die. There is a common doctrinal position among Mormons that Moses was translated which was largely popularized by B. R. McConkie. So much so that it even ended up being documented as a fact in the LDS Edition Bible Dictionary. Sufficeth to say I do not accept this as defensible from the Scriptures. The argument is based upon proof texts which do not support the position (cf. Alma 45:19) and the rationale that spirits cannot perform Priesthood ordinances (and since Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and submitted keys to him they must have therefore both been translated). This latter argument in contradicted by PofGP Moses 6:64 where Adam is baptized by the Holy Spirit. It is also questionable that Peter and James of the Peter, James and John were resurrected (while we know plainly that John was translated) and they imparted the keys of the MP. It is also not clear that the angel Moroni was resurrected either. It is simply commonly assumed that were, even though there isn't any supporting evidence. So, my assumption is that if the Scriptures say they are dead, they are dead, if they say they are translated, they are translated. I don't see any need to formulate doctrine to fit hypothetical special cases. Furthermore, on Moses' alleged translation, the First Presidency review of the 1st Edition _Mormon Doctrine_ by McConkie presented his position as one that might better have been omitted. See: http://www.cybcon.com/~kurtn/mo-doc.txt Copyright © 2002 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. Digital or printed copies may be freely made and distributed for personal and public non-commercial use.