The Song of Moses (Ha'azinu) — a poem calling heaven and earth as witnesses, recounting God's faithfulness and Israel's rebellion, promising judgment on the nations and vindication of His people. God then tells Moses to ascend Mount Nebo to die.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
The song's central metaphor is God as tsur ('Rock,' vv. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31) — stable, immovable, trustworthy — set against Israel's fickleness. The poem's most theologically daring lines describe God's emotions: 'the LORD saw and spurned, provoked by His sons and daughters' (v. 19); 'I will hide my face from them... for they are a crooked generation' (v. 20). The final stanza (v. 43) promises that God will 'make atonement (kipper) for His land and His people' — the only place in the Torah where God Himself performs kippur for the nation.
Translation Friction
The phrase esh dat (v. 2, 'a fire of law' or 'fiery law') in Moses's blessing introduction is textually uncertain — dat is a Persian loanword that seems anachronistic here, and some scholars emend the text. We rendered it as given in the Masoretic text and noted the difficulty. The verb yesovevenhvu (v. 10, 'He encircled him') uses a rare verbal form that emphasizes God's protective surrounding of Israel in the wilderness.
Connections
Heaven-and-earth as witnesses echoes 4:26 and 30:19. The Rock metaphor recurs across the Psalms (18:2, 31, 46; 62:2, 6) and Isaiah (26:4, 44:8). God's jealousy provoked by a 'no-god' and a 'no-people' (v. 21) is cited by Paul in Romans 10:19. The ascent to Nebo (vv. 48-52) fulfills Numbers 27:12-14.
Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
KJV Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Song of Moses (Ha'azinu) opens by summoning heaven and earth as witnesses — the same cosmic witnesses invoked in Deuteronomy 4:26 and 30:19. This is standard ancient Near Eastern treaty practice: the cosmos itself witnesses the covenant. The bicolon (two-line unit) establishes the poetic structure that will govern the entire song: parallel lines where the second restates, develops, or contrasts the first.
May my teaching fall like rain,
my words descend like dew —
like gentle showers on new grass,
like steady rain on tender plants.
KJV My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Four rain images describe Moses's teaching: matar ('rain'), tal ('dew'), se'irim ('light rain, drizzle'), and revivim ('showers, steady rain'). The verb ya'arof ('drip, fall gently') from the root '-r-f suggests something that percolates and soaks in — the teaching is meant to penetrate, not run off the surface. The progression from rain to dew to drizzle to showers covers every form of moisture, suggesting that the teaching saturates completely.
For I proclaim the name of the LORD —
ascribe greatness to our God!
KJV Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb eqra ('I proclaim, I call out') is a public declaration of the divine name. The response havu godel ('ascribe greatness') is an imperative — Moses calls on the audience to respond to God's name with acknowledgment of His greatness (godel — 'greatness, magnitude'). This verse functions as a call to worship before the theological declaration that follows.
Tsur as a divine title emphasizes God's permanence, stability, and protective strength. A rock is the most immovable, unchanging element in the landscape — when everything else shifts, the rock remains. In a region where rock formations provided shelter, shade, and defensive positions, calling God 'the Rock' conveys protection and reliability simultaneously.
From the root alef-mem-nun ('to be firm, to be reliable'). Emunah is not passive belief but active, demonstrated faithfulness — covenant loyalty expressed through consistent action. When God is called El emunah, it means He is the God who does what He says, keeps what He promises, and maintains what He has established. This is the standard against which Israel's unfaithfulness will be measured throughout the Song.
Translator Notes
This verse is the theological thesis of the entire Song: God is perfect, just, faithful, and upright. Every attribute is relational: tamim po'olo ('His work is perfect' — complete, without defect), mishpat ('justice' — right judgment), emunah ('faithfulness' — covenant reliability), tsaddiq ('righteous' — fulfilling His obligations), yashar ('upright' — straight, without deviation). The title haTsur ('the Rock') becomes the defining divine epithet of this chapter, appearing six times (vv 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37).
They have acted corruptly toward Him —
they are not His children, but their own defect.
A crooked and twisted generation!
KJV They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
One of the most textually difficult verses in Deuteronomy. The Hebrew shichet lo lo banav mumam is disputed: some read 'they have corrupted themselves; they are not His children — their blemish' while others read 'He has corrupted; no — His children, their blemish.' The rendering follows the majority reading: Israel has acted corruptly, and their corruption (mumam — 'their blemish, their defect') disqualifies them as God's children. The terms iqqesh ('crooked, twisted') and petaltol ('tortuous, winding') describe moral distortion.
Is this how you repay the LORD,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is He not your Father who created you —
who made you and established you?
KJV Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The rhetorical question halaYHWH tigmelu zot ('is this what you repay the LORD?') establishes the charge: ingratitude. The terms naval ('foolish, senseless') and lo chakham ('not wise') describe Israel's moral stupidity — not intellectual deficiency but the failure to recognize what should be obvious. Three verbs describe God's relationship to Israel: qanekha ('acquired you, created you'), asekha ('made you'), and yekhonenkha ('established you, prepared you'). God is simultaneously Father, Creator, and Sustainer.
Remember the days of old;
consider the years of generation after generation.
Ask your father, and he will tell you;
your elders, and they will explain it to you.
KJV Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Song shifts to historical reflection. Four sources of knowledge are invoked: memory (zekhor — 'remember'), understanding (binu — 'consider, discern'), paternal tradition (she'al avikha — 'ask your father'), and elder wisdom (zeqenekha — 'your elders'). The transmission of covenant history is a communal, intergenerational project — knowledge of God's faithfulness passes from generation to generation.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when He divided the human race,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
This verse describes a primordial divine ordering of the world: God (Elyon — 'the Most High') assigned each nation its territory and arranged the entire world's geography around Israel. The phrase lemispar benei Yisra'el ('according to the number of the children of Israel') suggests that the number of nations was calibrated to match Israel's tribal structure. A Dead Sea Scrolls variant (4QDeutj) reads benei Elohim ('sons of God') instead of benei Yisra'el, suggesting each nation was assigned a divine patron, while Israel was reserved for God Himself (v 9).
For the LORD's own portion is His people;
Jacob is His allotted inheritance.
KJV For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
While other nations received their territories and presumably their divine patrons (v 8), God chose Israel as His own cheleq ('portion, share'). The word chevel ('allotment, measured portion, territory') describes a specific, measured inheritance — God didn't inherit Israel by chance but by deliberate selection. The parallel between 'His people' (ammo) and 'Jacob' (Ya'aqov) identifies the covenant community by its ancestral name.
He found him in a desert land,
in a desolate, howling wasteland.
He encircled him, He cared for him,
He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's care for Israel in the wilderness is described through four verbs: yimtsa'ehu ('He found him'), yesovevenhu ('He encircled him, He surrounded him'), yevonenhu ('He gave him understanding, He cared for him'), and yitsrenhu ('He guarded him, He preserved him'). The final phrase ke'ishon eino ('as the pupil of His eye') is one of the Bible's most intimate images — the pupil is the most sensitive, carefully protected part of the body. God guards Israel with the same instinctive protectiveness with which the body guards the eye.
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that hovers over its young,
He spread His wings and caught them,
He carried them on His pinions.
KJV As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The eagle metaphor describes God's parenting: ya'ir qinno ('stirs up its nest' — forcing the young to fly by disrupting their comfort), yerachef ('hovers' — the same verb used for the Spirit hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:2), yifros kenafav ('spreads its wings'), yiqqachehu ('catches them'), and yissa'ehu al evrato ('carries them on its pinions'). The image combines tough love (pushing them out) with unfailing protection (catching and carrying them). The eagle does not merely protect — it teaches flight.
The LORD alone guided him;
no foreign god was beside Him.
KJV So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The word badad ('alone, by Himself') emphasizes exclusivity — God needed no help, no partner, no supporting deity. The phrase ve'ein immo el nekhar ('no foreign god was with Him') can be read two ways: no foreign god helped God (He did it alone), or no foreign god was alongside Israel (they had no other deity). Both readings reinforce the same point: Israel's salvation and sustenance came from God exclusively.
He made him ride on the heights of the land
and fed him the produce of the fields.
He nourished him with honey from the rock
and oil from the flinty cliff.
KJV He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Three images of extravagant provision: riding on the heights (yarkivehu al bamotei arets — conquest and dominion), eating field produce (tenubot sadai — agricultural abundance), and extracting sweetness from stone (devash misela, shemen mechalamish tsur — honey from rock, oil from flint). The last image is the most striking: getting nourishment from what should be barren and unyielding. God makes even stone produce sweetness for Israel.
with curds from the herd and milk from the flock,
with the fat of lambs, with rams of Bashan and goats,
with the finest of the wheat —
and you drank the foaming blood of the grape.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
A catalog of abundance: dairy (chem'at baqar, chalev tson — curds and milk), prime meat (chelev karim ve'eilim — fat lambs and rams, benei Bashan — the renowned cattle of Bashan), and the finest grain (chelev kilyot chittah — literally 'the kidney-fat of wheat,' meaning the richest, best part). The climactic image dam enav tishte chamer ('you drank the foaming blood of the grape') describes wine so rich it froths. Every category of food reaches its superlative: the fattest, the finest, the richest.
But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked —
you grew fat, bloated, and gorged.
He abandoned the God who made him
and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
KJV But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: 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.
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
צוּר יְשׁוּעָהtsur yeshu'ah
"Rock of his salvation"—rock of rescue, rock of deliverance, saving rock
The compound title 'Rock of salvation' unites two major theological concepts: God's unchanging reliability (tsur) and His delivering power (yeshu'ah). The Rock who is permanent and immovable is also the Rock who saves — stability and action together. Israel's crime is scorning this saving Rock after being fed by Him.
Translator Notes
Jeshurun (Yeshurun — from the root y-sh-r, 'upright') is an honorific name for Israel, used with bitter irony here: the 'upright one' has become anything but upright. Three words describe the gorging: shamanta ('you grew fat'), avita ('you became thick, bloated'), and kasita ('you were covered/stuffed'). The abundance of verses 13-14 led directly to the rebellion of verse 15: prosperity produced complacency, then contempt. The verb yenabbel ('scorned, treated as foolish') applied to tsur yeshu'ato ('the Rock of his salvation') is devastating — Israel treated their Savior-Rock as worthless.
They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
with detestable things they angered Him.
KJV They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Two parallel lines: jealousy (yaqni'uhu — from qin'ah, the same jealousy God claims in Exodus 20:5) provoked by zarim ('foreign things, strange gods'), and anger (yakh'isuhu) provoked by to'evot ('detestable things, abominations'). God's jealousy is not petty envy but the righteous indignation of a covenantal partner betrayed.
They sacrificed to demons — not God —
to gods they had never known,
new ones that arrived recently,
whom your ancestors never dreaded.
KJV They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The objects of Israel's worship are exposed: shedim ('demons, malevolent spirits' — a term borrowed from Akkadian shedu), lo Eloha ('not God'), elohim lo yeda'um ('gods they had never known'), chadashim miqqarov ba'u ('new ones that came from nearby/recently'). The progressive debunking strips the false gods of all legitimacy: they are demons, they are not God, they are unknown, they are newcomers. Israel's ancestors never se'arum ('shuddered at them, feared them').
You neglected the Rock who fathered you
and forgot the God who gave you birth.
KJV Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Two stunning parental images for God: tsur yeladekha ('the Rock who bore/fathered you') and El mechollelekha ('the God who writhed in labor with you'). The verb cholel can mean 'to bring forth in labor' — God's relationship to Israel is described with both paternal (yalad) and maternal (cholel) birthing language. The verbs teshi ('you neglected, you weakened') and tishkach ('you forgot') describe a child's abandonment of the parent who gave them life.
The LORD saw and rejected them,
provoked by His own sons and daughters.
KJV And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's response to Israel's rebellion begins. The verb yinats ('rejected, spurned, abhorred') marks the turning point of the Song from grace to judgment. The provocation comes mikka'as banav uvenotav ('from the provocation of His sons and daughters') — the familial language continues. These are not strangers who offend God but His own children.
He said, 'I will hide My face from them;
I will see what becomes of them.
For they are a perverse generation —
children with no faithfulness in them.'
KJV And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's judgment takes the form of withdrawal: astirah fanai ('I will hide My face'). The hidden face of God (hester panim) is one of the most powerful theological concepts in the Hebrew Bible — God does not actively destroy but withdraws His protection and presence, leaving Israel exposed to the consequences of their own choices. The final phrase banim lo emun bam ('children in whom there is no emun') uses the root alef-mem-nun (the same root as emunah from verse 4): God is emunah; His children have no emun. The contrast is the theological core of the Song.
They made Me jealous with what is no god;
they provoked Me with their worthless idols.
So I will make them jealous with what is no people;
with a foolish nation I will provoke them.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The punishment mirrors the crime in precise poetic symmetry: they provoked God with lo el ('no-god'), so God will provoke them with lo am ('no-people'); they angered God with havleihem ('their vanities/worthless things'), so God will anger them with goy naval ('a foolish/worthless nation'). The apostle Paul quotes this verse in Romans 10:19 to explain God's inclusion of the Gentiles — the 'no-people' become God's means of provoking Israel to jealousy.
For a fire has been kindled by My anger;
it burns to the depths of the grave.
It devours the earth and its produce
and sets ablaze the foundations of the mountains.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The fire of God's anger spans the entire vertical axis of creation: from She'ol tachtit ('the lowest depths of the grave') through the earth's surface (erets vivulah — 'the earth and its produce') up to mosdei harim ('the foundations of the mountains'). Nothing is beyond the reach of divine judgment — the fire penetrates downward to the underworld and upward to the mountain roots.
I will heap disasters upon them;
I will exhaust My arrows against them.
KJV I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God becomes a warrior: aspeh ra'ot ('I will heap calamities') and chitsai akalleh bam ('I will spend/exhaust My arrows on them'). The image of God emptying His quiver against Israel is terrifying — He will not stop until all His arrows are spent. The implication is also that the arrows will eventually run out — God's judgment is severe but not infinite.
Wasted by famine, consumed by plague,
and cut down by bitter pestilence —
I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them,
with the venom of creatures that crawl in the dust.
KJV 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 of the dust.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The arrows of verse 23 are now identified: famine (mezei ra'av — 'the emaciated ones of hunger'), plague (lechumei reshef — 'consumed by burning fever/pestilence'), destruction (qetev meriri — 'bitter destruction/plague'), wild animals (shen behemot — 'teeth of beasts'), and venomous serpents (chamat zochalei afar — 'venom of those that crawl in the dust'). The threats come from every domain: disease, beasts, and reptiles — the natural world turned hostile.
Outside, the sword will bereave;
inside, there will be terror —
for young man and young woman alike,
for nursing infant and gray-haired elder.
KJV The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
No space is safe: the sword operates outside (michutz) and terror operates inside (mechadarim — 'from the inner rooms'). No person is exempt: young men (bachur), young women (betulah), nursing infants (yoneq), and the elderly (ish seviah). The merism covers every age group — from the youngest to the oldest, no one escapes.
I considered scattering them entirely,
blotting out their memory from humanity —
KJV I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God contemplates total annihilation: af'eihem ('I would scatter them to the corners/edges') and ashbitah me'enosh zikhram ('I would cause their memory to cease from humankind'). This is the most extreme possible divine action — not just destruction but erasure from history. The verse sets up the reason God restrains Himself (v 27).
but I feared the provocation of the enemy,
that their foes would misunderstand,
that they would say, 'Our hand has triumphed —
the LORD did not do all this.'
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's restraint is motivated not by mercy toward Israel but by concern for His own reputation among the nations. If God destroys Israel completely, the enemy nations would credit the victory to their own power (yadenu ramah — 'our hand is raised/has triumphed') rather than to divine judgment (velo YHWH pa'al kol zot — 'and not the LORD has done all this'). God's name and sovereignty must be vindicated — He will not allow human arrogance to claim credit for His judicial actions.
For they are a nation devoid of counsel;
there is no understanding in them.
KJV For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The referent is ambiguous — 'they' could be Israel (who lack the wisdom to see where their rebellion leads) or the enemy nations (who lack the wisdom to see that God, not their own power, is at work). Many interpreters read verses 28-33 as referring to the enemies, while others see Israel. The ambiguity may be intentional — both Israel and the nations lack true understanding.
If only they were wise — if they could understand this,
if they could discern what awaits them!
KJV O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The optative lu ('if only, would that') expresses divine longing for wisdom in the people. Three wisdom verbs are chained: chakhmu ('were wise'), yaskilu ('would comprehend'), and yavinu ('would understand'). The object of understanding is acharitam ('their end, their latter destiny'). The tragedy is not just rebellion but blindness — they cannot see where their path leads.
How could one pursue a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them
and the LORD had handed them over?
KJV 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?
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The supernatural ratio — one enemy routing a thousand Israelites, two routing ten thousand — can only be explained by divine abandonment. The rhetorical question im lo ki ('unless') points to the only possible explanation: tsuam mekharam ('their Rock sold them'). God is called 'their Rock' even in the act of judgment — He remains their Rock, but He has withdrawn His protection. The verb hisgir ('handed over, delivered up, shut in') means God actively transferred Israel into enemy hands.
For their rock is not like our Rock —
even our enemies can judge that.
KJV For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
A moment of theological clarity within the lament: ketsurenu tsuam ('their rock is not like our Rock'). The lowercase 'rock' (tsur) refers to the gods of the enemy nations; the uppercase 'Rock' refers to Israel's God. Even the enemies themselves (oyeveinu pelilim — 'our enemies are the judges') can see the difference. The gods of the nations cannot compare to Israel's God — which makes Israel's abandonment of Him all the more incomprehensible.
For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom,
from the terraces of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are grapes of poison;
their clusters are bitter.
KJV For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The enemies (or Israel — the referent continues to be debated) are compared to the produce of Sodom and Gomorrah — the quintessential symbols of divine judgment. Their vine produces rosh ('poison') and merorot ('bitterness') — moral corruption described as toxic agriculture. If this refers to Israel, the image is stunning: the people God planted as His vineyard (cf. Isaiah 5:1-7) now produce the fruit of Sodom.
Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.
KJV Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The vine metaphor concludes: their wine (yeinam) is chamat tanninim ('venom of serpents') and rosh petanim akhzar ('cruel/deadly poison of cobras'). What should nourish (wine) destroys (venom). The word tanninim can mean 'serpents,' 'sea monsters,' or 'dragons' depending on context; here the parallel with petanim ('cobras, vipers') confirms the serpent reading.
Is this not stored up with Me,
sealed in My treasuries?
KJV Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God reveals that the enemies' wickedness is not unnoticed: kamus immadi ('stored up with Me'), chatum be'otsrotai ('sealed in My treasuries'). The metaphor is of a treasury or archive where debts are recorded and sealed for future collection. Divine justice is patient but precise — nothing is forgotten, everything is accounted for.
Vengeance is Mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot will slip.
For the day of their calamity is near,
and what awaits them rushes upon them.
KJV To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Li naqam veshillem ('To Me belongs vengeance and repayment') is quoted by Paul in Romans 12:19 and by the author of Hebrews 10:30. The image of the slipping foot (tamut raglam — 'their foot will totter/slip') suggests that the wicked stand on unstable ground — their fall is not a matter of if but of when. The phrase ve'chash atidot lamo ('what is destined for them hastens') personifies destiny as a runner racing toward the wicked.
For the LORD will vindicate His people
and have compassion on His servants,
when He sees that their strength is gone
and no one remains — neither bond nor free.
KJV For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The turning point of the Song: God shifts from judgment to restoration. The verb yadin ('will judge/vindicate') here means to act on behalf of, not to condemn. The verb yitnecham ('will have compassion, will relent') from the root n-ch-m describes God's emotional turn toward His people. The condition for this turn is Israel's complete helplessness: azlat yad ('strength is gone'), efes atsur ve'azuv ('no one remains, neither confined nor free'). God acts when human resources are exhausted — when Israel can no longer save themselves.
Deuteronomy 32:37
וְאָמַ֖ר אֵ֣י אֱלֹהֵ֑ימוֹ צ֖וּר חָסָ֥יוּ בֽוֹ׃
Then He will say, 'Where are their gods —
the rock in whom they took shelter?
KJV And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God challenges the false gods Israel chose: ei eloheimo ('where are their gods?') — the same taunt used against foreign gods in Judges 10:14. The word tsur ('rock') is used with bitter irony: Israel's chosen 'rock' (lowercase — the false gods) is now exposed as absent and powerless, in contrast to haTsur ('the Rock') — God Himself — who never abandoned His essential character even during judgment.
Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you!
Let them be a shelter over you!
KJV Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The challenge continues with escalating sarcasm: Israel's false gods consumed the best portions of their offerings (chelev zevacheimo — 'the fat of their sacrifices,' yein nesikham — 'the wine of their libations'). Now let those gods demonstrate their power: yaqumu ve'ya'zerukhem ('let them rise and help you'), yehi aleikhem sitrah ('let them be a shelter over you'). The silence of the false gods answers the challenge.
See now that I — I am He,
and there is no god besides Me.
I put to death and I bring to life;
I wound and I heal,
and no one can deliver from My hand.
KJV 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 there any that can deliver out of my hand.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The supreme divine self-declaration: ani ani hu ('I, I am He') — an emphatic claim of unique, exclusive deity. Three paired actions demonstrate absolute sovereignty: amith va'achayye ('I kill and I make alive'), machatseti va'ani erpa ('I wound and I heal'). God holds both sides of every axis of power — destruction and creation, injury and restoration. The closing ve'ein miyadi matzil ('no one delivers from My hand') is an absolute claim of irresistible power.
For I raise My hand to heaven
and declare: As I live forever —
KJV For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God swears an oath by Himself — raising the hand to heaven (essa el shamayim yadi) is a gesture of oath-taking. Since there is no one greater to swear by, God swears by His own eternal life: chai anokhi le'olam ('I live forever'). This divine oath guarantees the promises of vengeance and restoration that follow.
when I sharpen My flashing sword
and My hand takes hold of judgment,
I will return vengeance on My adversaries
and repay those who hate Me.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God as divine warrior: shanoti beraq charbi ('I sharpen the lightning-flash of My sword') — the sword is described as baraq ('lightning, flash'), connecting heavenly warfare with storm imagery. God's enemies (tsarai — 'My adversaries,' mesan'ai — 'those who hate Me') are Israel's oppressors, but the language is broad enough to encompass all who oppose God's purposes.
I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
and My sword will devour flesh —
blood of the slain and the captive,
from the shaggy heads of the enemy.
KJV 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, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The divine warrior imagery reaches its climax: arrows drunk on blood (ashkir chitsai middam) and a sword that devours flesh (ve'charbi tokhal basar). The phrase mero'sh par'ot oyev ('from the head of the enemy's wild-haired leaders') may describe enemy warriors with flowing battle hair, or it may refer to the chief (ro'sh — 'head, leader') of the enemy's retribution forces. The violence is not gratuitous — it is the execution of the covenant curses against Israel's oppressors.
Rejoice, O nations, with His people!
For He will avenge the blood of His servants;
He will return vengeance on His adversaries
and make atonement for His land and His people.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
כִּפֶּרkipper
"make atonement"—to cover, to atone, to purge, to make reconciliation
The Song ends with kippur — atonement for the land (admato) and the people (ammo). The land itself needs atonement because it has been contaminated by Israel's sin and by the bloodshed of war. This final kipper restores both the relationship between God and Israel and the relationship between Israel and the land. It is the resolution of the entire Song's drama: rebellion, judgment, and now reconciliation.
Translator Notes
The Song concludes with a universal call to celebration: harninu goyim ammo ('Shout for joy, O nations, with His people'). The same nations that were instruments of judgment are now called to rejoice in Israel's restoration. Three divine actions close the Song: dam avadav yiqqom ('He will avenge His servants' blood'), naqam yashiv letsarav ('He will repay His adversaries'), and kipper admato ammo ('He will atone for His land and His people'). The final verb kipper ('atone, make atonement') brings the entire covenantal drama to resolution — the same kippur that purifies the sanctuary (Leviticus 16) now purifies the land and the people. Judgment ends in restoration.
Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people — he and Hoshea son of Nun.
KJV And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The narrative frame resumes. Joshua is called by his birth name Hoshea (meaning 'salvation') rather than Yehoshua/Joshua (meaning 'the LORD saves'). Moses recites the Song to the entire assembly. Joshua's presence signals the transition of leadership — he witnesses Moses's final teaching as the man who will carry it forward.
When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
KJV And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase vayekhal Mosheh ('Moses finished') marks the formal conclusion of the Song's recitation. The emphasis on 'all' (kol hadevarim, kol Yisra'el) stresses completeness — every word was spoken, and the entire nation heard.
he said to them, 'Take to heart all the words with which I am warning you today, so that you may command your children to observe carefully all the words of this instruction.
KJV And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Moses's final charge before his death: simu levavkhem ('set your hearts' — pay attention with your whole being). The intergenerational dimension is explicit: asher tetsavvum et beneikhem ('which you shall command your children'). The Song is not merely a performance but a teaching instrument — it must be transmitted to future generations as a perpetual witness to the covenant.
For this is no empty word for you — it is your very life. Through this word you will live long on the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.'
KJV For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The extraordinary claim: ki hu chayyeikhem ('for it is your life'). The Torah is not abstract religious teaching but the source of life itself. The word is not req ('empty, vain, worthless') — it carries weight, substance, and consequence. Obedience to this word is directly connected to survival on the land (ta'arikhu yamim al ha'adamah — 'you will prolong days on the soil'). Life in the land and faithfulness to the word are inseparable.
KJV And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase be'etsem hayyom hazeh ('on the bone/substance of this day' — on that very day) emphasizes immediacy. What follows is God's command for Moses to ascend Mount Nebo and die — the end of Moses's life is inseparable from the completion of his teaching.
Go up to this mountain of the Abarim range — Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, facing Jericho — and look out over the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel as a possession.
KJV Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The geography is precise: the Abarim range east of the Jordan, specifically Mount Nebo (har nevo), in Moabite territory, facing (al penei) Jericho across the Jordan valley. Moses will see (ure'eh) the land but not enter it. The command to look (re'eh) at the promised land is both a gift (he gets to see it) and a judgment (he will never set foot in it). The verb noten ('I am giving') uses the present participle — the gift is in process, happening now, but Moses will not be its recipient.
Die on the mountain that you are ascending, and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
KJV And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The command umut bahar ('die on the mountain') is stark — God commands death as directly as He once commanded mission. The phrase he'asef el ammekha ('be gathered to your people') is the standard Hebrew expression for death understood as reunion with ancestors — it presupposes continued existence beyond physical death. Aaron's death on Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22-29) provides the parallel: both brothers die on mountaintops, both are 'gathered to their people,' and neither enters the promised land.
Because you both acted unfaithfully against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin — because you did not treat Me as holy in the presence of the children of Israel.
KJV Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The reason for Moses's exclusion from the land is restated: me'altem bi ('you acted unfaithfully against Me') at Meribah-kadesh (Numbers 20:1-13), where Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it. The phrase lo qiddashtem oti ('you did not sanctify Me, you did not treat Me as holy') identifies the core failure: Moses failed to uphold God's holiness before the people. The plural 'you both' (me'altem) includes Aaron, who has already died under the same judgment.
You will see the land from a distance, but you will not enter it — the land that I am giving to the children of Israel.
KJV Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The chapter and Moses's public ministry end with this sentence of profound sorrow: minneged tir'eh et ha'arets ('from opposite/across you will see the land') — he will see it but not enter it. The word shamah ('there') followed by lo tavo ('you will not come') creates a permanent barrier between Moses and the promise. Yet the verse is not entirely judgment — God still says ani noten ('I am giving'), present tense. The promise to Israel stands; only Moses's personal entry is denied. The land awaits.