Deuteronomy 32:40

_FOR I LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN, AND SAY, I LIVE FOR EVER._ For I lift up my hand to heaven - the usual form of solemn adjuration. AND SAY, I LIVE FOR EVER - i:e., as sure as I am the self-existent Yahweh, I will execute my promises as well as my threatenings. The inviolable oath announces the certainty of the historic fulfillment of all the divine acts described in this prophetic song. God is not, as some ancient philosophers maintained, a passive or indifferent spectator of events that take place in the world. Although invisible to the eye of sense, He makes Himself known by His varying dispensations, and shows by their results that He is always the same, whether He kill or make alive: the grand agent who makes His presence recognized and His glory manifested in the expanding scheme of Providence (Jeremiah 4:2;...

40._For _(293) _I lift up my, hand to heaven. _Others render it, “When I shall have lifted up my hand,” and read it connectedly with the foregoing verse, that God’s power in destroying and preserving will be manifest, if He raises up His hand to heaven. I do not doubt, however, but that it is the beginning of a new sentence, and that God thus commences, in order to affirm more strongly what He immediately adds respecting the future destruction of their enemies. If, however, any prefer the adverb of time “when,” I have no great objection to offer, provided these clauses are connected, “As soon as I shall have lifted up my hand to heaven, I will put to confusion the enemies of my Church.” _To lift up the hand _is explained in two ways; for some suppose it to be a manifestation of power, as men are wont, by the uplifting of their hand, to glow, when they are confident in their strength, and...

39-43 This conclusion of the song speaks, 1. Glory to God. No escape can be made from his power. 2. It speaks terror to his enemies. Terror indeed to those who hate him. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against them. 3. It speaks comfort to his own people. The song concludes with words of joy. Whatever judgments are brought upon sinners, it shall go well with the people of God....

Verse 40. _FOR I LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN_] See concerning oaths and appeals to God in _Clarke's note on "_Deuteronomy 6:13_"_....

SONG OF MOSES If Deuteronomy 32:1 be regarded as the introduction, and Deuteronomy 32:43 as the conclusion, the main contents of the song may be grouped under three heads, namely, (1) Deuteronomy 32:4, the faithfulness of God, the faithlessness of Israel; (2) Deuteronomy 32:19, the chastisement and the need of its infliction by God; (3) Deuteronomy 32:34, God’

EXPOSITION SONG OF MOSES AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS DEATH. In accordance with the Divine injunction, Moses composed an ode, which he recited in the hearing of the people, and committed to writing, to remain with them as a witness for God against them. With this end in view, the ode is directed principally to a contrasting of the unchanging faithfulness of the Almighty with the anticipated perversity and unfaithfulness of his people. The poem may be divided into six parts. 1. An introduction (Deuteronomy 32:1), in which the importance of the doctrine to be delivered is announced. 2. The blamelessness and excellency of Jehovah are placed in contrast with the corruptness and perversity of

FOR I LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN,.... Which is a gesture used in swearing, Genesis 14:22, and is ascribed to a divine Person, Ezekiel 20:5; and particularly to Christ the angel, that is so wonderfully described, Revelation 10:1; though sometimes it is used, as Aben Ezra observes, to excite the attention of hearers, but here it signifies swearing; and so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it, "I have lift up my hands with an oath to heaven;'' and to the same sense is the Septuagint version: AND SAY, I LIVE FOR EVER; which is the form of an oath; when men swear, they are to swear, the Lord liveth, or to swear by the living God, and him only,...

2. THE SONG OF MOSES CHAPTER 32:1-43 _ 1. The introduction and the theme (Deuteronomy 32:1)_ 2. The foolish people (Deuteronomy 32:5) 3. How Jehovah loved them (Deuteronomy 32:7) 4. Their apostasy (Deuteronomy 32:15) 5. The results of the apostasy (Deuteronomy 32:19) 6. Jehovah's final dealing with Israel (Deuteronomy 32:34) 7. The glorious consummatio

Moses'song is a didactic poem, a theodicy in which Yahweh's ways are vindicated. In its sentiments and artistic form it is unsurpassed in the poetry of the OT. Its dominant theme is Yahweh's justice and lovingkindness to Israel notwithstanding the nation's sinfulness. It is impossible to fix the date of this poem with any confidence. But points of contact with Jer., Isaiah 40-55, Ezek., and the Wisdom literature suggest the closing years of the Exile (say 550 B.C.). Moses is certainly not the author, for to the latter the Exodus belongs to his distant past (Deuteronomy 32:7), and the Israelites are already in Canaan (Deuteronomy 32:13 f.). The words translated doctrine (Deuteronomy 32:2), abominations ...

I LIFT UP MY HAND. I swear. The lifting of the hand being put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for the thing signified by it....