Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
The Song: I, Even I, Am He
Deuteronomy 32:28-43
28 For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them. · WEB
The turn comes when Israel has nothing left, and God takes the case back by asking where the other gods went.
The song's lament is that they will not think ahead: oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deuteronomy 32:29.
Then a question about arithmetic. How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them? Deuteronomy 32:30. Defeat on that scale is not a military fact; the numbers only work if the outcome was decided elsewhere.
And the comparison is put in the mouths of the opposition: their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede Deuteronomy 32:31.
The judgment section then hands the matter over. Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides Deuteronomy 32:35.
That sentence is quoted twice in the New Testament, and both times the point drawn from it is restraint. Paul cites it to tell Christians not to avenge themselves Romans 12:19. Its function is to remove the business from human hands, not to license anyone.
The turn of the song comes at verse 36, and its timing is the important thing. Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, that there is no one remaining Deuteronomy 32:36.
The compassion arrives when there is nothing left. Not when they repent, and not when they improve — when they are finished. What triggers it is the end of their resources.
The question God then asks is close to mockery and it is the fairest question in the poem. Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, which ate the fat of their sacrifices...? Let them rise up and help you! Deuteronomy 32:37–38.
The gods were fed for years. This is the invoice.
And then the declaration the whole song has been moving toward: see now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand Deuteronomy 32:39.
The four verbs come in two pairs, and each pair puts the harm and the healing in the same hand. That is the hardest claim in the book and the most consoling one — the one who wounds is the one who heals, so there is no second power to appeal to and none to fear.
The last verse turns outward and is quoted in the New Testament as an invitation to the nations Romans 15:10: rejoice, you nations, with his people. The song ends with atonement made for his land and for his people Deuteronomy 32:43.
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