Deu 32:29-35 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 29 That they would consider their latter end! - אחריתם archaritham, properly, their latter times - the glorious days of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, should spring up among them. Should they carefully consider this subject, and receive the promised Savior, they would consequently act as persons under infinite obligations to God; his strength would be their shield, and then: -

Deuteronomy 32:29-35

Verse 29

That they would consider their latter end! - אחריתם archaritham, properly, their latter times - the glorious days of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, should spring up among them. Should they carefully consider this subject, and receive the promised Savior, they would consequently act as persons under infinite obligations to God; his strength would be their shield, and then: - Verse 30

How should one chase a thousand - If therefore they had not forgotten their Rock, God their author and defense, it could not possibly have come to pass that a thousand of them should flee before one of their enemies. Verse 31

For their rock - The gods and pretended protectors of the Romans.

Is not as our Rock - Have neither power nor influence like our God.

Our enemies themselves being judges - For they often acknowledged the irresistible power of that God who fought for Israel. See Exo 14:25; Num 23:8-12, Num 23:19-21; 1Sam 4:8.

There is a passage in Virgil, Eclog. iv., ver. 58, very similar to this saying of Moses: -

Pan Deus Arcadia mecum si judice certet,

Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum. "Should the god Pan contend with me," (in singing the praises of the future hero, the deliverer, prophesied of in the Sibylline books), "were even

Arcadia judge, Pan would acknowledge himself to be vanquished, Arcadia herself being judge." Verse 32

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom - The Jews are as wicked and rebellious as the Sodomites; for by the vine the inhabitants of the land are signified; see Isa 5:2, Isa 5:7.

Their grapes - Their actions, are gall and worm-wood-producing nothing but mischief and misery to themselves and others.

Their clusters are bitter - Their united exertions, as well as their individual acts, are sin, and only sin, continually. That by vine is meant the people, and by grapes their moral conduct, is evident from Isa 5:1-7. It is very likely that the grapes produced about the lake Asphaltites, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood, were not only of an acrid, disagreeable taste, but of a deleterious quality; and to this, it is probable, Moses here alludes. Verse 33

Their wine - Their system of doctrines and teaching, is the poison of dragons, etc., fatal and destructive to all them who follow it. Verse 34

Sealed up among my treasures? - Deeds or engagements by which persons were bound at a specified time to fulfill certain conditions, were sealed and laid up in places of safety; so here God's justice is pledged to avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant on the disobedient Jews, but the time and manner were sealed in his treasures, and known only to himself. Hence it is said: - Verse 35

Their foot shall slide in due time, etc. - But Calmet thinks that this verse is spoken against the Canaanites, the enemies of the Jewish people.