Read Deuteronomy 32 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew Paragraphs:
32:1-43 {p} The Song of Moses
32:44-47 {p} Conclusion of Moses’ explanation of this Torah
32:48-52 {p} Command to ascend Mt Nebo to view the land, then die
The Song of Moses (Deu 32:1-43) makes the following Chiastic Structure:
The Song of Moses prophesies of Israel’s unfaithfulness and apostasy, calling forth YHVH’s judgment because of it, and their restoration in the latter days. But judgment is never the last word with YHVH. The final verse of this paragraph is:
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people;
For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” Deu 32:43
The judgment His people endured — carried away captive by Assyria and Babylonia, and scattered to the four winds — cleansed them so thoroughly of their idolatry, that later when they were returned to the land, and first the Greeks, then the Romans, tried to ban their worship or add idolatry to it, the Jews would rather die at the hands of the Greeks or Romans than submit to paganism again. Therefore the judgment; it cleansed His people of their besetting sin when all else failed. I always told my children, “Let yourself be corrected by instruction rather than by consequences. For it is unavoidable that correction will come, and you get to choose which way it will come. But correction by consequences is so much more painful.”
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