Bible Commentaries

Give ear, O ye ^a heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

(a) As witness of this people's ingratitude.

My ^b 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:

(b) He desires that he may speak to God's glory and that the people, as the green grass, may receive the dew of his doctrine.

[He is] the ^c Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he.

(c) Or mighty God; noting that only God is mighty, faithful and constant in his promise.

Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? [is] not he thy father [that] hath bought thee? hath he not ^d made thee, and established thee?

(d) Not according to the common creation, but he has made you a new creature by his Spirit.

When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the ^e people according to the number of the children of Israel.

(e) When God by his providence divided the world, he lent for a time that portion to the Canaanites, which would later be an inheritance for all his people Israel.

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, ^f fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

(f) To teach them to fly.

He made him ride on the high places of the ^g earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck ^h honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

(g) Meaning, of the land of Canaan, which was high in respect to Egypt.

(h) That is, abundance of all things even in the very rocks.

ⁱ 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.

(i) He shows what is the principal end of our vocation.

They provoked him to jealousy with ^k strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger.

(k) By changing his service for their superstitions.

They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to ^l new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

(l) Scripture calls new, whatever man invents, be the error ever so old.

And when the LORD saw [it], he abhorred [them], because of the provoking of his ^m sons, and of his daughters.

(m) He calls them God's children, not to honour them, but to show them from what dignity they are fallen.

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 ⁿ people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

(n) Which I have not favoured, nor given my law to them.

The sword ^o without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling [also] with the man of gray hairs.

(o) They shall be slain both in the field and at home.

Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should ^p behave themselves strangely, [and] lest they should say, Our hand [is] high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

(p) Rejoicing to see the godly afflicted, and attributing to themselves that which is wrought by God's hand.

O that they were wise, [that] they understood this, [that] they would ^q consider their latter end!

(q) They would consider the happiness that was prepared for them, if they had obeyed God.

Their ^r wine [is] the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

(r) The fruit of the wicked are as poison, detestable to God, and dangerous for man.

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 ^s shut up, or left.

(s) When neither strong nor weak in a manner remain.

For I ^t lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.

(t) That is, I swear, read (Genesis 14:22).

Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: for he will avenge the ^u blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, [and] to his people.

(u) Where the blood of God's people is shed for their sins or trial of their faith, he promises to avenge it.

For it [is] not a ^x 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.

(x) For I will perform my promise to you, (Isaiah 55:10).

Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye ^y sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.

(y) You were not earnest and constant to maintain my honour.