The Song of Moses in Deuteronomy

Shortly before his death, God told Moses to write a song and teach it to Israel, so that it would be a witness against them when they turned to other gods. Moses spoke it in the ears of all the congregation with Joshua beside him. 'Give ear, O ye heavens,' it begins, and it praises the LORD as the Rock whose work is perfect. It recalls how God found Israel in a waste howling wilderness and carried them as an eagle carries her young, warns of the judgment idolatry would bring, and ends with God's promise to avenge His servants and be merciful to His land and people.

0:00

Strongest connections in Scripture

Deuteronomy 32 3×

Key Passages

He Is the Rock

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

Moses opens by calling heaven and earth to listen as he publishes the name of the LORD, the faithful Rock.

G¹ive ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

² My 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: ³ Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. ⁴ He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

As an Eagle Stirreth Up Her Nest

Deuteronomy 32:10-12

The song remembers how tenderly God found, led, and carried Israel through the wilderness.

H¹⁰e found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

¹¹ As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: ¹² So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

It Is Your Life

Deuteronomy 32:39-47

The song ends with God's sovereign claim, and Moses urges Israel to take these words to heart, for they are their life.

S³⁹ee now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

⁴⁰ For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. ⁴¹ If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. ⁴² I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. ⁴³ Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people. ⁴⁴ And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun. ⁴⁵ And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel: ⁴⁶ And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ For it is not a 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.