Commentaria in Deuteronomium
37. AND HE SHALL SAY (God, through the Prophets whom He shall send):
WHERE ARE THEIR GODS?—Where are your idols in which you trusted?
38. OF WHOSE VICTIMS THEY ATE THE FAT; (he says this in mockery: for in the true and ordained worship of God, all the fat of victims was to be eaten by no one, but burned to God alone, as is plain from Leviticus vii, 17; so) AND DRANK THE WINE OF THEIR DRINK OFFERINGS (that is, what ought to be poured out and offered to God alone, they sacrilegiously, after the manner of the Gentiles) DRANK.
LET THEM ARISE AND HELP YOU.—It is an enallage of person: for he passes from the third to the second.
39. I WILL KILL AND I WILL MAKE TO LIVE: I WILL STRIKE AND I WILL HEAL.—Armachanus, in the Armenian Questions, asserts that he received from a certain learned Hebrew that the Hebrew is to be pointed passively in this way: ani amat vaechia muchatsti vaani erapheh, that is, I shall be killed and I shall live, I shall be pierced and I shall be healed; and so it is written in a codex written by the hand of Esdras, which is kept at Bologna with the Dominican Fathers: as if here were a prophecy of Christ, and of Him it is said that He was to be slain by the Jews, soon to rise from death by His own power, as lord of life and death. But let the faith of these things rest with him. For our version, the Chaldee and the Septuagint read otherwise.
40 and 41. I WILL LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN (that is, I will swear; for it is the rite of those who swear to lift the hand on high, calling to witness God who dwells on high; as if to say: I, God, as with lifted hand, will swear by myself and by my life, saying): I LIVE FOR EVER (as men swear and say: The Lord liveth). IF I SHALL WHET MY SWORD AS THE LIGHTNING, AND MY HAND TAKE HOLD ON JUDGMENT (as if to say: When I shall have prepared the sword of my vengeance to flash like lightning, to terrify, and most swiftly to pierce, and my avenging power shall have turned to execute judgment:) I WILL RENDER VENGEANCE TO MY ENEMIES.—Think how terrible the judgment of God is and will be, especially the last, in which the damned shall be adjudged to hell. Hear St. Anselm, book On the Misery of Man: “On this side shall be accusing sins, on that terrifying justice; beneath, the horrid chaos of hell lying open; above, the angry judge; within, the burning conscience; without, the burning world. The just man shall scarcely be saved: the sinner thus overtaken, to what side shall he betake himself?”
42. I WILL MAKE MY ARROWS DRUNK WITH BLOOD (as if to say: I will utterly steep my arrows in blood, namely)
OF THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN (as follows) AND OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE BARED HEAD OF THE ENEMIES,—that is, with the blood of captive enemies, who are bared of head, or with head bared, as vanquished and captured, are compelled to march before the victorious foes (3).
43. PRAISE HIS PEOPLE, YE NATIONS.—“His,” namely God’s; as if to say: O nations, as you understand these things, praise the people of the Lord, in that they have so propitious and just a Lord; for though He for a time delivered them to impious enemies to be punished, yet at length He will avenge and repay in kind His enemies, and will have mercy on the people. The Septuagint paraphrastically render thus: Rejoice, ye heavens, together with him, and let all the angels of God adore him. Rejoice, ye nations, with his people, and let all the sons of God be strengthened in him: for he will avenge the blood of his sons, etc. Which concerning the calling of the Gentiles Theodoret beautifully explains here, Question XLII; nay the Apostle, Romans xv, 10: because as in the letter by these words the deliverance of the people of God from the violence of their enemies is promised, so mystically is promised the future deliverance through Christ, which has been bestowed on Gentiles as well as Jews.
44. MOSES THEREFORE CAME, AND SPOKE, etc., IN THE EARS OF THE PEOPLE,—spoke to the people hearing and listening. It is an anacephalaeosis; for Scripture here recapitulates that Moses heard and learned this canticle from the Lord in the tabernacle, in the preceding chapter, verses 14 and 19, and afterwards promulgated it to the people.
St. Chrysostom asks, on Isaias i, why Moses calls this a canticle and sings it, when it is rather a sharp reproof of the people; and answers, that he wisely did it; that by singing he may soften the harshness of the rebuke. From the use, he says, of spiritual wisdom, by the modulation of the song he stole away its sharpness. It was indeed the art of a good shepherd of souls, as if to a pipe to sweeten for the sheep bitter pastures, which yet he knew would profit their salvation.
46. SET YOUR HEARTS ON ALL THE WORDS, (apply your mind, and attend to all my words) WHICH I TESTIFY (that is, seriously foretell) TO YOU,—on this day on which I shall die, with witnesses called, namely invoking heaven and earth (1).
IN THE SAME DAY, SAYING: GO UP INTO THIS MOUNTAIN ABARIM, etc., WHICH WHEN THOU SHALT HAVE GONE UP THOU SHALT BE GATHERED TO THY PEOPLE.—Hence it is sufficiently gathered that Moses, on the same day on which he sang this canticle, went up the mountain, and from it viewed the holy land, and soon died.
49. ABARIM, THAT IS, OF PASSAGES.—The “of passages” is not in the Hebrew, but was added by the Interpreter for the sake of explanation; for Abarim in Hebrew INTO MOUNT NEBO.—Nebo was a ridge, or summit, of mount Abarim.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE. SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER. Moses, about to die, blesses Israel in its several tribes, and foretells to them things to come.
1. This is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2. And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, and from Seir he rose up to us; he hath appeared from mount Pharan, and with him thousands of saints. In his right hand a fiery law. 3. He hath loved the people, all the saints are in his hand: and they that approach to his feet shall receive of his doctrine. 4. Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the multitude of Jacob. 5. He shall be king with the most right one, the princes of the people being assembled with the tribes of Israel. 6. Let Ruben live, and not die, and be he small in number. 7. This is the blessing of Juda: Hear, O Lord, the voice of Juda, and bring him in unto his people: his hands shall fight for him, and he shall be his helper against his enemies. 8. To Levi also he said: Thy perfection and thy doctrine be to thy holy man, whom thou hast proved in the temptation, and judged at the waters of contradiction. 9. Who hath said to his father, and to his mother: I do not know you: and to his brethren: I know you not: and their own children they have not known. These have kept thy word, and observed thy covenant, 10. Thy judgments, O Jacob, and thy law, O Israel: they shall put incense in thy wrath, and holocaust upon thy altar. 11. Bless, O Lord, his strength, and receive the works of his hands. Strike the backs of his enemies: and let not them that hate him rise. 12. And to Benjamin he said: The best beloved of the Lord shall dwell confidently in him: as in a bride chamber shall he abide all the day long, and shall rest between his shoulders. 13. To Joseph also he said: Of the blessing of the Lord be his land, of the fruits of heaven, and the dew, and of the deep that lieth beneath. 14. Of the fruits brought forth by the sun and the moon. 15. Of the tops of the ancient mountains, of the fruits of the everlasting hills: 16. And of the fruits of the earth, and of the fulness thereof. The blessing of him that appeared in the bush, come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren. 17. His beauty as of the firstling of a bullock, his horns as the horns of a rhinoceros: with them shall he push the nations even to the ends of the earth. These are the multitudes of Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasses. 18. And to Zabulon he said: Rejoice, O Zabulon, in thy going out, and Issachar in thy tabernacles. 19. They shall call the people to the mountain, there shall they sacrifice victims of justice. Who shall suck as milk the abundance of the sea, and the hidden treasures of the sands. 20. And to Gad he said: Blessed be Gad in his breadth: he hath rested as a lion, and hath seized the arm and the top of the head. 21. And he saw his preeminence, that in his portion the teacher was laid up: who was with the princes of the people, and did the justices of the Lord, and his judgment with Israel. 22. To Dan also he said: Dan is a young lion, he shall flow plentifully from Basan. 23. And to Nephthali he said: Nephthali shall enjoy abundance, and shall be full of the blessings of the Lord: he shall possess the sea and the south. 24. To Aser also he said: Blessed be Aser in his children, let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. 25. His shoe shall be iron and brass. As the days of thy youth, so also be thy old age. 26. There is no other God like the God of the righteous one: he that is mounted upon the heaven is thy helper. By his magnificence the clouds run hither and thither. 27. His dwelling is above, and underneath are the everlasting arms: he shall cast out the enemy from before thee, and shall say: Be thou bruised. 28. Israel shall dwell in safety, and alone. The eye of Jacob in a land of corn and wine, and the heavens shall be misty with dew. 29. Blessed art thou, O Israel: who is like to thee, O people, that art saved by the Lord? He is the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy glory: thy enemies shall deny thee, and thou shalt tread upon their necks.