(1) In this song (although he should speak in a friendly manner at the end), the prophet Moses does not need many gentle words, but speaks everything with great, excellent, hard earnestness; he scolds, condemns and punishes in the fastest way, shows great severity and sharpness. And first of all, he throws countless, great, bodily and spiritual benefits before God's ungrateful people, puts them before their eyes so that they may grasp them. Again, he paints before their eyes their fine gratitude, which they and their descendants will prove to the pious, faithful God; namely, that they will forget all great benefits and God Himself, turn away to foreign gods, and therefore invite God's wrath and malediction from themselves.
(2) And Moses, like a true Moses and preacher of the law, does not offer much fatherly enticement, but scolds, punishes, jeers and is angry at their great ingratitude, speaks burning, fiery words, and threatens everywhere with an almighty, strong God, from whose hands no one will escape or escape.
3 With this he indicates the nature of the law [Rom. 4, 15. 7, 7.], namely, that it shows sin, terrifies the conscience, and that without grace and mercy through the law no one can become godly before God, that [it] is also not to be dared to deal with such great majesty through our beggarly, miserable works, or to meet the fire with straws.
V. 1. Hearken, ye heavens, I will speak, and the earth shall hear the speech of my mouth.
He calls heaven and earth and all creatures to witness, as in a great matter, which concerns not temporal goods, not a kingdom or principality, not a house, court, gold or silver, but the highest and best of each; namely, either to have God, the fountain of all good, with all eternal and temporal salvation, with heaven and earth and all creatures, or eternally (which is terrible) to lose and do without. Yes, what matter does not concern the emperor, not to reconcile princes or lords, but to have God, the eternal Majesty, graciously, to prosper here and there, or to die and perish in God's disgrace, in eternal despair of all divine and human consolation, without all help or salvation, eternally and without intermission.
(5) In such a great matter there should still be little testimony or little witnesses too little; there should still stand up the beautiful, high, wide sky, with the noble sun, with the moon, with all the stars. The earth with all its plants, with all its birds, with all its animals, and the great wide sea with all its fishes, and everything that moves in it, would have to come and bear witness to their God against the wicked, save His eternal divine honor and justice, and confirm His judgment [Revelation 6:12, Wis 19:6 ff].
(6) When the hour comes for God the Lord to awaken against the despisers and never to be forgotten or despised, suddenly all their courage falls away, their hearts and minds are filled with fear.
know so completely upset, stupid, sad and despondent that they feel nothing but that not only God, but heaven, earth, leaves and grass, all creatures are angry with them, convince them, accuse them and condemn them.
7 Thus Habakkuk the prophet forewarns the king of Babylon, saying in chapter 2, v. 11: "For even the stones of the wall shall cry out, and the beams of the bars shall answer him"; that is, when God shall visit him, he shall have such a desponding spirit, when a plank cracks on the wall, that he shall think the heavens are about to fall. So also Moses, in the 26th of the third book, v. 36, warns the wicked that God will make them so despondent that they will chase a rustling leaf 2c. But we see the same thing in Isaiah in the first chapter, v. 2, that he, following Moses, cries out to heaven and earth about the ingratitude of the stiff-necked, godless, wicked people'. Yes, they will also witness all too strongly in his time.
V. 2. Let my teaching drip like rain, and my speech like dew, like rain on the grass, and like drops on the herb.
(8) Here Moses desires that his teaching may drip like the rain and dew on the grass and herbage, that is, that it may be strong and bear fruit, so that he does not speak and preach in the wind. After he speaks of the greatest thing on earth, of the business of religion, namely, of the first, highest commandment of God, which is right religion, which is the highest and most excellent service of God. And again, what is the highest abomination before God;- namely false doctrine, false worship, false holiness, all kinds of hypocrisy, which all goes straight against the first, highest commandment of God, which hypocrisy Moses [v. 33.] calls vain vipers and dragons poison and gall [Isa. 59, 5. 6.].
(9) Therefore he desires that this his right doctrine may bring forth fruit in many. He compares God's word to rain and dew. For where it is preached purely, it is not, like human statutes, without benefit or fruit, which Peter [2. Ep. 2, 17.f] calls "clouds without rain", but works and creates something great. He compares the audience to grass and herbage [Isa. 40, 6.] For like rain and
The dew makes the meadows cheerful and green, so that flowers and grass spring up and grow according to every desire; thus God's word refreshes the hearts and consciences; and where the same rain of divine word falls, it does not go off without improvement and fruit.
V. 3. For I will call upon the name of the LORD. Let our God have the glory.
(10) That is, I will sing a little song, which I will start high, and no one under the sun shall start it higher, nor be able to make it better. My best song and best teaching shall be the first commandment of God; namely, that one should give glory to the one, true God, heartily fear and love him, trust in him alone and build on him, and that all other services, however holy, excellent and delicious they may seem, if they are performed apart from or next to the first commandment, are vain idolatry and hypocrisy.
(11) And my song is thus: "Give glory to God". That is, to the one, true, living God alone belongs the glory, praise and honor in heaven and on earth. "He alone is (as Moses says in this fifth book Cap. 10, 17.] one GOd above all gods, one HEART of all lords," who created heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is therein [1 Tim. 6, 16. Revelation 1, 8.]. Who hath all kingdoms of the earth in his hand, directing and subduing them as he pleaseth; who giveth breath and life unto all men of the earth; who formeth and ruleth all kings' hearts, senses, and thoughts, and otherwise all men of the earth, inwardly, as it pleaseth him; who alone giveth all gifts, bodily and spiritual; without whom no man can have body, life, wisdom, strength, health, power, wealth, or any other good, or keep them for a moment. To him, says Moses, give glory, that is, recognize him for a Lord who creates and works all things, from whom alone all gifts flow. So also Jeremiah says in the 9th, v. 23, 24: "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, let not a strong man boast of his strength, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him that will boast boast of this, that he knoweth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD" 2c.
(12) Now here it is decided that no man's glory is, but all majesty, all majesty, authority and power is God's alone, who alone gives wisdom [Luc. 21:15], strength, wealth, to whom he wills, takes it away again, and changes it with all men as he wills. Therefore no kingdom can stand longer than he wills; no government, no household, no wealth or welfare can last or remain longer than he wills. As Daniel Cap. 2, 21: He raises up kingdoms and brings them down as he wills.
(13) To recognize and know this, to give all glory to him alone, to earnestly expect from him all gifts, all physical and spiritual help and comfort, to rely on him in fortune and misfortune, in life and death, to flee to him in all temptations, to seek and call upon him alone in all distresses and afflictions, this is the highest, most pleasing service of God.
14) The glory, however, 1) is given to God the Lord only by the small group, the faithful and pious on earth; these trust and rely on Him from the heart, recognize that they have all goods from Him, that they could not stay a moment before the devil, if God does not protect and guard them [1 Sam. 2, 6-8. f.]. The hypocrites, however, and all other godless people, even though they profess God's omnipotence and glory with their mouths, still rely in their hearts on their own holiness, wisdom, strength, ability, on their own works, on man's help and comfort; and if they do not feel the same in times of need, they become frightened, despair and despair, run away from God, blaspheme and curse God.
15 Now this is a strong comfort to the pious and faithful: Even though they see daily in the world that God's word and works are so shamefully mocked, ridiculed, despised and trampled underfoot, they still know it to be true that it may last for a while. It may be for a moment that God watches the despisers, but at last they learn that this first commandment remains true, and that God retains the power and glory. How to
1) Erlanger: "give".
Now and then they see that small and great are stingy without fear of God, without shyness, despise God's word and the pious, faithful preachers, and throw the ten commandments to the winds as a small doctrine; but they do not know that finally this first commandment will remain true; and that they now and then do not want to believe, they will have to experience in their conscience, in body and soul, in honor and property, wife and children.
16 Therefore, if one leaves the glory to God, seeks all help and comfort from Him, and waits for Him, for He has promised blessing and grace, then it will be well, whether in church matters or in the ministry, whether in government, in housekeeping, or in small or large affairs. We can see this: Where there is a pious, faithful bishop and pastor who does not seek his own honor, but recognizes that he has the Spirit, grace, the Word and all gifts from God, God Himself is bishop and pastor with him; again, where heretics and false teachers rob God of His honor and seek their own honor, it works, as we have seen and experienced more in our time with Thoma Münzer and others. So also in regiments: Where there is God-fearing authority, which keeps God before its eyes and gives Him glory, God Himself sits in the council, helps to watch, guard and govern.
17 Again, where kings, princes and lords forget God, rob God of His glory, build on their own schemes and wisdom, on wealth and power, on covenants, understanding and the help of men, everything goes back, there is neither happiness nor blessing; as experience shows, as the histories of the Gentiles and the Bible indicate. But even if our Lord God allows the wicked to carry out some evil plans, ungodly counsels and thoughts, so that it seems they do what they want, they do it as they please, and theirs is the glory and power, God does nothing about it, it still comes to an evil end in the end, as the 73rd Psalm, v. 19, says: "They perish, and come to an end suddenly and with terror.
V. 4. Without change are the works of the Rock; for all his ways are judgments. Faithful is God, and no evil in him; just and upright is he.
18 He calls God a rock with an almost subtle, comforting title, that he is a very strong, certain comfort to all who rely on him and dare cheerfully. All other help and comfort is an uncertain sandy ground. This is found in experience. But whoever heartily relies on God can stand in all temptations. So David also says in the 18th Psalm, v. 3: "My rock, my fortress, my refuge, in whom I trust." Item, Ps. 62, 8: "With God is my salvation, my honor, the rock of my strength, my confidence is in God."
His works are without change and perfect.
(19) He speaks of the works of God, which God works in all believers' 1) hearts, and in all who fear and love God rightly. For when hearts are cleansed and sanctified by faith, there is no hypocrisy, but there is true perfect holiness and purity, and true holy worship, so that the heart rightly recognizes God, esteems Him great, fears and loves Him dearly, thanks Him for so many benefits, and calls upon Him in every need.
(20) And the works that God works in us, he holds against our own works, since by works invented by ourselves, or by our own dreams, we want to make God worship according to our own convenience, which he should please him with, but by which we turn away from God to foreign gods. As has been, monasticism, item, the masses, and the like under the papacy; these are not works without change, but hypocritical, imperfect, damned works.
'21. Further, he says, "All his ways are judgments." All the life and walk of believers is righteous, going according to GOD's command and word, according to the holy ten commandments, not in human dreams or discretion. Thus, GOD is faithful, just, righteous. He speaks all this of God in such a way that he indicates what God demands in the first commandment, because he wants us to respect and hold him as a faithful, just, benevolent God who means it paternally. For here he does not speak of a divine nature or essence, but speaks of what one should consider God to be, what one should think of Him in the heart, and what one should think of Him in the heart.
1) Thus Walch and the Wittenberg edition; Erlanger: allen gläubigen.
He wants to have touched the false gods and all idolatrous abominations with these words. As if he should say: Whoever truly serves God, namely, that he heartily trusts and fears him (as the first commandment says), is certain of all his things, does not build on himself nor on his works, but on God's word and promise, which cannot waver nor fail; there the heart is satisfied with God, there the conscience can be joyful and quiet. This is the right, highest, holiest service of God; there is no falsehood, no lies, nor hypocrisy, but the heart within is holy and pure through faith. Therefore, all other outward works and conduct are holy and pure to the pure.
22 Again, in all other services, however delicious they may seem, which are outside the first table, without faith and fear of God, with all kinds of outward acts, there is all uncertainty, all toil and labor, heartache and sorrow of conscience. There the hearts and consciences always remain in doubt, and can never come to rest; there the heart remains inwardly full of blindness, full of unbelief; therefore also the outward works, so that one wants to earn salvation, how holy they seem, are a vile abomination, vile filth and dung before God.
V. 5. the perverse and insane kind have corrupted him, and are not his children, because of their reproach.
(23) Moses prophesied here how it would be after his death, that they would easily fall away from God's commandment and commandments, despise the Ten Commandments, worship according to their own conceit, trample underfoot the first commandment, as all hypocrites do, and become a wicked, evil, adulterous people. Therefore, they will no longer be dear children nor God's people, even though they bear the name, but enemies of God and children of harlots, adulterers and adulteresses, because of the spiritual fornication they will commit [Ezek. 16, 26. f. 23, 5. 11. ff.]. So he says just before this song, in the 31st chapter, v. 29.: "I know that after my death ye shall destroy it, and go out of the way which I have commanded, then shall calamity befall you."
V. 6. Do you then give thanks to the Lord your God, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father and your Lord? Has he not made you and prepared you?
24. Now here the high prophet Moses, looking at the unspeakable goodness and innumerable benefits of God, and on the other hand the great ingratitude and shameful contempt, is completely inflamed and says: Is this the thanks that God has adopted you as his own dear children, that he has snatched you out of the midst of death, led you out of Egypt, delivered you mightily from the hands of Pharaoh, made the Reed Sea stand before your eyes like walls, fed you with the bread of heaven in the wilderness 2c.? As if to say: For all this, that God is just, faithful, kind, and a gracious Father to all, that He chose you above all other nations, peoples and kingdoms on earth, for your sake drowned King Pharaoh, took the kingdoms of Canaan; item, that for so long you have lacked nothing, but like a father or mother her child, carried you on her hands, protected and sheltered you everywhere; you and your descendants will pay him with such fine thanks that you will esteem all kinds of idolatrous, foolish worship more highly than the first commandment of God, than the first tablet, where he demands that you take him for a god, build on him alone and trust in him. For you will become apostate sons of whores, who will be able to hope and trust in their own works, in idolatry, in the favor of men, in help, in comfort, in gold and silver; but not in God, whom you will easily regard, as if there were no help nor counsel with him, as if nothing at all were attached to him. Therefore you will not be sons of the Father, but a foolish, unwise people who will seek help when there is no help. This may well be said to us at this time of the gospel: Is this the thanksgiving that you have been delivered from the ministry and innumerable troubles? 2c.
V. 7. Remember the former days, take note of the years of the former times. Ask your father, he will tell you; your elders, they will tell you.
(25) Then he begins to count, as from a register, the benefits of God, beginning with the first, that God has chosen this people above all other nations, that God has done so many countless benefits to the people. Therefore he says, "Ask your father," that is, ask your fathers and your elders. As if he should say: If you look at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you will find innumerable benefits, how God loved your fathers, how faithfully he took care of them. Such a reminder is necessary for us. For Adam's children are like that, when a good deed is over, it is soon forgotten, as experience shows in our time.
V. 8 When the Most High divided the nations and scattered the children of men, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel.
The first blessing is that although God the Lord is one God of all nations, peoples and kingdoms on earth, all of which He created, He also divides to each people its borders and measure, as is written in the first book of Moses, Cap. 11, 8, 9, ff. 17, 26, 27, he did not choose a nation among all of them to establish his worship, to call himself God and Father of the house, but the nation of Israel. And it is truly an excellent, great blessing, praise and glory that the high majesty will not be preached, recognized, found or encountered anywhere but in Israel alone. And that among so many kingdoms and lands there should be no knowledge of God but in the people alone, and that he has separated all other kingdoms, lands and borders so that no other people on earth should be called God's people but as far as Israel dwells and their land reaches; all the others should be called godless Gentiles.
V. 9: For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the cord of His inheritance.
That is, God's people do not go further than Jacob and Israel [Ps. 74:1, 2, 100:3]. With these words he wants to show how dear children, how holy, pleasant and chosen they are above all other nations.
V. 10 He found him in the wilderness, in the arid desert, howling. He felt him over and gave him understanding: he guarded him like the apple of his eye.
That is, he gave his law to the people on Mount Sinai, made a covenant with them that he would be their God; also led them so wonderfully for forty years in the wilderness, preserved and nourished them, delivered them from so many hardships, fears and dangers, so often gave them credit for their shameful unbelief, impatience and grumbling, so often forgave their sin and stubborn hardness. He guarded them like the apple of his eye, in spite of those who would harm them; he protected and preserved them from all evil, sorrow and misfortune through his angel, so that they had no lack of anything. Now this is the other, and an almost great blessing. Whoever among us also considers how God so wonderfully guides us from our youth, so graciously nourishes us, protects us from all evil like the apple of our eye, will also find how ungrateful we are.
V. 11: As an eagle wakes up its nest and soars over its young. He spread his wings and took him and carried him on his wings.
29 With the words he indicates how he tolerated and carried them in the desert. One says, and the nature heralds, as Plinius, Aristotle and others write, that various eagles are, but the best kind uses to beat its young ones with the wings, and to make them brave, that they learn to fly, also to hold against the sun shine, and which do not look immediately into the sun, throw them out of the nest, as a bad kind. So Moses wants to say: God, the Lord, has kept you under his wings, as in the nest, and taught you to fly, 1) as an eagle does its young; for he has both tried, with mercy and punishment, to bring you to learn to fly, that is, to trust and believe in him; as we have seen in the eighth chapter.
1) Wittenberg and Erlanger: learned.
2) There can hardly be any doubt that this statement refers to z 30 ff. of the previous scripture. From this it would follow that our interpretation would have to be set later than 1529. This assumption is made certain by what is said in § SO of this chapter.
V. 12. The Lord alone guided him, and no foreign god was with him.
(30) That is, under Moses the right true worship was going on, where God Himself preached, spoke, and taught among them through Moses, where God Himself kept house, was near and among the people. The other Gentiles were left to walk in darkness in their erroneous ways. So now, when the Ten Commandments are preached and the Gospel taught, God Himself also teaches among us, greeting us kindly enough, if we could thank Him alone. Before, there was only false teaching and error. In addition, he also led the people outwardly himself, and gave them a great, strong, safe escort by public, divine signs, by day by a cloud, by night by a fiery pillar.
V.13. He made him go up on high on the earth, and etched him with the produce of the field, and made him sing honey out of the rocks, and oil out of the hard stones.
(31) The third good thing he shows is that God drove out the Gentiles and their kings from the land of Canaan for their sake, and made them dwell in a glorious, delightful, good land, where they had fullness and plenty of everything. But that he said: "He made them suck honey from the rocks and oil from the hard stones," he uses such figures to indicate that God had given them all kinds of rich blessings in crops, food and fruits in the lands; So that even where there were not good, moist meadows, where there were not fields or meadows, there nevertheless grew fig trees, oil trees, all kinds of other trees; there nevertheless was enough milk and honey, and all kinds of need; so also otherwise oil trees grow gladly where there is dry land, and bees make honey, where there is not good land, but sandy, dry land.
V. 14 Butter from the cows, and milk from the sheep, with fat from the lambs. And fat rams, and goats with fat kidneys, and wheat, and watered him with the blood of grapes.
32] There he uses poetic, flowery words, as is customary in songs and hymns, and wants to indicate that they are connected with all kinds of bodily
God abundantly provided us with food and bodily blessings, livestock, fruit, butter, lambs, sheep, and fat rams.
From this we are to learn that God also gives such gifts of the flesh, and if He does not give them, no amount of work, diligence, carts or shepherds, diligent stewardship, care or toil will help. What nobleman or farmer thinks that he has such gifts from God, or that God in the first line of the Ten Commandments, when He says, "I am your God," demands that all the same goods be asked of Him and maintained, or that without Him no one can have or keep them? But here he calls "grape blood" wine, that in the same countries much, and the several part of red wine grows.
V. 15: When he became fat and full, he became horny. You became fat, and thick, and slippery. And he hath forsaken the God that made him; he hath despised the rock of his salvation.
34 That is, God, who delivered you from the hand of Pharaoh the king, who showed you so innumerable good things, you have forgotten, and just by this you have forgotten that it was well with you.
(35) It is a wicked, poisonous kind of human heart that it becomes angry through divine benefits, through happiness and good days, and the more God graces it, and the greater, more excellent gifts God gives it, whether physical or spiritual, the less it humbles itself against God, the less it fears, the more secure it becomes, the sooner it forgets God and His word, the sooner it trusts and builds on itself, and wants to be God itself. Therefore Moses warns in this book at the 6th chapter, v. 10-12.He says: "When you have great and fine cities that you have not built, and houses full of good things that you have not filled, and wells that you have not dug, and vineyards and oliveyards that you have not planted, so that you may eat and be satisfied, then beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. Item, in the 8th chapter, v. 7, 8, 10, 11: "The LORD your God leads you into a good land, a land where streams, wells and deeps are within, which flow by the mountains and in the meadows; a land where wheat, barley,
Vines, fig trees and pomegranates are inside; a land where oil trees and honey are inside 2c. Take heed therefore that thou forget not the LORD thy God." And so the heathen also have said that it is easier to bear misfortune than not to abuse good fortune and good days; and they all testify that no such wise man has ever been found who has not been more fortunate. But isn't it a shameful plague that God should be responsible for all His innumerable benefits?
V. 16: And hath provoked him to zeal by strangers, by abominations hath he provoked him to anger.
They have fulfilled this, unfortunately, too much. For when they should have been thankful for so many bodily and spiritual benefits, they turned away from God to strange gods, sinned without ceasing against the first table with all kinds of abominations and idolatries, provoked God the Lord to zeal and anger, paid him for his benefits with vain disobedience and ingratitude; as the histories of the judges and the books of the kings indicate. For such are the fine fruits of Adam's children: If God keeps them meager, or makes them suffer poverty, they grumble against Him, as the Israelites also did, when they said, when they lacked water, "Is God among us, or not?" [If he gives enough, they will be sure and proud, despising and forgetting God.
(37) Therefore, to hold fast to God the Lord, and to trust in Him heartily (for better or for worse), is the highest holiness, the highest art and wisdom, the noblest worship on earth. And even if the hypocrites have been dealing with other worship services for a long time, the first line in the Ten Commandments always comes and says: "I am your God", you hypocrite, you holy Baalite, you holy Papist, you never believed a tittle of it.
V.17. They sacrificed to the devils of the field and not to their God, to the gods they did not know, to the new ones who came recently, whom your fathers did not honor.
038 That is, all kinds of idolatry of the heathen, as Baal, Ashtaroth, Moloch, Chamos, Camarim 2c., and set up all kinds of worship,
on the mountains and heights, in the forests and groves, of which nothing was commanded in the law, of which their fathers knew nothing, which they had invented and invented for themselves, because they followed their conceit and thoughts, about which afterwards all true prophets complain vehemently. This is what we did with the monasteries and the papist mass.
V. 18. Your rock that gave you birth you have left out of account, and you have forgotten God who made you.
(39) Moses speaks these words out of great, mighty earnestness and out of a heart that is inflamed with divine zeal to save God's glory against the devil's lies. As 1) he should say: "Oh, my heart would break for sorrow that I know, and now I see before my eyes, how you will so easily abandon and so shamefully despise the true living God, the great, certain consolation, the most solid fortress and strongest rock in all temptations and hardships, without which you could not live or remain a moment before the devil, who gave birth to and raised you alone, like a mother to her child. Yes, that you will so shamefully forget the dear, hearty Father (who so fatherly means you, so graciously protects you from the devil and all evil, and so abundantly showers you with all kinds of graces and goods), and instead cling to hopeless, dead idols, and devise all kinds of idolatry and idols, which can neither advise you nor help, comfort, protect, nor save you: that is worth lamenting.
V.19. And when the Lord saw it, he was moved with anger against his sons and his daughters.
(40) Then he indicates that the wrath should be all the more swift and fierce, because such dear sons and daughters forget the faithful father.
V. 20. And he said: I will hide my face from them, will see where it will go out with them at last. For it is a perverse kind, they are children, there is no faith in them.
1.] Erlanger: so.
41. that he says: "I will hide my face from them", he speaks in the person of God; that is, I will blind them, so that they shall not see with seeing eyes 2c. [Isa. 6, 10.], that they shall die and perish in vain blindness and error, without God and God's knowledge, seeking God with their works and services, and yet not finding Him. For to see God's face is called in the Scriptures: To know God, to see and notice His will and works. Thus the 80th Psalm, v. 20, says: "Lord, show us your face, and we shall be helped." Again, God's face is hidden from those who are blinded, so that they do not recognize God or His work.
But "children", "since there is no faith in them", he calls such hypocrites, who pretend to be holy and pious with all kinds of outward works, and yet neither know nor want to keep the highest, holiest service of God (which is required by the first commandment); they think that they are the dear children, if they are damned bastards, and God's worst enemies.
V. 21 They have provoked me to anger against that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanity. And I will provoke them again against that which is not a people, against a foolish people will I provoke them.
(43) That is, as they in the wilderness received another God, which was not grievous unto me; so will I again reject them, and receive another people, which shall also be grievous enough unto them. As Paul tells the Romans in chapter 11, v. 11 ff., the Gentiles were accepted through the gospel. Therefore also at this day the Jews are most bitterly and fiercely angry with us, that we say they are never God's people, but we are God's people; as this verse says.
V.22. For the fire is kindled by my wrath, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall devour the land with her increase, and shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
(44) Fire is called here not only a bodily fire, but all the terrible, dreadful desolation that was done by the sword and by fire, when the king of Babylon, and the end of Babylon, and the end of Babylon, and the end of Babylon, and the end of Babylon, and the end of Babylon, and the end of Babylon.
The Romans have so miserably destroyed, destroyed and devastated Jerusalem that in the whole country, and especially in Jerusalem, not one stone has been left upon another, that all the precious buildings have been turned into a heap of stones and ashes [Jer. 52, 13. ff. Luc. 19, 44.] And this is what he indicates when he says, "and shall burn unto the lowest hell," that is, in the whole land there shall not be left any building or plant, but even the bare ground and the mountains shall burn, as if the fire would eat through the earth into the lowest hell; for so it goes when desolation comes.
V. 23. I will heap [all] calamity upon them; I will shoot all my arrows at them.
The same misfortune is described and told as in a register in the fifth book of Moses at the 28th chapter, v. 16. ff., and Moses himself describes in the next verse also the arrows, and the same misfortune.
V. 24. They shall faint with hunger, and be consumed with fever and with bitter pestilence. I will send the teeth of beasts among them, and raging serpents.
(46) There he mentions three or four arrows, famine, fever, pestilence, wild beasts; and in the next verse he puts war and bloodshed; and these plagues are afterward often referred to in the prophets. To this he says "raging serpents." These are the right whisks and sharp rods with which our Lord God has executed many a great, secure, proud bogeyman 1) and despiser. And when he starts it, it is quite horrible. It does not help that woman and child miserably weep and wail, lament and scream. This is what the citizens and peasants (who now despise God's word, preachers and priests, and say: The priests can do nothing but preach the Ten Commandments) want to experience.
V. 25. From without the sword shall rob them, and in the chambers terror. Both, youths and virgins, the babes with the gray man.
That is, war and disaster will come upon them, and they will be filled with pusillanimity, terror and dismayed, frightened minds.
1) "Uä ein Uebermüthigen, Frevler.
V. 26. I will say, Where are they? I will lift up their memory among men.
(48) That is, I will bring down their kingdom and priesthood to the ground, I will destroy them [Hab. 3:6 ff], I will destroy the chief city Jerusalem, the temple, and the ceremonies, all in a heap; and where before there was royal rule, and all manner of good order, and sacrifices, and glorious feasts, there shall be desolation and silence; and every man shall say, Where is the kingdom of the Jews? Where is their priesthood? Where are their glorious feasts and sacrifices? All this has come true, as Jeremiah the prophet mourns and laments [Klagl. 1, 12]. So there is also the experience to this day, that although there is still a handful of Jews, yet their government and all their worship are torn to pieces, that they have neither their own kingdom nor priesthood, as other nations.
And their memory is preserved among the people.
49 That is, they are everywhere despised, poor people, who have neither name nor reputation anymore, that they are something or are able, but are vain footcloths compared to the fact that they floated above before and were the head.
50) That God is able and able to do this, namely, to make a whole, great, glorious being, as a whole kingdom's splendor and name, desolate, desolate, and quiet in a hurry, of this he boasts in the first commandment, when he says: "I am God," 2c. but one does not believe it. The pope and the papists would not have thought fifteen or sixteen years ago, 2) that so many great monasteries and convents, since their services were so glorious, should become desolate because of their abominations. But God's judgment and work are before us.
V. 27. If I did not give the wrath of the enemies, lest their enemies should be proud, and say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done these things.
2) Compare the note to § 29 of this chapter. By this statement it becomes certain that our interpretation is to be put into the year 1530 or later.
051 For this cause saith he; because he hath often provoked his wrath, and hath redeemed the wicked, and delivered them from their enemies. He did this for his name's sake, so that his name would not be blasphemed by the surrounding nations. Therefore, with this verse he raises the glory and pride of the Jews, because they might want to say: "We have not been as wicked as Moses sings, for God has often delivered us by miraculous signs. He answers them and says: "It was not because of your merit, for you would have deserved the above-mentioned punishment at all times; but if I had accepted you as a people, I had to spare my name, even if you were desperate, unbelieving boys. But I will not look on nor spare you forever, but your end shall come at last, as you have deserved.
V.28. For there is a people where there is no counsel within, and there is no understanding in them.
That is, they know neither God nor His works; they boast that I am their God, and do not know Me; in their blindness they walk securely with their hypocrisy, and without ceasing do all kinds of idolatry against the first, highest commandment; they are presumptuous and secure, wanting to think that they are dear children, and that their cause is well with Me, when My fierce wrath shall soon be poured out upon them. That is why they do not even think of converting or reforming.
V. 29. Oh that they would be wise, and understand these things, that they might know what is to come after them.
(53) As if to say: I have preached to them for so long, now I have admonished them enough that they should fear and love the one God alone, and trust in Him and not depart from Him (as the first commandment reads). The prophets after this time will also do nothing else, but that the fear of God and faith in God is the highest service of God. If God wanted such sermons to be preached, they would then become wise, not despise it, and realize that their death and life, their prosperity and destruction, their blessedness and damnation, are all concerned with it.
54. but I know they will be safe
and idolatry; And as they have caused me much heartache in the wilderness, so they will let the future prophets also preach to the wind, nevertheless running after their idolatries, until Sennacherib and Salmanasser, item, Nebucad Nezar, the king of Babylon, come, and finally the Romans, and teach 1) them to understand the ten commandments, namely, that God is a zealous, strong God, who finally does not let unbelief and godlessness go unpunished. Thus Solomon also says in Proverbs, chapter 1, v. 20. 24. ff: "God's wisdom is heard in the streets. She stretches out her hand, and no one pays attention to it. So also will I laugh (says God) in your calamity, and mock you when there cometh that ye fear; when upon you cometh as a storm that ye fear, and your calamity as a weather, when upon you cometh fear and trouble." Thus, when the Lord Christ looked upon the city of Jerusalem with compassion, and wept over her [Luc. 19:41]. Since he himself, and afterwards also the apostles, exhorted the Jewish people to reform, and warned them of their great accident, there were very few wise men who took it to heart, no one had any regard for what would follow after 2) their preaching or heartfelt lamentations and weeping; but after a short time they experienced it all too strongly.
V. 30: How is it that one shall chase a thousand of them, and two shall make ten thousand to flee? Is it not so that she has sold her rock, and the Lord has delivered her up?
That is, when the punishment comes, their heart and courage will be gone; they will not only hear the words of the prophets, but they will know by the work that it is over with them, that God has forsaken them. And so it happened when the king of Babylon attacked them like a terrible weather, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, when one Gentile frightened a thousand Jews and put them to flight, and when there was nothing on the Jews' side but trembling, fear, trembling, and despair, but before that, when God was still with them. One Jew frightened a thousand Gentiles, and all blessed victory was on their side [Deut. 26:7, 8]. So, [to].
1) Wittenberger and Erlanger: learn.
2) Erlanger: still.
1872 Erl. SL, tss-42t. Interpretation on the Song of Moses, Deut. 32, 30-33. W. Ill, 2788-2770. 1873
At this time, one will not believe what a strong power God's assistance is until he removes his hand and lets us try what strength, ability, heart or courage we have of ourselves.
V. 31 For our rock is not like their rock, for our enemies themselves are judges.
56That is, when your God, your great, certain, strong protection, stood by you, you did well; when a king of the Gentiles was as a fly to you, it was the same to meet the enemies with great or small armor, for God was with you, who has not only horse and man, but also all the hearts and minds of the enemies in his hand.
Because our rock is not like their rock.
57 That is, we have a different Lord and God than the Gentiles. The heathen have idols of silver and gold, have much riches and power; but our God has it all in his hand, and can no man overthrow a sword, neither look upon you with anger, nor have an evil thought in his mind.
(58) The nations themselves have confessed that no one could harm or break the people of Israel by force or power as long as their God was with them. Therefore Balaam also gave counsel to King Moab that he should first provoke the people to sin, so that their God would let them go, and so that he would prevail [Deut. 31:16]. So Balaam is one of the witnesses who must testify that Israel's God is a strong rock and an unconquerable God. So also the Egyptians are witnesses, who said in the 14th chapter of the 2nd book of Moses, v. 25: "Let us flee [from] Israel, for God is fighting for them." So also the Philistines are witnesses, in the first book Samuelis at the 5th chapter, v. 7. Therefore no gods have kept so hard with their people, or proved their power, as the true, living GOD in Israel. So he says here above in the 3rd chapter, v. 22: "Do not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God fights for you."
V. 32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the field of Gomorrah. Their berry is a bilberry; they have bitter grapes.
(59) That is, they should be a pleasant vineyard, which God Himself has planted, in which there would be many fruitful vines according to all pleasure [Hos. 10:1.They should be a fine, God-fearing, thankful people, with many, many faithful, pious children among them, who would love God's word with all their heart, bring other people to it, and bear much fruit: there are vain thistles and thorns, vain wild grapes, vain misgrowth, rotten, spoiled berries, and vain such fine little fruits as Sodoma and Gomorrah. If there should be found among them vain delicious, pure, strong must and good wine: then it is vain lurking, 1) yea, vain poison and gall, all manner of false doctrine, and even fancied, idolatrous worship. So the other prophets have taken such a likeness from Moses; as when Isaiah says in the 5th chapter, v. 2, "He waited for his vineyard to bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes." And the 80th Psalm, v. 14, also compares the whole nation to a vineyard, which the wild sows ravage 2c. These fierce, harsh words he speaks out of quite heated zeal and great earnestness, against false doctrine and false worship.
V. 33: Their wine is the fury of dragons and the gall of fierce vipers.
(60) He gives this fine title (since he calls it dragon's fury, poison and gall out of great, fierce anger and zeal) to their false doctrine, by which all kinds of abominable error were introduced, and the right doctrine of faith of the true prophets was suppressed. For there is no more harmful and evil poison under the sun than false teaching, which does murderous and unspeakable harm, and leads people away from God without ceasing, to vile abomination and vile blasphemy.
61. Such poison and gall was the worship of Baal in the days of Elijah the prophet [1 Kings 18:26]. Such poison and gall was also the calves of Samaria, and all the worship of the high places 2c. [1 Kings 12:28, 32.] Still the people, the kings and princes hung den-.
1) In the original and in the Wittenberg correctly: "laur", which Walch and the Erlanger have changed into "saur". "Lauer" is bad wine. See Vol. XX, 2396 of our edition s. v. Lauer.
2) Thus the Wittenbergers. Erlanger: mördlich unsäglichen.
They listened to the false prophets, persecuted and strangled the pious prophets [2 Chron. 18, 17. ff]. Such poison has been under the papacy so many innumerable, godless teachings: the doctrine of the mass and of the opere operato, of purgatory, of monastic vows, of the celibate state 2c., which has done terrible and unspeakable harm; nor is all this praised by the devil and his apostles as holy sacrifice, holy, godly devotion and worship, as the Holy Spirit through Moses calls harmful poison and gall; and Paul the apostle also says [1 Tim. 4, 1. 2 Tim. 2, 26.] that such false teaching is devilish teaching, and eats away at it like cancer.
V. 34. Is not this hidden with me and sealed in my treasures?
(62) That is, do not think that I am a god like Baal, who does not see nor hear, from whom you can finally cover or hide yourselves. I know and see all your abominations, all your ways and works that you do; but for my name's sake I spare you, but it shall be borrowed from you, not given. Even though you do not see out of blindness and certainty what kind of punishment has been decreed for you in heaven, and how the first commandment should and must remain true, I have hidden all the records of your abominations, your ingratitude, your contempt with me, and no one may take it into his mind that a despiser or godless person should remain unpunished.
(63) This is said against safety, that they should not think, because God gives them money, goods, fields and meadows, that they are therefore well with God, and that all things are good; for he also gives bodily goods to the heathen; but that they should consider what punishment they have earned, how the first commandment should remain true, so that it cannot be false, since God the Lord is concerned about his divine majesty, honor, praise, and all of deity. For no one should think that he has a gracious God when he gives him bodily goods, house, farm, wife, child, fields, meadows; for the 37th Psalm, v. 20, 35, and all Scripture say that the wicked are richest and happiest in the world.
If there is a blessing, look first at what God has in the secret register.
64 But no godless man can do this, but go along in vain blindness and security. So now and nobility, peasants and burghers 2c., that they are relieved of many burdens, the indulgence, the ban, the money fairs, the stationers, the mendicant monks 2c., by which, through the spiritual salvation of their consciences, they annually receive noticeably more of their food, thereby retaining many a florin; they think, if God increases their bodily food, that they have a gracious God; they go in vain security, now also utterly despise God's word and the preachers who faithfully mean it; but they do not know what God has in the register, and that he will spare such sin terrible punishment until his time.
V. 35. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. In his time shall her foot slide; for the time of her accident is at hand, and her future hasteth on.
In this word, which God says here through Moses, "vengeance is mine", the first commandment is praised again, that it should remain true, and no wicked person should escape vengeance or punishment. Thus, according to these words of Moses, the 94th Psalm, v. 1-3: "O Lord God, who is vengeance, God, who is vengeance, appear. Arise, thou judge of the earth, how long shall the wicked defy?" "Mine (says he) is vengeance"; as if he should say: Though I spare for a time, and bring up punishment for my name's sake, yet your abomination shall not go unpunished; Though ye now dwell in a good land, and have fields, and meadows, and vineyards, and all manner of fruits in abundance, and so walk as in a mummery or a larva, as though ye were dear children of God, yet vengeance is mine, and mine hand, when it shall go, no man shall withstand it; when ye are most secure, then will I let myself be seen, that my name be LORD.
66 And so it happened to them: The punishment was delayed until the hour came when the Romans played havoc with them, and all at once sought them home, as they had long before deserved. And so their foot slipped, so that now they have neither
Kingdom nor priesthood. And so you see that Moses prophesies that one day the people with kingdom and priesthood shall have an end. The good fellows who now so shamefully despise the gospel and misuse it will also learn that God's vengeance is upon them.
V.36. For the LORD will judge his people, and he will repent of his servants. For he will see that their strength is gone, and is finished, even with him that was shut up and left.
67 That is, in this matter, since it concerns his honor, he will not spare even his own people, and will not consider the glorious name and glory that they are called Israel, that they are called God's people and God's inheritance, that they are called dear children, but the first commandment's sentence, which is called: "He seeks at home the iniquity of the fathers against the children" 2c. will strike them. And there shall be no help for it. But he will be merciful, as the other part of the first commandment says, and will show mercy, without regard to person, to those who fear and love him with all their hearts and keep his commandments. And here Moses prophesies that the rest of the small group of Israel who turn to Christ will be preserved. Otherwise it is said [v. 36]: "Their power shall be utterly consumed, even with him that was secretly shut up and left," that is, little or nothing shall remain of the kingdom of Israel, and finally of the whole people; they shall all be scattered among the Gentiles in mourning and misery.
V. 37. And they will say, Where are their gods? Their rock in which they trusted?
(68) With all the wicked and such hypocrites who pretend to holiness and worship, without the fear of God and faith, without the highest worship of the first table, God finally allows their own consciences to contradict and mock them, so that they think in their great anguish, "Oh, where are we now? O where is our God now? For, while things are going well, all hypocrites are quite secure, think they are very well with God, think nothing else, that it is because they are so holy that they are so well; but when adversity comes, they become despondent, and
Their own hearts and consciences say to them, "What good are our good works, our labor and our toil? [Weish. 5, 6. 7. ff.]
It is true that the devil would like to speak such bitter words into the hearts of true Christians and believers: Where is your God now? as the 42nd Psalm, v. 4, indicates. But the true God holds firm over His first commandment, and when it comes to the highest, or to the right moves and needs, He finally does not remain outside. He soon says how silent he is: Here I am; and the longer he consumes, the richer he comforts. But false, idolatrous consolation remains outside, and the false gods let their worshippers float and sink. Only then do they see and realize what they have been in their security, what they have believed, what a fine god they have. This is what he means: "They will say, Where are your gods?"
V. 38. From which sacrifice they ate fat, and drank the wine of their libation. Let them arise and help you, and protect you.
They make themselves believe that they are very holy and do not eat sacrifices to idols, but their sacrifices are pleasing to the true, right God. Thus the papists have done with the great abuse of the masses. Thus the Turk, who sets his Mahomet above and beside Christ, boasts that he also serves God and has great worship among his people; but because he does not recognize Christ and does not believe in the true God, all his worship is an abomination, and it will also be said to him, "Where are their gods? Where is their Mahomet? And next, since he was situated before Vienna in Austria, 1) it may well be said, since sixty or eighty thousand people have died of the pestilence, and since such despondency has come to his people that he has had to depart and publicly see and experience the hand and power of the true, living God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
V. 39. See now that I am I, and there is no God beside me. I can kill, and make alive; that which I have broken, that
1) Compare in the previous interpretation Cap. 7,? 54. There it says: "a few days ago"; here: "next", that is, in recently past time:
I can heal it, and there is no one to deliver it from my hand.
This is the way of the wicked and all hypocrites, that they pretend to holiness with many outward services, as if they were greatly concerned about God, and yet they live in all security, despising all of God's commandments, especially the first commandment, as if there were no God, as if the ten commandments were a dream [Titus 1:16]. Therefore, if God, the Lord, is to preserve His divinity, He must finally let them find and experience it through experience, otherwise they will always say, as the Psalm says in the person of the wicked, "Should God know anything about this? [Therefore he must prove by experience that he is God, so that the despisers must finally confess that he still lives and reigns, when they have despised him for a long time.
V. 40. For I will lift up my hand to heaven, and will say, I live forever.
This is a strong affirmation, since God the Lord swears by Himself that the first tablet and the first commandment shall remain true. And this oath, since God swears by Himself, if He has no one greater over Him, is expressed here for the comfort of the faithful and true Israelites, and for the terror of the despisers and the wicked. For this strong oath, and such glorious defiance and glory, indicates that God alone has a certain, eternal, infinite life and infinite power and authority. All our life and being, doings and fortunes are uncertain, transient. Now here God's eternal power, which no one can hinder, is praised, as it is said: to judge, to praise, to avenge; the three R's belong to God alone; we are not to subject anything to ourselves, nor to praise anything of ourselves. So the l>2nd Psalm, v. 12. says: "GOD's is the power."
V. 41. When I shall sharpen the lightning of my sword, and my hand shall attack judgment, I will again avenge myself on my enemies, and repay those who hate me.
73This is the word that is written in the first commandment, that I, God, seek at home the iniquity of the fathers against the children, in the third commandment.
and fourth generation 2c. I will make and keep a reminder, not only to you, my people Israel, but in all the kingdoms of the Gentiles; and I need the very words of the first commandment, "To those who hate me" 2c.
(74) By saying, "The lightning of my sword," he means that God's punishment and vengeance will be great and terrible, which will strike and pierce all the wicked, all the despisers of God's commandments, whether Jews or Gentiles, when the hour comes, like lightning and a strong, sudden thunderclap, which cannot be stopped, which cannot be resisted.
V. 42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, over the blood of the slain, and over the prison, and the enemy's head shall be bared.
75. I will make my punishment and cruel vengeance in such a way that, even though I have raised up wrath, it will be completely pitiful in the end. But that Moses says in the person of God: "My arrows shall be full of blood", "my sword shall devour flesh", he speaks in the Hebrew language. [But he says, "When the wrath comes, I will suddenly give place to their worst enemies, and I will bring war and sorrow and calamity upon them like a great and strong river, and I will cause a bloodshed, and there shall be no mercy nor rest.
(76) These things also, verily, happened unto the Jews, when the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and after him 1) the Romans, laid waste the city of Jerusalem, that, as Josephus wrote, eleven times an hundred thousand were left dead by famine and by the sword. But that he says, "The head of the enemy shall be stripped," that is, my disobedient people, my enemies, shall be deprived of their kingdom, [there] shall be an end of all things with them. In our time, we also see publicly that God, by all kinds of signs, is threatening his wrath with the most terrible enemy, the Turk; thus, unfortunately, he has shed much Christian blood; but there are few who went to meet the divine wrath with earnest prayer.
1) In the original and in the Erlanger: "da ernach"; Wittenberger: "da hernach".
1880 Erl. ss, 4si f. Interpretation on the Song of Moses, Deut. 32, 43. W. m, "77- f. 1881
V.43. Rejoice, O nations, with his people; for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will avenge himself on his enemies, and will make atonement for the land of his people.
That is, though he will punish his people severely for their sin, yet you Gentiles will still rejoice with his people, and will be made partakers of the rich grace, blessing and promise. For there will still be a remnant that is rightly Israel, rightly God-fearing and faithful, as the prophets, apostles and their disciples, in whom he will nevertheless (when such a great storm and weather of such terrible wrath is over) fulfill all the blessed promise of grace, and through them make holy Abraham's seed and children out of the stones, that is, out of the idolatrous Gentiles [Matt. 3:9].
78. "And will avenge the blood of his servants," that is, the blood of all the pious prophets, and after them the apostles, and all the innocent blood that this people will shed manifold to maintain their false, idolatrous worship, God will avenge terribly, from Planer's blood to the last innocent drop of blood that will be shed. And yet "will be gracious to the land of his people", that is, to the rest of the Israelites who will believe. To him God will raise up a new and everlasting kingdom on the throne of David and in the house of Israel, which will have no end, since the Lord and King will be the Lord Christ, which is now revealed through the gospel, to whom be praise and glory forever and ever, amen.
End of the song Moses.