Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Deuteronomy
Chapter 32: The Song of Moses: He Is the Rock
This is the Song of Moses, a soaring poem set to be sung so Israel would never forget. It opens by exalting God as the faithful Rock, whose work is perfect and whose ways are all just. It mourns how Israel, grown fat and comfortable, forsook the Rock of their salvation and forgot the God who made them. And it rises to one of the great declarations of the one true God: 'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me.' It is a chapter about the Rock who never fails, the danger of forgetting Him in plenty, and the one God beside whom there is no other.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Deuteronomy chapter 32, the Song of Moses. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The song exalts God as the faithful Rock, laments Israel's forsaking of Him, and declares that there is no god beside Him. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
His Work Is Perfect
God is the Rock, faithful and just, whose work is perfect and whose ways are all right.
A God of Truth
He is a God of truth without iniquity, unchanging and dependable in all He does.
Waxed Fat and Forsook
Grown comfortable and full, Israel forsook the Rock of their salvation and forgot God.
There Is No God With Me
The LORD declares Himself the only God: I, even I, am he, and there is none beside.
He Is the Rock (Deuteronomy 32:1-4)
The song opens by exalting God as the Rock, faithful and just, whose work is perfect and whose every way is right.
His Work Is Perfect
"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 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: Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. 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. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He 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. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. 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. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not."
Hebrew Study
"Rock," tsur (צוּר). A rock, a cliff, a great immovable stone; a picture of strength, shelter, and unchanging stability. Throughout this song God is called the Rock, again and again, the firm foundation on which His people stand and the refuge to which they run. What the Rock is, He always is: solid, steadfast, unmoved.
Explanation
Moses calls heaven and earth to hear, then lets his teaching fall "as the rain... as the small rain upon the tender herb." His theme is the greatness of God: "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." Every word piles up God's faithfulness: His work perfect, His ways just, Himself true, without iniquity, upright. This is the God Israel had, a Rock that does not shift, whose dealings are always right even when they cannot be understood. The song begins here, on the solid ground of who God is, before it turns to the sad story of how Israel treated Him.
Gospel Focus
"He is the Rock" is one of Scripture's favorite pictures of God, and this song makes it the very foundation of faith. When everything else shifts, God does not; His work is perfect, His ways are just, and He is a God of truth without a shadow of wrong. That is the ground we stand on. And Paul tells us who this Rock is for us: writing of Israel's wilderness journey, he says "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). The unchanging Rock of the Song of Moses is the same Lord who is our salvation. When life feels unstable and God's dealings are hard to understand, this song steadies us: His work is perfect even when we cannot see it, all His ways are just even when they are painful, and He is true and without iniquity. Build your life on the Rock that cannot move, for He is faithful, and He is our salvation.
They Forsook the Rock (Deuteronomy 32:15-18)
Grown fat and comfortable, Israel kicked against God, forsook the Rock of their salvation, and forgot the God who made them.
Unmindful of the Rock That Begat Thee
"Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. 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 people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. 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 shut up, or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection."
Hebrew Study
Israel is given a tender pet-name here — "Jeshurun," "the upright one" — but the verse is an indictment: "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked... then he forsook God... of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful." Prosperity bred rebellion; the well-fed ox kicked its owner. And note the great title: God is the Rock (tsur) who "begat" and "formed" His people — steadfast, unchanging — forsaken for new gods "that came newly up." Forgetfulness of the Rock is the root of every apostasy.
Explanation
The song turns to Israel's sad response. God had found them in a desert waste and cared for them "as the apple of his eye," carrying them "as an eagle... beareth them on her wings." But prosperity spoiled them: "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked... then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." Full and comfortable, they turned to strange gods and demons. And Moses names the tragedy: "Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee." The very God who made them, saved them, and carried them was the one they forgot in the day of plenty.
Gospel Focus
Here is one of the saddest patterns in Scripture, and one of the most dangerous: a people blessed by God who forget Him in their comfort. "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked." When the desert days of need were past and the land flowed with plenty, Israel grew careless and "lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." Ease is often more perilous to faith than hardship, for full hands and satisfied hearts easily forget the God who filled them. This is the very warning Moses gave earlier, and the song sets it to music so it could never be lost. We are not immune. When life is good and needs are met, the soul can drift from the God it clung to in harder days. Remember the Rock that begat you; do not let prosperity make you unmindful of Him. Hold fast to the God of your salvation in the day of plenty as firmly as in the day of need, lest comfort do what affliction never could.
I, Even I, Am He (Deuteronomy 32:39)
The LORD Himself speaks, declaring in the plainest words that He alone is God, and there is no other beside Him.
There Is No God With Me
"See 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. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 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. 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. 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. And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun. And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel: 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. 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. And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people: Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel."
Hebrew Study
Here is one of the mightiest declarations of the one true God in all Scripture: "See 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." The LORD is utterly alone in His Godhead — no second deity stands beside Him — and He alone holds life and death, wounding and healing, in His hand. The very phrase "I am he" (ani hu) the Lord Jesus took upon His own lips (John 8:24, 58), for the one God who spoke here is the same God who came in flesh.
Explanation
As the song moves toward its close, God Himself speaks, and He declares His sole deity in unmistakable terms: "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me." Over against the powerless idols Israel had chased, the LORD stands alone: He alone gives life and takes it, wounds and heals, and no power in heaven or earth can rescue anyone from His hand. The false gods can do nothing; He does everything. This is the same God who opened the song as the faithful Rock, now affirming that He is the only God there is.
Gospel Focus
Here the song reaches the bedrock of the faith: "I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me." There is one God, and He alone is God; no other exists beside Him. It is the same truth that thunders through Isaiah, "I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour" (Isaiah 43:11), and again, "Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any" (Isaiah 44:8). This one God, the faithful Rock of the song, is the very God who was made flesh in Jesus Christ to be our Saviour. He alone gives life and heals, and none can deliver from His hand; therefore salvation is found in Him alone. This is the confession of the Apostolic faith and the anchor of all worship: not many gods, not a divided deity, but one God, our Rock and our Saviour. Cling to Him alone, for there is no other, and none beside Him can save.
Chapter 32 in Review
Deuteronomy 32, the Song of Moses, was given to be sung so Israel would never forget. It exalts God as the Rock, "his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment," faithful, true, and just. It laments how Israel, grown fat and comfortable, "forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation," forgetting the God who formed them. And it rises to God's own declaration: "I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me."
For the Apostolic reader, this song is a treasure. God is the unchanging Rock on whom we build, faithful and just even when His ways are hard to trace, and Paul tells us that Rock is Christ, our salvation. The song warns us soberly that prosperity can make us forget the God who saved us, so we must hold fast to Him in plenty as in need. And it anchors us in the one great truth: there is one God, no other beside Him, our Rock and our only Saviour, made flesh in Jesus. Build on the Rock, do not forget Him in comfort, and worship the one God beside whom there is no other.
- "He is the Rock, his work is perfect," faithful and just in all His ways (32:4).
- Paul tells us "that Rock was Christ," our salvation (1 Corinthians 10:4).
- Israel "waxed fat, and kicked," forsaking the Rock in the day of plenty (32:15, 18).
- Prosperity can make us forget God more than hardship ever could.
- The one God declares, "I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me" (32:39; Isaiah 43:11).
Questions for Reflection
- Is your life built on the Rock whose work is perfect, even when His ways are hard to understand?
- Has comfort or plenty made you unmindful of the God who saved you?
- Do you hold with all your heart that there is one God, your Rock and only Saviour?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- God the faithful Rock, who is Christ our salvation: Deuteronomy 32:1-4; 1 Corinthians 10:4.
- Forsaking the Rock in the day of plenty: Deuteronomy 32:15-18.
- The one God: I, even I, am he: Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:11; 44:8.