האזינו השמים, to repay Israel in the event they sin deliberately, as mentioned in Deuteronomy 11,17 where G’d had threatened to withhold the rain, i.e. the blessings that originate in heaven.

יערוף כמטר, if you will be mindful of my words of admonition they will prove as useful for you as rain.

כי שם ה' אקרא, when I will tell you about the great and wonderful things G’d has done for you, as well as that He is righteous in what He will do for you in the future, you too will want to render Him homage, proclaim His greatness, by proclaiming Him as our G’d. This will not be flattery, but recognition of what is a truth.

הצור תמים פעלו, this poem envisages the entire future; this is why it deals primarily with the holocaust the Israelites will experience as retribution for their sinfulness. Moses’ point is that no matter what terrible times the Jewish people experience, none of it is a reflection on the perfection of its G’d, the Rock of the universe; He remains perfect throughout in whatever He does.

צדיק וישר הוא, as he will explain forthwith when he lists how G’d has dealt Israel by heaping acts of loving kindness upon them. However, they responded with וישמן ישורון ויבעט, becoming fat and instead of showing gratitude they “kicked” i.e. resented having to obey His commandments. (verse 15)

שחת לו, Israel induced its own corruption as the prophet Hoseah said in Hoseah 13,9 שחתך ישראל כי בי בעזרך, “You have caused yourself all your own injuries, corruption, for from Me you had received only help, assistance.”

לא, no one else is to blame;

בניו מומם, the word מומם is an alternate for שחת ישראל, i.e. a repetition of the same thought, their corruption. Similarly, the wordבניו is an alternate for ישראל, in other words, G’d’s children are themselves to blame for their having become corrupt. If we needed further proof for the meaning of the word שחת, we find it in Leviticus 22,25 כי משחתם בהם מום בם “for their mutilation, defectiveness is inherent in them etc.”

?תגמלו זאת, Moses asks rhetorically, if one repays G’d for His kindness by worshipping idols? Besides,

קנך, He is your owner; He acquired you when He liberated you from bondage to the Egyptians

זכור ימות עולם, before you were even born G’d had already prepared your ancestral land for you.

בהנחל עליון גוים, when He assigned to them ancestral lands

בהפרידו בני אדם, after the death of Noach and the time of Avraham about which the Torah wrote (Genesis 10,5) “from this point on they separated, branched out by their respective lands, each with its language, etc.” יצב גבולות עמים, twelve descendants of Canaan (Genesis 10,6) mentioned in that context in that chapter of Genesis, corresponding to the eventual 12 tribes of Israel. Canaan and his 11 sons amounted to twelve. (Genesis 10,15-18) The Torah describes the boundaries of the Canaanites as extending from Tzidon in the north to Gerar, near Gaza in the south, and Sodom in the east. This entire region became the land of Israel during the conquest commencing in the days of Joshua, except for the coastal plains inhabited by the Philistines which was conquered many hundreds of years later, and Jerusalem which was captured by David. The Torah does not give details of the boundaries of the territories of any of the other sons of Noach. למספר בני ישראל, matching the number of the Children of Israel.

ימצאהו, as when the Torah had written in Numbers 11,22 ומצא להם, the reference is to G’d being the “supplier,” i.e. “finding” their needs for them.

יסובבנהו, with His protective angels, as mentioned in Psalms 34,8 “the angel of the Lord camps around those who fear Him.” We also have a liturgical poem recited on the second Day of Rosh Hashanah which revolves around this theme. [the poem is attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yitzchok. Ed.] According to the plain meaning of the text the function of the heavenly cloud was only to provide a barrier in front of the people. It would therefore be erroneous to understand Moses as saying that this cloud enveloped the camp of the Israelites. This had been spelled out quite clearly in Exodus 13,21. Furthermore, the word יצרנהו is basically a repetition, i.e. reinforcement of the word יסובבנהו,

כאישון עינו, the cloud, i.e. as G’d’s agent had performed for the Jewish people at the time what the eyelid does for the eye, (pupil ) i.e. it provided a protective cover. The reason it is called אישון, suggesting something dark, is that when the eyelid covers the eye the eye becomes inoperative, its owner remains in darkness. Or, the very fact that the pupil looks black is enough reason for it to be called אישון. We find the word used in Psalms 17,8 where the psalmist implores G’d to protect him as one would the “apple” (אישון) of one’s eye. In Zecharyah 2,12 it is referred to as בבת עין, the part of the eye with which we see.

יעיר קנו, who awakens his nestlings and moves them from its nest in order to carry them on its wings; ישאהו על אברתו, the expression יעיר for rousing also occurs in Isaiah 41,25 הערותי מצפון ויאת, “I have roused him from the north and he has come;” it also occurs in Isaiah 13,17הנני מעיר עליכם, “here I am about to stir up against you, etc.” Transferring someone or something from one location to another is called הערה, “pouring out,” in modern parlance. Awakening the one to be transported is a precondition to the transfer.

ה' בדד, He alone took the Jewish people out of Egypt and led them to the Land of Israel.

על במתי ארץ, as if the Torah had written במתי ארץ (without the letter ו after the letter מ). The land of Israel is perceived as the highest on the globe. [I have explained once that if one considers Jerusalem as the center, the globe sloping off in all directions from this pinnacle, this is easy to understand and does not conflict with scientific measurements which relate only to height above sea level. Ed.[

דבש, made from dates;

the word שמן refers to oil from olives, olive trees growing primarily in mountainous regions.

חמאת בקר, according to the plain meaning of the text Moses describes the land in terms of it flowing with milk and honey and providing an abundance of meat for its owners.

חלב כרים, rams that had grazed in the desert, having stuffed (fattened) themselves with excellent pasture. The expression is used in this sense both in Isaiah 30,23 and in Psalms 65,14. The author quotes more verses from Scripture on this subject; the message of Moses is clear beyond doubt. he extols the excellent physical properties of the Land of Israel.

ואילים בני בשן, ordinary animals that had grazed in Bashan (the land conquered from Og) were known to be excellent specimen; כרים, both in Bashan and special ones elsewhere, had a tendency to grow fat, something which was in high demand. The rams of Bashan were therefore the very finest anywhere.

עם חלב כליות חטה, the choicest fat of the wheat kernels. [The word כליות can obviously not refer to kidneys, seeing that wheat does not have kidneys. The author therefore searches for other pertinent meanings which can be applied to Moses’ hyperbole here. Ed.] In Samuel II 13,39 we find the line ותכל דוד המלך לצאת אל אבשלום, which the author understands as “King David now pined, had an overpowering desire for Avshalom,” since he had by now gotten over the death of his son Amnon (whom Avshalom had murdered). In Psalms 84,3 we read כלתה נפשי, “my soul yearns for….” In other words, the root כלה, from which the wordכליות is derived can mean “to have a craving.” People can develop a craving for this kind of wheat once they have tasted its excellence. In Psalms 73,26 כלה שארי, the word may also describe a craving of one’s body. As to the letter י in the word כליות in our verse, which appears to contradict the claim that the root is כלה, consider the relationship between שבה and שביה, shivyah, where we also suddenly discover a letter י that appears unaccounted for. Another such example occurs with the root בנה and הבניה in Ezekiel 41,13, where the י in הבניה appears unaccounted for. The fact is, that when roots ending with the letter ה such as בנה and שבה experience the semi-vowel sheva abbreviating the syllable, the letter י is substituted for the original letter ה.

עבית, related to the expression במעבה האדמה, “in earthen moulds” where the root letters עב have also been reversed, the normal order being עב. (Kings I 7,46) The disappearance of the third root letter ה is similar to such disappearances in ראית, “you saw,” from the root ראה, and עשית, “you have done,” from the root עשה. The construction מעבה in the verse from Kings we quoted parallels the word מראה from the root ראה. Similarly, the noun מעשה parallels the root עשה.

ולא שערום, related to the demons known as שעירים, of whom we heard in Leviticus 17,7 that the Israelites whored after, as possessing some divine powers, capable of foretelling the future.

ילדך, as in Genesis 10.26 when the Torah writes ויקטן ילד את אלמודד, where the verb ילד though it appears in the kal-mode, is to be understood in the transitive hiphil-mode, as הוליד, “he sired.”

תשי, from the root נשה, to be weakened, the construction teshi parallels אל תט אל דרכיה from the root נטה, to deviate, turn away. The letter י at the end of the word תשי, parallels the word תמחי instead of תמחה in Jeremiah 18,23. It means the same as if it had been spelled with the letter ה at the end instead of the letter י.

בניו ובנותיו, בנים לא אמון בם. We explained this already on verse 5 where we understood it as a reference to Israel’s character flaw of disloyalty.

אספה עלימו רעות חצי אכלה בם. It is customary for Scripture to repeat the same thing in different words. Here the purpose is to inform the reader that the victim will be struck by a whole variety of disasters. G’d will use most of the ammunition at His disposal to punish the guilty.

מזי רעב. This word has different meanings in different contexts. When it appears in the Talmud as in Chulin 45 it means ((נתמזמז being emptied of vital content.

ולחומי רשף, mixture of hail and fire from the sky. The word occurs in this context in Song of Songs 8,6 רשפי אש. If it has the meaning used in the Talmud it describes breaking out of rashes on the skin as in Job 5,7 בני רשף יגביהו עוף, caused by celestial sources such as sparks (in the spiritual sense) and not something that originates on earth. It refers to fiery arrows when used in Psalms 76,5, and in a similar sense in Psalms 91,5 מחץ יעוף יומם, “from arrows flying by day.” Basically, we are dealing here with destructive phenomena which do not have their origin on earth.

וקטב מרירי, stabbed and cut up (mutilated) by robbers who make a point of killing people cruelly. The construction of the word מרירי is similar to the construction of the word פלילי, criminal, from ונתן בפלילים, (Exodus 2,22) describing judges who deal with criminal matters. The judges incriminate the guilty, (transitively), similarly, מרירי is transitive, describes not what the victim suffers, endures, but the force which make the life of the victim intolerable. The word ישוד, from שוד, in Psalms 91,6 מקטב ישוד צהרים, also refers transitively to the forces perpetrating the robbery. “the scourge which is ravaging around noon.” Both Jeremiah 15,8 and Tzefaniah 2,4 use this word in a similar sense.

אמרתי אפאיהם, I had originally said that I would remove them from the world had it not been for My fear of becoming annoyed when the gentile nations would credit their own power with annihilating the Jewish people. [I am paraphrasing some of this. Ed.]

כי גוי אובד עצות, the word גוי refers to the gentile nations here saying of the Jews that they are totally devoid of direction;

the construction ovad is similar to mispad in מספד תמרורים in Jeremiah 6,26, where instead of misped we find mispad, just as here we find ovad instead of oved. Genesis 30,37 makal instead of makel, is another example of such a construction. The reason for the patach instead of the tzeyreh is that in each instance listed the noun is in a construct mode. A fourth example of such a construction is found in Leviticus 27,32 ma-assar bakar vatzon, instead of ma-asser bakar vatzon.

לו חכמו, if these gentile nations had possessed any real intelligence they would have said: איכה ירדוף אחד, how was it ever possible that a single one of us could successfully pursue אלף, a thousand Jews, something they used to be able to do to us. This could only be accounted for by the fact that their G’d, צורם, had sold them out. This was the result of their offending Him by their sins. The word צור as simile for G’d has already occurred in verse 4 of this chapter.

כי לא כצורנו צורם, these words are spoken by Moses, are not what Moses attributes to the gentile nations as saying. ואויבנו פלילים, if, nonetheless it appears as if your enemies, i.e. the deities of our enemies, succeed in inflicting criminal judgments upon us, this must have been arranged by G’d on account of our sins.

כי מגפן סדום גפנם, Moses now explains why it had originally been G’d’s plan to annihilate the Jewish people totally so that there would remain no mention of them in the history of mankind, had it not been for the boast of the gentile nations to have accomplished this; They should have drunk from the vine of Sodom; i.e. just as there is no vestige left of the former inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah so there should have been no trace left of them. Both Isaiah 3,9 and 1,10 have compared the sins of the Jewish people to that of the Sodomites.

חמת תנינים, they should by rights have been made to drink the venom of asps had it not been for the desecration of G’d’s holy name that would have resulted from this, for the nations would have said: “we have accomplished this.”

פתנים אכזר, the word פתן means “a wicked creature;” it also occurs in Psalms 58,5 פתן חרש יאטם אזנו, “a deaf viper that stops its ears.”

?הא הוא כמוס עמדי, (G’d speaking) I keep careful track of the words of the wicked nations who boast, and I take My revenge for such boasts from them.

ושלם, the word is a noun, meaning תשלום “payment.” We find a parallel to this in Jeremiah 5,13 where the word והדבר in הדבר אין בהם also means “the Word.” Jeremiah 44,21 has another similar construction when the prophet speaks of והקטר, vehakiter, “the incense offering.”

לעת תמוט רגלים, on that day when the feet of the nations will become unsteady, this is the day destined for their retribution.

וחש עתידות למו, at that point in time I will hasten their retribution further.

עתידות, a reference to the prophecies of Bileam and others concerning these judgments by G’d.

כי ידין ה' עמו, that is the time when the nations will be made to pay by G’d for what they have done to His people. We find this vision spelled out clearly also in Psalms 110,6 ידין בגוים מלא גויות, “when He works judgment on the nations, heaping up bodies;”

כי יראה כי אזלת יד, when He sees that

Israel

on its own is powerless and forsaken. The verb עזב is used both transitively and intransitively, the former in Exodus 23,5 where intentional refusal to assist is considered as a sinful act of commission, whereas the assistance rendered to the owner of the animal is considered fulfilling a positive commandment. In Nechemyah 3,8 it also occurs as something transitive, i.e. restoring the wall around Jerusalem.

?ואמר אי אלוהימו, also the gentile nations asked: “where is Israel’s G’d? Therefore, out of concern for the honour due to My name I will save them and avenge them from their enemies, for I had already said at the beginning of their history that although I should wipe them out after the sin of the golden calf, I would not carry out My intention so that the nations of the world could not take the credit for having triumphed over Me. Now, however, that their former strength had become so completely negligible that the nations take credit for having laid Israel low, and they ask mockingly: “where is their G’d now?” I will avenge them in order to sanctify My holy name which these nations have desecrated by their very mockery of Me.

אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, the deities whom the Israelites worshipped and to whom they presented their offerings.

סתרה, let these deities hide you and protect you, if they indeed possess such power. Now that you know they are unable to help you, G’d will once again take you under His protective shadow.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, G’d addresses the nations of the earth who have said: ”where is their G’d?,” that when they would now experience G’d’s judgment and how He avenges the injustice done to His people, that He is very much around, notwithstanding their mockery of Him.

כי אשא, reinforcing what He says by an oath, as in Genesis 14,22 where the oath is used in the same sense, although the verb used by Avraham is הרימותי ידי instead of אשא ידי as here.

אם שנותי, from the root שנן, to sharpen. The same root is used in connection with sharpening a sword in Psalms 64,4 אשר שננו כחרב לשונם, “who have sharpened their tongue as if it were a sword.” The double consonant in the root שנן is similar to such roots as סבב and בלל. Just as these roots sometimes drop the last consonant, compare Samuel I 22,22 סבותי בכל נפש בית אביך or in Psalms 92,11 בלותי בשמן רענן, so in our verse instead of שננתי the Torah writes שנותי.

פרעות, as in Leviticus 13,45 וראשו יהיה פרוע, “and the hair of his head shall grow wildly, untrimmed.” Basically, the word פרוע, describes something in disarray, undisciplined.

הרנינו גוים (על) עמו, similar in meaning to the word הללו in Psalms 117,1 הללו את ה' כל גוים, “praise the Lord all you nations, etc.” Just as the psalmist calls upon the nations to acknowledge G’d, to praise Him and exalt Him for the loving kindness He has shown His creatures, so Moses concludes here with a similar call addressed to these same nations at the time of the redemption of mankind, or those who deserve it, to praise the Lord because they have finally seen what He has done for His people. By addressing them already now, Moses implies that G’d would relate to them similarly if they would take all these lessons to heart as of now (and convert to Judaism).

וכפר אדמתו עמו, He will cleanse the blood of His people which has been spilled and been absorbed by the earth, by spilling the blood of their enemies, as the Torah’s recipe for cleansing the holy soil of the Land of Israel from innocently spilled blood (Numbers 35,33).

הוא והושע בן נון, for G’d commanded both of them, as we read in Deut. 31,14 והתייצבו באוהל מועד ואצונו, ”and stand at attention (plural mode) in the Tent of Testimony, and I will command, etc.”