יערוף כמטר לקחי, here my teachings will pour down and flow without interruption like rain for those who understand and are prepared to receive it from the fountain, the source of wisdom.

תזל כטל אמרתי, and it too will contribute in accordance with the information which has been revealed to ordinary people. Even though these scraps of information are sparse, they are as useful to the recipients as is dew for the grass. The reason is that both in quantity and quality it is כשעירים עלי דשא, intelligent people can discern wonderful insights by listening to these words of mine; [וכרביבים עלי עשב, עשב being coarse, unrefined grass, it is a simile for coarse unrefined people. Ed.] even the most ordinary, uneducated people will acquire some knowledge by listening to what I have to say. It will help them to recognise and appreciate their Maker.

(3) AND LIKE DROPLETS ON THE GRASS. For the common ones also will acquire some knowledge to recognize their Creator in some way. If so, you, Israel, who have accepted it [the Torah], [I now say:]--

כי שם ה' אקרא, If this is as I said, then you Israel who have received these words of wisdom, will appreciate that the thrust of my address is a prayer, a prayer that all of us, including myself, will experience the ultimate redemption after the last exile. [Moses includes this in his preamble in order to make sure that his listeners will not fail to see the forest by concentrating too much on the individual trees. Ed.] Our author first proceeds to quote examples of such formulations as Moses uses here meaning prayer. We find in Lamentations 3,55 קראתי שמך ה' מבור תחתיות, ”I have called on Your Name from the depths of the Pit.” Clearly, Jeremiah refers to his prayer. We read in Psalms 99,6 concerning the trio of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, that they were known as קוראי שמו והוא יענם, “that whenever they prayed to G’d He would respond to them favourably.” Moses therefore tells the people: “when I pray for the ingathering of the exiles I want G’d to orchestrate this so that it is like the eagle rousing his young and carrying them to a new destination on the back of his wings.” (verse 11) Moses continues, focusing in his prayer on the arrival of the Messiah by saying ה' בדד ינחנו, G’d will do this all on His own, without anyone’s assistance (verse 23). At the very end of his shirah, (verse 43) he exclaims הרנינו גויים עמו, which is equivalent to the instruction in our verse here of הבו גודל לאלוקינו, render glory to our G’d.

(2) GIVE GLORY TO OUR GOD. Do not attribute to Him mutability regarding what is recounted in the poem about Israel's future and that He would become like an enemy to you, for you know, through the wonders in His Torah, that He is --"

Do not relate to Him differently on account of what you hear in my song about Israel’s future. Do not come to the mistaken conclusion that G’d will ever change and that the experiences that will befall the Jewish people during the course of history, and which I am about to foreshadow, are evidence of His changing and possibly becoming the Jewish people’s enemy. You are very well aware through the variety of miracles He has performed on your behalf that הצור, He remains the Rock and His actions are always motivated by pure motives. This being so, if at times He does not appear to help you, save you, this is not due to a weakening on His part, neither is He hard of hearing so that He did not hear your pleas; never ascribe any injustice to Him;

כל דרכיו משפט, all of His paths are justice;

א-ל אמונה, a totally reliable and loyal G’d is He; when He swore to the patriarchs that He would perform deeds of love for their children on account of these patriarchs’ merit;

ואין עול, never false, even when He visits retribution on you.

צדיק, because He is so righteous He will not abandon you even in exile

וישר הוא, not withholding from anyone of His creatures the reward due to it for any good deeds. This is the reason why He often appears as being overly patient before He pays back certain people for their sins. He has to reward, pay, those who hate Him while they are still on earth as they have already forfeited any portion they claimed to life in the hereafter.

שחת לו לא בניו מומם דור עקש ופתלתול, however, a twisted and perverse generation He does not view as His true children, such as when they made the golden calf. מומם, their blemish was not due to anything G’d had done Moses recalls that when G’d first told him about the people having become corrupt during his stay on the mountain that they were “your people” (Exodus 32,7), that although Moses, when accepting the conversion of the mixed multitude to Judaism had meant to sanctify the name of G’d, the fact was that instead of becoming a shining example to the world, these people had corrupted what would otherwise have been a kingdom of Priests. They had re-introduced idolatry among these people so recently weaned from it.

הלה' תגמלו זאת, after G’d had planned to make you superior over all other nations, is it indeed imaginable that you would respond by frustrating His intention by desecrating His name and to thereby prevent G’d from realising His declared intention when He created man that he should reflect the image of G’d? (Genesis 1,26)

עם נבל, a contemptible nation, repaying generosity of the most lavish kind by ingratitude.

ולא חכם, pursuing a policy while not considering its ultimate result.

הלא הוא אביך קנך, He is not like a natural father who had no control over the type of son he had sired, but had to leave this to chance; G’d deliberately adopted the Jewish people giving them the kind of existence that would make Him proud to be called your “owner,” and made Him look forward to achieve His aim in creating mankind through you. Had He not made you into a nation you would have remained an insignificant tribe of sorts.

ויכוננך, He equipped you with the basic ingredients to enable you to become the precious nation He mentioned prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai.

זכור ימות עולם, After concluding the introductory section of his poem, during the course of which he announced that it was his purpose to proclaim the perfect righteousness of the Lord G’d, Who has proven a loyal G’d showering goodness upon the people of Israel, and Who would not reverse a blessing once bestowed, Moses begins to discuss Israel’s past and future. First, Moses reminds the people that G’d had originally hoped to bestow a brilliant future for all of mankind, i.e. ימות עולם, He had hoped that history would develop in that direction. When this failed to happen, שנות דור ודור, during the years of one generation after another, G’d decided on His pilot project the Jewish people and He raised them to an elevated position among the nations. This is basically what He will do at the end of “history,” [history is perceived as a period of education for the people filling or making a brief appearance on the stage of history. Ed.] Second, G’d had provided the people with optimum conditions to serve Him joyfully while they enjoyed all the material advantages that life on earth has to offer. He gave them a beautiful country, one flowing with milk and honey, to do this in. Instead, they rebelled and repaid good with evil. There can be no question that the people responsible for frustrating G’d’s master plan deserve to be severely punished for this. Third, due to the serious nature of their sin they deserve to be wiped out completely. If it were not for the desecration of the Lord’s name that would be a by-product of the destruction of His chosen people, nothing would have prevented G’d from administering this punishment. Fourth, Moses reveals the reason why the redemption of the Jewish people will occur at the end of what we call “history,’ באחרית היים. Fifth, Moses elaborates somewhat on the nature of this redemption and the retribution G’d will wreak at that time on the other nations of the world. The nations will primarily be punished for what they did to the Jewish people throughout history. These then are the five sections into which the portion of Haazinu is divided, our sages having given us an easy way of reminding ourselves of this division by calling the portion הזי'ו ל'ך. (Rosh Hashanah 31) Moses therefore commences with the words: זכור ימות עולם, “study history and thereby learn to recognise how much G’d had endeavoured to shower good upon you, starting already with first man whom He transferred to Gan Eden, the most exclusive environment on earth.

בינו שנות דור ודור, you will then understand what amount of goodness G’d “squandered” on successive generations who did not deserve it. These generations of mankind, instead of appreciating it, did their best to ruin the universe until G’d was forced to put an end to them by bringing on the deluge.

יצב גבולות עמים, after the tower of Babylon episode, when mankind had lived in a single community, G’d separated them, dividing them up, and established territorial boundaries for the various new nations. Instead of destroying the people who had engaged in building the tower as a challenge to G’d, He did not destroy them as He had the generation of the deluge, but limited their future scope of influence, by assigning only clearly marked territories within which they could be sovereign.

למספר בני ישראל. For the sake of the Children of Israel who were few in numbers, and who would eventually emerge from among these nations. Proof of all this is כי חלק ה' עמו, that G’d has no special claim on any nation other than the people of Israel. All the other nations worship alien deities. Moses explains that had it not been for the fact that G’d knew that the people of Israel would emerge eventually from among one of these nations, He would have wiped out all the people involved in the building of the tower.

יעקב חבל נחלתו, for he as well as his sons became servants of the supreme G’d. By contrast, whenever there was a pious and G’d fearing individual among the gentile nations, such piety and belief in G’d was never transmitted to and carried on by the next generation.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, in the desert He found that the heart of this nation which He considered His only share among mankind was pure and loyal, as testified to in Jeremiah 2,2 “you followed Me into the desert.”

יסובבנהו, to Mount Sinai, as mentioned in Exodus 19,12 when G’d had said to me: והגבלת את העם סביב, “and you will fence in the people around the Mountain.”

יבוננהו, as G’d had said to Moses in Exodus 24,12 והתורה והמצוה אשר כתבתי להורותם, “and the Torah and the commandment which I have written in order to instruct them.”

יצרנהו, He carefully engirded them from being enslaved to other nations and from being subject to the angel of death, as we have been taught by Eyruvin 54 that the words חרות על הלוחות, are best understood as חירות על הלוחות, freedom on the Tablets, i.e. acceptance of the Torah would result in the immortality of the person observing it totally.

כאישון עינו. Just as a man watches carefully over his eyeball after having tended it, so G’d watched over His people. G’d tried to surround the Israelites with layers of protective legislation to counter their natural tendency to be obstinate and “do their own thing.”

כנשר יעיר קנו, may it be His will that just as at Sinai it had been His intention to make you immortal, and He would have succeeded if the sin of the golden calf had not intervened, He will do so once more in the future, when Israel/Moses’ prayer in this respect will be granted. This is what Zecharyah 10,8 spoke about when he said: אשרקה להם ואקבצם כי פדיתים, “I will whistle to them and gather them, for I will redeem them.”

על גוזליו ירחף, as we read I Isaiah 49,22 הנה אשא על גוים ידי, ועל עמים ארים נסי, והביאו בניך בחצן, “I will raise My hand to nations, and lift up My ensign to peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosoms, etc.”

יפרוש כנפיו יקחהו, as per Isaiah 27,12 ואתם תלוקטו לאחד אחד בני ישראל, “and you shall be picked up one by one, O Children of Israel.”

ישאהו על אברתו, as in Isaiah 60,8 מי אלה כעב תעופנה, “who are these who fly like a thick cloud?”

ה' בדד ינחנו, as per Jeremiah 46,28 כי אעשה כלה בכל הגויים...ואותך לא אעשה כלה, “though I will wipe out all the other nations …you I will not wipe out.”

אין עמו אל נכר, as per Tzefaniah 3,9 and Isaiah 54,5, both of whom emphasise this exclusive nature of G’d.

ירכיבהו על במתי ארץ, this is something He has to do seeing that He did not achieve the desired result at the time He gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. He will make a second attempt at achieving this as we know from Psalms 105,45 בעבור ישמרו חקיו, “in order that they may observe His statutes.” G’d gave them the land of nations in order that they keep His statutes.” Ezekiel 20,6 extols the land of Israel as ארץ צבי, the choicest of all the countries

ויאכל תנובות שדי, Moses mentions only the eating, not referring to the labour in the fields leading up to this, eventually. He meant that it would not take any effort to reach the state of eating the produce the land has to offer. Compare Joshua 24,13 “vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant you are eating from.”

ודם ענב תשתה חמר, grape juice was fit to drink without investing much toil beforehand. This is an example of people earning their livelihood easily. The reason why G’d had arranged things in such a fashion was so as to leave the people ample time to study Torah, and to enable them to fulfill the various commandments of the Torah which do consume time.

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, however, even the most erudite of them, the ones known admiringly as Yeshurun, (based on Bileam’s prophecy of אשורנו ולא קרוב, in Numbers 24,17) acted as if they were animals, kicking the very people who give them food.

שמנת עבית כשית, you, the elite of the people, preferred to concentrate on the physical enjoyments offered by a life of leisure, and by doing so עבית, you became too gross to understand the finer points of the teachings of the Torah, the only truth. Isaiah 28,7 describes the conduct of the spiritual elite of the people when he writes: “but these are also so muddled by wine, and dazed by liquor, Priest and Prophet are muddled by wine;“

כשית, compare what Isaiah 44,18 writes, “they have no wit or judgment, their eyes are besmeared and they see not;”

ויטוש אלו-ה עושהו, so that, following the example of their elite, the people at large abandoned G’d the One Who had made them;

וינבל צור ישועתו, despising the Rock of its salvation, i.e. sliding from bad to worse in their lifestyles.

בתועבות יכעיסוהו, causing the benevolent presence of G’d to forsake the people of Israel so that they would no longer enjoy an advantage over the gentile nations.

לשדים לא אלוה, forces which are not enduring; our sages in Chagigah 16 already taught us that these demons known as שדים are as mortal as is man himself.

אלוהים לא ידעום, חדשים מקרוב באו, whenever they discover a phenomenon not previously known to them they thought that this must be an ancient power and proceeded promptly to worship it.

צור ילדך תשי, even you, Yeshurun, the one blessed with erudition, once you turned your attention to the physical enjoyments of life on earth, undermined, weakened your wisdom and your knowledge about the greatness of G’d and His Torah.

ותשכח א-ל מחוללך, Who had treated you so well. Compare Isaiah 51, 12-13 אנכי הוא מנחמכם...ותשכח ה' עושך נוטה שמים וארץ, “I, I am He Who comforts you!…You have forgotten the Lord your Maker, Who stretched the skies and made firm the earth.”

וינאץ מכעס בניו ובנותיו, after He had failed to make you attain your perfection while on your own land, He chose a third route, namely to refine your character while you were in exile; by doing this He appeared to despise His sons and His daughters, and did not display mercy on their children nor respect the dignity of their daughters.

אסתירה פני מהם, from the sons and daughters.

אראה מה אחריתם, because I can foresee that there is no chance that they will become penitents.

כי דור תהפוכות המה for they have thoroughly turned their hearts away from the path of the living G’d;

בנים לא אמון בם, completely faithless children who had not learned from their fathers any true values in life.

הם קנאוני בלא אל, the generations during the first Temple aroused My jealousy because they practiced idolatry, i.e. they worshipped “non-gods,”

whereas the generations during the second Temple made Me angry with their reliance of various vain phenomena. As a fitting punishment

אקניאם בלא עם, during the first Temple I will arouse their jealousy by the “non-people,” the Babylonians, destroying the Temple and taking them captive, (compare Isaiah 23,13 and how he describes the Chaldaens), whereas the second Temple will be destroyed through a thoroughly wicked nation

,בגוי נבל אכעיסם, possessing neither their own language nor alphabet. (Gittin 80).

כי אש קדחה באפי, for when I disciplined them in order to induce them to repent their sins this people lit a fire in My wrath ותיקד עד שאול תחתית, they heaped sin upon sin until My wrath burned to the very bottom of Sheol, (lowest layer of purgatory). In other words, their punishment would consist of being consigned to this lowest region of purgatory. (compare Chronicles II 28,22 describing Achaz adding sins as a result of his kingdom having been severely chastised by G’d.)

ותלהט מוסדי הרים, it burned and consumed down to the foundations of the mountains. The “mountains” are a simile for the high-ranking personages, all of whom were the first ones to be exiled prior to the destruction of the first Temple. (compare prediction by Isaiah 3, 1-3)

ומחדרים אימה, גם בחור גם בתולה, young men and women hiding in their houses will be made orphans.

אמרתי אפאיהם, I had said that I would leave a small “corner” (from פאה, the 1/60th of the farmer’s field to be left for the poor to help themselves to) of them survive whereas I would destroy the balance. This is what I will do at the end of history before the final redemption, seeing that I had been unable to achieve My purpose either through giving them the Torah, or through giving them the Land of Israel, or even through sending them into exile to give them a taste of what they had lost due to their obstinacy. (compare Yoel,3,5 warning the Jewish people of precisely this )

לולי כעס אויב אגור, that on account of the violent anti-semitism which the gentile nations would unleash against the small remnant of Jewish people so that in order to save themselves from further persecution they would פן ינכרו צרימו, attempt to divest themselves of their Judaism altogether, something the gentiles would hold out to them as a lifesaving gesture,

פן יאמרו, and lest the gentiles would approach these remnants of the Jewish people saying to them

ידינו רמה, “we have prevailed, we have proven right with our religion, our faith,” and

ולא ה' פעל זאת, “this was not what G’d did to you for not obeying Him,” so that you would still have hope to escape your fate by doing teshuvah. G’d scattered you to so many different places on earth that the total oblivion of the people through assimilation by inducements of the gentiles would not be likely. This was what Devorah meant when she said in her song in Judges 5,11 צדקות פרזונו בישראל, G‘d performed righteous deeds when He scattered Israel (instead of sending them to a single country into exile)

כי גוי אובד עצות המה, Moses is quoting the gentiles’ assessment of the Jewish people at that point.

לו חכמו ישכילו זאת, how the Israelites could have fallen into their hands, something that is completely unnatural, could only have been due as punishment for their sins.

יבינו לאחריהם, if they would only examine history they would soon realise what is in store for them for their sins if this is what has befallen Israel for its sins.

איכה ירדוף אחד אלף, they should have realised that if they were able to pursue the Israelites, one against 1000, that this was not something natural.

אם לא כי צורם מכרם, He fought against them, neutralising their aggressiveness and turning them weak like women.

כי לא כצורנו צורם, no doubt what happened was due to the difference between their deities, and our G’d. Every nation enjoys a degree of success in its undertakings as long as its specific deity, i.e. agent appointed for them by G’d, is active, or its constellation is in the ascendancy in the sky. Although their specific deity will never become their adversary, they may fall within the power, the orbit of a competing deity, one that looks out for the interests of a different nation. This occurs in tandem with a master plan worked out by G’d for such historical developments. This is why when they “fall” this does not happen until one becomes so strong that it appears as if a single member of one nation can put a thousand of the competing nation to flight. [The author’s view of the collapse of empires appears based on the fact that when a major power was replaced by another this was not the result of a gigantic power struggle in which one nation proved stronger, but that the former world power had already declined in strength so much that they had become a pushover for the aggressor challenging them. Ed.]

ואויבינו, even though these nations which are enemies of the true G’d and therefore enemies of His chosen nation, as Moses mentioned already in verse 26 and again in verse 42 when he speaks of מראש פרעות אויב, “from the beginning of our people’s existence it had enemies.”

פלילים. philosophers of the various nations. Ovadiah 8 refers to them as והאבדתי חכמים מאדום, “I will wipe out the wise men from Edom.”

כי מגפן סדום גפנם, the reason that in this matter they do not display their customary insights is that they boast about their secure and unthreatened existence, concerning themselves exclusively with physical gratifications just as had the people of Sodom. In order to attain their maximum gratification they completely eschewed all manner of caring for the less fortunate, as testified to by Ezekiel 16,49 when the prophet said הנה זה היה עוון סדום אחותך, גאון שבעת לחם ושלות השקט היה לה ולבנותיה ויד עני ואביון לא החזיקה. “only this was the sin of your sister Sodom; arrogance! She and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility. Yet she did not support the poor and the needy. “

ענבימו ענבי רוש, from this vine there sprouted forth for them grapes which are poison. This is a simile for the evil deeds committed by the Jewish people which backfired. The sins singled out are those of a social rather than a theological nature, as pointed out by Ezekiel.

אשכלות מרורות למו, a bitter growth in their clusters; developing of erroneous philosophies, primarily justifying one’s conduct, rationalising it, is a natural corollary of such attitudes as self-centredness. First and foremost, they convince themselves that G’d does not ”see,” i.e. does not care, [that there is no personal G’d. They totally misinterpret G’d’s patience with the sinner. Ed.]

חמת תנינים יינם, their wine is the venom of asps; among the clusters mentioned in verse 32 there are also poisonous grapes, hidden and unidentifiable among the grapes. This disaster awaits them as a manifestation of the attribute of Justice they have richly deserved. Until they actually are extracting the juice from these grapes [this is all hyperbole, of course, Ed.] G’d did not convert His threat of retribution into something actual. Compare Isaiah 63,3, G’d saying that He alone squeezed out these grapes by treading on them.

הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, the meaning is similar to Isaiah 63,4 כיום נקם בלבי, “as the day of vengeance which I had kept hidden in my heart.” [the sins had to accumulate beyond reprieve before G’d carried out what had been at the back of His mind for a long time. Ed.]

חתום באוצרותי, sealed away securely. Compare Daniel 12,9 כי סתומים וחתומים הדברים, “the matters are sealed and safely stored.”

לי נקם, it is up to Me to do the avenging from My enemies.

ושלם, also the repayment tit for tat is My privilege and duty.

לעת תמוט רגלם, the time when this will occur will be when they are already perceived as tottering.

כי קרוב יום אידם וחש עתידות למו כי ידין ה' עמו, for the day when the nations will experience their judgment is near as soon as G’d will judge His own nation. We know this from Ezekiel 20,38 וברותי מכם המורדים והפושעים, “I will remove from amongst you the ones who rebel and are professional sinners.” Soon thereafter, the gentile nations will experience their own judgment.

ועל עבדיו יתנחם, He will reconsider the evil times for which His people are due on account of His servants, the righteous among them, as we know from Isaiah 65,8 כן אעשה למען עבדי, לבלתי השחית הכל, “so will I do for the sake of My servants and not destroy everything.”

כי יראה כי אזלת יד, the reason why G’d does something for the people on account of His servants the righteous that He had not done during all the many years of the exile, is that He sees that this time they really had come to the end of heir rope; they had reached the kind of low that makes living on a hopeless undertaking. This is what had happened in Egypt immediately before the redemption, the Exodus. The Torah spells this out even in the recital by the farmer in Deut. 26,7 “He saw our plight, our misery and our oppression.” As a result, “He brought us to this place.” (the Land of Israel)

ואפס עצור ועזוב, and none remains either imprisoned or roaming free. A reference to the people having no secret stash of cash hidden in their homes or buried in the field.

ואמר, at that point G’d will say to Israel

אי אלוהימו, where is now this god of the gentile nations upon whom you have relied, spurning Me? This is the period when all of G’d’s agents who had been assigned as protective forces for the gentile nations will be simultaneously removed from their function. Compare Isaiah 24,21.

יקומו ויעזרכם, “let them arise now and help you!” G’d will follow up by mockingly telling the Jewish people that now the time had come for them to appeal to the gentile nations whose lifestyles they had shared to help them against the judgment being visited upon them by the G’d, the One whom they had forsaken. They had assumed that by assimilating during their exile, these host nations as well as their gods would protect them.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, realise now that it had been I Who had brought disaster in exile upon you!

ואין אלוהים עמדי, I had not required the assistance of any other deity. Your misfortune was not due to any celestial forces appointed by Me.

אני אמית ואחיה, only I decree death and resurrection.(compare Ezekiel 37,12)

מחצתי, I have smashed, by decreeing your unsettled condition, forcing you to move from one country to another without taking permanent root in any of them. (compare Kings I 14,15) where the prophet compares the existence of the Jewish people after G’d has chastised them as similar to that of a reed which is constantly moving.

ואני ארפא, and only I can bring healing, as described in Isaiah 30,26.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, in order to swear an oath. This is a formulation similar to Daniel 12,7 וירם ימינו ושמאלו אל השמים,”he raised both his right hand and his left hand toward heaven.”

ואמרתי חי אנכי לעולם, I used the fact that I live forever as the guarantee that I can keep My oath. This too has a parallel in Daniel 12,7.

אם שנותי, even though I had sharpened the blade of My sword against the Jewish people during the time of their exile, את ברק חרבי, this was only the flashing appearance, not the פי החרב, the lethal part of the sword.

ותאחז במשפט ידי, and even though I was compelled to deal with them according to the rule of law, for כי ידין ה' עמו, “G’d does judge His people,” this does not mean that their adversaries will go free, rather

אשיב נקם לצרי, I will wreak vengeance on My foes, reprisals for what they have done to Israel. Compare Ezekiel 25,12 and 25,14 on this subject in detail.

ולמשנאי אשלם, and I will pay back those who hate Me measure for measure, as spelled out in Ovadiah 15.

אשכיר חצי מדם וחרבי תאכל בשר , similar to Isaiah 66,16 כי באש ה' נשפט ובחרבו את כל בשר, “for the Lord will contend with fire, with His sword against all flesh.”

מדם חלל ושביה, as in the same verse in Isaiah ורבו חללי ה' “many will be the ones slain by the Lord.”

הרנינו גויים, “you who are the arrows of the Lord and His sword make the nations acclaim, sing aloud! So that they will realise that G’d is fair and does not commit any injustice. Compare Psalms 67,5 ישמחו וירננו לאומים כי תשפוט עמים מישור,”nations will exult and shout for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity”

עמו, His people shall give thanks with shouts of joy and music, כי דם עבדיו יקום ונקם ישיב לצריו, for He does avenge the blood of His servants. G’d punishes the nations by avenging what they have done to the Jewish people.

וכפר אדמתו, for the soil of the Land of Israel having been desolate and barren while its people were in exile and for what had occurred on that soil in the interval.

עמו, His people will also have to atone for all the wrongs they did during the long years they had been in exile. The purpose of this dual atonement by both the soil and the people is to bring back the Shechinah, G’d’s benevolent presence to the Land of Israel, as envisioned in Isaiah 52,8 כי עין בעין יראו בשוב ה' ציון,”for every eye will see when G’d returns to Zion.”

אשר אנכי מעיד בכם היום, in the song of Haazinu which I use to make Israel be witness to my admonitions. The principal message is that just as while the Jewish people observe the commandments G’d arranges for their livelihood to be attained with ease and without much sweat, so, He will destroy them if they do not, because they thwart His plans for mankind as a whole.

אשר תצוום את בניכם, near the end of your respective lives command your children to observe the matters which I have spoken to you about. It is a matter of life and death for them.

לשמור לעשות, you have to observe all these matters in order that as their role model, your children will do so also.

וראה את הארץ, to extend your blessing there.

ומות בהר, accept your death willingly so that it will be an atonement for your trespasses

והאסף אל עמך, and thereby you will become part of the “bundle” of eternal life joining all the other deserving souls who have preceded you.