Why does the song say the Lord deferred making Israel’s memory cease among men?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

He deferred it because of the wrath of the enemies, lest they grow proud and say their own mighty hand, rather than the Lord, had done all these things.

Chapter breakdown

Moses’ song calls the heavens to hear and the earth to listen. He asks that his teaching gather like rain and his speech fall like dew, a shower on the herb and drops on the grass. Because he will invoke the Lord’s name, they are to give magnificence to God. God’s works are perfect; all his ways are judgments. He is faithful, without any wrongdoing, just and right. The people have sinned against him and are not his children in their filth, a wicked and perverse generation. Moses asks whether this is their return to the Lord, calling them foolish and senseless. Is he not their Father, who possessed, made, and created them?

They must remember old days, think about every generation, and ask their father and elders, who will tell them. When the Most High divided the nations and separated Adam’s sons, he set the peoples’ bounds according to the number of Israel’s children. His people are his portion; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, a place of horror and vast wilderness, led and taught him, and kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle enticing her young to fly and hovering over them, he spread his wings, took him, and carried him on his shoulders. The Lord alone led him, with no strange god. He set him on high land to eat field fruits, draw honey from rock and oil from the hardest stone, and have butter from the herd, sheep’s milk, fat of lambs, rams of Basan’s breed, goats, the marrow of wheat, and the purest blood of the grape.

The beloved grew fat and kicked, becoming fat, thick, and gross. He forsook the God who made him and departed from God his saviour. They provoked him with strange gods and stirred his anger with their abominations. They sacrificed to devils, not God—to gods they did not know, newly arisen gods their fathers had not worshipped. They forsook the God who begot them and forgot the Lord who created them.

The Lord saw and was moved to wrath because his sons and daughters provoked him. He says he will hide his face and consider their last end, for they are a perverse generation and unfaithful children. They provoked him with what was no god and angered him with vanities; he will provoke them with what is no people and vex them with a foolish nation. Fire kindled in his wrath will burn to the lowest hell, devour the earth and its increase, and burn the mountains’ foundations. He will heap evils on them and spend his arrows among them. Famine will consume them; birds will devour them with a most bitter bite. He will send beasts’ teeth and the fury of creatures that trail on the ground and of serpents. Outside, the sword will lay them waste; inside will be terror, for young man and virgin, nursing child and aged man. He asks where they are and says he would make their memory cease among men, but deferred it because of the enemies’ wrath, lest they become proud and say their mighty hand, not the Lord, did all these things.

The song calls them a nation without counsel or wisdom and wishes they would be wise, understand, and provide for their last end. How could one pursue a thousand and two chase ten thousand unless their God had sold them and the Lord shut them up? Our God is not like their gods; the enemies themselves are judges. Their vines belong to Sodom’s vineyard and Gomorrha’s suburbs, with grapes of gall and bitter clusters. Their wine is dragons’ gall and incurable asp venom. These things are stored with the Lord and sealed in his treasures. Revenge is his; he will repay in due time so their foot may slide. Destruction is near and its time hastens.

The Lord will judge his people and have mercy on his servants. He will see their hand weakened, those shut up failing, and those remaining consumed. He will ask where the gods they trusted are—whose victims’ fat was eaten and whose drink offerings’ wine was drunk. Let them rise, help, and protect them in distress. The Lord declares that he alone is, with no other God beside him: he kills and makes alive, strikes and heals, and no one can deliver from his hand. Lifting his hand to heaven, he declares that he lives forever. If he sharpens his sword like lightning and his hand takes hold of judgment, he will return vengeance to his enemies and repay those who hate him. His arrows will be drunk with blood and his sword devour flesh: the blood of the slain and of captivity, and the bare head of the enemies. Nations are called to praise his people, for he will avenge his servants’ blood, take vengeance on their enemies, and be merciful to his people’s land.

Moses comes with Josue, son of Nun, and speaks all the song’s words in the people’s hearing. He finishes speaking to all Israel, then tells them to set their hearts on every word he testifies to that day. They must command their children to observe, do, and fulfill all that is written in the law. These commands are not in vain: everyone is to live in them, and by doing them remain long in the land they are crossing the Jordan to possess.

That same day the Lord tells Moses to go up into Abarim—the name is explained as passages—to Mount Nebo in Moab opposite Jericho. He must see Chanaan, which the Lord will give Israel to possess, die in the mountain, and be gathered to his people, as his brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. The stated reason is their trespass among Israel’s children at the waters of contradiction in Cades, in the desert of Sin: they did not sanctify the Lord among Israel. Moses will see the land opposite him but will not enter the land given to Israel.

The story inside

The song recalls the Lord’s care and food gifts, then describes the beloved forsaking his Maker and sacrifice to newly arisen gods. It gives explicit reasons for wrath and for deferring the loss of Israel’s memory: the people provoked the Lord, while their enemies might claim the deeds as their own. The question about one pursuing a thousand and two chasing ten thousand attributes that situation to their God selling them and the Lord shutting them up. Judgment and mercy follow, with the Lord’s declarations about life, death, striking, and healing. Outside the song, Moses and Josue actually recite it, and Moses gives the children’s instruction and its stated purposes. The mountain passage records a command and exclusion, not Moses’ completed ascent or death.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The song states the reason for deferring the loss of Israel’s memory. The enemies might grow proud and claim that their own mighty hand, rather than the Lord, accomplished the deeds. This reason must stay distinct from an invented account of a spared remnant.
2
The care and food images carry specific details. The Lord leads alone, keeps Jacob as the apple of his eye, and carries him like the eagle described. The food list includes Basan’s rams, wheat’s marrow, and the purest blood of the grape; these precede the account of forsaking him.
3
The closing instruction concerns action and children. Israel must set its heart on the words and command its children to observe and fulfill the whole written law, so they may live in it and remain long in the land. The same-day command allows Moses to see that land but bars his entry.

Test your recall

Why was making Israel’s memory cease deferred, and what claim might the enemies otherwise make?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 22020–22043
Deuteronomy Chapter 32 A canticle for the remembrance of the law. Moses is commanded to go up into a mountain, from whence he shall see the promised land but not enter into it. 32:1. Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth. 32:2. Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass. 32:3. Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God. 32:4. The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right. 32:5. They have sinned against him, and are none of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation. 32:6. Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?
Lines 22045–22073
32:7. Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee. 32:8. When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel. 32:9. But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance. 32:10. He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye. 32:11. As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders. 32:12. The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him. 32:13. He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone, 32:14. Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep with the fat of lambs, and of the rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape.
Lines 22075–22085
32:15. The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and gross, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his saviour. 32:16. They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations. 32:17. They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not. 32:18. Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
Lines 22087–22117
32:19. The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him. 32:20. And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children. 32:21. They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation. 32:22. A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains. 32:23. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them. 32:24. They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents. 32:25. Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years. 32:26. I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men. 32:27. But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things.
Lines 22119–22143
32:28. They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom. 32:29. O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end. 32:30. How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up? 32:31. For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges. 32:32. Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter. 32:33. Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable. 32:34. Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures? 32:35. Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come.
Lines 22145–22172
32:36. The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed. 32:37. And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted? 32:38. Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress. 32:39. See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. 32:40. I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever. 32:41. If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me. 32:42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies. 32:43. Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people.
Lines 22174–22185
32:44. So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun. 32:45. And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel. 32:46. And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words, which I testify to you this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to fulfil all that is written in this law: 32:47. For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them, and that doing them you may continue a long time in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it.
Lines 22187–22205
32:48. And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying: 32:49. Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of passages,) unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho: and see the land of Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die thou in the mountain. 32:50. When thou art gone up into it thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered to his people: 32:51. Because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of contradiction, in Cades of the desert of Sin: and you did not sanctify me among the children of Israel. 32:52. Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.