Deuteronomy 32:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Deuteronomy 32:13
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;
to ride (on an animal or in a vehicle) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
places
בָּ֣מֳתֵיba.mo.tei
H1116
an elevation · noun, common feminine plural construct
earth
אָ֔רֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
eat
וַיֹּאכַ֖לvai.yo.Khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
increase
תְּנוּבֹ֣תte.nu.Vot
H8570
produce · noun, common feminine plural construct
fields
שָׂדָ֑יsa.Dai
H7704
a field (as flat) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
suck
וַיֵּנִקֵ֤הֽוּvai.ye.ni.Ke.hu
H3243
to suck · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
honey
דְבַשׁ֙de.Vash
H1706
honey (from its stickiness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
rock
מִסֶּ֔לַעmi.Se.la'
H5553
a craggy rock · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
oil
וְשֶׁ֖מֶןve.She.men
H8081
grease · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
flinty
מֵחַלְמִ֥ישׁme.chal.Mish
H2496
flint · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
rock
צֽוּרTzur
H6697
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 58:14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritag…
Job 29:6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Psalms 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
Deuteronomy 33:26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.
Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!…
Ezekiel 36:2 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
Isaiah 48:21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, a…
Ezekiel 21:17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 32:7-14
Moses, having in general represented God to them as their great benefactor, whom they were bound in gratitude to observe and obey, in these verses gives particular instances of God's kindness to them and concern for them. 1. Some instances were ancient, and for proof of them he appeals to the records (Deu 32:7): Remember the days of old; that is, "Keep in remembrance the history of those days, and of the wonderful providences of God concerning the old world, and concerning your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you will find a constant series of mercies attending them, and how long since things were working towards that which has now come to pass." Note, The authentic histories of ancient…
He made him ride on the high places, &c.--All these expressions seem to have peculiar reference to their home in the trans-jordanic territory, that being the extent of Palestine that they had seen at the time when Moses is represented as uttering these words. "The high places" and "the fields" are specially applicable to the tablelands of Gilead as are the allusions to the herds and flocks, the honey of the wild bees which hive in the crevices of the rocks, the oil from the olive as it grew singly or in small clumps on the tops of hills where scarcely anything else would grow, the finest wheat (Psa 81:16; Psa 147:14), and the prolific vintage.
John Gill on Deuteronomy 32:13
He made him to ride on the high places of the earth,.... Or land, the land of Canaan; by which are meant the towers, castles, and fortified places in it, some of which might be built on hills and mountains; and being made to ride on them may denote the delivery of them into their hands, their conquests and possession of them, and triumph in them; see Isaiah 58:14; so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases, it,"made him to dwell in the towers of the land of Israel,''those high walled and strongly fenced cities which they dreaded; this may be an emblem of the conquest believers have of their spiritual enemies, sin. Satan, and the world, in and through Christ; of their safety and triumph in him; of…
Nothing like this is ever found in Scripture in the literal sense, even if one reviews the whole body of the Old Testament. People never sucked honey or oil from a rock. But since, according to Paul, the rock was Christ, they did suck honey from a rock, because they beheld the deeds and miracles of that same Redeemer of ours. They did suck oil from a solid rock, because after his resurrection they deserved to be anointed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Lord gave them honey in the solid rock when he, still subject to death, showed his disciples the sweetness of his miracles. And the solid rock poured forth oil, because after his resurrection, when he became impassible, he founded the house of holy anointing by the outpouring of the Spirit. The prophet says of this oil, "The yoke will fall from before the oil." We were held under the yoke of demonic domination, but we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. And because the grace of liberty has anointed us, the yoke of demonic domination has fallen.
Even as also the prophet Moses hath taught us that through this cause the people forgot their God, and that through the lust of the belly they went forth unto idolatry, and from eating meat they were led into blasphemies, and from dainty foods they arrived at all wickedness, saying, "He made him to dwell upon the strength of the earth, and He made him to eat of the produce of the field. He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the rock of flint: butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with the fat of stalled beasts, rams, the offspring of ibexes, and kids, with the fat and fatty parts of wheat, and He made him to drink wine of the blood of grapes. And Israel waxed fat and kicked, he grew fat, and became thick, and acquired riches." And what happened unto him because of these things? and to what pass did he come by reason of these desirable things? and what country did he possess through these dainties with which he delighted himself? and into what sicknesses did the overfeeding of the belly, and the superfluity of meats cast him? Now Moses himself hath explained and made known unto us what the people obtained from these possessions: "He forgot the God Who made him, and he blasphemed the Might which redeemed him. He moved Him to jealousy with strange things, and provoked Him to wrath with idols. They sacrificed unto devils which were not gods, and unto gods which they had not known." These are the things which the people obtained from dainty foods, and this is the inheritance of the worship of devils which they inherited from the overabundance of the body. And from the table which was rich in meats they were drawn unto the unclean tables of idols, and from dainty foods they went forth to cast stinking things before graven images, and through the lust which taketh away the strength from nature they came to unclean thoughts which are alien unto nature.
Dictionary and topics
Bee — First mentioned in Deut. 1:44. Swarms of bees, and the danger of their attacks, are mentioned in Ps. 118:12. Samson found a “swarm of bees” in the carcass of a lion he had slain (Judg. 14:8). Wild…
Food — Originally the Creator granted the use of the vegetable world for food to man (Gen. 1:29), with the exception mentioned (2:17). The use of animal food was probably not unknown to the antediluvians.…
Honey — (1.) Heb. ya’ar, occurs only 1 Sam. 14:25, 27, 29; Cant. 5:1, where it denotes the honey of bees. Properly the word signifies a forest or copse, and refers to honey found in woods. (2.) Nopheth,…
Moses — Drawn (or Egypt. mesu, “son;” hence Rameses, royal son). On the invitation of Pharaoh (Gen. 45:17-25), Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350 years…
Oil — Only olive oil seems to have been used among the Hebrews. It was used for many purposes: for anointing the body or the hair (Ex. 29:7; 2 Sam. 14:2; Ps. 23:5; 92:10; 104:15; Luke 7:46); in some of the…
Songs — Of Moses (Ex. 15; Num. 21:17; Deut. 32; Rev. 15:3), Deborah (Judg. 5), Hannah (1 Sam. 2), David (2 Sam. 22, and Psalms), Mary (Luke 1:46-55), Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79), the angels (Luke 2:13), Simeon…
Flint · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Honey · Found in rocks — Found in rocks
Ingratitude · OF MAN TO GOD — OF MAN TO GOD
Olive Tree, The · Cultivated: Among rocks — Cultivated: Among rocks
Psalms · righteousness, and — righteousness, and
Rock
John Calvin on Deuteronomy 32:1-43
Deuteronomy 32:1-52
1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
1. Auseultate coeli, et loquar, et audiat terra eloquia oris mei.
2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
2. Stillabit, ut pluvia, doctrina mea: stillabit ut ros eloquium meum, ut pluviae gramen, et ut irabet super herbam.
3. Because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
3. Quia nomen Jehovae invocabo: date magnitudinem Deo nostro.
4. He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity…
The Song of Moses. - In accordance with the object announced in Deu 31:19, this song contrasts the unchangeable fidelity of the Lord with the perversity of His faithless people. After a solemn introduction pointing out the importance of the instruction about to be given (Deu 32:1-3), this thought is placed in the foreground as the theme of the whole: the Lord is blameless and righteous in His doings, but Israel acts corruptly and perversely; and this is carried out in the first place by showing the folly of the Israelites in rebelling against the Lord (Deu 32:6-18); secondly, by unfolding the purpose of God to reject and punish the rebellious generation (Deu 32:19-23); and lastly, by announc…
his special possession (literally his inheritance): God declared Israel to be his son, whom he redeemed from bondage in Egypt (see Exod 4:22-23; 13:15; Deut 7:6).
Rashi on Deuteronomy 32:13
ירכבהו על במתי ארץ HE MADE HIM RIDE ON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE EARTH — The entire text (vv. 13 and 14) is to be understood metaphorically as the Targum has it (i.e., as referring to Eretz Israel).
ירכבהו וגו׳ HE MADE HIM RIDE [UPON THE HIGH PLACES] — This expression is used because the land of Israel is higher than all other countries (Sifrei Devarim 316:1).
ויאכל תנובת שדי THAT HE MIGHT EAT THE PRODUCE OF THE FIELDS — This refers to the fruits of the land of Israel which are quicker to shoot (נוב) and to ripen than all the fruits of other countries (Sifrei Devarim 316:2).
וינקהו דבש מסלע AND HE MADE HIM SUCK HONEY OUT OF THE ROCK — Indeed it once happened that a man said to his son In Sic…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· Oil from
— Oil from
Rocks · Often composed of Flint — Often composed of Flint
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
