| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
| 1 Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth! |
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| 2 My doctrine shall drop as rain, My speech flow down as dew, As small rain upon the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. |
Drop as the rain – "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63) R1937:2
My speech – "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46); "Grace is poured into thy lips." (Psa. 45:2)
Distil as the dew – "All bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth." (Luke 4:22) R1937:2
As the showers – "They could not take hold of his words ... before the people; and they marveled at his answers and held their peace." (Luke 20:26) R1937:2
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| 3 For the name of Jehovah will I proclaim: Ascribe greatness unto our God! |
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| 4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect, For all his ways are righteousness; A *God of faithfulness without deceit, Just and right is he. |
His work is perfect – Even though he may temporarily permit evil angels and evil men to pervert and misuse it. F17
Therefore God's law is perfect. R386:5
Therefore God is not the author of sin. R1225:2, R870:3; Q359:5
He does not do evil so that good may follow. R3145:4
The mentally, physically and morally blemished are not God's workmanship. E309; R2912:1, R2285:1, R5360:5
Adam was physically and morally perfect. E406; R2394:5, R1719:4, R386:5; Q741:2
Thus man will be perfect at the end of the Millennium. R5167:2
Satan was created perfect but fell by ambition. F612; SM95:1
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| 5 They have dealt corruptly with him; Not his children's is their spot: --A crooked and perverted generation! |
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| 6 Do ye thus requite Jehovah, Foolish and unwise people? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee? |
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| 7 Remember the days of old, Consider the years of generation to generation; Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; Thine elders, and they will tell thee. |
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| 8 When the Most High assigned to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.
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| 9 For Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob the lot of his inheritance. |
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| 10 He found him in a desert land, And in the waste, howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he watched over him, He preserved him as the apple of his eye. |
The apple of his eye – Nothing shall by any means injure these. R4462:5
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| 11 As the eagle stirreth up its nest, Hovereth over its young, Spreadeth out its wings, Taketh them, beareth them on its feathers, |
Stirreth up her nest – Mixes the thorny outside with the downy inside so the young will leave the nest and learn to fly. R3351:4*
The Lord permits trials, persecutions, etc.--for strengthening and helping his people. R4335:2
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| 12 So Jehovah alone did lead him, And no strange *god was with him. |
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| 13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And he made him suck honey out of the crag, And oil out of the flinty rock; |
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| 14 Cream of kine, and milk of sheep, With the fat of lambs, And rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, With the fat of kidneys of wheat; And thou didst drink pure wine, the blood of the grape. |
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| 15 Then Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked--Thou art waxen fat, Thou art grown thick, And thou art covered with fatness; --He gave up +God who made him, And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. |
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| 16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods, With abominations did they provoke him to anger. |
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| 17 They sacrificed unto demons who are not +God; To gods whom they knew not, To new ones, who came newly up, Whom your fathers revered not. |
Unto devils – Ritualism in the Christian church is of pagan origin. R1991:4*
Mediums of the fallen spirits. God commanded that any amongst them who became such a medium should be put to death. R5910:2; PD42/52
Not to God – To whom the ransom was paid. R685:4
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| 18 Of the Rock that begot thee wast thou unmindful, And thou hast forgotten *God who brought thee forth. |
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| 19 And Jehovah saw it, and despised them, Because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters. |
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| 20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness. |
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| 21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is no *God; They have exasperated me with their vanities; And I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a people; With a foolish nation will I provoke them to anger. |
They – Paul quotes part of this prophecy and applies it to "all the house of Israel" living in his day, both in Jerusalem and scattered throughout the world. (Rom. 10:19-21) R2125:3
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| 22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And it shall burn into the lowest Sheol, And shall consume the earth and its produce, And set fire to the foundations of the mountains. |
For a fire – The fire of God's jealousy. E357
And shall burn – "They shall be burnt with hunger." (vs. 24) E357
The lowest hell – Sheol, oblivion, the tomb, the state of death--a figurative representation of the utter ruin of Israel as a nation. R2599:3; E357; R5154:2
Sheol, admitted by Pastor L. S. White simply to denote the world of departed spirits and not of itself to teach anything about the punishment of the wicked. HG209:3*
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| 23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; Mine arrows will I spend against them. |
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| 24 They shall be consumed with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, And with poisonous pestilence; And the teeth of beasts will I send against them, With the poison of what crawleth in the dust. |
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| 25 From without shall the sword bereave them, and in the chambers, terror--Both the young man and the virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs. |
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| 26 I would say, I will scatter, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, |
Scatter them – The whole house of Israel. R2125:2
The remembrance – The same Hebrew word is rendered "scent" in Hos. 14:7 and "memorial" in Esther 9: R2125:2
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| 27 If I did not fear provocation from the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand it, Lest they should say, Our hand is high, and Jehovah has not done all this. |
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| 28 For they are a nation void of counsel, And understanding is not in them. |
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| 29 Oh that they had been wise! they would have understood this, They would have considered their latter end! |
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| 30 How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And Jehovah had delivered them up? |
One chase a thousand – Harvest laborers, though few in number, accomplish the harvest work. R1349:5, R6023:1
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| 31 For their rock is not as our Rock: Let our enemies themselves be judges. |
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| 32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of poison, Bitter are their clusters; |
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| 33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, And the cruel venom of vipers. |
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| 34 Is not this hidden with me, Sealed up among my treasures? |
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| 35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, For the time when their foot shall slip. For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste. |
Vengeance – The time of trouble. D73, D549
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| 36 For Jehovah will judge his people, And shall repent in favour of his servants; When he seeth that power is gone, And there is none shut up or left. |
The LORD shall judge – Jehovah himself is the supreme Judge, yet the "Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." (John 5:22) F396
Punish--perhaps chasten an individual with business reverses or with physical disease. R5957:2
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| 37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, Their rock in whom they trusted, |
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| 38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you, That there may be a protection over you. |
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| 39 See now that I, I am HE, And there is no god with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal, And there is none that delivereth out of my hand, |
No god with me – Not triune. R1052:5*
I wound, and I heal – It is the wounded heart that is ready to be bound up and to be healed and to be transformed. HG270:3
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| 40 For I lift up my hand to the heavens, and say, I live for ever! |
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| 41 If I have sharpened my gleaming sword, And my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, And will recompense them that hate me. |
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| 42 Mine arrows will I make drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh; I will make them drunk with the blood of the slain and of the captives, With the head of the princes of the enemy. |
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| 43 Shout for joy, ye nations, with his people, For he avengeth the blood of his servants, And rendereth vengeance to his enemies, And maketh atonement for his land, for his people. |
Rejoice – These victories shall ultimately be attained by all the Israel of God--the Jew first and also the Gentile, during the Millennial age. R3078:2
O ye nations – All the true Israel of God, all who shall become Israelites according to the faith and obedience of Abraham. R3078:3
And to his people – --after divine wrath has burned out their national transgression the Lord will speak peaceably toward Israel. E357
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| 44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea the son of Nun. |
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| 45 And when Moses had ended speaking all these words to all Israel, |
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| 46 he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words that I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to take heed to do, all the words of this law. |
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| 47 For it is no vain word for you, but it is your life, and through this word ye shall prolong your days on the land whereunto ye pass over the Jordan to possess it. |
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| 48 And Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day, saying, |
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| 49 Go up into this mountain Abarim, mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is opposite Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession, |
Mount Nebo – It is quite possible that Elijah was taken from this same mountain. R3416:3
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| 50 and die on the mountain whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother died on mount Hor, and was gathered unto his peoples; |
Die in the mount – Mount Nebo. PD37/48
If the meekest man in all the earth was overcome by the circumstances of his position, it should not surprise us if we find that in spiritual Israel some who start out meek and humble become more or less arrogant. R3866:4
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| 51 because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye hallowed me not in the midst of the children of Israel. |
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| 52 For thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel. |
Thou shalt not go – Although usually a type of Christ-in the one instance of disobediently smiting the rock Moses became a type of Christ's followers who put him to open shame and who, in consequence, will die the Second Death. (Heb. 10:29) R4058:1, R3077:4, R5333:3
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