Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 32:10
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
10 In a desert land He found him,
In the void and howl of the waste.
He swept around him, He scanned him,
As the pupil of His eye He watched him.
11 As an eagle stirreth his nest,
Fluttereth over his young,
Spreadeth his wings, doth catch them,
Beareth them up on his pinions,
12 The Lord alone was his leader,
And never a strange god with Him.
10. found him ] This and the following vbs. are in the Heb. imperf.; this for the sake of vividness, the rest expressive of iteration. On Israel being found in the desert, cp. Hos 9:10, Jer 2:2. The O.T. tradition is constant that the Hebrews were originally nomad, desert tribes (see the present writer’s Early Poetry of Israel, 39 ff., 56 ff.; and above on Deu 1:28).
void and howl ] Or the void of the howl = howling void.
compassed him about ] Rather keeps circling around him.
cared ] Rather regarded or scanned him penetratingly.
kept ] Better watched or guarded.
apple of his eye ] Pupil is a happier rendering of the Heb. ’shn (Ar. ’insn), mannikin, the image reflected in the centre of the eye.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deu 32:10
He found him in a desert land.
God and His people
I. Now, although one of the chief objects of this discourse will be to adapt this portion of Scripture to our own times, it will be well to offer some few remarks in regard to their primary application; and they may be considered as containing a summary of all that had been suffered by the Israelites, of all that had been wrought by God on their behalf, of their departure from the bondage of Egypt, the perils of their journey, and the might of their deliverance.
II. I would now speak on three states and conditions of believers which the text appears to depict.
1. We behold the believer or spiritual Israelite in his natural state–A desert land, a waste howling wilderness. We must be humble; for the idea of a good heart, which is so much prated about, is just like a cankerworm in the soul. Whatever the consolations of faith are, it is not possible that Christ should be all, unless man actually feels himself to be nothing.
2. Our text depicts the believer in a regenerate state. Found of God, led and instructed by God. Here are the several stages of Christian experience. Man is found of God, rather than God is sought of man. The work of redemption is Divine in its commencement, as well as its consummation; and the Holy Spirit, through whose operations alone the soul is prepared for final glory, gives the first impulse, and excites the glorious aspiration. I was found of them that sought Me not; and, however these words may especially allude to the calling of the Gentile Church, you observe that they are descriptive of every believers individual experience. Found of God. This, then, is the commencement of spiritual life; and although when the arrow of conviction first enters into the conscience the sinner exclaims, as Ahab did to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O my enemy! Yet presently the soul rejoices in its deliverance. A sense of the burthen of sin gives way before the manifestation of Christ: and the man that is thus found of God finds his guilty burthen removed, and a full salvation amply provided and ensured. But whilst religions ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace, yet the course of Gods dealings with His people is never one of undeviating serenity; it is, on the contrary, through much tribulation that the kingdom of heaven is entered; and the path which a Christian travels is generally so circuitous that it can only be described by saying, God led him about–from gardens smiling with the flowers of hope, to deserts stript of leaves, of foliage, of beauty.
3. He who is in a regenerate state is also in a secured and guarded state, which is the last condition our text depicts; God keeps true believers as the apple of His eye. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The journey through the wilderness
I. Gods dealings with His ancient people. God found Israel. Of His own inscrutable love, God chose to take this people to Himself; He found them, and made them into a nation for His praise. And it is said, He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness. I apprehend that this expression may relate as well to the position in which the children of Israel were at first found of God, in slavery in Egypt, as to their position during their forty years sojourn in the wilderness. Then it is said further, that He led him about. This is in allusion to the circumstance that God did not lead the people by a straight path through the wilderness, from the margin of the Red Sea towards the promised land; but in place of this, forty years were occupied in a circuitous route. And as He thus led the people about, He instructed them. He instructed them by many a type, by many a providential dealing, by many statutes and ordinances such as were given to no other nation besides. He instructed them by mercies, by warnings, by judgments; He instructed them by many a token of loving kindness, by many an interposition of power, by many a signal manifestation of His determination to bless the obedient and to punish the transgressors. And during the whole period, it is further said, He kept him as the apple of His eye. He shielded them by His power, made it plain to all their enemies that the broad shield of Omnipotence was thrown over them, and that He was determined to protect them from peril, and to put them in possession of the land which He had promised to their fathers that He would give them.
II. Such is the literal application of the words. Now, let us look at their spiritual accommodation–their accommodation to the spiritual israel of God.
1. First, here is the believer found of God. We love Him because He first loved us. Where does God find him? In a desert land, etc. There is nothing in creation from which we can obtain the supply of the souls spiritual wants. And even after a person has been found of God the description still holds. We have no fixed habitation upon earth; and we are in constant danger from enemies. But oh! it is a blessed thing to know, that just as God of old found His people Israel in the waste howling wilderness and in the desert land, so He finds His people still; and the proof of His finding them is that He leads them. And here, too, the description given in the text is very accurate, for it is said, He led him about.
2. Often manifold trials enter into the dealings of God with His people; He permits them to encounter sharp afflictions, unexpected trials, it may be heartrending bereavements; He takes from them the earthly prop upon which they were wont to lean too fondly. But of this be assured: however God may lead His people about, He leads them by the right way.
3. Then, again; all the while God is thus leading His people about, He is instructing them. Have you not experienced this? A Christian has to grow in knowledge as well as in grace. As God continues His providential dealings towards us, we come to take a wider survey of the love and faithfulness and goodness of God in all His dealings with us. God instructs us in our own weakness and His all-sufficiency, our corruption and His grace, our own frailty and His constancy, our unbelief, and His unwavering faithfulness to His Word. And thus the believer is instructed; and he comes to take a bolder step, and to feel his stand more secure, as being anchored upon the Rock of Ages, and putting his trust in the sure Word of God.
4. And then we must notice, further, that it is said, He kept him as the apple of His eye. What a beautiful metaphor this is! Of all the bodily organs that God has given to us, the eye is the most exquisitely tender and sensitive. You know how the tiniest particle of dust will irritate and distress the delicate fibres of this tender and sensitive organ; yet of all the organs of our body it is the most exquisitely provided for; and the very guards that God has placed about it are so sensitive and so quick to the perception of danger, that the very eye itself may be defended. Now, this is the figure that God makes use of in order to present His watchful guardianship over His saints. He kept him as the apple of His eye, watched him with unceasing vigilance, placed around him unnumbered guards, defended him with the utmost possible precaution for his real welfare, and thus Shielded and protected him from approaching danger. God thus guards and defends His people. It is said they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And is there a man who walks this earth so happy, so truly blessed as the man who is thus under the guardianship of God? (Bp. R. Bickersteth.)
The goodness of God to Israel
I. The state in which God finds His servants. In a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness.
1. Their condition, therefore, if viewed as a picture of the original condition of man, teaches us that the people of God were by nature at a great distance from Him. The enemies of God by Wicked works; the willing slaves of Satan; tied and bound with the chain of a thousand lusts; with all their affections fixed on sin, and all their desires turned from God–how shall they find Him, how approach Him?
2. A desolate condition. Let us look back to the days that are past. We imagined that we had need of nothing, but what was our real condition? We were wretched and miserable, poor and naked, ready to perish. The world appeared fair before us; it promised us much, and we were willing to credit it. Fools that we were, we tried it; but what could it do for us? It gave us, among its briars and thorns, a few flowers to amuse us, but it left us starving for want. It brought us no pardon for our guilt, no peace for an accusing conscience, no deliverance from the grave, no refuge from hell. It left us destitute, forlorn, and wretched.
3. A state of danger. The territory of an enemy.
II. In what manner the Lord acts towards His people amid their wretchedness and dangers. As an eagle, etc. This beautiful similitude strikingly illustrates the tenderness with which the Almighty led Israel from Egypt to Canaan, and the loving kindness which He still manifests towards all who seek Him in the wilderness of this world. It shows us what He does for them, and how He does it.
1. It shows us what God does for His people. It tells us that He afflicts them, guides them, and preserves them.
2. But in what manner does the Lord thus afflict, guide, and defend His servants? He exercises His mercy towards them constantly, patiently, with delight. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. He – the Lord, found him – Jacob, in his descendants, in a desert land – the wilderness. He led him about forty years in this wilderness, De 8:2, or yesobebenhu, he compassed him about, i. e., God defended them on all hands, and in all places. He instructed him – taught them that astonishing law through which we have now almost passed, giving them statutes and judgments which, for depth of wisdom, and correct political adaptation to times, places, and circumstances, are so wondrously constructed, as essentially to secure the comfort, peace, and happiness of the individual, and the prosperity and permanency of the moral system. Laws so excellent that they have met with the approbation of the wise and good in all countries, and formed the basis of the political institutions of all the civilized nations in the universe.
Notwithstanding the above gives the passage a good sense, yet probably the whole verse should be considered more literally. It is certain that in the same country travellers are often obliged to go about in order to find proper passes between the mountains, and the following extracts from Mr. Harmer well illustrate this point.
“Irwin farther describes the mountains of the desert of Thebais (Upper Egypt) as sometimes so steep and dangerous as to induce even very bold and hardy travellers to avoid them by taking a large circuit; and that for want of proper knowledge of the way, such a wrong path may be taken as may on a sudden bring them into the greatest dangers, while at other times a dreary waste may extend itself so prodigiously as to make it difficult, without assistance, to find the way to a proper outlet. All which show us the meaning of those words of the song of Moses, De 32:10: He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
“Jehovah certainly instructed Israel in religion by delivering to him his law in this wilderness; but it is not, I presume, of this kind of teaching Moses speaks, as Bishop Patrick supposes, but God’s instructing Israel how to avoid the dangers of the journey, by leading the people about this and that dangerous, precipitous hill, directing them to proper passes through the mountains, and guiding them through the intricacies of that difficult journey which might, and probably would, have confounded the most consummate Arab guides. They that could have safely enough conducted a small caravan of travellers through this desert, might have been very unequal to the task of directing such an enormous multitude, encumbered with cattle, women, children, and utensils. The passages of Irwin, that establish the observation I have been making, follow here: ‘At half past eleven we resumed our march, and soon came to the foot of a prodigious hill, which we unexpectedly found we were to ascend. It was perpendicular, like the one we had passed some hours before; but what rendered the access more difficult, the path which we were to tread was nearly right up and down. The captain of the robbers seeing the obstacles we had to overcome, wisely sent all his camels round the mountain where he knew there was a defile, and only accompanied us with the beast he rode. We luckily met with no accident in climbing this height.’ p. 325. They afterwards descended, he tells us, into a valley, by a passage easy enough, and stopping to dine at half past five o’clock, they were joined by the Arabs, who had made an astonishing march to overtake them, p. 326. ‘We soon quitted the dale, and ascended the high ground by the side of a mountain that overlooks it in this part. The path was narrow and perpendicular, and much resembled a ladder. To make it worse, we preceded the robbers, and an ignorant guide among our people led us astray. Here we found ourselves in a pretty situation: we had kept the lower road on the side of the hill, instead of that towards the summit, until we could proceed no farther; we were now obliged to gain the heights, in order to recover the road, in performing which we drove our poor camels up such steeps that we had the greatest difficulty to climb after them. We were under the necessity of leaving them to themselves, as the danger of leading them through places where the least false step would have precipitated both man and beast to the unfathomable abyss below, was too critical to hazard. We hit at length upon the proper path, and were glad to find ourselves in the road of our unerring guides the robbers, after having won every foot of the ground with real peril and fatigue.’ p. 324. Again: ‘Our road after leaving the valley lay over level ground. As it would be next to an impossibility to find the way over these stony flats, where the heavy foot of a camel leaves no impression, the different bands of robbers have heaped up stones at unequal distances for their direction through this desert. We have derived great assistance from the robbers in this respect, who are our guides when the marks either fail, or are unintelligible to us.’ The predatory Arabs were more successful guides to Mr. Irwin and his companions, than those he brought with him from Ghinnah; but the march of Israel through deserts of the like nature, was through such an extent and variety of country, and in such circumstances as to multitudes and incumbrances, as to make Divine interposition necessary. The openings through the rocks seem to have been prepared by Him to whom all things from the beginning of the world were foreknown, with great wisdom and goodness, to enable them to accomplish this stupendous march.” See Harmer’s Observat., vol. iv. p. 125.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.] Nothing can exceed the force and delicacy of this expression. As deeply concerned and as carefully attentive as man can be for the safety of his eyesight, so was God for the protection and welfare of this people. How amazing this condescension!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He found him, not by chance but as it were looking out and seeking for him, He met with him there. He did indeed manifest himself to him in Egypt, but it was in the wilderness at Sinai; where he found God, and God found him in an eminent manner, and revealed his mind and will to him, and entered into covenant with him, and imparted himself and his grace and blessing to him, that being the place appointed in Egypt for God and Israel to meet together, Exo 3:12. By this word he also signifies both their lost condition in themselves, and that their recovery was not from themselves, but only from God, who sought and found them out by his grace.
In a desert land; in a place destitute of all the necessaries and comforts of life, which also was a type of that desolate and comfortless condition in which all men are before the grace of God finds them out. See Son 3:6; 8:5; Eze 16:1; Hos 9:10; 13:9.
In the waste howling wilderness, where instead of the voices of men, is nothing heard but the howlings, and yellings, and screeches of ravenous birds and beasts. See Isa 43:20; Mic 1:8.
He led him about; he conducted them from place to place by his cloudy pillar and providence. See Exo 13:18, &c. Or,
he compassed him about, by his provident care over him, watching over him and preserving him on every side. Compare Psa 32:7.
As the apple of his eye; as men use to keep the apple of their eye, i.e. with singular care and diligence, this being, as a most tender, so a most useful part. Compare Psa 17:8; Pro 7:2; Zec 2:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. found him in a desert landtookhim into a covenant relation at Sinai, or rather “sustained,””provided for him” in a desert land.
a waste howling wildernessacommon Oriental expression for a desert infested by wild beasts.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness,…. In De 32:10 instances are given of the goodness of God to the people of Israel, when in the wilderness; by which is meant, either “the wilderness of the land of Egypt”, as it is called, Eze 20:36; where they were in a most miserable and forlorn condition, in which the Lord found them, and out of which he brought them; or rather the desert of Arabia, a waste place, where no provisions could be had; a howling wilderness, through the blowing of the winds, the cries of wild creatures, as dragons, owls, ostriches, and the like, as the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, and the howling of passengers lost, or for want of provisions; here the Lord found them, and they were as acceptable to him as grapes to a traveller in a wilderness, [See comments on Ho 9:10]: this is an emblem of the world, in which the spiritual Israel are, when called by grace out of it; or of an unregenerate state, in which they are found, and out of which they are brought: the phrase sometimes signifies sufficing, or finding with everything sufficient; see Nu 11:22; so Onkelos renders it here; which is true of the Lord’s dealing with this people; he supplied them with manna, the corn of heaven, angels’ food, and with water out of the rock, and flesh to eat in fulness, yea, with raiment as well as food; with everything convenient for them: so the Lord does for his spiritual Israel, feeding them with his word and ordinances, clothing them with the righteousness of his Son, giving them fresh supplies of grace, and withholding no good thing from them; so that they have enough, having all things richly to enjoy:
he led him about; when he brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, he did not lead them the nearest way to the land of Canaan, through the the land of the Philistines, but he led them about the way of the wilderness of the Red sea; and when they were come to the borders of the land, because of their murmurings, and disobedience, they were ordered back into the wilderness again; nor were they suffered to go through the land of Edom when on the confines of it, which would have been a shorter way; but they were obliged to go round that land, which was very discouraging to them, see Ex 13:17; and thus the Lord, though he could if he would, bring his people at once to heaven; he could sanctify them at once, as well as justify them; he could take them the moment he regenerates them into his kingdom, as the thief on the cross; yet this is not his usual way: though he calls them out from among the men of the world, he continues them in it, having something for them to do or suffer for his name’s sake; he indeed leads them soon into the right and plain way of salvation, and not in a roundabout way of duties; yet he leads them in many roundabout ways in Providence, which are all right, though sometimes rough; they seem at times to be near to heaven, and then they are turned into the world again; nay, the Apostle Paul was in heaven, and yet sent into the wilderness of the Gentiles again, for the good of souls and the interest of a Redeemer; however, they all at last come safe to heaven and happiness: the words may be rendered, “he surrounded” or “compassed him about” p, and the rather, since leading them about seems to be by way of resentment or punishment, whereas Moses is enumerating instances of goodness and kindness, as this was one; he covered them with the clouds of glory, so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, Jarchi and Aben Ezra: he protected them with his power and providence, and preserved them from serpents and scorpions, and the wild beasts of the wilderness, as well as from all their enemies: and the Lord surrounds his spiritual Israel with angels, who encamp about them; with himself, who is a wall of fire round about them; with his power, in which they are kept as in a garrison; and with his love, which encompasses them as a shield:
he instructed him; he taught him the law, as the Targum of Jonathan; so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; or the decalogue, as the Jerusalem Targum; he instructed him in the knowledge of the true God and his worship; in the knowledge of the Messiah, and of his righteousness, and salvation by him; for he instructed him by his good Spirit, Ne 9:20; so the Lord instructs his spiritual Israel, by his Spirit, his ministers, his word and ordinances, in the knowledge of themselves, and of himself in Christ, and of Christ and the way of life by him; and this being joined with the Lord’s leading about his people, may suggest that he instructs them by adverse dispensations of Providence: the word q signifies causing to understand; and God only can teach and instruct in such sense as to give men an understanding of the things they are taught and instructed in:
he kept him as the apple of his eye; in the most careful and tender manner: the apple of the eye is an aperture in it, which lets in rays of light into the “retina” or chamber where the images of things are formed; this is wonderfully guarded in nature, for, besides the orbit of the eye, which is strong and bony, and the eyelids, which in sleep are closed, to prevent anything falling into the eye to disturb it; and the eyebrows, which are fringed with hair to break off the rays of light, which sometimes would be too strong for it; besides all these, there are no less than six tunics or coats to keep and preserve it: and in like manner did the Lord keep and guard Israel, while passing through the wilderness, from fiery serpents, scorpions, and the nations, that none might hurt, as Jarchi; and especially thus he keeps his spiritual Israel, who are parts of himself, one with him, near and dear to him; and about whom he sets guard upon guard, employs all his perfections to secure them, and constantly watches over them night and day, and keeps them from all evil and every enemy, and preserves them safe to his kingdom and glory.
p “circumdedit eum”, Piscator; so Cocceius, Van Till, Vitringa. q “intelligere fecit eum”, Pagninus, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. He found him in a desert land. If the intention of Moses had been to record all the instances of God’s paternal kindness towards the people, he must have commenced from the time of Abraham; like the prophet who, when presenting a complete narrative in the Psalm, begins from that original covenant, which God had made with the fathers, (Psa 105:8😉 and also introduces the benefits which He had conferred upon them, when they were but few in number, and strangers in the land, when they went from one nation to another, yet he suffered no man to do them wrong, and reproved kings for their sakes. (Psa 105:14.) But Moses, studying brevity, deemed it sufficient to bring forward a more recent and more notorious blessing; nay, he omits the early part of their deliverance, and only makes mention of the desert, he says, then, that God found them in the desert; not because He then first began to take pity upon them, since they had been previously rescued from the tyranny of Pharaoh by His marvelous power, and had passed the Red Sea dry-shod, but because it was profitable for them to have set before their eyes how they had been extricated from the deep abyss of death, in order that they might more readily acknowledge this to have been, as it were, the beginning of their life. For what was that waste and barren desert, in which not a crumb of bread, nor a drop of water was to be found, but a grave to swallow up a thousand lives? and, therefore, it is further called “the devastation of horror.” (259) The suae is, that it was a kind of type of resurrection, not from one death only, but from innumerable deaths, that the people should have escaped from it in safety. That they should have done so, even had their march through it been straight and speedy, could not have been the case without a miracle; but, inasmuch as they wandered therein for forty years, our minds can hardly comprehend a hundredth part of the miracles (which followed one upon the other. (260)) Thus the word “led about,” is not superfluous, for God’s power was far more conspicuous than as if they had flown swiftly through the air. I apply the same meaning to what follows, “he instructed him;” for some, in my opinion improperly, refer it to the Law, (261) whereas it rather relates to the teaching of experience. For there was manifold, and no ordinary instruction in all these acts of bounty and punishment, wherein God, as it were, put forth His hand, and manifested His glory.
Two similitudes follow, to express God’s love, mingled with solicitude more than paternal. First, he says, that God no less anxiously protected them from all injury and annoyance than every one is wont to protect the pupil of his eye, which is the most tender part of the body, and against the injury of which the greatest precautions are taken. And David also, when requesting that he may be kept safe under the special guardianship of God, uses the same expression. (Psa 17:8.) Secondly, God compares Himself to an eagle, which not only fosters her young ones under her outspread wings, but also indulgently, and with maternal tenderness tempts them to fly. It would be unseasonable to enter here into more subtle philosophical discussions respecting the nature of the eagle. The Jews, who are wont to trifle hazardously with things they do not understand, have invented fables respecting this passage, which have no relation to the meaning of Moses, who unquestionably spoke of the eagle as he might of any other bird. Nor can it be doubted but that Christ, when He compares Himself to a hen, desired to express the same sedulous care.
“
How often (he says) would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Mat 23:37.)
If, however, any should choose to apply here, what Aristotle writes respecting the eagle, I would not stand in his way: although I do not think Moses had anything in his mind, beyond what the words naturally express. And, surely that which at once occurs to us ought to be sufficient for us, viz., that we ought to be ravished with just. admiration of God’s inestimable goodness and indulgence, when He condescends so to stoop to us as to protect us with His wings, like a bird, and, hovering before us, to instruct and accustom us to follow Him: in which latter words a more than maternal anxiety to teach us is represented.
(259) “The waste howling wilderness.” — A. V. “Un lieu vague off il n’y avoit qu’horreur, ou hurlement;” a waste place, in which there was nothing but horror or howling. — Fr.
(260) Added from Fr.
(261) “He taught them the words of his law.” — Chaldee.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) The whole of this verse is in the pictorial present in the Hebrew
He findeth him in a desert land,
In a waste howling wilderness;
He compasseth him about, He instructeth him,
He guardeth him as the apple of his eye.
He found him.This beautiful expression is common to the Old and New Testaments as a description of Gods first revelation of Himself to man. In the case of Hagar it is written (Gen. 16:7), the angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. Concerning Jacob, that He found him in Bethel, when Jacob said Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not (Hos. 12:4; Gen. 28:16). A series of similar passages is closed by the three examples of the lost sheep, the lost money, and the son that had been lost, and was found (Luke 15).
He led him about.The commoner meaning is given in the margin. Rashi has this remark: He caused them to abide round about His glory (Shechinah), the tent of the congregation in the middle, and four standards on the four sides.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Found him in a desert land This entire passage (10-14) is a highly poetical description of Jehovah’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage and of the divine care and guidance. He finds Israel as a man ready to perish. Egypt, though a land of fertility and wealth, was a desert to the toiling Hebrew serf. The harsh measure of the Egyptian king would have resulted, if not arrested, in the extirpation of the people. To heighten the figure and give it local colouring Moses brings out the desolateness of the Wilderness of Wandering, and the howling of the wild beasts that must at times have made the way terrible.
He kept him as the apple of his eye This figure denotes the tenderest care of Jehovah. Comp. Psa 17:8: “Keep me as the apple of the eye;” also, Pro 7:2: “Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 10. He found him in a desart land, &c. He led him about, &c. He sustained him, &c. He compassed him about, &c. Houbigant renders this, after the Samaritan:
He sustain’d them in a desart land: He made him fat in a dry and sandy place: He was present with him; he took care of him: He kept him as the apple of his eye.
See his note on the place. It highly amplifies the divine power and goodness, to recollect the place in which God thus sustained and preserved his people: a place where, according to credible travellers, there was nothing but sands and rocky mountains; and for many days’ journey together, scarcely any green thing to be seen, neither beast nor fowl to be heard, nothing but sand and stones:neither plough-land nor meadow, tree nor bush, leaf nor grass, nor path to go in. The verbs here rendered in the perfect, are in the Hebrew all in the future sense. We observed from Dr. Lowth on ver. 5 that the Hebrews frequently use the past for the future, and the future for the past tense. An instance of the former was given in that note: we have here an example of the latter; a practice, as that able writer observes, very different from that of other writers, and of a difficult nature; for a solution of which, we shall consult in vain the grammarians and interpreters. But, that all these things have their due force and propriety, cannot be doubted; any more than it is to be wondered, that in a language of such great antiquity as the Hebrew, there are many things obscure and difficult; upon which, however, much light might possibly be thrown, if we diligently considered in what disposition of mind the writer was when he delivered such and such things, and what images might then be rising before him. The present passage affords us a remarkable example of this construction. Moses, having mentioned the divine decree by which the Israelites were chosen to be the peculiar people of God, goes on to set forth with what love God had embraced them, even from the time when he delivered them from Egypt; how he had fed them in the wilderness, led them through it by his hand, and, as it were, carried them in his bosom; all which, though manifestly past, is expressed in the future tense:
He will find him in a desart land, And in the waste, howling wilderness; He will encompass him; he will instruct him; He will keep him as the apple of his eye.
May not this well be explained, that Moses imagines himself to be present at the immediate transaction, when God now, as it were, separated his people from the other nations; and thence contemplates, as if from some elevated point of view, what was then immediately to follow from that divine purpose? This seems to be the case in some places, particularly in Psa 78:38-40 and the whole 104th Psalm affords us an elegant example of this construction. Though these, and several other passages of this kind, may be happily enough elucidated in this manner; yet there are many which cannot, and in which the situation and disposition of the writer’s mind is not so much to be considered, as the peculiar nature and genius of the language itself; for the Hebrews seem often to use the form of the future tense, so as not so much to regard the speaker, as the thing of which he has just spoken; therefore, an action which is connected with or consequent to another action, or which follows itself, that is, which is repeated or continued, which a person does, and goes on to do, which he does frequently, assiduously, and diligently; that they express as if it was future; for which cause the grammarians call this form atid, that is to say, prompt, expedite, imminent. Many examples hereof may easily be produced: we shall only mention that most elegant prosopopoeia of the mother of Sisera, Jdg 5:29 the allegory of the vine brought out of Egypt, Psa 80:9; Psa 80:19 and the comparison in the following verse, taken from the paternal love and solicitude of the eagle; the force of all which, I am persuaded, the attentive reader will feel, but the most diligent interpreter will not easily express. We refer for more on this subject to Dr. Lowth’s 15th Praelection. See Zachar. Deu 2:10.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Our GOD may be said to have taken all his people from a wilderness state, when calling them by his grace; for what the Apostle saith of the church of Ephesus, is equally applicable to every individual: we were by nature, children of wrath even as others. Eph 2:3 . With respect to Israel of old, nothing could be more descriptive, than that of GOD’S finding them: for they were apparently lost in the bondage of Egypt, and groaning under their oppression. Reader! let you and I look back, and behold the spiritual bondage of our Egypt, when under Sin and Satan. Did not our JESUS find us there when he passed by and saw us cast out, and no eye but his to pity us? Eze 16:5-6 . And how hath he led us about, nursed, and brought us up and taught us by his HOLY SPIRIT, the great things of salvation, and with that tenderness kept us as the apple of his eye. Oh! thou gracious GOD and Saviour, lead me frequently to review the ruined state of my nature, that the tokens of thy grace may be more abundantly precious. Isa 51:1-2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 32:10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Ver. 10. And in the waste howling wilderness. ] A figure of the cries of a thirsty and troubled conscience, and of infernal horrors. See Eze 16:4 , &c.
He instructed him.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
him: i.e. Jacob. Emphasis on “him” marked by Figure of speech Epistrophe (App-6), by which each clause ends with the same word. Here (in Hebrew) “him”. “In a desert land He found HIM, He instructed HIM, In the waste howling wilderness, about, He led HIM, As the apple of His eye He kept HIM. “
apple. First occurrence of Hebrew. babah, used of the small round dark pupil of the eye. Hebrew = hole, gate, or door of the eye. Compare Psa 18:8. See note on Zec 2:8. Called “pupil” from Latin. pupilla = a little girl.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
found: Deu 8:15, Deu 8:16, Neh 9:19-21, Psa 107:4, Psa 107:5, Son 8:5, Jer 2:6, Hos 13:5
led him: or, compassed him
he instructed: Deu 4:36, Neh 9:20, Psa 32:7-10, Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20, Rom 2:18, Rom 3:2
he kept: Psa 17:8, Pro 7:2, Zec 2:8
Reciprocal: Exo 13:18 – led the Deu 1:19 – through Jer 13:11 – I caused Eze 16:7 – excellent ornaments Hos 9:10 – found Hos 11:3 – taught Phi 4:12 – I am
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 32:10. He found him in a desert land Not by chance, but as it were looking out and seeking for him. He did, indeed, manifest himself to Israel in Egypt; but it was in the wilderness of Sinai that God found him in an eminent manner, revealed his will to him, entered into covenant with him, and imparted himself, and his grace and blessing to him. By this word found, he also signifies both their lost condition in themselves, and that their recovery was not from themselves, but only from God, who sought and found them out by his grace. It ought to be observed, however, that the Hebrew word , matsa, here rendered found, signifies also to suffice, or provide sufficiently for, as appears from Num 11:22, Jos 17:16; Jdg 21:14, and some other passages. And this sense of the word agrees best to the context here; for it cannot be said so properly, that God found the Israelites in the desert, as that he sustained them, and provided sufficiently for them there. Accordingly it is so rendered by the Seventy and Chaldee, the Samaritan and Arabic versions.
Compare Deu 8:15; Jer 2:6. In a waste howling wilderness In a place destitute of all the necessaries and comforts of life, which also was a type of that desolate and comfortless condition in which all men are before the grace of God finds them out; where, instead of the voices of men, is nothing heard but the howlings and yellings of ravenous birds and beasts. He led him He conducted him from place to place by his cloudy pillar and providence. Or, he compassed him about by his provident care, watching over him and preserving him on every side. As the apple of his eye As men use to keep the apple of their eye, that is, with singular care and diligence, this being, as a most tender, so a most useful part. What a striking idea does this give us of the care which God took of Israel. And similar to this is the care which he takes of all his spiritual Israel, his true people and servants!