by what follows, to ascribe the destruction of Israel to themselves and their own power, whereas it had been the word of God. “Our hand was high,” i.e., has lifted itself up or shown itself mighty, an intentional play upon the “high hand” of the Lord (Exo 14:8; cf. Isa 26:11). - The reason why Israel did not deserve to be spared is given in Deu 32:28 : “For a people forsaken of counsel are they, and there is not understanding in them.” “Forsaken of counsel,” i.e., utterly destitute of counsel.
This want of understanding on the part of Israel is still further expounded in Deu 32:29-32, where the words of God pass imperceptibly into the words of Moses, who feels impelled once more to impress the word which the Lord had spoken upon the hearts of the people.
verses 29-31
“If they were wise, they would understand this, would consider their end. Ah, how could one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, were it not that their Rock had sold them, and Jehovah had given them up! For their rock is not as our rock; of that our enemies are judges.” לוּ presupposes a case, which is either known not to exist, or of which this is assumed; “if they were wise,” which they are not. “This” refers to the leading thought of the whole, viz., that apostasy from God the Lord is sure to be followed by the severest judgment. “Their end,” as in Deu 32:20, the end towards which the people were going through obstinate perseverance in their sin, i.e., utter destruction, if the Lord did not avert it for His name's sake.
Verse 30
If Israel were wise, it could easily conquer all its foes in the power of its God (vid., Lev 26:8); but as it had forsaken the Lord its rock, He, their (Israel's) rock, had given them up into the power of the foe. כּי לא אם is more emphatic or distinct than לא אם only, and introduces an exception which does not permit the desired event to take place. Israel could have put all its enemies to flight were it not that its God had given it entirely up to them (sold them as slaves). The supposition that this had already occurred by no means proves, as Kamphausen believes, “that the poet was speaking of the existing state of the nation,” but merely that Moses thinks of the circumstances as certain to occur when the people should have forsaken their God. The past implied in the verbs “sold” and “given up” is a prophetically idea past or present, but not a real and historical one. The assertion of Hupfeld and Kamphausen, that מכר, as used with special reference to the giving up of a nation into the power of the heathen, “belongs to a somewhat later usage of the language,” is equally groundless.
Verse 31
The giving up
