30. How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
31. For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
How does the tenderness of a loving Father’s heart pour itself out in these matchless words! O if my people were only wise; wise to know and appreciate their Great Benefactor! Wise to render him the homage, the trust, and the love of their heart! How would one of them chase a thousand of their foes if only their God were on their side; if he who is their Rock and Strength had not sold and disowned them!——Expressively Moses adds—For as they very well know—we have it on their own admission—their Rock is not as our Rock; their gods were never like our God. Moses did not say this without authority. He remembered how the Egyptian hosts in the Red Sea cried out, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians” (Ex. 14: 25). The testimony of Balaam was still fresh: “God hath blessed; I can not reverse it. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel. Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion,” etc. (Num. 23: 20–24). The fame of God’s wonders for Israel was already abroad among all the adjacent nations, as may be seen in the words of Rahab (Josh. 2: 9–11).
32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
34. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35. To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
By a somewhat sudden transition of thought, “for” [first word of v. 32] answers the implied question—Why then, if Israel’s Rock is so mighty, does not Israel live and triumph in perpetual victory and prosperity? Do ye ask, Why not? Because they are corrupt like Sodom; their “vine” being put poetically for themselves morally considered. Their heart and life are altogether rotten.——In v. 34 I take the sense to be—Do I not remember all their sin? Is it not laid up before me, awaiting its time for a fearful retribution, sealed up as securely as one keeps his choice treasures? “Vengeance belongeth to me”—is my sole prerogative, and can not fail of its due execution.
36. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
37. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,