Deuteronomy 32

The Hebrew word is Elyon, one of the titles for God that shows up in the Bible on occasion. It’s often translated, “Most High” or “God Most High.”

Some manuscripts say it’s based on the number of “sons of Israel,” meaning the Israelites. Older manuscripts say “sons of God,” meaning “humanity.” That includes one from the Dead Sea Scrolls recorded in the first century and earlier. It also includes the Septuagint, which is the first translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, an international language of New Testament times, much like English is today. Translators began working on that before the birth of Jesus.

More literally, God guarded them “as the pupil of his eye.” That’s keeping a very close eye on them.

God provides food even in unlikely places.

Bashan was a land of pastures in Syria. Herders of Bashan were famous for raising some of the biggest and best livestock in the ancient Middle East. The prophet Amos, from the southern Jewish nation of Judah went up to the northern Jewish nation of Israel to deliver prophecies. There, he called the rich women of Israel, “fat cows of Bashan” (Amos 4:1 New Living Translation). He was told to go back to where he came from.

“You” in Hebrew is Jeshurun, a poetic nickname for Israel. It means honest, honorable, upright. See also 33:5.

The Hebrew text doesn’t say “Israelites.” But the context does. That’s who the songwriter is talking about.

Mountains east of the Jordan River. It includes Mount Nebo and extends south.

Mount Nebo has the highest summit on the plateau, at 2,300 feet elevation, or 710 meters. That’s an especially good vantage point to view what is now Israel and Palestinian territories since the Dead Sea is about 1,400 feet below sea level, or 430 meters. That’s more than a kilometer above the Jordan River Valley, about three-fourths of a mile.

Numbers 33:38-40. It’s unclear where Mount Hor was. There’s a long tradition that connects it to Jebel Nabi Harun (Mountain of Prophet Aaron), roughly a day’s walk south of Edom’s capital city of Petra. Some scholars say that mountain was well inside the country of Edom, which is where the Israelites were forbidden to go. Another contender is Jebel Madurah. It was about a two-day walk northwest of Petra. The mountain is southwest of the Dead Sea, along what would have been the border of the Promised Land and Edom.

Literally “the waters of Meribah-kadesh.” Meribah means to fight, argue, complain, rebel. Kadesh is a location. Scholars most often identify Kadesh, also called Kadesh Barnea, as the spring-fed oasis at Tel el-Qudeirat, on Egypt’s side of the border with Israel. Another contender is Ain Qadeis, also on Egypt’s side of the border. Bible writers put the location in different deserts: Zin Desert (Numbers 20:1) and Paran Desert (Numbers 13:26). Some theorize there were two Kadesh oases. West Kadesh and East Kadesh. Not many scholars seem to buy into that. The story of Moses disobeying God, as reported in Exodus, says Moses named the site “Pushy Complainers,” or literally in the Hebrew name, “Massah Meribah.” Massah means to test or to get pushy.

Scholars debate why God reacted this way. Two popular guesses: God told Moses to merely speak to the rock, but Moses angrily hit it with a stick—twice. Also, Moses seemed to take some credit for the miracle when he said “Do we have to bring water from this rock” (Numbers 20:9). As in God and Moses, the tag team? Some scholars say God’s complaint about Moses and Aaron in Numbers 20: 12 and 24 seem like an overreaction to what the men did. So, another guess is that the writer didn’t want to report what really happened. Instead, he wanted to protect the reputation of the men.