Deuteronomy 32:1-4
Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth. ℣. Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distill as the dew, as a shower upon the herb. ℣. And as drops upon the grass: because I will invoke the name of the Lord. ℣. Give ye magnificence to our God: The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments. ℣. God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
Haydock
Verse 1. Speak. Heb. and Sept. “Heaven attend, and I will speak.” H. — Never was there an exordium more pompous, or better adapted to the subject. Moses calls those who never die to witness what he asserts, as if to insinuate that these truths ought never to be forgotten. See Num. iv. 6. Virgil (xii.) imitates this style, Esto nunc sol testis & hæc mihi terra precanti, (C.) which puts inthe moth of Æneas, to whom Latinus replies, Hæc eadem Ænea, terram, mare, sidera juro.
Verse 2. Gather, as rain does from vapours; (M.) so let the sum of what I have taught you be collected into this short canticle, and penetrate your hearts. H. — Chal. “may my discourse be as delightful as the rain.” Sept. “may my apophthegm (or sententious discourse, C.) be expected with earnestness, like rain,” when the soil is thirsty. H. — Preachers are compared to clouds, and their speech to rain. Is. lx. 8. Eccli. xxxix. 4. — Drops. Some explain this and the former term in the original, of “a stormy and vehement shower,” while others attach this idea only to the last part of the sentence. C. — The lawgiver wishes to engage the hearts of his audience by mildness, though he is forced also to thunder, in order to rouse their attention, v. 15. H. — Sound doctrine produces much fruit in good dispositions, as rain causeth the seed to push forth which has been sown in an excellent soil. W.
Verse 3. Invoke, or praise. Vatab. — Magnificence; admire and fear this greatness. C. — The first duty of men is to praise God, the next to confess their sins, v. 5. W.
Verse 4. Right. You cannot complain of having been first abandoned by God. All his works and proceedings are entitled to praise. Heb. “This rock, (hatsur) his works are perfect.” C. — Sept. “God, his works are true.” H. — God is often styled a rock, to denote this strength. v. 18. Ps. lxii. 8.