Deuteronomy 32:39

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(39) I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me.—There are many very similar passages in Isaiah 41-46; but none of them exactly reproduces this sentence.

I kill, and I make alive.—This was repeated by Hannah in her song, “The Lord killeth and maketh alive” (1Samuel 2:6). Comp. also Isaiah 43:13, “Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 32:39. See now — Open your eyes and be convinced by your own sad experience what vain and impotent things idols are. I am he — The only true, omnipotent, and irresistible God. There is no god with me — As I have no superior, so neither have I any equal. I kill and I make alive — I am the arbiter of life and death, the dispenser of prosperity and adversity, and the author of national changes and revolutions, whether in the way of mercy or judgment. We may observe that it is usual, in Scripture language, to represent extreme calamities under the notion of death, and to express happiness and prosperity by the word life.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:39-43 This conclusion of the song speaks, 1. Glory to God. No escape can be made from his power. 2. It speaks terror to his enemies. Terror indeed to those who hate him. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against them. 3. It speaks comfort to his own people. The song concludes with words of joy. Whatever judgments are brought upon sinners, it shall go well with the people of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Repent himself for - Rather, have compassion upon. The verse declares that God's judgment of His people would issue at once in the punishment of the wicked, and in the comfort of the righteous.

None shut up, or left - A proverbial phrase (compare 1 Kings 14:10) meaning perhaps "married and single," or "guarded and forsaken," but signifying generally "all men of all sorts."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32. vine of Sodom … grapes of gall—This fruit, which the Arabs call "Lot's Sea Orange," is of a bright yellow color and grows in clusters of three or four. When mellow, it is tempting in appearance, but on being struck, explodes like a puffball, consisting of skin and fiber only.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See now; learn now by your own sad experience what vain and impotent things idols are, and what a silly thing it was in you to put your trust in them, as they did Deu 32:37.

I am he, i.e. the only true, and omnipotent, and irresistible God, as it here follows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See now that I, even I, am he,.... Which words are directed to the people of God in their low estate, to look to Christ, and expect deliverance and salvation from him; or to their enemies that insult them, to the despisers, to look, and wonder, and perish, as they will, when the witnesses slain by them shall arise, and go up to heaven in their sight, Revelation 11:11; they are spoken by the Word and Son of God, to whom the Father has committed all judgment, and who will now rise up and execute it; so the Targum of Jonathan,"when the Word of the Lord shall reveal himself to redeem his people, he will say to all people, see now, &c.''and who will declare himself to be the great Jehovah, the self-existent Being, the eternal and immutable I AM; for this phrase is expressive of his existence, eternity, immutability, and sovereignty; and which the above Targum paraphrases thus,"see now that I am he that have been, and am, and I am he that shall be,''which, as it is a deciphering the word "Jehovah", is what is applied to Christ, Revelation 1:8. The repeating the word "I", as it may denote the strong affection of the speaker, and the certainty of what he would do, so it may have respect to both sorts of persons the words are directed to, and to the several sorts of things to be done, hereafter related; signifying that it is the same I, that does the one, does also the other, kills and makes alive, &c.

and there is no god with me; this the Redeemer and Saviour says elsewhere, Isaiah 44:6; see Deuteronomy 32:12; there is but one God, and Christ the Word, with the Father and the Spirit, are that one God, 1 John 5:7; and there is no other with him; he is the true God, in opposition to all factitious and fictitious gods; he is not a made god, nor a god by office, nor by name and title only, but by nature the one, true, only, and living God; and so it may be most truly believed of him, that he is able to do, and will do, what he next says:

I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I:heal: Christ is the sovereign disposer of life and death, of sickness and health, in a temporal sense; and in a spiritual sense he wounds and kills, by the law in the hand of his Spirit; and he heals and makes alive by his Gospel, as it is accompanied by his Spirit and grace also: this is by some referred to the resurrection from the dead, which will be by Christ the resurrection and the life, the earnest, exemplar, and efficient cause of it; so the Targum of Jerusalem,"I am he that kills the living in this world, and quickens the dead in the world to come:''but it refers to another resurrection previous to that, namely, the reviving of the witnesses after they have been slain three days; who, as they will be killed in a civil sense, in the same sense they will be quickened by the Spirit of life from Christ; that is, they will be raised from that very low estate into which they will be brought, into a glorious one, signified by their ascending up into heaven; which will be done by Christ when he takes to himself his great power, and reigns; then as he suffered his witnesses and people to be wounded and killed, he will make them alive, and heal them, and restore comforts and happiness to them, see Revelation 11:11,

neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand; for, at the same time that he saves his people, he will take their enemies into his hands, out of which there will be no escape; at this time seven thousand names of men, or men of name, will be slain; see Gill on Revelation 11:13.

Geneva Study Bible

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39 See now that I, I am He,

And never a god beside me.

I do to death and revive,

I shattered and I shall heal.

[With none to save from my hand.]

40 For I lift to heaven mine hand,

And say, ‘As I live for ever,

41 I will whet my lightning sword,

And on judgement my hand shall close,

Vengeance I wreak on my foes,

And recompense them that hate me.

42 I drench mine arrows in blood,

And my sword shall feed upon flesh;

With the blood of the slain and the captive,

With the long-haired heads of the foe.’

39. I am he] The only God, Deuteronomy 4:35. Cp. Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 43:13; Isaiah 48:12.

And there is none, etc.] This line is out of place both for the rhythm and the sense, and is apparently borrowed from Isaiah 43:13 in a similar context. Cp. Hosea 5:14 b.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 39. - See now that I am, even I am he. The Hebrew is more expressive, See now that I, I am; LXX., ἴδετε ἴδετε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι (cf. Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 48:12; John 8:24 18:5). Their own experience of the utter impotency of these idol-gods to help them or to protect themselves flora the stroke of the Almighty was enough to convince them that they were no gods, and that he alone was to be feared and worshipped. Deuteronomy 32:39

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The appeal to their own experience of the worthlessness of idols is followed by a demand that they should acknowledge Jehovah as the only true God. The repetition of "I" is emphatic: "I, I only it," as an expression of being; I am it, ἐγώ εἰμι, John 8:24; John 18:5. The predicate Elohim (vid., 2 Samuel 7:28; Isaiah 37:16) is omitted, because it is contained in the thought itself, and moreover is clearly expressed in the parallel clause which follows, "there is not a God beside Me." Jehovah manifests himself in His doings, which Israel had experienced already, and still continued to experience. He kills and makes alive, etc., i.e., He has the power of life and death. These words do not refer to the immortality of the soul, but to the restoration of life of the people of Israel, which God had delivered up to death (so 1 Samuel 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7; cf. Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:10; Wisd. 16:13; Tobit 13:2). This thought, and the following one, which is equally consolatory, that God smites and heals again, are frequently repeated by the prophets (vid., Hosea 6:1; Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 57:17-18; Jeremiah 17:14). None can deliver out of His hand (vid., Isaiah 43:13; Hosea 5:14; Hosea 2:12).