Deuteronomy 32:43
Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Laudate, gentes, populum ejus, quia sanguinem servorum suorum ulciscetur : et vindictam retribuet in hostes eorum, et propitius erit terræ populi sui.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εὐφράνθητε, οὐρανοί, ἅμα αὐτῷ, καὶ προσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ υἱοὶ θεοῦ· εὐφράνθητε, ἔθνη, μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐνισχυσάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι θεοῦ· ὅτι τὸ αἷμα τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ ἐκδικᾶται, καὶ ἐκδικήσει, καὶ ἀνταποδώσει δίκην τοῖς ἐχθροῖς· καὶ τοῖς μισοῦσιν ἀνταποδώσει, καὶ ἐκκαθαριεῖ Κύριος τὴν γῆν τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הַרְנִ֤ינוּ גוֹיִם֙ עַמּ֔וֹ כִּ֥י דַם עֲבָדָ֖יו יִקּ֑וֹם וְנָקָם֙ יָשִׁ֣יב לְצָרָ֔יו וְכִפֶּ֥ר אַדְמָת֖וֹ עַמּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
People. Though God afflicted the Israelites for a time, he was always disposed to receive them to his favour again, upon their repentance; and he will even receive them into his Church, before the day of judgment, Romans xi. 25. (Calmet)
This decided predilection for them, would naturally induce other nations to praise them. Grabe's Septuagint reads, "Rejoice ye heavens with him, and let all the sons of God adore him, and let all the angels of God strengthen them, because He revengeth the blood of his sons; and he will continue to do so, and he will punish his enemies, and will render to those who hate him; and the Lord will purify the land of his people." (Haydock)
In some editions of the Septuagint, after Let all the angels of God adore him, (cited [in] Hebrews i. 6.; Cappel.) they read, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people, which St. Paul quotes, Romans xv. 10; and then they add, "And Moses wrote this canticle on that day, and he taught it to the children of Israel; (Calmet) 44. and Moses came forth to the people, and spoke all the words of this law, in the ears of the people, he and Jesus, the son of Nave," by which name they designate Josue, the son of Nun. (Haydock)
He assisted Moses in singing the canticle, as his colleague in office, to whom the obligation of withdrawing the people from idolatry would henceforth devolve. (Menochius)
God always preserved some of the Jews from the general corruption, till the time of the Messias. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CXXX. He returns to the
And when all had given assent, I said: “I would now adduce some passages which I had not recounted before. They are recorded by the faithful servant Moses in parable, and are as follows: ‘Rejoice, O ye heavens, with Him, and let all the angels of God worship Him;’ ” and I added what follows of the passage: “ ‘Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, and let all the angels of God be strengthened in Him: for the blood of His sons He avenges, and will avenge, and will recompense His enemies with vengeance, and will recompense those that hate Him; and the Lord will purify the land of His people.’ And by these words He declares that we, the nations, rejoice with His people, to wit, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and, in short, all of that people who are well-pleasing to God, according to what has been already agreed on between us. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XXVIII on Rom. xv. 8
Ver. 10-12 . “And, rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people. And, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles” ( Deut. xxxii. 43 ); “and let all people laud Him.” ( Ps. cxvii. 1 .) “And, There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles trust.” ( Is. xi. 1, 10 .) Now all these quotations he has given to show that we ought to be united, and to glorify God; and also, to humble the Jew, that he may not lift himself up over these, since all the prophets called these, as well as to persuade the man of the Gentiles to be lowly, by showing him that he had a larger grace to answer for. Then he concludes his argument with a prayer again.
Theodoret Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus, To John the Œconomus
But to men who meditate on God’s law day and night, it is indeed needless to write all the proofs of this kind; the above are sufficient to persuade even the most obstinate opponents not to divide the divine titles. One point, however, I cannot endure to omit. He is alleged to have said that there are many Christs but one Son. Into this error I suppose he fell through ignorance. For if he had read the divine Scripture, he would have known that the title of the Son has also been bestowed by our bountiful Lord on many. …
St Hilary of Poitiers De Trinitate or On the Trinity, Book IV
33. Continue your study of the witness borne by Moses; mark how diligently he seizes every opportunity of proclaiming the Lord and God. You take note of the passage, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One . Note also the words of that Divine song of his; See, See, that I am the Lord, and there is no God beside Me. While God has been the Speaker throughout the poem, he ends with, Rejoice, ye heavens, together with Him and let all the sons of God praise Him. Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, and let all the Angels of God do Him honour . God is to be glorified by the Angels of God, and He says, For I am the Lord, and there is no God beside Me . For He is God the Only-begotten, and the title ‘Only-begotten’ excludes all partnership in that character, just as the title ‘Unoriginate’ denies that there is, in that regard, any who shares the character of the Unoriginate Father. …
St Hilary of Poitiers De Trinitate or On the Trinity, Book V
36. The true method of our enquiry demands that we should begin with him, through whom God first manifested Himself to the world, that is, with Moses, by whose mouth God the Only-begotten thus declared Himself; See, see that I am God, and there is no God beside Me . That godless heresy must not assign these words to God, the unbegotten Father, is clear by the sense of the passage and by the evidence of the Apostle who, as we have already stated, has taught us to understand this whole discourse as spoken by God the Only-begotten. The Apostle also points out the words, Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people as those of the Son, and in corroboration further cites this: And there shall be a root of Jesse, and One that shall arise to rule the nations; in Him shall the nations trust . …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).