Teks -- Deuteronomy 32:28 (NET)

32:28 They are a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding among them.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Deu 32:28 - Void of counsel

Their enemies are foolish people, and therefore make so false and foolish a judgment upon things.

Calvin: Deu 32:28 - For they are a nation void of counsel

28.For they are a nation void of counsel The cause is assigned why God had almost blotted out altogether the memory of the people, viz., because their faculty was incurable: for He does not merely indicate that their conduct was rash and inconsiderate, because they lacked reason mid discretion: but that they could be by no means brought to their senses, and, in fact, that not one drop of sagacity existed in them. The proof of this immediately follows, viz., that the tokens of God’s wrath were too clearly set before their eyes to escape their notice, unless they were utterly blind and stupid. The word לו , lu, which they render, “Would that” ²⁷⁸ ( utinam,) denotes commiseration rather than desire; and therefore it may be properly translated, “Oh, if they understood,” etc.

By the expression, “latter, ” their exceeding stupidity is censured: since not even by many and long experiences were they aroused to reflect on the causes of their calamities; whereas length of time extorts some sense at last from the very dullest, and almost idiotic persons. It was, therefore, a sign of desperate stupidity that they were still without understanding after so many years; as if by experience itself they had grown callous, when they ought to have shaken off their lethargy, and to have bestirred themselves to earnest inquiry. Justly, then, does Moses reproach them with not having considered even at the latter end; for not once only, nor in a single year, but by constant inflictions of punishment during a long series of years, had they been instructed without profit.

TSK: Deu 32:28

Deu 32:6; Job 28:28; Psa 81:12; Pro 1:7; Isa 27:11, Isa 29:14; Jer 4:22, Jer 8:9; Hos 4:6; Mat 13:14, Mat 13:15; Rom 11:25; 1Co 3:19

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Deu 32:28 - They // Void of counsel

They either,

1. The enemies last mentioned, who are foolish people, and therefore make so false and foolish a judgment upon things. Or rather,

2. The Israelites themselves, of whom he speaks both in the foregoing Deu 32:26 , and in the whole foregoing chapter, and in the next verse Deu 32:29 , and afterwards.

Void of counsel that have not wisdom to direct themselves, nor discretion to desire and receive counsel from others, but rashly and madly go on in those courses which will certainly ruin them.

Haydock: Deu 32:28 - Wisdom

Wisdom. Interpreters generally explain this and the eight following verses, of those nations whom God employed to scourge his people, though some understand it all of the Israelites. (Calmet) ---

The words may be applied to all who transgress the law of God, as this is a sure mark of folly and impiety, and the Lord earnestly wishes that all should be converted, ver. 29. True wisdom reflects on the past, present, and future, (Worthington) in order to make provision for the last great conflict. (Haydock)

Gill: Deu 32:28 - For they are a nation void of counsel // neither is there any understanding is them

For they are a nation void of counsel,.... This is said not of the Jews, whose character is given, Deu 32:6; and instances of their ingratitude, folly, and want of counsel and understanding, have been already mentioned, and punishment for the same inflicted on them, according to this prophetic song; so that the prophecy respecting them is issued, and another people are taken notice of, even their enemies, of whom the Jewish writers in general interpret these words, and what follows; and was true of the Gentiles, both of the Pagan sort of them, who took too much to themselves, and ascribed the destruction of the Jews, and their conquest of them, to themselves, and their idols; and of false Christians among them, when the Roman empire became Christian, such as expressed themselves in the language of the latter part Deu 32:27, "our hand is high", &c. which plainly showed them to be a people devoid of the true knowledge of the Scriptures, they should have made the men of their counsel, and have consulted; and of the Gospel of Christ, which is the counsel of God, as the Arians, Pelagians, &c. must be, or they would never imbibe and advance tenets so diametrically opposite thereunto:

neither is there any understanding is them; of divine and spiritual things, of the Scriptures, and the doctrines of them; of the person of Christ, and his divine perfections, or they would never deny his deity; of the righteousness of God, of that which is required in the law, and revealed in the Gospel, or they would never set up a righteousness of their own for justification; and of themselves, their unrighteousness, impurity, and impotence to that which is good; or they would never so strongly assert the purity of human nature, and the power of man's freewill: God foreseeing all the folly, and want of counsel and understanding in the Gentile world, under different characters, preserved a remnant of the Jews as a standing admonition to them.