Deuteronomy 32:15

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked,.... This is undoubtedly a name of the people of Israel; it is to be met with only in three places more, in Deuteronomy 33:5; it is generally thought to come from a

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

Joshurun, i.e. Israel, as is agreed by Christian and Jewish interpreters, whom he calls right, or upright, or righteous, (as the word signifies,) not that they were so indeed, but partly by way of instruction, to mind them what they professed, and promised, and ought to be; and partly by way of exprobration, to show them how unlike they were to the people of God, which they pretended to be, and what a shame it was to them to degenerate so much from their their name and profession. Waxed fat, and kicked, as well-fed and wanton cattle used to do; he grew insolent and rebellious against God, and against his word and Spirit. Thou art covered with fatness; which is here rightly understood and supplied, by comparing this place with .

Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness]; then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.Ver. 15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked.] Jeshurun, hoc est Integellus, saith one, as Shimshon, or Samson, Solilus, a little sun, but a type of the Sun of Righteousness that hath health in his wings - that is, in his beams. Israel should have been Jeshurun - that is, righteous, or upright before the Lord, Israelites indeed; but were nothing less. If ever they had been better in the time of "their espousals, when they went after God in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown," yet now that they were full fed, they kicked as young mules when they have sucked, matrem calcibus petunt, kick the dams’ dugs. Fulness breeds forgetfulness, and the best are but too prone to surfeit of things of this life, which by our corruption ofttimes prove a snare to our souls. "I will lay a stumbling block." Vatablus’ s note there is, Faciam, ut omnia habeant prospera; calamitatibus eum a peccato non revocabo; I will prosper him in all things, and not by affliction restrain him from sin. The most poisonous flies are bred in the sweetest fruit trees. How apt are the holiest to be proud and secure! even as worms and wasps eat the sweetest apples and fruits, Repugnante contra temet ipsam tua faelicitate, saith Salvian: to the Church in his time; thy prosperity is thy bane. And Cum ipsis opibus lascivere coepit ecclesia, saith Platina; The Church began to be rich and wanton at once. Religio peperit divitias, et filia devoravit matrem: Religion brought forth riches, and the daughter soon devoured the mother, saith Augustine. The much wool on the sheep’ s back is ofttimes his ruin, he is caught in the thorns and famished. The fatter the ox, the sooner to the slaughter. When the Protestants of France began to grow wanton of their prosperity, and to affect a vain frothy way of preaching, then came the cruel massacre upon them. Should we with the fed hawk forget our master? Or being full with God’ s benefits, like the full moon, then get farthest off from the sun, and by an interposition of earthly desires become dark? The cords of love are called "the cords of a man." To sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, nay, it is worse. To render good for evil is divine; to render good for good is humane; to render evil for evil is brutish; but to render evil for good is devilish; as a reverend man hath well observed. Then he forsook God.] Here Moses, weary of speaking any longer to a gainsaying and disobedient people, turneth his speech to the heaven and earth, whom he had called in to bear witness.

(15) Jeshurun is a diminutive—a term of endearment. Either “the child of the upright,” or “the beloved Israel.” The letters of the diminutive of Israel, if slightly abbreviated, would make “Jeshurun.” It is peculiar to Deuteronomy (here and in Deuteronomy 33:5; Deuteronomy 33:26) and Isaiah (Isaiah 44:2). Two of the Targums render the word by “Israel here.” The third retains the word itself. The LXX. translate it “the beloved one.” Kicked.—Only in 1 Samuel 2:29 : “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and mine offering . . . to make yourselves fat?"Grown thick.—As Rehoboam said, “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.” Both these parallels illustrate the spirit of the verse.

Verse 15. Jeshurun] ישרון the upright. This appellative is here put for Israel, and as it comes from ישר yashar, he was right, straight, may be intended to show that the people who once not only promised fair, but were really upright, walking in the paths of righteousness, should, in the time signified by the prophet, not only revolt from God, but actually fight against him; like a full fed horse, who not only will not bear the harness, but breaks away from his master, and endeavours to kick him as he struggles to get loose. All this is spoken prophetically, and is intended as a warning, that the evil might not take place. For were the transgression unavoidable, it must be the effect of some necessitating cause, which would destroy the turpitude of the action, as it referred to Israel; for if the evil were absolutely unavoidable, no blame could attach to the unfortunate agent, who could only consider himself the miserable instrument of a dire necessity. See a case in point, 1 Samuel 23:11-12, where the prediction appears in the most absolute form, and yet the evil was prevented by the person receiving the prediction as a warning. The case is the following: - The Philistines attacked Keilah and robbed the threshing-floors; David, being informed of it, asked counsel of God whether he should go and relieve it; he is ordered to go, and is assured of success; he goes, routs the Philistines, and delivers Keilah. Saul, hearing that David was in Keilah, determines to besiege the place. David, finding that Saul meditated his destruction, asked counsel of the Lord, thus: "O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. Then David and his men (about six hundred) arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go: and it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forbore to go forth." Here was the most positive prediction that Saul would come to Keilah, and that the men of Keilah would deliver David into his hands; yet neither of these events took place, because David departed from Keilah. But had he continued there, Saul would have come down, and the men of Keilah would have betrayed their deliverer. Thus the prediction was totally conditional; and so were all these prophecies relative to the apostasy of Israel. They were only fulfilled in those who did not receive them as warnings. See Jeremiah 18:8-10.

15–18. The Fulness and Apostasy of Israel 15Jacob ate and was full, Fat waxed Jeshurun and kicked, —Thou wast fat, thou wast plump, thou wast sleek! He forsook the God who had made him, And befooled the Rock of his succour. 16With strangers they moved Him to jealousy, With abominations provoked Him, 17They sacrificed to demons not God, Gods whom they never had known, New ones, lately come in, Your sires never trembled at them. 18Of the Rock that thee bare thou wast mindless, And forgattest the God that had travailed with thee.

15. Jeshurun — This word is found elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 33:5; Deuteronomy 33:26, and Isaiah 44:2. It is considered by some a term of endearment.