Ulangan 33:26

General Praise and Blessing

33:26 There is no one like God, O Jeshurun, ¹ 

who rides through the sky ²  to help you,

on the clouds in majesty.

Ulangan 1:7

1:7 Get up now, ³  resume your journey, heading for ⁴  the Amorite hill country, to all its areas ⁵  including the arid country, ⁶  the highlands, the Shephelah, ⁷  the Negev, ⁸  and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

[33:26]  ¹ sn Jeshurun is a term of affection referring to Israel, derived from the Hebrew verb יָשַׁר (yashar, “be upright”). See note on the term in Deut 32:15.

[33:26]  ² tn Or “(who) rides (on) the heavens” (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT). This title depicts Israel’s God as sovereign over the elements of the storm (cf. Ps 68:33). The use of the phrase here may be polemical; Moses may be asserting that Israel’s God, not Baal (called the “rider of the clouds” in the Ugaritic myths), is the true divine king (cf. v. 5) who controls the elements of the storm, grants agricultural prosperity, and delivers his people from their enemies. See R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature,” BSac 151 (1994): 275.

[1:7]  ³ tn Heb “turn”; NAB “Leave here”; NIV, TEV “Break camp.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “go (to).”

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “its dwelling places.”

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Arabah” (so ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “lowlands” (so TEV) or “steppes”; NIV, CEV, NLT “the western foothills.”

[1:7]  sn The Shephelah is the geographical region between the Mediterranean coastal plain and the Judean hill country.

[1:7]  ⁸ sn The Hebrew term Negev means literally “desert” or “south” (so KJV, ASV). It refers to the area south of Beer Sheba and generally west of the Arabah Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.