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Holy Week · Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion) · Year C

Deuteronomy 32:36-39

I Kill and I Make Alive

April 9, 2028

Moses's Testament and Death, Luca Signorelli
Moses's Testament and Death, Luca Signorelli, 1481–82Sistine Chapel, Vatican
On the Sistine wall. Several episodes at once: Moses hands over to Joshua, reads the law to the people, and is shown the land he will not enter.The Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants: the reading is from the last song Moses sang before this scene.Luca SignorelliAn Umbrian painter obsessed with the nude figure in violent motion, whose Orvieto frescoes Michelangelo studied closely.Sistine Chapel, VaticanThe pope's chapel, where conclaves are held, decorated by Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio before Michelangelo was ever asked.Sistine Chapel, Vatican
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelLuke 22:1-23:56Lk 22:1-23:56Alt. GospelLuke 23:1-56Lk 23:1-56Alt. GospelJohn 12:20-43Jn 12:20-43
EpistlePhil. 2:5-11Phil 2:5-11
Old TestamentDeut. 32:36-39Dt 32:36-39
PsalterPs. 118:19-29Ps 118:19-29Alt. PsalmPs. 31:9-16Ps 31:9-16

Overview & Insights

“I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.” (Deuteronomy 32:39)

The Song of Moses (32:1-43) is presented as a witness against Israel (31:19) and follows the pattern of a covenant lawsuit, with heaven and earth summoned, benefits recited, infidelity charged and sentence passed. These verses stand at the turn, where judgment on Israel gives way to judgment on the nations that carried it out, since their boast that their own hand won the victory (v. 27) cannot be allowed to stand. The taunt of verse 37, where are their gods, is aimed at the objects of Israel’s own trust, the rock in which they sheltered. Verse 39 is the theological summit of the poem, and its formula, I, even I, am he, is the self-identification that Isaiah 43:10-13 and the absolute I am sayings of John’s Gospel take up. Life and death, wounding and healing are claimed by one hand, which is the claim Holy Week tests.

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Take it further: Deuteronomy 32:36-39

Commentary

Deuteronomy 32 Commentary: The Song of MosesDt 32 Commentary: The Song of Moses enduringword.com

Verse by verse walk through the whole Song of Moses including the vindication and healing of verses 36-39.

Deuteronomy 32:39 CommentariesDt 32:39 Commentaries biblehub.com

Stacks several classic commentators on I am He, there is no god besides me.

Matthew Henry Commentary on Deuteronomy 32Mt Henry Commentary on Dt 32 blueletterbible.org

Matthew Henry reads the Lord's change of manner toward his humbled people as mercy following justice.

Gill's Exposition on Deuteronomy 32:39Gill's Exposition on Dt 32:39 biblestudytools.com

Gill unpacks the claim that the Lord alone kills and makes alive as a direct rebuke of the idols Israel had chased.

Background & Word Study

Deuteronomy 32:36 interlinearDt 32:36 interlinear biblehub.com

Hebrew interlinear for the verb of vindication that opens this closing section of the Song of Moses.

Deuteronomy 32 (Hebrew text)Dt 32 (Hebrew text) sefaria.org

Sefaria's Hebrew text and cross references situate verses 36-39 inside the full Song of Moses.

Sermons & Reflections

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 32:36-39 (Sunday of the Passion: Series C)Old Testament: Dt 32:36-39 (Sunday of the Passion: Series C) 1517.org

A Lutheran preaching brief reading Israel's vindication as a type of the vindication Christ wins on the cross.

Study Hub

Deuteronomy 32:36-39 (Lectionary at Lunch)Dt 32:36-39 (Lectionary at Lunch) scholar.csl.edu

Concordia Seminary faculty paper on this exact pericope, written for preachers working this text.

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