Comentario sobre Deuteronómio 32:5

שחת לו — Take it as the Targum has it: חבילו להון לא לה “Corruption is theirs, not His”.

THE CORRUPTION WAS TOWARDS HIM; THEY ARE NOT HIS CHILDREN [BECAUSE OF] THEIR BLEMISH. The blemish is called “corruption,” as it is said, their corruption is in them, there is a blemish in them,¹²Leviticus 22:25. Here the word “corruption” is clearly associated with “blemish.” and similarly, and he sacrificeth unto the Eternal ‘a corrupted’ thing,¹³Malachi 1:14. [which means “a blemished” thing]. He [Moses] thus states that the blemish of Israel is the corruption towards the Rock of His people and His inheritance, and [therefore] he calls them not His children, just as, in an acceptable time¹⁴Isaiah 49:8. [a time when they conduct themselves properly] he calls them “His children.”¹⁵See above, 14:1. He states that they are a generation crooked and perverse, for crookedness is the opposite of uprightness, similar to what is said, and they make crooked all equity,¹⁶Micah 3:9. The text reads: v’eith kol hayesharah ye’akeishu. The contrast between yashar (straight) and akeish (crooked) is thus clear. and the perverse is the opposite of the righteous. Consequently, since He is just and right¹⁷Verse 4. and they are the opposite of that, they are not [considered] His children; rather, they are considered by Him to be corrupted. And the sequence of the verse is thus: “their corruption towards Him — which is their blemish — has caused them not to be considered His children, [for they are] a generation crooked and perverse.” The sense thereof is that the dimunition of their status did not result from the deed of the Rock, for He is perfect and there can never be imperfection in Him, but it is their blemish that corrupts them before their Father. And the meaning of the expression not His children is like And I will say to them that were not My people: ‘Thou art My people.’¹⁸Hosea 2:25. The expression not His ‘children’ is thus identical with not His ‘people.’ Similarly, They have aroused Me to jealousy with a no-god,¹⁹Further, Verse 21. meaning, with something that is not a god. So also, and they have sworn by no-gods.²⁰Jeremiah 5:7. Or it may be that the verse here states: “The corruption towards Him is their blemish, that they are not His children, for they are a generation crooked and perverse, the opposite of Him.”

שחת לו לא בניו מומם דור עקש ופתלתול, however, a twisted and perverse generation He does not view as His true children, such as when they made the golden calf. מומם, their blemish was not due to anything G’d had done Moses recalls that when G’d first told him about the people having become corrupt during his stay on the mountain that they were “your people” (Exodus 32,7), that although Moses, when accepting the conversion of the mixed multitude to Judaism had meant to sanctify the name of G’d, the fact was that instead of becoming a shining example to the world, these people had corrupted what would otherwise have been a kingdom of Priests. They had re-introduced idolatry among these people so recently weaned from it.