(21-23) And hast brought forth thy people Israel . . .--The verses travel over ground so familiar as to require no comment, but the parallelism with Deuteronomy 26:8, with the other prophetic prayers above referred to, and with Psalm 136:11-12, is significant. The thoughts of all true worshippers moved more or less in the same groove, and clothed themselves in the same language, when they meditated on the past history of their people.

Verse 21. - Almost identical with Deuteronomy 26:8. The great terror which the Israelites inspired is constantly referred to (see Deuteronomy 2:25; Exodus 23:27; Joshua 5:1).

32:16-25 Jeremiah adores the Lord and his infinite perfections. When at any time we are perplexed about the methods of Providence, it is good for us to look to first principles. Let us consider that God is the fountain of all being, power, and life; that with him no difficulty is such as cannot be overcome; that he is a God of boundless mercy; that he is a God of strict justice; and that he directs every thing for the best. Jeremiah owns that God was righteous in causing evil to come upon them. Whatever trouble we are in, personal or public, we may comfort ourselves that the Lord sees it, and knows how to remedy it. We must not dispute God's will, but we may seek to know what it means.And hast brought forth thy people Israel of the land of Egypt,.... As he promised Abraham, some hundreds of years before, that they should come out from thence; and where they had been as bondsmen, though they were the Lord's peculiar people, whom he had chose for himself above all people, and therefore he brought them out of their state of bondage; and this was his own doing, they could not deliver themselves; the enemy would not let them go till he was obliged to it by the superior power of God:

with signs and with wonders; which he wrought for them at the time of their deliverance, slaying the firstborn; and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, after he brought them out of Egypt, and before their settlement in the laud of Canaan; and so these may be considered as distinct from the signs and wonders in the land of Egypt before mentioned:

and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm; with great power, and so delivered the Israelites from them that were stronger than they; with a mighty hand, that protected his people; and with a long arm, that reached their enemies, and destroyed them:

and with great terror; with great reverence in the Israelites, who saw the power and majesty of God; and with great terror to Pharaoh and his host, when they saw the waters return and overwhelm them; and to all the nations round about, when they heard of it; see Deuteronomy 4:34. The Targum is,

"with great vision;''

so a spectacle, as the Syriac version; openly, before the eyes of all.