He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
He found him in a desert land, х yimtsaa'eehuw (H4672), he found] - i:e., 'assisted,' 'sustained,' provided for him х bª'erets (H776) midbaar (H4057)] in a pasture land uninhabited, but occupied by nomadic people. But Hengstenberg ('Pentateuch,' 1:, p. 125) regards the word "found" as so special that it cannot be attributed to an accidental agreement. The phrase is borrowed by Hosea (Hosea 9:10), "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness," 'where,' says Hengstenberg, 'the general image of an agreeable discovery, in the Pentateuch, is individualized by the prophet under the image of grapes.' The reason why "the wilderness" is selected as the starting point of Israel's career is, that there only they began to feel themselves a free and independent people.
And in the waste howling wilderness, х uwbtohuw (H8414) yªleel (H3214) yªshimon (H3452)] - and in a desolate howling wilderness: very different term from the former. These epithets show clearly that they are not descriptive of the general character of the wilderness, but only of particular portions of it-namely, either the great Arabah, the long, parched, dreary valley which extends from the Dead Sea to Akaba, or to the sterile region east of the Seir mountains, on the border of the Arabian desert, which the Israelites were under necessity of traversing toward the close of their migrations-which is described elsewhere as great and terrible, infested by "fiery serpents" and the perilous state of which is alluded to by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2:6).
The phraseology, "waste howling wilderness" is commonly considered an Oriental expression for a desert full of wild beasts, whose loud roars at night form a terrific element in the scene. But perhaps the "howling" refers rather to the loud rushing sound of the Khamsin, which, amid the prevalence of an awful death-like silence everywhere, blows with tremendous impetuosity, charged with clouds of sand and gravel, darkening the air, and excluding the prospect of every object far and near. The roaring sweep of this tempestuous blast over the wide area of the desert renders the figurative description in the song exceedingly striking and impressive.
He led him about, he instructed him. 'Jehovah (Yahweh),' says Harmer ('Observations,' 4:, p. 123), 'certainly instructed Israel in religion, by delivering to him his law in the wilderness; but it is not of this kind of teaching Moses here speaks, but of God's instructing Israel how to avoid the dangers of the journey, by leading the people about this and that dangerous precipitous hill, directing them to proper passes through the mountains, and guiding them through the intricacies of that difficult journey which might, and probably would, have confounded the most consummate Arab guides. They that could have safely enough conducted a small caravan of travelers through this desert might have been very unequal to the task of directing such an enormous multitude, encumbered with cattle, women, children, and utensils.'
He kept him as the apple of his eye, х kª'iyshown (H380) `eeynow (H5869)] - as the little man of his eye; i:e., the pupil, in which, as in a mirror, a person can discern the image of himself reflected in miniature (cf. Proverbs 7:2). It is a beautiful image, and, by alluding to the care with which every person defends his eye from injury, conveys a graphic idea of the tender, vigilant assiduity with which the Lord watched over His people.