And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
And he was king in Jeshurun. On "Jeshurun" as a designation of Israel, see Deuteronomy 32:15. By the grammatical connection of this verse with the preceding, "he" must refer to Moses, who might in a certain restricted sense be called "king," as under God chief ruler (Judges 19:1; Jeremiah 19:3). But the tenor of the context excludes this interpretation; for the general assembly of "the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel" at the promulgation of the law pointed to their public and solemn assent to the national compact, which was ratified by the glorious theophany above described; and then Yahweh, while by virtue of His creative power and providential agency He is Sovereign of the universe, began, by the inauguration of the legal economy, to exercise the kingly office among His chosen people. He, therefore, must be recognized as "king in Jeshurun."
It is the opinion of the most eminent Biblical scholars that "Moses" has crept into Deuteronomy 33:4 through the error of a transcriber, and that thus confusion and obscurity have been introduced into a passage of which the manifestation and the acts of God, not of Moses, form the real and the leading subject (see Kennicott, 'Dissertation,' 1:; Michaelis, 'Commentary on the Laws of Moses,' art. 34).