Deutéronome 32:43

Rejoice, ye nations, (and) ye people of Beth Israel; for the blood of His servants which was shed, He hath avenged. He hath kept (in mind) and returned just vengeance upon His adversaries, and by His Word will He make Atonement for His land, and for His people.

O Nations, glorify His people! They will glorify them, after God has exacted vengeance for their blood. Some people derive the word from “a cry went over” [I Kings 22: 36], understanding the word in the sense of “a proclamation” — i.e., in all the places where they [Israel’s enemies — Translator] may be, they will announce proclamations over them.

and atone for His land, His people Some say that this passage is missing a vav , and should be understood as if it read, “atone for His land, and for His people”. There is also a homiletical explanation [Palestinian Talmud Kil’ayyim 9: 4 (32d)] that the land atones for His people. Although this idea is correct, it does not fit into the context of the verse, and, moreover, “land” is a feminine noun (as definitively evidenced by the terminal heh , even though here a tav takes its place), whereas the verse does not employ “atone” in its feminine form. The correct explanation, in my opinion, is that the nation will atone for the land, reversing the order of the subject and the object of the verb, as we find in “water wears away stones” [Job 14: 19]. There are other cases where “atonement” appears without the preposition “for” (e.g., “you shall purify it and make atonement [for] it” [Ezekiel 43: 20]). The sense of the verse is that Israel shall exact vengeance against the nations, and thereby atone for the land of Israel, on account of the blood that had been spilled there (as in, “the land will not receive atonement” [Numbers 36: 33]). This fits in with the context of the verse. Another explanation is that “atone” is used here in the sense of “purify”, as in “make atonement [for] it” [Ezekiel 43: 20]; similarly Ezekiel says, concerning the final war, “they will cleanse the land” [Ezekiel 39: 16], referring to Israel.

הרנינו גוים (על) עמו, similar in meaning to the word הללו in Psalms 117,1 הללו את ה' כל גוים, “praise the Lord all you nations, etc.” Just as the psalmist calls upon the nations to acknowledge G’d, to praise Him and exalt Him for the loving kindness He has shown His creatures, so Moses concludes here with a similar call addressed to these same nations at the time of the redemption of mankind, or those who deserve it, to praise the Lord because they have finally seen what He has done for His people. By addressing them already now, Moses implies that G’d would relate to them similarly if they would take all these lessons to heart as of now (and convert to Judaism).

וכפר אדמתו עמו, He will cleanse the blood of His people which has been spilled and been absorbed by the earth, by spilling the blood of their enemies, as the Torah’s recipe for cleansing the holy soil of the Land of Israel from innocently spilled blood (Numbers 35,33).

הרנינו גויים, “you who are the arrows of the Lord and His sword make the nations acclaim, sing aloud! So that they will realise that G’d is fair and does not commit any injustice. Compare Psalms 67,5 ישמחו וירננו לאומים כי תשפוט עמים מישור,”nations will exult and shout for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity”

עמו, His people shall give thanks with shouts of joy and music, כי דם עבדיו יקום ונקם ישיב לצריו, for He does avenge the blood of His servants. G’d punishes the nations by avenging what they have done to the Jewish people.

וכפר אדמתו, for the soil of the Land of Israel having been desolate and barren while its people were in exile and for what had occurred on that soil in the interval.

עמו, His people will also have to atone for all the wrongs they did during the long years they had been in exile. The purpose of this dual atonement by both the soil and the people is to bring back the Shechinah, G’d’s benevolent presence to the Land of Israel, as envisioned in Isaiah 52,8 כי עין בעין יראו בשוב ה' ציון,”for every eye will see when G’d returns to Zion.”

הרנינו גוים עמו, sing aloud, o you nations;” then the nations of the universe will break out in a song of jubilation, praising the Jewish people for whom G–d has taken vengeance, as will be spelled out forthwith.

כי דם עבדיו יקום ונקם ישיב לצוריו, “for He avenges the blood of His servants, and renders vengeance to His adversaries.” He will spill the blood of the gentile adversaries of Israel just as they had done to the Israelites. This is what David spoke of in Psalms 110,6 when he said: ידין בגוים מלא גויות, “He works judgment on the nations, heaping up bodies;” In the future when the Almighty will ask the gentiles why they spilled the blood of His people, and they will deny it, He will show them “His garments;” (if I understand correctly, the ones G–d saved up) as full of blood stains and use this as evidence. Authors of poetic poems in our liturgy have repeatedly alluded to this illustration of how G–d has preserved evidence of the murder committed against His people. They referred to the victims as קדושים, “holy martyrs.”

וכפר אדמתו עמו, “His people Israel will serve as atonement for G–d’s ‘Holy Land;’ as is written in Numbers 35,33: ולארץ לא יכופר אשר שופך-בה כי אם בדם שופכו, “for no expiation can be made for the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him who has shed it.” The Israelites, in due course, will spill the blood of the nations who had been guilty of spilling their blood. Compare also on this subject Ezekiel 25,14: ונתתי את נקמתי באדום ביד עמי ישראל, “I will wreak My vengeance on Edom through My people Israel, and they shall take action against Edom.”