Deuteronomy 32:10

10. Found him in a desert land This entire passage (10-14) is a highly poetical description of Jehovah’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage and of the divine care and guidance. He finds Israel as a man ready to perish. Egypt, though a land of fertility and wealth, was a desert to the toiling Hebrew serf. The harsh measure of the Egyptian king would have resulted, if not arrested, in the extirpation of the people. To heighten the figure and give it local colouring Moses brings out the desolateness of the Wilderness of Wandering, and the howling of the wild beasts that must at times have made the way terrible.

He kept him as the apple of his eye This figure denotes the tenderest care of Jehovah. Comp. Psalms 17:8: “Keep me as the apple of the eye;” also, Proverbs 7:2: “Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.”