Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note of the words of my mouth:
Give ear, you heavens, and let me speak. Let the earth listen to the words of my mouth.
2 My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden plants:
Let my teaching drop down like the rain, let my speech distill like the dew, like the gentle rain on the tender grass, and like the showers on the plants.
3 For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great.
For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, and ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.
The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his paths are just. He is the faithful God, without iniquity. He is just and upright.
5 They have become false, they are not his children, the mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted generation.
They have acted corruptly against him. They are not his children. It is their disgrace. They are a perverted and crooked generation.
6 Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.
Do you reward Yahweh in this way, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your father, the one who has created you? He made you and established you.
7 Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you the story.
Call to mind the days of ancient times, think about the years of many ages past. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel.
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance— when he divided all of mankind, and he set the boundaries of the peoples, as he also fixed the number of their gods.
9 For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage.
For Yahweh's portion is his people; Jacob is his apportioned inheritance.
10 He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light of his eye.
He found him in a desert land, and in the barren and howling wilderness; he shielded him and cared for him, he guarded him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle, teaching her young to make their flight, with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her strong feathers:
As an eagle that guards her nest and flutters over her young, Yahweh spread out his wings and took them, and carried them on his pinions.
12 So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.
Yahweh alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
13 He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock;
He made him ride on high places of the land, and he fed him the fruits of the field; he nourished him with honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty crag.
14 Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape.
He ate butter from the herd and drank milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the juice of grapes.
15 But Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to the Rock of his salvation.
But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— you grew fat, you were too fat, and you had eaten your fill— he abandoned the God who made him, and he rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16 The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath.
They made Yahweh jealous by their strange gods; with their abominations they angered him.
17 They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers.
They sacrificed to demons, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
18 You have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of the God who gave you birth.
You have deserted the Rock, who became your father, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters.
Yahweh saw this and he rejected them, because his sons and his daughters provoked him so.
20 And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled generation, children in whom is no faith.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.
21 They have given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation,
They have made me jealous by what is not god and angered me by their worthless things. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; by a foolish nation I will make them angry.
22 For my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase, and firing the deep roots of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
For a fire is kindled by my anger and is burning to the lowest Sheol; it is devouring the earth and its harvest; it is setting on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
23 I will send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be showered on them.
I will heap disasters on them; I will shoot all my arrows at them;
24 They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust.
They will be wasted by hunger and devoured by burning heat and bitter destruction; I will send on them the teeth of wild animals, with the poison of things that crawl in the dust.
25 Outside they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man.
Outside the sword will bereave, and in the bedrooms terror will do so. It will destroy both young man and virgin, the nursing baby, and the man of gray hairs.
26 I said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men:
I said that I would scatter them far away, that I would make the memory of them to cease from among mankind.
27 But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this.
Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, and that their enemies would judge mistakenly, and that they would say, 'Our hand is exalted,' I would have done all this.
28 For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them.
For Israel is a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding in them.
29 If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future!
Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their coming fate!
30 How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?
How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had given them up?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges.
For our enemies' rock is not like our Rock, just as even our enemies admit.
32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries are bitter:
For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, the cruel poison of snakes.
Their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps.
34 Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?
Is not this plan secretly kept by me, sealed up among my treasures?
35 Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate.
Vengeance is mine to give, and recompense, at the time when their foot slips; for the day of disaster for them is near, and the things that are to come on them will hurry to happen.”
36 For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up or free.
For Yahweh will give justice to his people, and he will pity his servants. He will see that their power is gone, and no one remains, either slaves or free people.
37 And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith?
Then he will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in whom they took refuge?—
38 Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation.
The gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection.
39 See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand.
See now that I, even I, am God, and that there is no god besides me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal, and there is no one who can save you from my might.
40 For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life,
For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, 'As I live forever, I will act.
41 If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters.
When I sharpen my glittering sword, and when my hand begins to bring justice, I will render vengeance on my enemies, and I will pay back those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh with the blood of the killed and the captives, and from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.'”
43 Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people.
Rejoice, you nations, with God's people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will render vengeance on his enemies, and he will make atonement for his land, for his people.
44 So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.
Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Joshua son of Nun.
45 And after saying all this to the people,
Then Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel.
46 Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your children to do every word of this law.
He said to them, “Fix your mind on all the words that I have witnessed to you today, so that you may command your children to keep them, all the words of this law.
47 And this is no small thing for you, but it is your life, and through this you may make your days long in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.
For this is no trivial matter for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you will prolong your days in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
48 That same day the Lord said to Moses,
Yahweh spoke to Moses on that same day and said,
49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab opposite Jericho; there you may see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for their heritage:
“Go up into this range of the mountains of Abarim, up Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho. You will look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel as their possession.
50 And let death come to you on the mountain where you are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to rest with his people:
You will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people, as Aaron your fellow Israelite died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
51 Because of your sin against me before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath Kadesh in the waste land of Zin; because you did not keep my name holy among the children of Israel.
This will happen because you were unfaithful to me among the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not treat me with honor and respect among the people of Israel.
52 So you will see the land before you, but you will not go into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.
For you will see the land before you, but you will not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
