Deuteronomy 32
1 Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words out of my mouth.
“Listen to me, [all you who are in the] heavens, and [all you who are on the] earth, listen to what I say [MTY].
2 Let my speech be looked for as the rain, and my words come down as dew, as the shower upon the herbage, and as snow upon the grass.
I wish/desire that my teaching will fall on you like rain drops or be like dew on the ground, and be like a gentle rain on the young plants, like showers on the grass.
3 For I have called on the name of the Lord: assign you greatness to our God.
I will praise Yahweh [MTY]. And [all you people should] tell others that our God is very great.
4 [As for God], his works [are] true, and all his ways [are] judgement: God [is] faithful, and there is no unrighteousness [in him]; just and holy [is] the Lord.
He is like a rock [MET] [under which we are protected]; [everything] that he does is perfect and completely just/fair [DOU]. He always does what he says that he will do; he never does anything that is wrong.
5 They have sinned, not [pleasing] him; spotted children, a froward and perverse generation.
“But [you Israeli people] have been very unfaithful to him; because of your sins, you no longer [deserve to] be his children. You are extremely wicked and deceitful [DOU].
6 Do you thus recompense the Lord? [is the] people thus foolish and unwise? did not he himself your father purchase you, and make you, and form you?
You foolish and senseless [DOU] people, (is this the way that you should repay Yahweh [for all that he has done for you]?/this is certainly not the way that you should repay Yahweh [for all that he has done for you].) [RHQ] He is your father; he created you [RHQ]; he caused you to become a nation.
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years for past ages: ask your father, and he shall relate to you, your elders, and they shall tell you.
“Think about [what happened] long ago; consider what happened to your ancestors. Ask your parents, and they will inform you; ask the older people, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.
When God, who is greater than any other god, long ago divided the people into groups, he assigned to the nations their land. He determined where each people-group should live and (assigned to/chose for) each people-group a god/angel.
9 And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance.
But Yahweh decided that we would be his people; he chose [us, the descendants of] Jacob, to belong to him.
10 He maintained him in the wilderness, in burning thirst and a dry land: he led him about and instructed him, and kept him as the apple of an eye.
“He saw [our ancestors] when they were in a desert, wandering in a land (that was desolate/where no people lived). He protected them and took care of them, as every person takes good care of his own eyes. [SIM, IDM]
11 As an eagle would watch over his brood, and yearns over his young, receives them having spread his wings, and takes them up on his back:
[Yahweh protected his people] just like an eagle encourages its babies [to fly] and flutters over them [MET], spreading its wings and catching them [if they start to fall].
12 the Lord alone led them, there was no strange god with them.
Yahweh was the only one who led them; no other foreign god helped him.
13 He brought them up on the strength of the land; he fed them with the fruits of the fields; they sucked honey out of the rock, and oil out of the solid rock.
“[After they entered the land that Yahweh promised to give to them], Yahweh enabled them to rule the hilly areas; they ate the crops that grew in the fields. They found honey in the rocks, and their olive trees [MTY] grew [even] in stony ground.
14 Butter of cows, and milk of sheep, with the fat of lambs and rams, of calves and kids, with fat of kidneys of wheat; and he drank wine, the blood of the grape.
The cows gave them plenty of curds/yogurt, the goats gave them plenty of milk, they had well-fed sheep and cattle, they had very good wheat, and they made delicious wine from their grapes.
15 So Jacob ate and was filled, and the beloved one kicked; he grew fat, he became thick and broad: then he forsook the God that made him, and departed from God his Saviour.
“The Israeli people became rich and prosperous, but then they rebelled against God; they abandoned him, the one who created them, the one who powerfully saves them.
16 They provoked me to anger with strange gods; with their abominations they bitterly angered me.
So he abandoned them because they started to worship other/strange gods. Because of their worshiping disgusting idols, he became angry.
17 They sacrificed to devils, and not to God; to gods whom they knew not: new and fresh [gods] came in, whom their fathers knew not.
They offered sacrifices to gods who were [really] demons, gods that their ancestors had never known; they offered sacrifices to gods that they had recently found out about, gods whom your ancestors had never revered.
18 You have forsaken God that begot you, and forgotten God who feeds you.
They forgot [the true] God, the one who protects them [MET], the one who created them and caused them to live.
19 And the Lord saw, and was jealous; and was provoked by the anger of his sons and daughters,
“When Yahweh saw that [they had abandoned him], he became angry, so he rejected [the Israeli people, who are like] his sons and daughters.
20 and said, I will turn away my face from them, and will show what shall happen to them in the last days; for it is a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faith.
He said, ‘They are very wicked/stubborn people, very unfaithful; so I will no longer help them, and then I will watch and see what happens to them.
21 They have provoked me to jealousy with [that which is] not God, they have exasperated me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with them that are no nation, I will anger them with a nation void of understanding.
They made me very angry because of their worshiping idols, which are not really gods; they have caused me to be [jealous [MET] because I want them to worship only me]. So now, in order to cause them to become jealous, I will send [to attack them an army of] a nation of worthless and foolish people.
22 For a fire has been kindled out of my wrath, it shall burn to hell below; it shall devour the land, and the fruits of it; it shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
I will be very angry, and I will destroy them like a fire that will burn on the earth and all the way down to the place where dead people are [MET]; that fire will destroy the earth and everything that grows on it, and it will even burn what is down under the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
23 I will gather evils upon them, and will fight with my weapons against them.
I will cause them to experience many disasters; [they will feel as though] [MET] I am shooting all my arrows at them.
24 [They shall be] consumed with hunger and the devouring of birds, and there shall be irremediable destruction: I will send forth against them the teeth of wild beasts, with the rage of [serpents] creeping on the ground.
They will die because of being hungry and because of having hot fevers and because of terrible diseases; I will send wild animals to attack [MTY] them, and poisonous snakes to bite [MTY] them.
25 Without, the sword shall bereave them of children, and terror [shall issue] out of the secret chambers; the young man shall perish with the virgin, the suckling with him who has grown old.
Outside [their houses, their enemies] will kill them [MTY] with swords, and in their homes, [their enemies will cause] them to be terrified. Their enemies will kill young men and young women, and they will kill infants and old people with gray hair.
26 I said, I will scatter them, and I will cause their memorial to cease from amongst men.
I wanted to scatter the Israeli people to distant countries in order that no one would ever remember them.
27 Were it not for the wrath of the enemy, lest they should live long, lest their enemies should combine against them; lest they should say, Our own high arm, and not the Lord, has done all these things.
But [if I did that], their enemies would wrongly boast that they were the ones who had [gotten rid of my people]; they would say, “We [SYN] are the ones who defeated them; it was not Yahweh who has done all these things.”’
28 It is a nation that has lost counsel, neither is there understanding in them.
You Israelis are a nation of people who do not have any sense. None of you is wise.
29 They had not sense to understand: let them reserve these things against the time to come.
If you were wise, you would understand [why you would be punished]; you would have realized what was going to happen to you.
30 How should one pursue a thousand, and two rout tens of thousands, if God had not sold them, and the Lord delivered them up?
[You would have realized] why 1,000 [of your soldiers] would be defeated by only one [of the enemy soldiers], and why two of your enemies would chase away 10,000 [Israeli soldiers]. [You would realize that this would happen] only if God, the one who always defended you [MET], had allowed your enemies to defeat you, because he had abandoned you.
31 For their gods are not as our God, but our enemies [are] void of understanding.
Your enemies know that their gods are not powerful like Yahweh, our God, [so their gods could not have defeated us Israelis].
32 For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and their vine-branch of Gomorrha: their grape [is] a grape of gall, their cluster [is] one of bitterness.
Your enemies are like [MET] grapevines planted near [the ruins of] Sodom and Gomorrah [cities]; the grapes from those vines are bitter and poisonous;
33 Their wine [is] the rage of serpents, and the incurable rage of asps.
the wine [from those grapes] is like the poison of snakes [DOU].
34 Behold! are not these things stored up by me, and sealed amongst my treasures?
[“Yahweh says], ‘I know [RHQ] [what I have planned to do to the Israeli people and to their enemies], and those plans are so secure [that it as though he locked them up] [MET].
35 In the day of vengeance I will recompense, whenever their foot shall be tripped up; for the day of their destruction [is] near to them, and the judgements at hand are close upon you.
I am the one who will get revenge and pay those enemies back for what they have done [to my people], at the right time for them to be punished [IDM]; they will soon experience disasters, and I will punish/destroy them quickly.’
36 For the Lord shall judge his people, and shall be comforted over his servants; for he saw that they were utterly weakened, and failed in the hostile invasion, and were become feeble:
“But Yahweh will see that you who are truly his people, who (are innocent/have not done things that are wrong), and he will be merciful to you. And he will see that you are helpless, and that there are very few of you, slaves or free people, who are still alive.
37 and the Lord said, Where are their gods on whom they trusted?
Then Yahweh will ask his people, ‘Where are the gods that you thought would protect you [MET]?
38 the fat of whose sacrifices you ate, and you drank the wine of their drink-offerings? let them arise and help you, and be your protectors.
You gave to those gods the best parts of the animals that you sacrificed, and you poured out wine for them to drink. So, they should begin to help you; they should be the ones who will protect you!
39 Behold, behold that I am [he], and there is no god beside me: I kill, and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal; and there is none who shall deliver out of my hands.
“But now you will realize that I, only I, am God; there is no other god who is [a real] god. I am the one who can kill people and who can cause people to live; I can wound people, and I can heal people, and there is no one who can prevent me from doing those things.
40 For I will lift up my hand to heaven, and swear by my right hand, and I will say, I live for ever.
I raise my hand toward heaven and solemnly declare that just as sure as I live forever,
41 For I will sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand shall take hold of judgement; and I will render judgement to my enemies, and will recompense them that hate me.
that when I sharpen my sword, as I [SYN] prepare to punish people, I will get revenge on my enemies; I will pay back those who hate me.
42 I will make my weapons drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, [it shall glut itself] with the blood of the wounded, and from the captivity of the heads of [their] enemies that rule over them.
I will kill all [of my enemies] with a sword; it will be as though I had arrows that will be covered with their blood. I will kill [MTY] all those whom I capture and cut off their leaders’ heads.’
43 Rejoice, you heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice you Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.
“You people of all nations, you as well as his people should praise Yahweh, because Yahweh gets revenge on those who kill the people who serve him; and he cleanses his people’s land which has become defiled because of their sins.”
44 And Moses wrote this song in that day, and taught it to the children of Israel; and Moses went in and spoke all the words of this law in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the [son] of Naue.
Joshua and Moses/I recited the words of that song while the Israeli people were listening.
45 And Moses finished speaking to all Israel.
When they/we finished reciting to the Israeli people the words of this song,
46 And he said to them, Take heed with your heart to all these words, which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your sons, to observe and do all the words of this law.
Moses/I said, “Never forget all these commands that I have been giving you today. Teach these laws to your children, in order that they will faithfully obey all of them.
47 For this [is] no vain word to you; for it [is] your life, and because of this word you shall live long upon the land, into which you go over Jordan to inherit it.
These instructions are very important [LIT]. If [you obey] them, you will live a long time in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan [River] to occupy.”
48 And the Lord spoke to Moses in this day, saying,
On that same day, Yahweh said to Moses/me,
49 Go up to the mount Abarim, this mountain Nabau which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho, and behold the land of Chanaan, which I give to the sons of Israel:
“Go to the Abarim Mountain range [here] in the Moab region, across from Jericho. Climb Nebo Mountain, and look [toward the west] to see Canaan land, the land that I am about to give to the Israeli people.
50 and die in the mount whither you go up, and be added to your people; as Aaron your brother died in mount Or, and was added to his people.
You will die on that mountain [EUP, DOU], like your [older] brother Aaron died on Hor Mountain.
51 Because you disobeyed my word amongst the children of Israel, at the waters of strife of Cades in the wilderness of Sin; because you sanctified me not amongst the sons of Israel.
You will die because both of you disobeyed me in the presence of the Israeli people, when you all were at Meribah Springs near Kadesh [town] in the Zin Desert. You did not honor and respect me in the presence of the Israeli people in the way that I deserve because I am God.
52 You shall see the land before [you], but you shall not enter into it.
[When you are on that mountain where I told you to go], you will see in the distance in front of you the land that I am about to give to the Israeli people, but you will not enter it.”
