Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note of the words of my mouth:
“Listen, O heavens, to what I am saying. Let the earth hear 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 doctrine accumulate like the rain. Let my eloquence form like the dew, like a mist upon the plants, and like water droplets upon the grass.
3 For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great.
For I will invoke the name of the Lord. Acknowledge the magnificence of 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 works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments. God is faithful and without any 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 sinned against him, and in their filth they are not his sons. They are a depraved and perverse 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.
How can this be the return you would offer to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is he himself not your Father, who has possessed you, and made you, and created 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.
Remember the days of antiquity. Consider each generation. Question your father, and he will declare it to you. Question your elders, and they will tell it to 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 divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the limits of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage.
But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob, the lot of his 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 discovered him in a desert land, in a place of horror and a vast wilderness. He led him around and taught him, and he guarded him like the pupil 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:
just as an eagle encourages its young to fly, and, flying above them, stretches out its wings, and takes them up, and carries them on its shoulders.
12 So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.
The Lord alone was his leader, and there was no strange god 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 stood him upon an exalted land, so that he might eat the fruits of the fields, so that he might eat honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone,
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.
butter from the herd, and milk from the sheep, with fat from the lambs, and with rams and goats from the sons of Bashan, with the kernel of the wheat, and so that he might drink the undiluted blood of the grape.
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.
The beloved grew fat, and he kicked. Having grown fat and thick and wide, he abandoned God, his Maker, and he withdrew from God, his Savior.
16 The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath.
They provoked him with strange gods, and they stirred him to anger by their abominations.
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 immolated to demons and not to God, to gods whom they did not know, who were new and recent arrivals, whom their fathers did not worship.
18 You have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of the God who gave you birth.
You have forsaken the God who conceived you, and you have forgotten the Lord who created you.
19 And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters.
The Lord saw, and he was stirred to anger. For his own sons and daughters provoked him.
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.
And he said: ‘I will hide my face from them, and I will consider their very end. For this is a perverse generation, and they are unfaithful sons.
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 provoked me with that which was not God, and they have angered me with their emptiness. And so, I will provoke them with that which is not a people, and I will anger them with a foolish nation.
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)
A fire has been kindled in my fury, and it will burn even to the deepest Hell, and it will devour the earth with its produce, and it will burn 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 evils upon them, and I will expend my arrows among 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 consumed by famine, and birds with a very bitter bite will devour them. I will send forth the teeth of wild beasts among them, along with the fury of creatures that scurry across the ground, and of serpents.
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 devastate them; and inside, there will be dread, as much for the young man as for the maiden, and as much for the newborn as for the old man.
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: Where are they? I will cause their memory to cease from among men.
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.
But because of the wrath of the enemies, I have delayed it. Otherwise, perhaps their enemies would be arrogant and would say: “Our exalted hand, and not the Lord, has done all these things.”
28 For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them.
They are a nation without counsel and without prudence.
29 If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future!
I wish that they would be wise and understanding, and would provide for the very end.’
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 is it that one pursues a thousand, and two chases ten thousand? Is it not because their God has sold them, and because the Lord has enclosed them?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges.
For our God is not like their gods. And our enemies are judges.
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:
Their vines are of the vines of Sodom, but from the suburbs of Gomorrah. Their grapes are the grapes of gall, and their grape clusters are most bitter.
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, the cruel poison of snakes.
Their wine is the gall of snakes, and it is the incurable venom of asps.
34 Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?
‘Have not these things been stored up with me, and sealed up amid 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, and I will repay them in due time, so that their foot may slip and fall. The day of perdition is near, and the time rushes to appear.’
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.
The Lord will judge his people, and he will take pity on his servants. He will see that their hand has been weakened, and that those who have been enclosed have likewise failed, and that those who have been left behind have been consumed.
37 And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith?
And he shall say: ‘Where are their gods, in whom they had confidence?
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.
They ate the fat of their victims, and they drank the wine of their libations. So let these rise up, and bring relief to you, and protect you in your distress.
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 that I am alone, and there is no other god beside me. I will kill, and I will cause to live. I will strike, and I will heal. And there is no one who is able to rescue from my hand.
40 For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life,
I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live in eternity.
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 sword like lightning, and my hand takes hold of judgment, then I will render vengeance to my enemies, and I will repay 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 inebriate my arrows with blood, and my sword will devour flesh: from the blood of the slain and from the captive, from the exposed head of the enemies.’
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.
You nations, praise his people! For he will avenge the blood of his servants. And he will distribute vengeance to their enemies. And he will be merciful to the land of 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.
Therefore, Moses went and spoke all the words of this canticle to the ears of the people, both he and Joshua, the son of Nun.
45 And after saying all this to the people,
And he completed all these words, speaking to all of 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.
And he said to them: “Set your hearts upon all the words which I am testifying to you this day. So shall you command your sons, to keep, and to do, and to fulfill all the things that have been written in 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 these things have not been entrusted to you to no purpose, but so that each one would live by them, and so that, in doing these, you may continue for a long time in the land, which you will enter upon crossing the Jordan in order to possess it.”
48 That same day the Lord said to Moses,
And the Lord spoke to Moses on the same day, saying:
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:
“Ascend this mountain, Abarim, (that is, of crossings) onto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and look upon the land of Canaan, which I will deliver to the sons of Israel to obtain it. And you shall die upon the mountain.
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:
After climbing it, you will be joined to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, and was placed with 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.
For you trespassed against me in the midst of the sons of Israel, at the Waters of Contradiction, in Kadesh, in the desert of Sin. And you did not sanctify me among the sons 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.
You shall see the land opposite you, which I will give to the sons of Israel, but you shall not enter into it.”
