Deuteronomy 32
1 Heaven, listen as I speak; Earth, hear what I'm saying.
Give ear, you heavens, and let me speak. Let the earth listen to the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching fall gently like the rain; may my words drop lightly like the dew, like soft rain on new grass, like spring showers on growing 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 I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, and ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock. Everything he does is perfect, for all his ways are right. He is the trustworthy God who is never unjust; he is fair and honest.
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 His children have acted immorally towards him; so they are no longer his children because of their sinful stains. They are a perverse and corrupt people.
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 any way to repay the Lord, you foolish, stupid people? Isn't he your Father who created you? Isn't he the one who turned you into a nation and made you strong?
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 Remember the olden days; think about times long ago. God and ask your father, and he will explain them to you. Talk to your elders, and they will let you know.
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 The Most High gave the nations their lands when he divided the human race; he fixed their borders depending on their gods.
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 But the Lord's people are his, Israel is his chosen one.
For Yahweh's portion is his people; Jacob is his apportioned inheritance.
10 He found you in a desert land, in a desolate wasteland of whirlwinds. He protected you; he cared for you; he looked after you as the one he loved the most.
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 Like an eagle watching over its nest, hovering over its chicks, he spread his wings and picked you up and carried you along.
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 The Lord was the only one who led you; no foreign god was with him.
Yahweh alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
13 The Lord gave you the high country to rule, and fed you with the crops of the field to eat. He sustained you with honey from the rock and olive oil from the flinty crag,
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 with yogurt from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, along with the best wheat. You drank the wine made from the best grapes.
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 Israel, you grew fat and rebelled—fat, overweight, and bloated with food. You abandoned the God who made you and despised the Rock of your 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 You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
They made Yahweh jealous by their strange gods; with their abominations they angered him.
17 You offered sacrifices to demons instead of God, to gods you didn't know anything about, to brand-new gods that your forefathers didn't worship.
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 dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
You have deserted the Rock, who became your father, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord rejected them when he saw this; his sons and daughters made him angry.
Yahweh saw this and he rejected them, because his sons and his daughters provoked him so.
20 He said: “I will turn away from them. Then I'll see what happens to them! They are a perverse people, unfaithful children.
“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 made me jealous by worshiping things that are not God; they have made me angry with their useless idols. So I will make them jealous using a people that aren't really a nation; I will make them angry using ignorant foreigners.
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 My anger has been set on fire, burning down to the depths of the grave, destroying the earth and all it produces, even setting fire to the foundations 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 pile disasters on them; I will use up my arrows shooting at them.
I will heap disasters on them; I will shoot all my arrows at them;
24 They will waste away from hunger, destroyed by disease and poisonous plague. I will send wild animals to bite them with their teeth, the fangs of snakes that slide along the ground.
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 in the streets the sword kills their children, inside their homes, they die from fright; young men and young women, children and old people.
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 would have told them I was going to cut them to pieces and wipe out even the memory of them;
I said that I would scatter them far away, that I would make the memory of them to cease from among mankind.
27 but I didn't want to hear their conquerors jeering, their enemies misunderstanding what had happened and saying, ‘We won all by ourselves, the Lord didn't have anything to do with it.’
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 Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
For Israel is a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding in them.
29 How I wish they were wise, so they could understand it; they would recognize what was going to happen to them.
Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their coming fate!
30 How on earth could one man chase after a thousand, or two make ten thousand run away, unless their Rock of protection had sold them, unless the Lord had surrendered them?
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 The rock they rely on is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
For our enemies' rock is not like our Rock, just as even our enemies admit.
32 But their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; they are bitter bunches.
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 serpents, deadly snake venom.
Their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps.
34 I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
Is not this plan secretly kept by me, sealed up among my treasures?
35 I make sure justice is done, I will repay. The time is coming when they will fall, their day of disaster is approaching, their doom will soon arrive.”
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 The Lord is going to vindicate his people; he will be merciful to his servants when he sees that they have no strength left, and that everyone is gone, whether slave 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 He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where your went for protection?
Then he will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in whom they took refuge?—
38 Who ate the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine of your drink offerings? Have them come and help you; have them come and protect you!
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 Listen! I am the only God! There is no other God except me! I bring death, and I give life; I wound, and I heal. No one can be rescued from my power.
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 I hold up my hand to heaven and solemnly declare on my eternal life,
For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, 'As I live forever, I will act.
41 when I sharpen my shining sword and pick it up to execute judgment, I will repay my enemies and punish those who hate me as they deserve.
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 My arrows will become drunk with blood, as my sword eats flesh; the blood of those who are killed and captured, the heads of the enemy's leaders.”
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 Celebrate with him! Let all God's angels worship him! Celebrate, foreigners, with his people; because he will pay back those who killed his children. He will punish his enemies, and repay those who hate him; he will purify his land and 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 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.
Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Joshua son of Nun.
45 After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
Then Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel.
46 he told them, “Think about all these words I've declared to you today, so you can order your children to follow carefully everything in 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 Don't treat these words as trivial because they are your life, and by them you will have long lives in the country that you will own after crossing the Jordan.”
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 told Moses,
Yahweh spoke to Moses on that same day and said,
49 “Climb up into the Abarim mountains to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look over the country of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for them to own.
“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 There on the mountain you've climbed, you will die and join your people in death, in the same way your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined 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 For there at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Desert of Zin, you both were unfaithful to me. You misrepresented me to the Israelites when you didn't treat me as holy in their presence.
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 Though you will see the country that I am giving the Israelites from a distance, you won't enter it.”
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.”
