Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
“Listen, O heavens, to what I am saying. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender 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 proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!
For I will invoke the name of the Lord. Acknowledge the magnificence of our God!
4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous 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 His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked 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 how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?
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 Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.
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 inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
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 But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob, the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple 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 stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
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 The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.
The Lord alone was his leader, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,
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 with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.
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 grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned 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 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
They provoked him with strange gods, and they stirred him to anger by their abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear.
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 ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
You have forsaken the God who conceived you, and you have forgotten the Lord who created you.
19 When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
The Lord saw, and he was stirred to anger. For his own sons and daughters provoked him.
20 He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation— children of unfaithfulness.
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 provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
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 a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations 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 heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
I will heap evils upon them, and I will expend my arrows among them.
24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in 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, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-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 would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,
I said: Where are they? I will cause their memory to cease from among men.
27 if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did 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 Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.
They are a nation without counsel and without prudence.
29 If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
I wish that they would be wise and understanding, and would provide for the very end.’
30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had 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 enemies concede.
For our God is not like their gods. And our enemies are judges.
32 But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters 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 venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
Their wine is the gall of snakes, and it is the incurable venom of asps.
34 “Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults?
‘Have not these things been stored up with me, and sealed up amid my treasures?
35 Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
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 vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave 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 He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
And he shall say: ‘Where are their gods, in whom they had confidence?
38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter!
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 that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver 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 I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,
I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live in eternity.
41 when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me.
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 drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh— the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”
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 Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and 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 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
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 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
And he completed all these words, speaking to all of Israel.
46 he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words 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 For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
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 On that same day the LORD said to Moses,
And the Lord spoke to Moses on the same day, saying:
49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession.
“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 there on the mountain that you climb, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to 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 For at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence.
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 Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”
You shall see the land opposite you, which I will give to the sons of Israel, but you shall not enter into it.”
