Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and 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.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as heavy rains upon the grass, and as showers upon herbs.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!
When I call on the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto 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.
He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are just: the God of truth and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
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.
The corruption is not his, it is the defect of his children, of the perverse and crooked 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?
Will ye thus requite the Lord, O people, worthless and unwise? is he not thy father who hath bought thee? is it not he who hath made thee, and established thee?
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 old, consider the years of former generations; ask thy father, and he will tell thee; thy elders, and they will say it unto thee:
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 to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of man: he set the bounds of the tribes according to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
For the portion of the Lord is his people; Jacob is 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 found him in a desert land, and in the waste of the howling of the wilderness; he encircled him, he watched him, he guarded him as the apple 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.
As an eagle stirreth up his nest, fluttereth over his young, spreadeth abroad his wings, seizeth them, beareth them aloft on his pinions:
12 The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.
So did the Lord alone lead him, and there was not with him a stranger god.
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 caused him to stride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the products of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty 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.
Cream of cows, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; and of the blood of the grape thou drunkest unmixed wine.
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.
Thus did Yeshurun grow fat, and he kicked; [thou art grown fat, thick, fleshy; ] and then he forsook the God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
They incensed him with strange gods, with abominations they provoked him to anger.
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 sacrificed unto evil spirits, things that are not god, gods that they know not, new ones lately come up, which your fathers dreaded not.
18 You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
Of the Rock that begat thee thou wast unmindful, and forgottest the God that had brought thee forth.
19 When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
And the Lord saw this, and he was angry; because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.
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, I will see what their end will be; for a perverse generation are they, children in whom there is no faith.
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 moved me to wrath with things that are not god; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I too will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a worthless 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)
For a fire is kindled in my anger, and it burneth unto the lowest deep; and it consumeth the earth with her products, and it setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
I will heap upon them miseries; all my arrows will I spend upon 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 shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter deadly disease; also the tooth of beasts will I let loose against them, with the poison of serpents that crawl in the dust.
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.
Without shall the sword destroy, and terror within the chambers, both the young man and the virgin, the suckling with the man of gray hairs.
26 I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,
I said, I would drive them into one corner, I would cause their remembrance 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.’”
Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their oppressors should mistake the truth, lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not wrought all this.
28 Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.
For a nation void of counsel are they, and there is no understanding in them.
29 If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
If they were but wise, they would understand this, they would consider their latter 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 should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had delivered them up?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.
For not as our Rock is their rock, even our enemies themselves being 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.
For from the vine of Sodom is their vine, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, they bear bitter clusters.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
The poison of serpents is their wine, and the deadly venom of asps.
34 “Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults?
Behold! this is laid up in store with me, it is sealed up among 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.”
Mine are vengeance and recompense, at the time that their foot shall slip; for nigh draweth the day of their calamity, and the future speedeth along for them.
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.
For the Lord will espouse the cause of his people, and bethink himself concerning his servants: when he seeth that their power is gone, and the guarded and fortified axe no more.
37 He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
Then will he say, Where are their gods, the rock in whom they trusted,
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 that ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? let them arise and help you, let them be a protection over you.
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 now that I, even I, am he, ard there is no god with me: I alone kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; and no one can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,
For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
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 whet my glittering sword, and my hand taketh hold on judgment: I will render vengeance unto my enemies, and those that hate me will I requite.
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 make my arrows drunken with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; from the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the crushed head of the enemy.
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.
Speak aloud, O ye nations, the praises of his people; for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and vengeance will he render to his adversaries, and forgive his land, and people.
44 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
And when Moses had made an end of speaking all these words to all 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.
He said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify against you this day, so that ye may command them your children, to observe to do all the words of 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 it is not a vain word for you; on the contrary, it is your life; and through this word shall ye live many days in the land, whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.
48 On that same day the LORD said to Moses,
And the Lord spoke unto Moses on that self-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.
Get thee up into this mountain of 'Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is in front of Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession;
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.
And die on the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died on mount Hor, and was gathered unto 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.
Because ye trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of contention at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
52 Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”
For from afar shalt thou see the land; but thither shalt thou not go unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
