Deuteronomy 32
1 Hearken, ye heauens, and I will speake: and let the earth heare the words 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 My doctrine shall drop as the raine, and my speach shall stil as the dew, as the showre vpon the herbes, and as the great raine vpon the grasse.
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 will publish the name of the Lord: giue ye glorie vnto our God.
I will praise Yahweh [MTY]. And [all you people should] tell others that our God is very great.
4 Perfect is the worke of the mighty God: for all his wayes are iudgement. God is true, and without wickednesse: iust, and righteous is he.
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 haue corrupted them selues towarde him by their vice, not being his children, but a frowarde and crooked 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 Doe ye so rewarde the Lord, O foolish people and vnwise? is not he thy father, that hath bought thee? he hath made thee, and proportioned thee.
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 dayes of olde: consider the yeeres of so many generations: aske thy father, and he will shewe thee: thine Elders, and they will tell thee.
“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 hie God deuided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sonnes of Adam, he appoynted the borders of the people, according to the nomber of the children of Israel.
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 For the Lordes portion is his people: Iaakob is the lot 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 found him in ye land of ye wildernes, in a waste, and roaring wildernes: he led him about, he taught him, and kept him as ye apple of his 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 stereth vp her nest, flootereth ouer her birdes, stretcheth out her wings, taketh them, and beareth them on her wings,
[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 So the Lord alone led him, and there was no strange god with him.
Yahweh was the only one who led them; no other foreign god helped him.
13 He caryed him vp to the hie places of the earth, that he might eate the fruites of the fieldes, and he caused him to sucke hony out of the stone, and oyle out of the hard rocke:
“[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 kine, and milke of sheepe with fat of the lambes, and rammes fed in Bashan, and goates, with the fat of the graines of wheat, and the red licour of the grape hast thou drunke.
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 But he that should haue bene vpright, when he waxed fat, spurned with his heele: thou art fat, thou art grosse, thou art laden with fatnes: therefore he forsooke God that made him, and regarded not the strong God of his saluation.
“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 prouoked him with strange gods: they prouoked him to anger with abominations.
So he abandoned them because they started to worship other/strange gods. Because of their worshiping disgusting idols, he became angry.
17 They offred vnto deuils, not to God, but to gods whome they knew not: new gods that came newly vp, whome their fathers feared 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 Thou hast forgotten the mightie God that begate thee, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
They forgot [the true] God, the one who protects them [MET], the one who created them and caused them to live.
19 The Lord then sawe it, and was angrie, for the prouocation of his sonnes and of his 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 he said, I will hide my face from the: I will see what their ende shalbe: for they are a frowarde generation, children in who 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 haue moued me to ielousie with that which is not God: they haue prouoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will moue them to ielousie with those which are no people: I wil prouoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
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 fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burne vnto the bottome of hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountaines. (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 spend plagues vpon them: I will bestowe mine arrowes vpon 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 shalbe burnt with hunger, and consumed with heate, and with bitter destruction: I will also sende the teeth of beastes vpon them, with the venime of serpents creeping in the dust.
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 The sworde shall kill them without, and in the chambers feare: both the yong man and the yong woman, the suckeling with the man of gray heare.
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 haue said, I would scatter them abroade: I would make their remembrance to cease from among men,
I wanted to scatter the Israeli people to distant countries in order that no one would ever remember them.
27 Saue that I feared the furie of the enemie, least their aduersaries should waxe proude, and least they should say, Our hie hande and not the Lord hath done all this:
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 For they are a nation voide of counsel, neither is there any vnderstanding in them.
You Israelis are a nation of people who do not have any sense. None of you is wise.
29 Oh that they were wise, then they would vnderstand this: they would consider their latter ende.
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 chase a thousand, and two put ten thousande to flight, except their strong God had sold the, and the Lord had shut them vp?
[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 god is not as our God, euen our enemies being iudges.
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 of the vines of Gomorah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters be bitter.
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 poyson of dragons, and the cruel gall of aspes.
the wine [from those grapes] is like the poison of snakes [DOU].
34 Is not this laide in store with me, and sealed vp among 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 Vengeance and recompence are mine: their foote shall slide in due time: for the day of their destruction is at hand, and the things that shall come vpon them, make haste.
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 iudge his people, and repent towarde his seruants, when hee seeth that their power is gone, and none shut vp in holde nor left abroad.
“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 When men shall say, Where are their gods, their mighty God in whome they trusted,
Then Yahweh will ask his people, ‘Where are the gods that you thought would protect you [MET]?
38 Which did eate the fat of their sacrifices, and did drinke the wine of their drinke offring? let them rise vp, and help you: let him be your refuge.
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 now, for I, I am he, and there is no gods with me: I kill, and giue life: I wound, and I make whole: neither is there any that can deliuer out of mine hand.
“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 lift vp mine hand to heauen, and say, I liue for euer.
I raise my hand toward heaven and solemnly declare that just as sure as I live forever,
41 If I whet my glittering sworde, and mine hand take holde on iudgement, I will execute vengeance on mine enemies, and will rewarde 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 mine arrowes drunke with blood, (and my sword shall eate flesh) for the blood of the slaine, and of the captiues, when I beginne to take vengeance of the enemie.
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 Ye nations, praise his people: for he will auenge the blood of his seruants, and will execute vengeance vpon his aduersaries, and will bee mercifull vnto his lande, and to 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 Then Moses came and spake all ye words of this song in the audience of the people, he and Hoshea the sonne of Nun.
Joshua and Moses/I recited the words of that song while the Israeli people were listening.
45 When Moses had made an end of speaking all these wordes to all Israel,
When they/we finished reciting to the Israeli people the words of this song,
46 Then hee said vnto them, Set your heartes vnto all the wordes which I testifie against you this day, that ye may commande them vnto your children, that they may obserue and doo all the wordes of this Lawe.
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 it is no vaine worde concerning you, but it is your life, and by this worde ye shall prolong your dayes in the land, whither yee go ouer Iorden to possesse 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 spake vnto Moses the selfe same day, saying,
On that same day, Yahweh said to Moses/me,
49 Goe vp into the mountaine of Abarim, vnto the mount Nebo, which is in the lande of Moab, that is ouer against Iericho: and beholde the lande of Canaan, which I giue vnto the children of Israel for a possession,
“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 which thou goest vp vnto, and thou shalt be gathered vnto thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered vnto his people,
You will die on that mountain [EUP, DOU], like your [older] brother Aaron died on Hor Mountain.
51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel, at the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the wildernesse of Zin: for ye sanctified me not among the children 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 Thou shalt therefore see the lande before thee, but shalt not go thither, I meane, into the land which I giue the children of Israel.
[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.”
