Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
Heaven, listen as I speak; Earth, hear what I'm saying.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb.
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.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
4 The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He.
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.
5 Is corruption His? No; His children's is the blemish; a generation crooked and perverse.
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.
6 Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not He thy father that hath gotten thee? hath He not made thee, and established thee?
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?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee, thine elders, and they will tell thee.
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.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
The Most High gave the nations their lands when he divided the human race; he fixed their borders depending on their gods.
9 For the portion of the LORD is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance.
But the Lord's people are his, Israel is his chosen one.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste, a howling wilderness; He compassed him about, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.
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.
11 As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, hovereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her pinions —
Like an eagle watching over its nest, hovering over its chicks, he spread his wings and picked you up and carried you along.
12 The LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with Him.
The Lord was the only one who led you; no foreign god was with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he did eat the fruitage of the field; and He made him to suck honey out of the crag, and oil out of the flinty rock;
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,
14 Curd of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of the blood of the grape thou drankest foaming wine.
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.
15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked — thou didst wax fat, thou didst grow thick, thou didst become gross — and he forsook God who made him, and contemned the Rock of his salvation.
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.
16 They roused Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations did they provoke Him.
You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
17 They sacrificed unto demons, no-gods, gods that they knew not, new gods that came up of late, which your fathers dreaded not.
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.
18 Of the Rock that begot thee thou wast unmindful, and didst forget God that bore thee.
You dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
19 And the LORD saw, and spurned, because of the provoking of His sons and His daughters.
The Lord rejected them when he saw this; his sons and daughters made him angry.
20 And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
He said: “I will turn away from them. Then I'll see what happens to them! They are a perverse people, unfaithful children.
21 They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god; they have provoked Me with their vanities; and I will rouse them to jealousy with a no-people; I will provoke them with a vile nation.
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.
22 For a fire is kindled in My nostril, and burneth unto the depths of the nether-world, and devoureth the earth with her produce, and setteth ablaze the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
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)
23 I will heap evils upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them;
I will pile disasters on them; I will use up my arrows shooting at them.
24 The wasting of hunger, and the devouring of the fiery bolt, and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts will I send upon them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.
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.
25 Without shall the sword bereave, and in the chambers terror; slaying both young man and virgin, the suckling with the man of gray hairs.
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.
26 I thought I would make an end of them, I would make their memory cease from among men;
I would have told them I was going to cut them to pieces and wipe out even the memory of them;
27 Were it not that I dreaded the enemy's provocation, lest their adversaries should misdeem, lest they should say: Our hand is exalted, and not the LORD hath wrought all this.'
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.’
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.
Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this, they would discern their latter end.
How I wish they were wise, so they could understand it; they would recognize what was going to happen to them.
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had given them over and the LORD had delivered them up?
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?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
The rock they rely on is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter;
But their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; they are bitter bunches.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the cruel poison of asps.
Their wine is the poison of serpents, deadly snake venom.
34 'Is not this laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries?
I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense, against the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that are to come upon them shall make haste.
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.”
36 For the LORD will judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants; when He seeth that their stay is gone, and there is none remaining, shut up or left at large.
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.
37 And it is said: Where are their gods, the rock in whom they trusted;
He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where your went for protection?
38 Who did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offering? let him rise up and help you, let him be your protection.
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!
39 See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me; I kill, and I make alive; I have wounded, and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand.
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.
40 For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say: As I live for ever,
I hold up my hand to heaven and solemnly declare on my eternal life,
41 If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine adversaries, and will recompense them that hate Me.
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.
42 I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh; with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.'
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.”
43 Sing aloud, O ye nations, of His people; for He doth avenge the blood of His servants, and doth render vengeance to His adversaries, and doth make expiation for the land of His people.
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.
44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.
45 And when Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel,
After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
46 he said unto them: 'Set your heart unto all the words wherewith I testify against you this day; that ye may charge your children therewith to observe to do all the words of this law.
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.
47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing ye shall prolong your days upon the land, whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.'
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.”
48 And the LORD spoke unto Moses that selfsame day, saying:
That same day the Lord told Moses,
49 'Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession;
“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.
50 and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people.
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.
51 Because ye trespassed against Me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
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.
52 For thou shalt see the land afar off; but thou shalt not go thither into the land which I give the children of Israel.'
Though you will see the country that I am giving the Israelites from a distance, you won't enter it.”
