Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, 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 herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
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 Because I will publish the name of Yhwh: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth 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 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
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 Yhwh, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought 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 shew thee; thy 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 divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people 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 Yhwh's portion is his people; Jacob is 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 howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed 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 stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
Like an eagle watching over its nest, hovering over its chicks, he spread his wings and picked you up and carried you along.
12 So Yhwh 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, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, 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 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
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 art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed 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 provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared 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 begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
You dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
19 And when Yhwh saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of 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 perverse generation, children in whom is no faith.
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 moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish 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 mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire 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 mischiefs 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 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents 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 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also 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 said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to 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 feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, And Yhwh hath not done 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, neither is there any understanding in them.
Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider 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 sold them, And Yhwh had shut 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 poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
Their wine is the poison of serpents, deadly snake venom.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them 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 Yhwh shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
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 he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where your went for protection?
38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and 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 wound, and I heal: neither is there any 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, 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 mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward 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; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon 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 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to 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 spake 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 Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children 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 not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over 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 Yhwh spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
That same day the Lord told Moses,
49 Get thee up into this mountain 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 among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah–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 Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto 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.”
