Deuteronomy 32–34

SONG OF MOSES

32Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;

listen, earth, to the words from my mouth.^q

²Let my teaching fall like rain

and my word settle like dew,

like gentle rain on new grass

and showers on tender plants.

³For I will proclaim the Lord’s name.^r

Declare the greatness of our God!

⁴The Rock^s—his work is perfect;

all his ways are just.^t

A faithful God,^u without bias,

he is righteous and true.

⁵His people have acted corruptly toward him;^v

this is their defect^E—they are not his children

but a devious and crooked generation.^w

⁶Is this how you repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?^x

Isn’t he your Father and Creator?^Ay

Didn’t he make you and sustain you?

⁷Remember the days of old;

consider the years of past generations.

Ask your father, and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will teach you.

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance^B

and divided the human race,^z

he set the boundaries of the peoples^aa

according to the number of the people of Israel.^C

⁹But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob, his own inheritance.^ab

¹⁰He found him in a desolate land,

in a barren, howling wilderness;

he surrounded him, cared for him,^a

and protected him as the pupil of his eye.^b

¹¹He watches over^D his nest like an eagle

and hovers over his young;

he spreads his wings, catches him,

and carries him on his feathers.^c

¹²The Lord alone led him,

with no help from a foreign god.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land^d

and eat the produce of the field.

He nourished him with honey from the rock

and oil from flinty rock,

¹⁴curds from the herd and milk from the flock,

with the fat of lambs,

rams from Bashan,^e and goats,

with the choicest grains of wheat;

you drank wine from the finest grapes.^E

¹⁵Then^F Jeshurun^Gf became fat and rebelled—

you became fat, bloated, and gorged.

He abandoned the God who made him

and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They provoked his jealousy with different gods;

they enraged him with detestable practices.^g

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known,

new gods that had just arrived,

which your ancestors did not fear.^h

¹⁸You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;

you forgot the God who gave birth to you.

¹⁹When the Lord saw this, he despised them,

angered by his sons and daughters.

²⁰He said, “I will hide my face from them;ⁱ

I will see what will become of them,

for they are a perverse generation—

unfaithful children.

²¹They have provoked my jealousy

with what is not a god;^A

they have enraged me with their worthless idols.^j

So I will provoke their jealousy

with what is not a people;^B

I will enrage them with a foolish nation.^k

²²For fire has been kindled because of my anger

and burns to the depths of Sheol;^l

it devours the land and its produce,

and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

²³“I will pile disasters on them;

I will use up my arrows against them.

²⁴They will be weak from hunger,

ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;

I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,

as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.

²⁵Outside, the sword will take their children,

and inside, there will be terror;

the young man and the young woman will be killed,

the infant and the gray-haired man.^m

²⁶“I would have said: I will cut them to pieces^C

and blot out the memory of them from mankind,ⁿ

²⁷if I had not feared provocation from the enemy,

or feared that these foes might misunderstand

and say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed;

it wasn’t the Lord who did all this.’ ”

²⁸Israel is a nation lacking sense

with no understanding at all.^o

²⁹If only they were wise, they would comprehend this;

they would understand their fate.

³⁰How could one pursue a thousand,

or two put ten thousand to flight,^p

unless their Rock had sold them,

unless the Lord had given them up?^q

³¹But their “rock” is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

³²For their vine is from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are poisonous;

their clusters are bitter.

³³Their wine is serpents’ venom,

the deadly poison of cobras.^a

³⁴“Is it not stored up with me,

sealed up in my vaults?

³⁵Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay.^Ab

In time their foot will slip,

for their day of disaster is near,

and their doom is coming quickly.”

³⁶The Lord will indeed vindicate his people

and have compassion on his servants^c

when he sees that their strength is gone

and no one is left—slave or free.^B

³⁷He will say, “Where are their gods,

the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?

³⁸Who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up and help you;

let it^C be a shelter for you.

³⁹See now that I alone am he;

there is no God but me.^d

I bring death and I give life;

I wound and I heal.

No one can rescue anyone from my power.^e

⁴⁰I raise my hand to heaven and declare:

As surely as I live forever,

⁴¹when I sharpen my flashing sword,

and my hand takes hold of judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and repay those who hate me.

⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood

while my sword devours flesh—

the blood of the slain and the captives,

the heads of the enemy leaders.”^D

⁴³Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people,^f

for he will avenge the blood of his servants.^F

He will take vengeance on his adversaries;^g

he will purify his land and his people.^H

⁴⁴Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the presence of the people. ⁴⁵After Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I am giving as a warning to you today,^h so that you may command your children to follow all the words of this law carefully.^{i 47}For they are not meaningless words to you but they are your life,^j and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

MOSES’S IMPENDING DEATH

⁴⁸On that same day the Lord spoke to Moses,^{k 49}“Go up Mount Nebo^l in the Abarim range in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan I am giving the Israelites as a possession. ⁵⁰Then you will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people,^m just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.^{n 51}For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the Waters of Meribath-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin by failing to treat me as holy in their presence. ⁵²Although from a distance you will view the land that I am giving the Israelites, you will not go there.”^o

MOSES’S BLESSINGS

33This is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, gave the Israelites before his death.^{p 2}He said:

The Lord came from Sinai

and appeared to them from Seir;^q

he shone on them from Mount Paran^r

and came with ten thousand holy ones,^A

with lightning^B from his right hand^C for them.^s

³Indeed he loves the people.^Dt

All your^E holy ones are in your hand,

and they assemble^F at your feet.

Each receives your words.

⁴Moses gave us instruction,

a possession for the assembly of Jacob.

⁵So he became King in Jeshurun^a

when the leaders of the people gathered

with the tribes of Israel.

⁶Let Reuben live and not die

though his people become few.^b

⁷He said this about Judah:

Lord, hear Judah’s cry and bring him to his people.

He fights for his cause^H with his own hands,

but may you be a help against his foes.

⁸He said about Levi:

Your Thummim and Urim^c belong to your faithful one;^I

you tested him at Massah

and contended with him at the Waters of Meribah.^d

⁹He said about his father and mother,

“I do not regard them.”

He disregarded his brothers

and didn’t acknowledge his sons,

for they kept your word

and maintained your covenant.^e

¹⁰They will teach your ordinances to Jacob

and your instruction to Israel;^f

they will set incense before you

and whole burnt offerings on your altar.

¹¹Lord, bless his possessions,^A

and accept the work of his hands.

Break the back^B of his adversaries and enemies,

so that they cannot rise again.

¹²He said about Benjamin:

The Lord’s beloved rests^C securely on him.

He^D shields him all day long,

and he rests on his shoulders.^E

¹³He said about Joseph:

May his land be blessed by the Lord

with the dew of heaven’s bounty

and the watery depths that lie beneath;^g

¹⁴with the bountiful harvest from the sun

and the abundant yield of the seasons;

¹⁵with the best products of the ancient mountains

and the bounty of the eternal hills;^h

¹⁶with the choice gifts of the land

and everything in it;

and with the favor of him

who appeared^F in the burning bush.ⁱ

May these rest on the head of Joseph,

on the brow of the prince of his brothers.^j

¹⁷His firstborn bull has^G splendor,

and horns like^H those of a wild ox;

he gores all the peoples with them

to the ends of the earth.

Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim,

and such are the thousands of Manasseh.

¹⁸He said about Zebulun:

Rejoice, Zebulun, in your journeys,

and Issachar, in your tents.

¹⁹They summon the peoples to a mountain;

there they offer acceptable sacrifices.

For they draw from the wealth of the seas

and the hidden treasures of the sand.^k

²⁰He said about Gad:

The one who enlarges Gad’s territory

will be blessed.

He lies down like a lion

and tears off an arm or even a head.^l

²¹He chose the best part for himself,

because a ruler’s portion was assigned there for him.

He came with the leaders of the people;

he carried out the Lord’s justice

and his ordinances for Israel.^m

²²He said about Dan:

Dan is a young lion,

leaping out of Bashan.ⁿ

²³He said about Naphtali:

Naphtali, enjoying approval,

full of the Lord’s blessing,

take^I possession to the west and the south.

²⁴He said about Asher:

May Asher be the most blessed of the sons;

may he be the most favored among his brothers

and dip his foot in olive oil.^a

²⁵May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze,

and your strength last as long as you live.

²⁶There is none like the God of Jeshurun,

who rides the heavens to your aid,

the clouds in his majesty.^b

²⁷The God of old is your dwelling place,^c

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