Deuteronomy 32–34

32“Give ear, ^kO heavens, and I will speak,

and let ^lthe earth hear the words of my mouth.

²May ^mmy teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distill as the dew,

like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and ⁿlike showers upon the herb.

³For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe ^ogreatness to our God!

^4p“The Rock, ^qhis work is perfect,

for ^rall his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and ^swithout iniquity,

just and upright is he.

⁵They have dealt corruptly with him;

they are no longer his children ^tbecause they are blemished;

they are ^ua crooked and twisted generation.

⁶Do you thus repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he ^vyour father, who ^wcreated you,

who ^xmade you and established you?

^7yRemember the days of old;

consider the years of many generations;

^zask your father, and he will show you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸When the Most High ^agave to the nations their inheritance,

when he ^bdivided mankind,

he fixed the borders¹ of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.²

⁹But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

¹⁰“He found him ^cin a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he ^dencircled him, he cared for him,

he ^ekept him as the apple of his eye.

^11fLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

bearing them on its pinions,

^12gthe Lord alone guided him,

^hno foreign god was with him.

¹³ⁱHe made him ride on the high places of the land,

and he ate the produce of the field,

and he suckled him with ^jhoney out of the rock,

and ^koil out of ^lthe flinty rock.

¹⁴Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,

with fat³ of lambs,

rams of Bashan and goats,

with the very finest⁴ of the wheat—

and you drank foaming wine made from ^mthe blood of the grape.

¹⁵“But ⁿJeshurun grew fat, and ^okicked;

^pyou grew fat, stout, and sleek;

^qthen he forsook God ^rwho made him

and scoffed at ^sthe Rock of his salvation.

^16tThey stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominations they provoked him to anger.

^17uThey sacrificed to demons that were not God,

to gods they had never known,

to ^vnew gods that had come recently,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

¹⁸You were unmindful of ^wthe Rock that bore⁵ you,

and you ^xforgot the God who gave you birth.

^19y“The Lord saw it and spurned them,

because of the provocation of ^zhis sons and his daughters.

²⁰And he said, ^a‘I will hide my face from them;

I will see what their end will be,

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

^21bThey have made me jealous with what is no god;

they have provoked me to anger ^cwith their idols.

So ^dI will make them jealous with those who are no people;

I will provoke them to anger with ^ea foolish nation.

²²For ^fa fire is kindled by my anger,

and it burns to ^gthe depths of Sheol,

devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³“ ‘And I will heap disasters upon them;

^hI will spend my arrows on them;

²⁴they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured by plague

and poisonous pestilence;

I will send ⁱthe teeth of beasts against them,

with the venom of ^jthings that crawl in the dust.

^25kOutdoors the sword shall bereave,

and indoors terror,

for young man and woman alike,

the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

^26lI would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;

^mI will wipe them from human memory,”

²⁷had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

lest they should say, ⁿ“Our hand is triumphant,

it was not the Lord who did all this.” ’

²⁸“For they are a nation void of counsel,

and there is ^ono understanding in them.

^29pIf they were wise, they would understand this;

they would ^qdiscern their latter end!

³⁰How could ^rone have chased a thousand,

and two have put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock ^shad sold them,

and the Lord had given them up?

³¹For ^ttheir rock is not as our Rock;

^uour enemies are by themselves.

³²For their vine ^vcomes from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of ^wpoison;

their clusters are bitter;

³³their wine is the poison of ^xserpents

and the cruel venom of asps.

³⁴“ ‘Is not this laid up in store with me,

^ysealed up in my treasuries?

^35zVengeance is mine, and recompense,⁶

^afor the time when their foot shall slip;

for ^bthe day of their calamity is at hand,

and their doom comes swiftly.’

³⁶For ^cthe Lord will vindicate⁷ his people

^dand have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone

and there is none remaining, ^ebond or free.

³⁷Then he will say, ^f‘Where are their gods,

^gthe rock in which they took refuge,

³⁸who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offering?

Let them rise up and help you;

let them be your protection!

³⁹“ ‘See now that ^hI, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me;

ⁱI kill and I make alive;

^jI wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

⁴⁰For ^kI lift up my hand to heaven

and swear, As I live forever,

⁴¹if I ^lsharpen my flashing sword⁸

and my hand takes hold on judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and will repay those who hate me.

⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and ^mmy sword shall devour flesh—

with the blood of the slain and the captives,

from the ⁿlong-haired heads of the enemy.’

^43o“Rejoice with him, O heavens;⁹

bow down to him, all gods,¹⁰

for he ^pavenges the blood of his children¹¹

and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him¹²

and cleanses¹³ his people’s land.”¹⁴

⁴⁴Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and ^qJoshua¹⁵ the son of Nun. ⁴⁵And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶he said to them, ^r“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, ^sthat you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. ⁴⁷For it is no empty word for you, ^tbut your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses’ Death Foretold

⁴⁸That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, ⁴⁹“Go up ^uthis mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. ⁵⁰And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as ^vAaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, ^51wbecause you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. ⁵²For ^xyou shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Moses’ Final Blessing on Israel

33This is the blessing with which Moses ^ythe man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death. ²He said,

^z“The Lord came from Sinai

and dawned from Seir upon us;¹

he shone forth from Mount Paran;

he came ^afrom the ten thousands of holy ones,

with flaming fire² at his right hand.

³Yes, ^bhe loved his people,³

^call his holy ones were in his⁴ hand;

^dso they followed⁵ in your steps,

receiving direction from you,

⁴when ^eMoses commanded us a law,

as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.

⁵Thus the Lord^{6 f}became king in ^gJeshurun,

when the heads of the people were gathered,

all the tribes of Israel together.

^6h“Let Reuben live, and not die,

but let his men be few.”

⁷And this he said of Judah:

“Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah,

and bring him in to his people.

With your hands contend⁷ for him,

and be a help against his adversaries.”

⁸And ⁱof Levi he said,

“Give to Levi^{8 j}your Thummim,

and your Urim to your godly one,

^kwhom you tested at Massah,

with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;

⁹who said of his father and mother,

‘I regard them not’;

^lhe disowned his brothers

and ignored his children.

For ^mthey observed your word

and kept your covenant.

¹⁰ⁿThey shall teach Jacob your rules

and Israel your law;

^othey shall put incense before you

and ^pwhole burnt offerings on your altar.

¹¹Bless, O Lord, his substance,

and ^qaccept the work of his hands;

crush the loins of his adversaries,

of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”

^12rOf Benjamin he said,

“The beloved of the Lord dwells in safety.

The High God⁹ surrounds him all day long,

and dwells between his shoulders.”

¹³And ^sof Joseph he said,

^t“Blessed by the Lord be his land,

with the choicest gifts of heaven ^uabove,¹⁰

and of the deep that crouches beneath,

¹⁴with the choicest fruits of the sun

and the rich yield of the months,

¹⁵with the finest produce of the ancient mountains

and the abundance of ^vthe everlasting hills,

¹⁶with the best gifts of the earth and ^wits fullness

and the favor of ^xhim who dwells in the bush.

May these rest on the head of Joseph,

on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.

^17yA firstborn bull¹¹—he has majesty,

and his horns are the horns of a ^zwild ox;

with them ^ahe shall gore the peoples,

all of them, to the ends of the earth;

^bthey are the ten thousands of Ephraim,

and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

¹⁸And of Zebulun he said,

^c“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,

and Issachar, in your tents.

¹⁹They shall call peoples ^dto their mountain;

there they offer ^eright sacrifices;

for they draw from the abundance of the seas

and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

²⁰And ^fof Gad he said,

“Blessed be he who enlarges Gad!

Gad crouches ^glike a lion;

he tears off arm and scalp.

^21hHe chose the best of the land for himself,

for there a commander’s portion was reserved;

and ⁱhe came with the heads of the people,

with Israel he executed the justice of the Lord,

and his judgments for Israel.”

²²And ^jof Dan he said,

^k“Dan is a lion’s cub

^lthat leaps from Bashan.”

²³And ^mof Naphtali he said,

“O Naphtali, sated with favor,

and full…