Deuteronomy 32–34

The Song of Moses

32“Earth and sky, hear my words, listen

closely to what I say.

²My teaching will fall like drops of rain

and form on the earth like dew.

My words will fall like showers on young plants,

like gentle rain on tender grass.

³I will praise the name of the Lord,

and his people will tell of his greatness.

⁴“The Lord is your mighty defender,

perfect and just in all his ways;

Your God is faithful and true;

he does what is right and fair.

⁵But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people,^b

a sinful and deceitful nation.

⁶Is this the way you should treat the Lord,

you foolish, senseless people? He is your father, your Creator,

he made you into a nation.

⁷“Think of the past, of the time long ago;

ask your parents to tell you what happened,

ask the old people to tell of the past.

^8*The Most High assigned nations their lands;

he determined where peoples should live.

He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,

⁹but Jacob’s descendants he chose for himself.

¹⁰“He found them wandering through the desert,

a desolate, windswept wilderness.

He protected them and cared for them,

as he would protect himself.

¹¹Like an eagle teaching its young to fly,^c

catching them safely on its spreading wings,

the Lord kept Israel from falling.

¹²The Lord alone led his people

without the help of a foreign god.

¹³“He let them rule the highlands,

and they ate what grew in the fields.

They found wild honey among the rocks;

their olive trees flourished in stony ground.

¹⁴Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk;

they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle,

the finest wheat, and the choicest wine.

¹⁵“The Lord’s people grew rich, but rebellious;

they were fat and stuffed with food.

They abandoned God their Creator and rejected their mighty saviour.

¹⁶Their idolatry made the Lord jealous; the evil they did made him angry.

^17*They sacrificed to gods that are not real,

new gods their ancestors had never known,

gods that Israel had never obeyed,

¹⁸They forgot their God, their mighty saviour,

the one who had given them life.

¹⁹“When the Lord saw this, he was angry

and rejected his sons and daughters.

²⁰‘I will no longer help them,’ he said;

‘then I will see what happens to them,

those stubborn, unfaithful people.

^21*With their idols they have made me angry,

jealous with their so-called gods,

gods that are really not gods.

So I will use a so-called nation to make them angry;

I will make them jealous with a nation of fools.

²²My anger will flame up like fire

and burn everything on earth.

It will reach to the world below^d

and consume the roots of the mountains.

²³“ ‘I will bring on them endless disasters

and use all my arrows against them.

²⁴They will die from hunger and fever;

they will die from terrible diseases.

I will send wild animals to attack them,

and poisonous snakes to bite them.

²⁵War will bring death in the streets;

terrors will strike in the homes.

Young men and young women will die;

neither babies nor old people will be spared.

²⁶I would have destroyed them completely,

so that no one would remember them.

²⁷But I could not let their enemies boast

that they had defeated my people,

when it was I myself who had crushed them.’

²⁸“Israel is a nation without sense;

they have no wisdom at all.

²⁹They fail to see why they were defeated;

they cannot understand what happened.

³⁰Why were a thousand defeated by one,

and ten thousand by only two?

The Lord, their God, had abandoned them;

their mighty God had given them up.

³¹Their enemies know that their own gods are weak,

not mighty like Israel’s God.

³²Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah,

are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,

³³like wine made from the venom of snakes.

³⁴“The Lord remembers what their enemies have done;

he waits for the right time to punish them.

^35*The Lord will take revenge and punish them;

the time will come when they will fall;

the day of their doom is near.

^36*The Lord will rescue his people

when he sees that their strength is gone.

He will have mercy on those who serve him,

when he sees how helpless they are.

³⁷Then the Lord will ask his people,

‘Where are those mighty gods you trusted?

³⁸You fed them with the fat of your sacrifices

and offered them wine to drink.

Let them come and help you now;

let them run to your rescue.

³⁹“ ‘I, and I alone, am God;

no other god is real.

I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal,

and no one can oppose what I do.

⁴⁰As surely as I am the living God,

I raise my hand and I vow

⁴¹that I will sharpen my flashing sword

and see that justice is done.

I will take revenge on my enemies

and punish those who hate me.

⁴²My arrows will drip with their blood,

and my sword will kill all who oppose me.

I will spare no one who fights against me;

even the wounded and prisoners will die.’

^43*“Nations, you must praise the Lord’s people—

he punishes all who kill them.

He takes revenge on his enemies

and forgives the sins of his people.”

⁴⁴Moses and Joshua son of Nun recited this song, so that the people of Israel could hear it.

Moses’ Final Instructions

⁴⁵When Moses had finished giving God’s teachings to the people, ⁴⁶he said, “Make sure you obey all these commands that I have given you today. Repeat them to your children, so that they may faithfully obey all God’s teachings. ⁴⁷These teachings are not empty words; they are your very life. Obey them and you will live long in that land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy.”

^48*That same day the Lord said to Moses, ^49*“Go to the Abarim Mountains in the land of Moab opposite the city of Jericho; climb Mount Nebo and look at the land of Canaan that I am about to give the people of Israel. ^50*You will die on that mountain as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, ^51*because both of you were unfaithful to me in the presence of the people of Israel. When you were at the waters of Meribah, near the town of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, you dishonoured me in the presence of the people. ^52*You will look at the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land that I am giving the people of Israel.”

Moses Blesses the Tribes of Israel

33These are the blessings that Moses, the man of God, pronounced on the people of Israel before he died.

²The Lord came from Mount Sinai;

he rose like the sun over Edom

and shone on his people from Mount Paran.

Ten thousand angels were with him,

a flaming fire at his right hand.^e

³The Lord loves his people^f

and protects those who belong to him.

So we bow at^g his feet

and obey his commands.

⁴We obey the Law that Moses gave us,

our nation’s most treasured possession.

⁵The Lord became king of his people Israel

when their tribes and leaders were gathered together.

⁶Moses said about the tribe of Reuben:

“May Reuben never die out,

Although their people are few.”

⁷About the tribe of Judah he said:

“Lord, listen to their cry for help;

Unite them again with the other tribes.

Fight for them, Lord,

And help them against their enemies.”^h

^8*About the tribe of Levi he said:

“You, Lord, reveal your will by the Urim and Thummimⁱ

Through your faithful servants, the Levites;

You put them to the test at Massah

And proved them true at the waters of Meribah.

⁹They showed greater loyalty to you

Than to parents, brothers, or children.

They obeyed your commands

And were faithful to your covenant.

¹⁰They will teach your people to obey your Law;

They will offer sacrifices on your altar.

¹¹Lord, help their tribe to grow strong;

Be pleased with what they do.

Crush all their enemies;

Let them never rise again.”

¹²About the tribe of Benjamin he said:

“This is the tribe the Lord loves and protects;

He guards them all the day long, And he dwells in their midst.”^j

¹³About the tribe of Joseph he said:

“May the Lord bless their land with rain

And with water from under the earth.

¹⁴May their land be blessed with sun-ripened fruit,

Rich with the best fruits of each season.

¹⁵May their ancient hills be covered with choice fruit.

¹⁶May their land be filled with all that is good,

Blessed by the goodness of the Lord,

Who spoke from the burning bush.

May these blessings come to the tribe of Joseph,

Because he was the leader among his brothers.

¹⁷Joseph has the strength of a bull,

The horns of a wild ox.

His horns are Manasseh’s thousands

And Ephraim’s ten thousands.

With them he gores the nations

And pushes them to the ends of the earth.”

¹⁸About the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar he said:

“May Zebulun be prosperous in their trade on the sea,

And may Issachar’s wealth increase at home.

¹⁹They invite foreigners to their mountain

And offer the right sacrifices there.

They get their wealth from the sea

And from the sand along the shore.”

²⁰About the tribe of Gad he said:

“Praise God, who made their territory large.

Gad waits like a lion

To tear off an arm or a scalp.

²¹They took the best of the land for themselves;

A leader’s share was assigned to them.

They obeyed the Lord’s commands and laws

When the leaders of Israel were gathered together.”^k

²²About the tribe of Dan he said:

“Dan is a young lion;

He leaps out from Bashan.”

²³About the tribe of Naphtali he said:

“Naphtali is richly blessed by the Lord’s good favour;

Their land reaches to the south from Lake Galilee.”

²⁴About the tribe of Asher he said:

“Asher is blessed more than the other tribes.

May he be the favourite of his brothers,

And may his land be rich with olive trees.

²⁵May his towns be protected with iron gates,

And may he always live secure.”

²⁶People of Israel, no god is like your God,

riding in splendour across the sky,

riding through the clouds to come to your aid.

²⁷God has always been your defence;

his eternal arms are your support.

He drove out your enemies as you advanced,

and told you to destroy them all.

²⁸So Jacob’s descendants live in peace,

secure in a land full of corn and wine,

where dew from the sky waters the ground.

²⁹Israel, how happy you are!

There is no one like you,

a nation saved by the Lord.

The Lord himself is your shield and your sword,

to defend you and give you victory.

Your enemies will come…