Deuteronomy 32–34

32ND CHAPTER

¹Listen, heaven, and I will speak. 

Earth, hear the words from my mouth. 

²Let my teachings come down like raindrops. 

Let my words drip like dew, 

like gentle rain on grass, 

like showers on green plants. 

³I will proclaim the name of the Lord. 

Give our God the greatness he deserves! 

⁴He is a rock. 

What he does is perfect. 

All his ways are fair. 

He is a faithful God, who does no wrong. 

He is honorable and reliable. 

⁵He recognizes that his people are corrupt. 

To their shame they are no longer his children. 

They are devious and scheming. 

⁶Is this how you repay the Lord, 

you foolish and silly people? 

Isn’t he your Father and Owner, 

who made you and formed you? 

⁷Remember a time long ago. 

Think about all the past generations. 

Ask your fathers to remind you, 

and your leaders to tell you. 

⁸When the Most High gave nations their land, 

when he divided the descendants of Adam, 

he set up borders for the tribes 

corresponding to the number of the sons of Israel. 

⁹But the Lord’s people were his property. 

Jacob was his own possession. 

¹⁰He found his people in a desert land, 

in a barren place where animals howl. 

He guarded them, took care of them, 

and protected them because they were helpless. 

¹¹Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, 

hovers over its young, 

spreads its wings to catch them, 

and carries them on its feathers, 

¹²so the Lord alone led his people. 

No foreign god was with him. 

¹³He made them ride on the heights of the earth 

and fed^athem with the produce of the fields. 

He gave them honey from rocks 

and olive oil from solid rock. 

¹⁴They ate cheese from cows 

and drank milk from sheep and goats. 

He gave them fat from lambs, 

rams from the stock of Bashan, 

male goats, and the best wheat. 

They drank the blood-red wine of grapes. 

¹⁵Jeshurun^bgot fat and disrespectful. 

(You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!) 

They abandoned the God who made them 

and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool. 

¹⁶They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods 

and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols. 

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons that are not God, 

to gods they never heard of. 

These were new gods, who came from nearby, 

gods your ancestors never worshiped. 

¹⁸(You ignored the rock who fathered you 

and forgot the God who gave you life.) 

¹⁹The Lord saw this and rejected them, 

because his own sons and daughters had made him angry. 

²⁰He said, “I will turn away from them 

and find out what will happen to them. 

They are devious people, 

children who can’t be trusted. 

²¹They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods 

and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols. 

So I will use those who are not my people to make them jealous 

and a nation of godless fools to make them angry. 

²²My anger has started a fire 

that will burn to the depths of hell. 

It will consume the earth and its crops 

and set the foundations of the mountains on fire. 

²³I will bring one disaster after another on them. 

I will use up all my arrows on them. 

²⁴They will be starved by famines 

and ravaged by pestilence and deadly epidemics. 

I will send vicious animals against them 

along with poisonous animals that crawl on the ground. 

²⁵Foreign wars will kill off their children, 

and even at home there will be horrors. 

Young men and young women alike will die 

as well as nursing babies and gray-haired men. 

²⁶I said that I would cut them in pieces 

and erase everyone’s memory of them. 

²⁷But I didn’t want their enemies to make me angry. 

I didn’t want their opponents to misunderstand and say, 

‘We won this victory! 

It wasn’t the Lord who did all this!’ ” 

²⁸My people have lost their good sense. 

They are not able to understand. 

²⁹If only they were wise enough to understand this 

and realize what will happen to them! 

³⁰How could one person chase a thousand 

or two people make ten thousand flee? 

Their rock used these people to defeat them 

and the Lord gave them no help. 

³¹Their rock isn’t like our rock. 

Even our enemies will agree with this. 

³²Their grapevines come from the vineyards of Sodom 

and from the fields of Gomorrah. 

Their grapes are poisonous, 

and their clusters are bitter. 

³³Their wine is snake venom, 

the deadly poison of cobras. 

³⁴Isn’t this what I’ve stored 

under lock and key in my storehouses? 

³⁵I will take revenge and be satisfied. 

In due time their foot will slip, 

because their day of disaster is near. 

Their doom is coming quickly. 

³⁶The Lord will judge his people 

and have compassion on his servants 

when he sees that their strength is gone 

and that no one is left, neither slaves nor free people. 

³⁷Then he will ask, “Where are their gods? 

Where is the rock they took refuge in? 

³⁸Where are the gods who ate the fat from their sacrifices 

and drank the wine from their wine offerings? 

Let them come to help you! 

Let them be your refuge!” 

³⁹See, I am the only God. 

There are no others. 

I kill, and I make alive. 

I wound, and I heal, 

and no one can rescue you from my power. 

⁴⁰I raise my hand toward heaven and solemnly swear: 

As surely as I live forever, 

⁴¹I will sharpen my flashing sword 

and take justice into my own hands. 

Then I will take revenge on my enemies 

and pay back those who hate me. 

⁴²My arrows will drip with blood 

from those who were killed and taken captive. 

My sword will cut off the heads 

of the enemy who vowed to fight. 

⁴³Joyfully sing with the Lord’s people, you nations, 

because he will take revenge for the death of his servants. 

He will get even with his enemies 

and make peace for his people’s land.^d

Moses Is Allowed to See Canaan

⁴⁴Moses came with Hoshea,^eson of Nun, and recited all the words of this song as the people listened. ⁴⁵When Moses had finished reciting all these words to Israel, ⁴⁶he said to them, “Pay attention to all these warnings I’ve given you today. Then you will command your children to faithfully obey every word of these teachings. ⁴⁷Don’t think these words are idle talk. They are your life! By these words you will be able to live for a long time in the land that you are going to take possession of when you cross the Jordan River.” 

⁴⁸That same day the Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁹“Go into the Abarim Mountains, to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho. Take a look at the land of Canaan that I’m giving the Israelites as their own property. ⁵⁰On this mountain where you’re going, you will die and join your ancestors in death, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor. ⁵¹This is because both of you were unfaithful to me at the oasis of Meribah at Kadesh in the Desert of Zin. You didn’t show the Israelites how holy I am. ⁵²You may see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I’m giving the Israelites.” 

33RD CHAPTER

Moses Blesses the Twelve Tribes

¹Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites with this blessing before he died. ²He said, 

“The Lord came from Sinai. 

For his people he rose from Seir ⸤like the sun⸥. 

He appeared like sunshine from Mount Paran. 

He came with tens of thousands of holy ones. 

On his right was a raging fire for them. 

³You certainly love your people. 

All your holy ones are in your hands. 

They bow at your feet 

to receive your instructions. 

⁴Moses gave us these teachings. 

They belong to the assembly of Jacob. 

⁵The Lord was king of Jeshurun^c

when the leaders of the people assembled 

together with all the tribes of Israel. 

⁶“May the tribe of Reuben live and not die out, 

though their people are few in number.” 

⁷This is what he said about the tribe of Judah: 

“Hear the cry of Judah, O Lord, 

and bring them to their people. 

They must defend themselves. 

Help them against their enemies.” 

⁸About the tribe of Levi he said, 

“Your Thummim and Urim^dbelong to your faithful people. 

You tested your people at Massah. 

You quarreled with them at the oasis of Meribah. 

⁹They said that they didn’t know their father and mother. 

They didn’t recognize their own brothers. 

They didn’t acknowledge their own children. 

But they obeyed your word 

and were faithful to the terms of your promise.^e

¹⁰They teach Jacob your rules 

and give Israel your teachings. 

They burn incense for you to smell 

and sacrifice burnt offerings on your altar. 

¹¹Lord, bless them with strength 

and be pleased with the work they do. 

Break the backs of those who attack them and hate them 

so that they can never get up again.” 

¹²About the tribe of Benjamin he said, 

“The Lord’s beloved people will live securely with him. 

The Lord will shelter them all day long, 

since he, too, lives on the mountain slopes.” 

¹³About the tribes of Joseph he said, 

“May the Lord bless their land with ⸤water,⸥ 

the best gift heaven can send, 

with dew and deep springs below the ground. 

¹⁴May the Lord bless their land with crops, 

the best gift the sun can give, 

the best produce of each month, 

¹⁵the finest fruits from the oldest mountains, 

the best from the ancient hills, 

¹⁶and the most plentiful crops of the earth. 

May the Lord bless their land with the favor 

of the one who was in the burning bush. 

May these blessings come to the tribes of Joseph. 

May they crown the people who are like princes in Israel. 

¹⁷They will be as majestic as a firstborn bull. 

Their horns will be like the horns of a wild ox. 

They will use them to push away nations 

including those at the ends of the earth. 

The tens of thousands from the tribe of Ephraim 

and the thousands from the tribe of Manasseh will be like this.” 

¹⁸About the tribe of Zebulun he said, 

“People of Zebulun, enjoy yourselves when you go to war, 

and you people of Issachar, enjoy yourselves when you stay at home. 

¹⁹They will invite nations to their mountain, 

and there they will offer the proper sacrifices. 

They will be nourished by the abundance from the seas 

and the treasures hidden in the sand.” 

²⁰About the tribe of Gad he said, 

“Blessed is the one who gives the people of Gad more land. 

They wait there like a lion. 

They can tear off an arm or a head. 

²¹They chose the best land for themselves. 

Indeed, a commander’s piece of land was reserved for them. 

They were leaders of the…