Deuteronomy 32

Chapter 32

The Song of Moses

¹“^aGive ear, O heavens, and let me speak;

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

²“^aLet my teaching drop as the rain,

My speech distill as the dew,

^bAs the droplets on the fresh grass

And as the showers on the herb.

³“^aFor I proclaim the name of the Lord;

^bAscribe greatness to our God!

⁴“^aThe Rock! His work is perfect,

^bFor all His ways are ¹just;

^cA God of faithfulness and without injustice,

Righteous and upright is He.

⁵“^1aThey have acted corruptly toward Him,

They are not His children, because of their defect;

^bBut are a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶“Do you thus ^arepay the Lord,

^bO foolish and unwise people?

^cIs not He your Father who has bought you?

^dHe has made you and established you.

⁷“Remember the days of old,

Consider the years of all generations.

^aAsk your father, and he will inform you,

Your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸“^aWhen the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,

When He separated the sons of ¹man,

He set the boundaries of the peoples

^bAccording to the number of the sons of Israel.

⁹“^aFor the Lord’s portion is His people;

Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

¹⁰“^aHe found him in a desert land,

And in the howling waste of a wilderness;

He encircled him, He cared for him,

He guarded him as ^bthe pupil of His eye.

¹¹“^aLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,

That hovers over its young,

^bHe spread His wings and caught them,

He carried them on His pinions.

¹²“^aThe Lord alone guided him,

^bAnd there was no foreign god with him.

¹³“^aHe made him ride on the high places of the earth,

And he ate the produce of the field;

^bAnd He made him suck honey from the rock,

And ^coil from the flinty rock,

¹⁴Curds of cows, and milk of the flock,

With fat of lambs,

And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats,

^aWith the finest of the wheat—

And of the ^bblood of grapes you drank wine.

¹⁵“^aBut ¹Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—

You are grown fat, thick, and sleek—

^bThen he forsook God ^cwho made him,

And scorned ^dthe Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶“^aThey made Him jealous with strange gods;

^bWith abominations they provoked Him to anger.

¹⁷“^aThey sacrificed to demons who were not God,

^bTo gods whom they have not known,

^cNew gods who came lately,

Whom your fathers did not dread.

¹⁸“You neglected ^athe Rock who begot you,

^bAnd forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹“^aThe Lord saw this, and spurned them

^bBecause of the provocation of His sons and daughters.

²⁰“Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,

^aI will see what their end shall be;

^bFor they are a perverse generation,

^cSons in whom is no faithfulness.

²¹‘^aThey have made Me jealous with what is not God;

They have provoked Me to anger with their ^1bidols.

^cSo I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;

I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,

^22aFor a fire is kindled in My anger,

And burns to the lowest part of ¹Sheol,

^bAnd consumes the earth with its yield,

And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³‘^aI will heap misfortunes on them;

^bI will use My arrows on them.

²⁴‘^aThey will be wasted by famine, and consumed by ¹plague

^bAnd bitter destruction;

^cAnd the teeth of beasts I will send upon them,

^dWith the venom of crawling things of the dust.

²⁵‘^aOutside the sword will bereave,

And inside terror—

^bBoth young man and virgin,

The nursling with the man of gray hair.

²⁶‘I would have said, “^aI will cut them to pieces,

^bI will remove the memory of them from men,”

²⁷Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,

That their adversaries would misjudge,

That they would say, “^aOur hand is ¹triumphant,

And the Lord has not done all this.” ’

²⁸“^aFor they are a nation ¹lacking in counsel,

And there is no understanding in them.

²⁹“^aWould that they were wise, that they understood this,

^bThat they would discern their ¹future!

³⁰“^aHow could one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Unless their ^bRock had sold them,

And the Lord had given them up?

³¹“Indeed their rock is not like our Rock,

^aEven our enemies ¹themselves judge this.

³²“For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

And from the fields of Gomorrah;

Their grapes are grapes of ^apoison,

Their clusters, bitter.

³³“Their wine is the venom of ¹serpents,

And the ²deadly poison of cobras.

³⁴‘^aIs it not laid up in store with Me,

Sealed up in My treasuries?

³⁵‘^aVengeance is Mine, and retribution,

^bIn due time their foot will slip;

^cFor the day of their calamity is near,

And the impending things are hastening upon them.’

³⁶“^aFor the Lord will vindicate His people,

^bAnd will have compassion on His servants,

When He sees that their ¹strength is gone,

And there is none remaining, bond or free.

³⁷“And He will say, ‘^aWhere are their gods,

The rock in which they sought refuge?

³⁸‘^aWho ate the fat of their sacrifices,

And drank the wine of their drink offering?

^bLet them rise up and help you,

Let them be your hiding place!

³⁹‘^aSee now that I, I am He,

^bAnd there is no god besides Me;

^cIt is I who put to death and give life.

^dI have wounded and it is I who heal,

^eAnd there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

⁴⁰‘Indeed, ^aI lift up My hand to heaven,

And say, as I live forever,

^41aIf I sharpen My ¹flashing sword,

And My hand takes hold on justice,

^bI will render vengeance on My adversaries,

And I will repay those who hate Me.

⁴²‘^aI will make My arrows drunk with blood,

^bAnd My sword will devour flesh,

With the blood of the slain and the captives,

From the long-haired ¹leaders of the enemy.’

⁴³“^aRejoice, O nations, with His people;

^bFor He will avenge the blood of His servants,

^cAnd will render vengeance on His adversaries,

^dAnd will atone for His land and His people.”

⁴⁴Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with ^1aJoshua the son of Nun.

⁴⁵When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

⁴⁶he said to them, “^aTake to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command ^byour sons to observe ¹carefully, even all the words of this law.

⁴⁷“For it is not an idle word for you; indeed ^ait is your life. And ^bby this word you will prolong your days in the land, ¹which you are about to cross the Jordan to ²possess.”

^48aThe Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying,

⁴⁹“^aGo up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab ¹opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession.

⁵⁰“Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be ^agathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,

^51abecause you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the ^bwilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel.

⁵²“^aFor you shall see the land at a distance, but ^byou shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel.”