Deuteronomy 32

32“Give ^aear, O heavens, and I will speak;

And hear, O ^bearth, the words of my mouth.

²Let ^cmy ¹teaching drop as the rain,

My speech distill as the dew,

^dAs raindrops on the tender herb,

And as showers on the grass.

³For I proclaim the ^ename of the Lord:

^fAscribe greatness to our God.

⁴He is ^gthe Rock, ^hHis work is perfect;

For all His ways are justice,

ⁱA God of truth and ^jwithout injustice;

Righteous and upright is He.

⁵“They ^khave corrupted themselves;

They are not His children,

Because of their blemish:

A ^lperverse and crooked generation.

⁶Do you thus ^mdeal ²with the Lord,

O foolish and unwise people?

Is He not ⁿyour Father, who ^obought you?

Has He not ^pmade you and established you?

⁷“Remember ^qthe days of old,

Consider the years of many generations.

^rAsk your father, and he will show you;

Your elders, and they will tell you:

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

When He ^tseparated the sons of Adam,

He set the boundaries of the peoples

According to the number of the ³children of Israel.

⁹For ^uthe Lord’s portion is His people;

Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

¹⁰“He found him ^vin a desert land

And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;

He encircled him, He instructed him,

He ^wkept him as the ⁴apple of His eye.

^11xAs an eagle stirs up its nest,

Hovers over its young,

Spreading out its wings, taking them up,

Carrying them on its wings,

¹²So the Lord alone led him,

And there was no foreign god with him.

¹³“He ^ymade him ride in the heights of the earth,

That he might eat the produce of the fields;

He made him draw honey from the rock,

And oil from the flinty rock;

¹⁴Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,

^zWith fat of lambs;

And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,

With the choicest wheat;

And you drank wine, the ^ablood of the grapes.

¹⁵“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;

^bYou grew fat, you grew thick,

You are obese!

Then he ^cforsook God who ^dmade him,

And scornfully esteemed the ^eRock of his salvation.

^16fThey provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;

With ⁵abominations they provoked Him to anger.

^17gThey sacrificed to demons, not to God,

To gods they did not know,

To new gods, new arrivals

That your fathers did not fear.

^18hOf the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,

And have ⁱforgotten the God who fathered you.

¹⁹“And ^jwhen the Lord saw it, He spurned them,

Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

²⁰And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,

I will see what their end will be,

For they are a perverse generation,

^kChildren in whom is no faith.

^21lThey have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;

They have moved Me to anger ^mby their ⁶foolish idols.

But ⁿI will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;

I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

²²For ^oa fire is kindled in My anger,

And shall burn to the ⁷lowest ⁸hell;

It shall consume the earth with her increase,

And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³‘I will ^pheap disasters on them;

^qI will spend My arrows on them.

²⁴They shall be wasted with hunger,

Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;

I will also send against them the ^rteeth of beasts,

With the poison of serpents of the dust.

²⁵The sword shall destroy outside;

There shall be terror within

For the young man and virgin,

The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

^26sI would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,

I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”

²⁷Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,

Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

Lest they should say, ^t“Our hand is high;

And it is not the Lord who has done all this.” ’

²⁸“For they are a nation void of counsel,

Nor is there any understanding in them.

^29uOh, that they were wise, that they understood this,

That they would consider their ^vlatter end!

³⁰How could one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Unless their Rock ^whad sold them,

And the Lord had surrendered them?

³¹For their rock is not like our Rock,

^xEven our enemies themselves being judges.

³²For ^ytheir vine is of the vine of Sodom

And of the fields of Gomorrah;

Their grapes are grapes of gall,

Their clusters are bitter.

³³Their wine is ^zthe poison of serpents,

And the cruel ^avenom of cobras.

³⁴‘Is this not ^blaid up in store with Me,

Sealed up among My treasures?

^35cVengeance is Mine, and recompense;

Their foot shall slip in due time;

^dFor the day of their calamity is at hand,

And the things to come hasten upon them.’

³⁶“For ^ethe Lord will judge His people

^fAnd have compassion on His servants,

When He sees that their power is gone,

And ^gthere is no one remaining, bond or free.

³⁷He will say: ^h‘Where are their gods,

The rock in which they sought refuge?

³⁸Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,

And drank the wine of their drink offering?

Let them rise and help you,

And be your refuge.

³⁹‘Now see that ⁱI, even I, am He,

And ^jthere is no God besides Me;

^kI kill and I make alive;

I wound and I heal;

Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.

⁴⁰For I raise My hand to heaven,

And say, “As I live forever,

^41lIf I ⁹whet My glittering sword,

And My hand takes hold on judgment,

I will render vengeance to My enemies,

And repay those who hate Me.

⁴²I will make My arrows drunk with blood,

And My sword shall devour flesh,

With the blood of the slain and the captives,

From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’

⁴³“Rejoice, ^mO Gentiles, with His ¹people;

For He will ⁿavenge the blood of His servants,

And render vengeance to His adversaries;

He ^owill provide atonement for His land and His people.”

⁴⁴So Moses came with ²Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. ⁴⁵Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶and he said to them: ^p“Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your ^qchildren to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. ⁴⁷For it is not a ³futile thing for you, because it is your ^rlife, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses to Die on Mount Nebo

⁴⁸Then the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: ^49s“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; ⁵⁰and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be ⁴gathered to your people, just as ^tAaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; ⁵¹because ^uyou trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of ⁵Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you ^vdid not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. ^52wYet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”