32ND CHAPTER

1  Listen, heaven, and I will speak. 

Earth, hear the words from my mouth. 

2  Let my teachings come down like raindrops. 

Let my words drip like dew, 

like gentle rain on grass, 

like showers on green plants. 

3  I will proclaim the name of the Lord. 

Give our God the greatness he deserves! 

4  He 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. 

5  He recognizes that his people are corrupt. 

To their shame they are no longer his children. 

They are devious and scheming. 

6  Is this how you repay the Lord, 

you foolish and silly people? 

Isn’t he your Father and Owner, 

who made you and formed you? 

7  Remember a time long ago. 

Think about all the past generations. 

Ask your fathers to remind you, 

and your leaders to tell you. 

8  When 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. 

9  But the Lord’s people were his property. 

Jacob was his own possession. 

10  He 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. 

11  Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, 

hovers over its young, 

spreads its wings to catch them, 

and carries them on its feathers, 

12  so the Lord alone led his people. 

No foreign god was with him. 

13  He made them ride on the heights of the earth 

and feda them with the produce of the fields. 

He gave them honey from rocks 

and olive oil from solid rock. 

14  They 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. 

15  Jeshurunb got 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. 

16  They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods 

and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols. 

17  They 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.) 

19  The Lord saw this and rejected them, 

because his own sons and daughters had made him angry. 

20  He 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. 

21  They 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. 

22  My 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. 

23  I will bring one disaster after another on them. 

I will use up all my arrows on them. 

24  They 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. 

25  Foreign 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. 

26  I said that I would cut them in pieces 

and erase everyone’s memory of them. 

27  But 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!’ ” 

28  My people have lost their good sense. 

They are not able to understand. 

29  If only they were wise enough to understand this 

and realize what will happen to them! 

30  How 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. 

31  Their rock isn’t like our rock. 

Even our enemies will agree with this. 

32  Their grapevines come from the vineyards of Sodom 

and from the fields of Gomorrah. 

Their grapes are poisonous, 

and their clusters are bitter. 

33  Their wine is snake venom, 

the deadly poison of cobras. 

34  Isn’t this what I’ve stored 

under lock and key in my storehouses? 

35  I 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. 

36  The 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. 

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

Where is the rock they took refuge in? 

38  Where 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!” 

39  See, 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. 

40  I raise my hand toward heaven and solemnly swear: 

As surely as I live forever, 

41  I 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. 

42  My 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. 

43  Joyfully 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

44 Moses came with Hoshea,e son of Nun, and recited all the words of this song as the people listened. 45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to Israel, 46 he 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. 47 Don’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.” 

48 That 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. 50 On this mountain where you’re going, you will die and join your ancestors in death, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor. 51 This 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. 52 You may see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I’m giving the Israelites.”