Deuteronomy 32:1-52
32 “Listen, heavens, and I will speak;hear, earth, the words of my mouth.
2 My prompting shall drop like rain,my say shall trickle like dew,Like fine rain on plantsand like showers on herbage,
3 Because I will proclaim Jehovah’s name.Give greatness to our God!
4 The Rock, his doing is faultless,for all his paths are the right;A deity of fair dealing and no cheating,honest and straightforward is he.
5 * Sons of disgrace have done viciously by him,a devious and shifty generation.
6 Will you treat Jehovah thus,unreasonable and unwise people?Is not he your Father that framed you,himself made you and organized you?
7 Remember the days of old,consider the years generation upon generation;Ask your father and let him tell you,your elders and let them say to you:
8 When the Lord above distributed nations,when he separated the sons of men,He set the boundaries of the peoplesby the number of the sons of Deity,
9 Because Jehovah’s portion is his people,Jacob is his marked-out estate.
10 He found them in wilderness countryand in the howling chaos of the desert,He cared for them, gave his mind to them,guarded them like the apple of his eye;
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,hovers over its young,Spreads its wings and takes them,carries them on its pinions,
12 Sole Jehovah led themand had no foreign deity with him.
13 He mounted them on earth’s heights,and they ate crops of the champaign;And he let them suck honey from cliffsand oil from pyrite rocks,
14 ** Clabber of cows and milk of sheepwith fat of lambs,And Bashan-bred rams, and he-goats,with richest wheat,and blood of grapes you drink in foam;
15 * And Jeshurun grew fat and kicked,you grew fat, burly, lusty,And he abandoned the God who made himand held cheap the Rock of his salvation.
16 They took to stirring his jealousy with alien rivals,provoking him with abominations,
17 Sacrificing to non-divine demons,gods they did not know,New ones that have come from the neighborhood,of whom your fathers never felt apprehensions.
18 Of the Rock that brought you forth you are unmindfuland have forgotten the Deity who gave you birth.
19 And Jehovah saw, and was contemptuousat the provocation from his sons and daughters,
20 And said ‘I will conceal my face from them,‘I will see what their future will be,Because they are an ill-natured generation,children with no loyalty in them.
21 They have challenged my jealousy with what is not a deity,provoked me with their superstitions;And I will challenge their jealousy with what is not a people,provoke them with an uncivilized nation.
22 ** For a fire of anger is kindled in my breath,and burns to the lowest of the world of the dead;It will consume the earth and its growthand set ablaze the foundations of mountains.
23 * I will sweep mischiefs upon them,exhaust my arrows on them:
24 * Wasted with famine, fed onby firebolt and bitter infection,I will let loose beasts’ teeth on themwith venom of crawlers of the dust;
25 From outside shall the sword bereave,and out of the closets terror,Of both youth and maiden,nursing babe with gray-haired man.
26 * I had thought I would dissipate them,abolish the memory of them from mankind,
27 * But that I dreaded the insolence of enemies,for fear their foes should misconceive,For fear they should say “Our hand goes high,and it was not Jehovah that did all this,”
28 Because they are an ill-advised nation,with no sense in them.
29 If they were wise they would look into this,would consider their future:
30 How should one be chasing a thousandand two putting ten thousand to flightUnless their Rock had sold themand Jehovah had handed them over!
31 For their Rock is not like ourseven letting our enemies be judges.
32 For their vine comes of the vines of Sodomand of the terraces of Ghomorrah,Their grapes are poison-berries,virulent clusters are theirs,
33 Reptiles’ venom is their wineand vipers’ cruel poison.
34 * Do I not have it laid away,sealed up in my arsenals,
35 * For the day of vengeance and requital,for the time when their foot slips?’For their day of calamity is nearand destiny is hastening for them,
36 Because Jehovah will pronounce judgment for his peopleand repent as to his servantsWhen he sees their powers are goneand there is nobody barred or unbarred,
37 And thinks ‘Where are their gods,the rock that they took refuge in,
38 Those that eat the fat of their sacrifices,drink the wine of their libations?Let them stand up and help you,be a screen over you!
39 See now that it is I, I,and there is no God with me;I put to death and bring to life,have mangled and I will heal,and there is no deliverer out of my hands.
40 For I raise my hand skywardand say “By my eternal life,
41 ** If I whet my lightning-swordand take judgment in handI will pay my foes off in vengeanceand settle with my haters,
42 I will let my arrows drink deep of their blood,and my sword shall eat flesh,Of blood of battle-slain and prisoners,of the heads of the enemy’s braves.”’
43 Applaud his people, nations,because he avenges his servants’ blood,He pays his foes off in vengeanceand purges the guilt of his people’s soil.”
44 * And Moses came and recited all the words of this song publicly before the people, he and Joshuaʽ the son of Nun.
45 And Moses finished telling all Israel all the words of this song,
46 and said to them “Pay attention to all the words which I am inculcating on you today, that you enjoin them on your sons, to take care to live up to all the points of this code,
47 because it is not a thing too ideal for you, for it is your life and by this thing you will have a long time on the soil you are crossing the Jordan to to take possession of it.”
48 And Jehovah said to Moses this very day
49 “Go up on this highland across the river, Mount Nebo in Moab, facing Jericho, and see the country of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel as their property,
50 and die on the mountain you go up and be gathered to your kinsfolk, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kinsfolk,
51 for your having acted unfaithfully toward me among the sons of Israel at Meribah Water in Kadesh in the wilderness of Sin, for your not having recognized my holiness among the sons of Israel.
52 For you are to see the country before you, but not go in there, into the country I am giving to the sons of Israel.”
Footnotes
^ 32:5 Codd. done viciously not by him Var. not his sons, their disgrace, have done viciously by him or not his sons have made their disgrace vicious for him
^ 32:14 Lit. kidney-fat of wheat
^ 32:14 (in foam) Unc.
^ 32:15 (lusty) Unc.
^ 32:22 Lit. a fire is kindled in my nose (the ordinary Hebrew expression for he is angry is his nose is hot
^ 32:22 Var. And it has consumed the earth and its growth and has set
^ 32:23 (sweep) Susp.*
^ 32:24 (wasted) Unc.; susp.
^ 32:26 (dissipate) Unc.
^ 32:27 Or put at the end of verse 27 the quotation mark that now stands in verse 35
^ 32:34 (laid away) Unc.
^ 32:35 Var. Mine are vengeance and requital (without for the day)
^ 32:41 Lit. the lightning of my sword
^ 32:41 Lit. my hand takes hold of judgment
^ 32:44 Var. Hosheaʽ
