DeuteronomyChapter 32

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¹Listen, you heavens, and I will speak.
Hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. ²Let my teaching fall like rain.
Let my words come down like dew,
like soft rain on new grass,
like showers on young plants. ³For I will tell out the name of the LORD.
Praise the greatness of our God! ⁴He is the Rock. His work is perfect.
All his ways are fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong.
He is righteous and good. ⁵His people have acted wickedly toward him.
They have a stain on them.
It is not the mark of his children.
It is the mark of a twisted and crooked generation. ⁶Is this how you pay back the LORD,
you foolish people with no sense?
Isn't he your Father, the one who made you?
Didn't he make you and set you firmly in place? ⁷Remember the days of long ago.
Think about the years that are long past.
Ask your father, and he will tell you.
Ask your elders, and they will explain it to you. ⁸The Most High gave the nations their land.
He divided up all people.
Then he set the borders of the peoples.
He set them by the number of the sons of God.a ⁹But the LORD's share is his people.
Jacob is the share he chose for himself. ¹⁰He found him in a desert land,
in an empty, howling wilderness.
He put his arms around him and taught him.
He guarded him like the pupil of his eye. ¹¹He was like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and flies over its young.
He spread his wings to catch them.
He carried them on his feathers. ¹²The LORD alone led him.
No foreign god was with him. ¹³He made him ride on the high places of the land.
He fed him the crops of the field.
He fed him with honey from the rock
and oil from the hard, rocky cliff, ¹⁴with curds from the herd and milk from the flock,
with the fat of lambs,
with rams from Bashan, and with goats,
with the best grains of wheat.
You drank wine made from the juice of the finest grapes. ¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.
He became fat, swollen, and stuffed full.
He left the God who made him.
He turned up his nose at the Rock who saved him.b ¹⁶They made him jealous with foreign gods.
They made him angry with things he hates. ¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not to God.
They sacrificed to gods they had not known,
to new gods that had just come along.
Your fathers did not fear those gods. ¹⁸You paid no attention to the Rock who gave you life.
You forgot the God who gave birth to you. ¹⁹The LORD saw this, and he rejected them.
His sons and daughters had made him angry. ²⁰He said, "I will hide my face from them.
I will see what their end will be.
For they are a twisted generation.
They are children who are not faithful. ²¹They made me jealous with what is not God.
They made me angry with their worthless idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people.
I will make them angry with a foolish nation. ²²For my anger has started a fire.
It burns down to the deepest part of the grave.
It eats up the earth and its crops.
It sets fire to the roots of the mountains.c ²³I will pile disasters on them.
I will shoot all my arrows at them. ²⁴They will waste away from hunger.
They will be destroyed by sickness and bitter plague.
I will send the teeth of wild animals against them.
I will send the poison of snakes that crawl in the dust. ²⁵Outside, the sword will take their children.
Inside, terror will strike.
It will strike young men and young women,
babies and gray-haired men. ²⁶I would have said that I would cut them to pieces
and wipe out all memory of them from the human race, ²⁷if I had not been afraid of the enemy's mocking.
Their enemies might get it wrong and say,
'Our own power has won.
The LORD did not do all this.'" ²⁸Israel is a nation with no good sense.
None of them understand. ²⁹If only they were wise, they would understand this!
They would know what will happen to them. ³⁰How could one man chase a thousand?
How could two make ten thousand run away?
Only if their Rock had sold them,
only if the LORD had given them up! ³¹For their rock is not like our Rock.
Even our enemies admit it. ³²Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are full of poison.
Their bunches of grapes are bitter. ³³Their wine is the poison of snakes,
the deadly poison of cobras. ³⁴"Haven't I stored these things away?
Haven't I sealed them up in my storerooms? ³⁵Vengeance is mine. I will repay.
At the right time their foot will slip.
Their day of disaster is near.
Their doom is coming fast." ³⁶For the LORD will stand up for his people.
He will have mercy on his servants.
He will do this when he sees their strength is gone,
and no one is left, slave or free. ³⁷He will say, "Where are their gods now?
Where is the rock they ran to for safety? ³⁸Those gods ate the fat of their sacrifices.
They drank the wine of their drink offerings.
Let them get up and help you!
Let them give you a place to hide! ³⁹See now that I, I am he.
There is no God except me.
I put to death, and I give life.
I wound, and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from my hand. ⁴⁰For I raise my hand to heaven and make a promise.
As surely as I live forever, ⁴¹when I sharpen my flashing sword
and my hand takes hold of it to judge,
I will take vengeance on my enemies.
I will repay those who hate me. ⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood.
My sword will eat flesh.
It will drink the blood of the dead and the captives.
It will take the heads of the enemy's leaders." ⁴³Be glad with him, you heavens.
Let all God's angels worship him.
Be glad, you nations, with his people.
For he will pay back those who killed his children.
He will take revenge on his enemies.
He will repay those who hate him.
He will make his land and his people clean.d ⁴⁴Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun. He said all the words of this song while the people listened. ⁴⁵Moses finished saying all these words to all Israel. ⁴⁶Then he said to them, "Take to heart all the words I have warned you about today. Then you can command your children to carefully obey all the words of this law. ⁴⁷These are not empty words for you. They are your life! By them you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to take." ⁴⁸On that same day the LORD said to Moses, ⁴⁹"Go up into the Abarim mountains to Mount Nebo. It is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho. Look out over the land of Canaan. I am giving it to the Israelites to own. ⁵⁰You will die there on the mountain you climb. You will be gathered to your people. It will be just like your brother Aaron. He died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. ⁵¹This is because both of you broke faith with me in front of the Israelites. It happened at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin. You did not treat me as holy in front of them. ⁵²You will see the land I am giving the Israelites from far away. But you will not go into it."