32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
32:2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
32:3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
32:4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
32:5 They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.
32:6 Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
32:7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.
32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.
32:9 For the LORD’S portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.
32:10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
32:11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.
32:12 The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
32:13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag,
32:14 with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.
32:15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior.
32:16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God–gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
32:18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
32:19 The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
32:20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.
32:21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 “I will heap calamities upon them and spend my arrows against them.
32:24 I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
32:25 In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. Young men and young women will perish, infants and gray-haired men.
32:26 I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind,
32:27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.’”
32:28 They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.
32:29 If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!
32:30 How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
32:31 For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.
32:32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.
32:33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
32:34 “Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?
32:35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.”
32:36 The LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.
32:37 He will say: “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,
32:38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!
32:39 “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.
32:40 I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,
32:41 when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.
32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”
32:43 Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.
32:44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
32:45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
32:46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.
32:47 They are not just idle words for you–they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
32:48 On that same day the LORD told Moses,
32:49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.
32:50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
32:51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.
32:52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
32:1 Give ear, O heaven, and let me speak; / And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
32:2 Let my teaching drop like the rain; / Let my speech distill like the dew, / Like raindrops upon tender grass, / And like abundant showers upon herbage.
32:3 For the name of Jehovah will I declare. / Ascribe greatness to our God!
32:4 The Rock ? perfect is His work, / For all His ways are justice: / A God of faithfulness and without injustice; / Righteous and upright is He.
32:5 Corruptly have they dealt with Him ? their blemish is not His sons ? / A twisted and crooked generation are they.
32:6 Do you repay Jehovah with this, / Foolish and unwise people? / Is He not your Father who bought you? / Was it not He who made you and established you?
32:7 Remember the days of long ago; / Consider the years of generation upon generation; / Ask your father, and he will inform you; / Your elders, and they will tell you.
32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, / When He divided the sons of man, / He set the borders of the peoples / According to the number of Israel’s children.
32:9 For Jehovah’s portion is His people; / Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
32:10 He found him in a land of wilderness, / And in a howling desert waste; / He encircled him, cared for him with all attention; / He guarded him like the pupil of His eye.
32:11 As the eagle rouses his nest, / Hovers over his young, / Spreads his wings, takes them, / And bears them up upon his pinions;
32:12 So Jehovah alone led him, / And there was no strange god with Him.
32:13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, / And he ate the produce of the field; / And He made him suck honey out of a crag, / And oil out of flint rock:
32:14 Curd of cows and milk of sheep, / With fat of lambs, / And rams, the offspring of Bashan, and goats, / With the choicest wheat; / And the blood of the grape you drank as fermenting wine.
32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked ? / You have become fat, you have grown thick, you have gorged yourself ? / And forsook God, who made him, / And treated the Rock of his salvation disdainfully.
32:16 They made Him jealous with strange gods; / With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, to those who were no god, / To gods they did not know, / To new ones who had recently come up, / Before whom your fathers had not shuddered.
32:18 You have neglected the Rock who begot you / And have forgotten the God who travailed with you.
32:19 And Jehovah saw and held them in contempt, / Because of anger provoked by His sons and daughters.
32:20 And He said, I will hide My face from them; / I will see what their latter end will be. / For they are a generation of perversions, / Children in whom is no faithfulness.
32:21 They have made Me jealous with a non-God; / They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. / Hence I will make them jealous with a non-people; / With a foolish nation I will provoke them to anger.
32:22 For a fire is kindled in My anger / And burns unto nethermost Sheol. / And it devours the earth and its produce / And sets ablaze the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 I will heap evils on them; / I will use up My arrows against them.
32:24 They shall be sucked up by famine, / And eaten up by fire bolt / And bitter destruction; / And I will send the teeth of beasts against them, / With the venom of those that crawl in the dust.
32:25 The sword shall bereave outside, / And inside, terror; / Taking both the young man and the virgin, / The suckling with the gray-haired man.
32:26 I would have said, I will scatter them, / I will cause the memory of them to cease from among men;
32:27 Except I dreaded the vexation from the enemy; / Lest their adversaries misjudge; / Lest they say, Our hand is exalted, / And it is not Jehovah who has wrought all this.
32:28 For they are a nation destitute of counsel, / And there is no understanding in them.
32:29 If they had been wise, they would have comprehended this, / They would have perceived their latter end.
32:30 How shall one chase a thousand, / And two put ten thousand to flight, / Were it not that their Rock sold them, / And Jehovah delivered them up?
32:31 For their rock is not like our Rock; / And of this our enemies are judges.
32:32 For their vine is from Sodom’s vine, / And from Gomorrah’s fields; / Their grapes are the grapes of poison; / Clusters of bitterness have they.
32:33 Their wine is the venom of serpents / And the cruel poison of cobras.
32:34 Is this not laid up in store with Me, / Sealed up in My treasuries?
32:35 Vengeance is Mine and so is retribution, / For the time when their foot slips; / Because the day of their calamity has drawn near, / And the things destined to happen to them hasten.
32:36 For Jehovah will execute judgment for His people, / And He will have compassion on His servants, / When He sees that their support is gone, / And that neither fettered nor free remain.
32:37 And He will say, Where are their gods, / The rock they sought refuge in,
32:38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, / And drank the wine of their drink offering? / Let them rise up and help you; / Let them be a shelter over you.
32:39 See now that I, I am He, / And there is no god with Me. It is I who kill, and I make alive; / I wound, and it is I who heal; / And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
32:40 For I lift up My hand to heaven / And say, As I live forever:
32:41 If I sharpen My flashing sword, / And My hand takes hold of judgment, / I will repay My adversaries with vengeance, / And those who hate Me will I recompense.
32:42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, / And My sword will devour flesh ? / With the blood of the slain and of the captives, / The flesh of the long-haired leaders of the enemy.
32:43 Shout joyously, you nations, with His people, / Because He will avenge the blood of His servants, / And He will repay His adversaries with vengeance / And will cover the guilt of His land and of His people.
32:44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea the son of Nun.
32:45 And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel.
32:46 And he said to them, Set your heart on all these words which I am testifying to you today. You shall command them to your children that they may be certain to do all the words of this law.
32:47 For it is not a matter too vain for you, because it is your life; and by this matter you will extend your days upon the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
32:48 And Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
32:49 Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which faces Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel as a possession;
32:50 And die in the mountain to which you are going up, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;
32:51 Because you were unfaithful to Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not sanctify Me among the children of Israel.
32:52 But from a distance you shall see the land, yet you shall not go there into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.