Deuteronomy 32

1Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;

let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

2May my teaching drop like the rain,

my speech condense like the dew;

like gentle rain on grass,

like showers on new growth.

3For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe greatness to our God!

4The Rock, his work is perfect,

and all his ways are just.

A faithful God, without deceit,

just and upright is he;

5yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,#32.5 Meaning of Heb uncertain

a perverse and crooked generation.

6Do you thus repay the Lord,

O foolish and senseless people?

Is not he your father, who created you,

who made you and established you?

7Remember the days of old,

consider the years long past;

ask your father, and he will inform you;

your elders, and they will tell you.

8When the Most High#32.8 Traditional rendering of Heb Elyon apportioned the nations,

when he divided humankind,

he fixed the boundaries of the peoples

according to the number of the gods;#32.8 Q Ms Compare Gk Tg: MT the Israelites

9the Lord's own portion was his people,

Jacob his allotted share.

10He sustained#32.10 Sam Gk Compare Tg: MT found him in a desert land,

in a howling wilderness waste;

he shielded him, cared for him,

guarded him as the apple of his eye.

11As an eagle stirs up its nest,

and hovers over its young;

as it spreads its wings, takes them up,

and bears them aloft on its pinions,

12the Lord alone guided him;

no foreign god was with him.

13He set him atop the heights of the land,

and fed him with#32.13 Sam Gk Syr Tg: MT he ate produce of the field;

he nursed him with honey from the crags,

with oil from flinty rock;

14curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,

with fat of lambs and rams;

Bashan bulls and goats,

together with the choicest wheat—

you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.

15Jacob ate his fill;#32.15 Q Mss Sam Gk: MT lacks Jacob ate his fill

Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked.

You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!

He abandoned God who made him,

and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

16They made him jealous with strange gods,

with abhorrent things they provoked him.

17They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to deities they had never known,

to new ones recently arrived,

whom your ancestors had not feared.

18You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you;#32.18 Or that begot you

you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19The Lord saw it, and was jealous#32.19 Q Mss Gk: MT lacks was jealous

he spurned#32.19 Cn: Heb he spurned because of provocation his sons and daughters.

20He said: I will hide my face from them,

I will see what their end will be;

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom there is no faithfulness.

21They made me jealous with what is no god,

provoked me with their idols.

So I will make them jealous with what is no people,

provoke them with a foolish nation.

22For a fire is kindled by my anger,

and burns to the depths of Sheol;

it devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23I will heap disasters upon them,

spend my arrows against them:

24wasting hunger,

burning consumption,

bitter pestilence.

The teeth of beasts I will send against them,

with venom of things crawling in the dust.

25In the street the sword shall bereave,

and in the chambers terror,

for young man and woman alike,

nursing child and old gray head.

26I thought to scatter them#32.26 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

and blot out the memory of them from humankind;

27but I feared provocation by the enemy,

for their adversaries might misunderstand

and say, “Our hand is triumphant;

it was not the Lord who did all this.”

28They are a nation void of sense;

there is no understanding in them.

29If they were wise, they would understand this;

they would discern what the end would be.

30How could one have routed a thousand,

and two put a myriad to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

the Lord had given them up?

31Indeed their rock is not like our Rock;

our enemies are fools.#32.31 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

32Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom,

from the vineyards of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of poison,

their clusters are bitter;

33their wine is the poison of serpents,

the cruel venom of asps.

34Is not this laid up in store with me,

sealed up in my treasuries?

35Vengeance is mine, and recompense,

for the time when their foot shall slip;

because the day of their calamity is at hand,

their doom comes swiftly.

36Indeed the Lord will vindicate his people,

have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone,

neither bond nor free remaining.

37Then he will say: Where are their gods,

the rock in which they took refuge,

38who ate the fat of their sacrifices,

and drank the wine of their libations?

Let them rise up and help you,

let them be your protection!

39See now that I, even I, am he;

there is no god besides me.

I kill and I make alive;

I wound and I heal;

and no one can deliver from my hand.

40For I lift up my hand to heaven,

and swear: As I live forever,

41when I whet my flashing sword,

and my hand takes hold on judgment;

I will take vengeance on my adversaries,

and will 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 long-haired enemy.

43Praise, O heavens,#32.43 Q Ms Gk: MT nations his people,

worship him, all you gods!#32.43 Q Ms Gk: MT lacks this line

For he will avenge the blood of his children,#32.43 Q Ms Gk: MT his servants

and take vengeance on his adversaries;

he will repay those who hate him,#32.43 Q Ms Gk: MT lacks this line

and cleanse the land for his people.#32.43 Q Ms Sam Gk Vg: MT his land his people

44Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua#32.44 Sam Gk Syr Vg: MT Hoshea son of Nun. 45When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them: “Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law. 47This is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses' Death Foretold

48On that very day the Lord addressed Moses as follows: 49“Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession; 50you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; 51because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites. 52Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelites.”

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Deuteronomy 32: NRSV-CI

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