Deuteronomy 32

1“Give ear, #Ps. 50:4; [Josh. 24:27]; See ch. 4:26 O heavens, and I will speak,

and let #Isa. 34:1; Mic. 1:2; 6:1, 2the earth hear the words of my mouth.

2May #Isa. 55:10, 11; [Job 29:22, 23] my teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distill as the dew,

like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and #Ps. 72:6; Mic. 5:7like showers upon the herb.

3For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe #See ch. 3:24greatness to our God!

4 # ver. 15, 18, 30, 31, 37; Ps. 18:2, 31; Isa. 30:29; Hab. 1:12; See 2 Sam. 22:2 “The Rock, #[Ps. 18:30] his work is perfect,

for #Dan. 4:37; Rev. 15:3 all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and #Job 34:10without iniquity,

just and upright is he.

5They have dealt corruptly with him;

they are no longer his children #[2 Pet. 2:13] because they are blemished;

they are #Matt. 17:17; Luke 9:41; Phil. 2:15a crooked and twisted generation.

6Do you thus repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he #Isa. 63:16; 64:8 your father, who #Ps. 74:2 created you,

who #ver. 15; Isa. 44:2; 51:13made you and established you?

7 # [Isa. 63:11] Remember the days of old;

consider the years of many generations;

# Ps. 44:1 ask your father, and he will show you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

8When the Most High #Acts 17:26 gave to the nations their inheritance,

when he #Gen. 11:8divided mankind,

he fixed the borders#32:8 Or territories of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.#32:8 Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text sons of Israel

9But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

10“He found him #ch. 8:15; Jer. 2:6; Hos. 13:5 in a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he #Ps. 32:10 encircled him, he cared for him,

he #Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2; Zech. 2:8kept him as the apple of his eye.

11 # Ex. 19:4 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

bearing them on its pinions,

12 # Ps. 78:52, 53 the Lord alone guided him,

# Isa. 43:12 no foreign god was with him.

13 # Isa. 58:14; Ezek. 36:2 He made him ride on the high places of the land,

and he ate the produce of the field,

and he suckled him with #Ps. 81:16 honey out of the rock,

and #Job 29:6 oil out of #ch. 8:15the flinty rock.

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

with fat#32:14 That is, with the best of lambs,

rams of Bashan and goats,

with the very finest#32:14 Hebrew with the kidney fat of the wheat—

and you drank foaming wine made from #Gen. 49:11the blood of the grape.

15“But #ch. 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2 Jeshurun grew fat, and #[1 Sam. 2:29] kicked;

# See ch. 31:20 you grew fat, stout, and sleek;

# ch. 31:16 then he forsook God #ver. 6 who made him

and scoffed at #2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 89:26; 95:1the Rock of his salvation.

16 # Ps. 78:58; See Num. 25:11 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominations they provoked him to anger.

17 # Ps. 106:37; [1 Cor. 10:20] They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,

to gods they had never known,

to #[Judg. 5:8]new gods that had come recently,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

18You were unmindful of #2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 89:26; 95:1 the Rock that bore#32:18 Or fathered you,

and you #Isa. 17:10; Jer. 2:27, 32; Hos. 8:14forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 # [Judg. 2:14] “The Lord saw it and spurned them,

because of the provocation of #[Isa. 1:2]his sons and his daughters.

20And he said, #See ch. 31:17‘I will hide my face from them;

I will see what their end will be,

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

21 # Ps. 78:58; See Num. 25:11 They have made me jealous with what is no god;

they have provoked me to anger #1 Kgs. 16:13, 26; Ps. 31:6; Jonah 2:8; Acts 14:15 with their idols.

So #Cited Rom. 10:19; [Hos. 1:9, 10] I will make them jealous with those who are no people;

I will provoke them to anger with #[Ps. 74:18]a foolish nation.

22For #Jer. 15:14; 17:4; Lam. 4:11 a fire is kindled by my anger,

and it burns to #Ps. 86:13the depths of Sheol,

devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23“‘And I will heap disasters upon them;

# Job 6:4; Ps. 7:12, 13; 38:2; Lam. 3:12, 13; Ezek. 5:16 I will spend my arrows on them;

24they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured by plague

and poisonous pestilence;

I will send #Lev. 26:22; Ezek. 5:17 the teeth of beasts against them,

with the venom of #Jer. 8:17; Mic. 7:17things that crawl in the dust.

25 # Lam. 1:20; Ezek. 7:15 Outdoors the sword shall bereave,

and indoors terror,

for young man and woman alike,

the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

26 # Ezek. 20:23 I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;

# Job 18:17; Ps. 34:16; 109:15 I will wipe them from human memory,”

27had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

lest they should say, #Ps. 140:8; Isa. 10:13; [Num. 14:16]“Our hand is triumphant,

it was not the Lord who did all this.”’

28“For they are a nation void of counsel,

and there is #Isa. 27:11; Jer. 4:22no understanding in them.

29 # ch. 5:29; Ps. 81:13; Luke 19:42 If they were wise, they would understand this;

they would #Isa. 47:7; Lam. 1:9discern their latter end!

30How could #See Lev. 26:8 one have chased a thousand,

and two have put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock #See Judg. 2:14had sold them,

and the Lord had given them up?

31For #1 Sam. 2:2 their rock is not as our Rock;

# [1 Sam. 4:8] our enemies are by themselves.

32For their vine #[Isa. 1:10; Jer. 23:14; Ezek. 16:46] comes from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of #ch. 29:18poison;

their clusters are bitter;

33their wine is the poison of #Job 20:14, 16; Ps. 58:4 (Heb.)serpents

and the cruel venom of asps.

34“‘Is not this laid up in store with me,

# [Job 14:17; Hos. 13:12; Rom. 2:5] sealed up in my treasuries?

35 # Ps. 94:1; Isa. 1:24; 59:18; Nah. 1:2; Cited Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30 Vengeance is mine, and recompense,#32:35 Septuagint and I will repay

# [Ps. 94:18] for the time when their foot shall slip;

for #[2 Pet. 2:3]the day of their calamity is at hand,

and their doom comes swiftly.’

36For #Ps. 135:14; Cited Heb. 10:30 the Lord will vindicate#32:36 Septuagint judge his people

# Judg. 2:18; Ps. 106:45; [Ps. 90:13] and have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone

and there is none remaining, #1 Kgs. 14:10; 21:21; 2 Kgs. 9:8; 14:26bond or free.

37Then he will say, #Judg. 10:14; 1 Kgs. 18:27; Jer. 2:28 ‘Where are their gods,

# [ver. 31] the rock in which they took refuge,

38who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offering?

Let them rise up and help you;

let them be your protection!

39“‘See now that #Isa. 41:4; 48:12 I, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me;

# 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kgs. 5:7 I kill and I make alive;

# Job 5:18; Hos. 6:1 I wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

40For #See Gen. 14:22I lift up my hand to heaven

and swear, As I live forever,

41if I #Ps. 7:12; Isa. 27:1; 34:5; 66:16; Ezek. 21:9, 10sharpen my flashing sword#32:41 Hebrew the lightning of my 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 #Jer. 46:10 my sword shall devour flesh—

with the blood of the slain and the captives,

from the #See Ps. 68:21long-haired heads of the enemy.’

43 # Cited Rom. 15:10 “Rejoice with him, O heavens;#32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text Rejoice his people, O nations

bow down to him, all gods,#32:43 Masoretic Text lacks bow down to him, all gods

for he #Rev. 6:10; 19:2; [2 Kgs. 9:7; Ps. 79:10]avenges the blood of his children#32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text servants

and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him#32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text lacks He repays those who hate him

and cleanses#32:43 Or atones for his people’s land.”#32:43 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew his land his people

44Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and #Num. 13:8, 16Joshua#32:44 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew Hoshea the son of Nun. 45And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them, #ch. 11:18; See ch. 6:6 “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, #See ch. 4:9that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47For it is no empty word for you, #[Lev. 18:5]; See ch. 30:20but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses’ Death Foretold

48That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49“Go up #See Num. 27:12this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as #Num. 20:24, 25, 28; 33:38Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51#Num. 20:11-13; 27:14because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. 52For #ch. 3:27; 34:4you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”

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Deuteronomy 32: ESV

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