Deuteronomy 32

1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.

3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

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.

5 They have acted corruptly toward him;
to their shame they are no longer his children,
but a warped and crooked generation.

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?

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.

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.

9 For the Lord's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.

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,

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.

12 The Lord alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.

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,

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.

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.

16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.

17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God—
gods they had not known,
gods that recently appeared,
gods your fathers did not fear.

18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 The Lord saw this and rejected them
because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

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.

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.

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.

23 “I will heap calamities upon them
and spend my arrows against them.

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.

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.

26 I said I would scatter them
and blot out their memory from mankind,

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.’ ”

28 They are a nation without sense,
there is no discernment in them.

29 If only they were wise and would understand this
and discern what their end will be!

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?

31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.

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.

33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.

34 “Have I not kept this in reserve
and sealed it in my vaults?

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.”

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.

37 He will say: “Now where are their gods,
the rock they took refuge in,

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!

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.

40 I lift my hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,

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.

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.”

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.
44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,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.

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.”

Moses to Die on Mount Nebo

48 On that same day the Lord told Moses,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.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.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.

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.”

DEUTERONOMY 32

1 Earth and Sky,
listen to what I say!

2 Israel, I will teach you.
My words will be like gentle rain
on tender young plants,
or like dew on the grass.

3 Join with me in praising
the wonderful name
of the [Lord] our God.

4 The [Lord] is a mighty rock, t
and he never does wrong.
God can always be trusted
to bring justice.

5 But you lie and cheat
and are unfaithful to him.
You have disgraced yourselves
and are no longer worthy
to be his children.t

6 Israel, the [Lord] is your Father,
the one who created you,
but you repaid him
by being foolish.

7 Think about past generations.
Ask your parents
or any of your elders.
They will tell you

8  t that God Most High
gave land to every nation.
He assigned a guardian angel
to each of them, t

9 but the [Lord] himself
takes care of Israel.t

10 Israel, the [Lord] discovered you
in a barren desert
filled with howling winds.
God became your fortress,
protecting you as though
you were his own eyes.

11 The [Lord] was like an eagle
teaching its young to fly,
always ready to swoop down
and catch them on its back.

12 Israel, the [Lord] led you,
and without the aid
of a foreign god,

13 he helped you
capture the land.
Your fields were rich
with grain.
Olive trees grew
in your stony soil,
and honey was found
among the rocks.

14 Your flocks and herds
produced milk and yogurt,
and you got choice meat
from your sheep and goats
that grazed in Bashan.
Your wheat was the finest,
and you drank the best wine.

15 Israel, t you grew fat and rebelled
against God, your Creator
you rejected the Mighty Rock, t
your only place of safety.

16 You made God jealous and angry
by worshiping disgusting idols
and foreign gods.

17  t You offered sacrifices
to demons, those useless godst
that never helped you,
new gods that your ancestors
never worshiped.

18 You turned away
from God, your Creator;
you forgot the Mighty Rock, t
the source of your life.

19 You were the [Lord]'s children,
but you made him angry.
Then he rejected you

20 and said,
“You are unfaithful
and can't be trusted.
So I won't answer your prayers;
I'll just watch and see
what happens to you.

21  t You worshiped worthless idols,
and made me jealous
and angry!
Now I will send a cruelt
and worthless nation
to make you jealous and angry.

22 “My people, I will breathe out fire
that sends you down
to the world of the dead.
It will scorch your farmlands
and burn deep down
under the mountains.

23 I'll send disaster after disaster
to strike you like arrows.

24 You'll be struck by starvation
and deadly diseases,
by the fangs of wild animals
and poisonous snakes.

25 Young and old alike
will be killed in the streets
and terrified at home.

26 “I wanted to scatter you,
so no one would remember
that you had ever lived.

27 But I dreaded the sound
of your enemies saying,
‘We defeated Israel with no help
from the [Lord].’ ”

28 People of Israel,
that's what the [Lord]
has said to you.
But you don't have good sense,
and you never listen
to advice.

29 If you did, you could see
where you are headed.

30 How could one enemy soldier
chase a thousand
of Israel's troops?
Or how could two of theirs
pursue ten thousand of ours?
It can only happen if the [Lord]
stops protecting Israel
and lets the enemy win.

31 Even our enemies know
that only our God
is a Mighty Rock.t

32 Our enemies are grapevines
rooted in the fields
of Sodom and Gomorrah.t
The grapes they produce
are full of bitter poison;

33 their wine is more deadly
than cobra venom.

34 But the [Lord] has written
a list of their sins
and locked it in his vault.

35  t Soon our enemies will get
what they deservet—
suddenly they will slip,
and total disaster
will quickly follow.

36  t When only a few
of the [Lord]'s people remain,
when their strength is gone,
and some of them are slaves,
the [Lord] will feel sorry for them
and give them justice.

37 But first the [Lord] will say,
“You ran for safety to other gods—
couldn't they help you?

38 You offered them wine
and your best sacrifices.
Can't those gods help you now
or give you protection?

39 Don't you understand?
I am the only God;
there are no others.
I am the one who takes life
and gives it again.
I punished you with suffering.
But now I will heal you,
and nothing can stop me!

40 “I make this solemn promise:
Just as I live forever,

41 I will take revenge
on my hateful enemies.
I will sharpen my sword
and let it flash
like lightning.

42 My arrows will get drunk
on enemy blood;
my sword will taste the flesh
and the blood of the enemy.
It will kill prisoners,
and cut off the heads
of their leaders.”t

43  t Tell the heavens to celebrate
and all gods to bow down
to the [Lord], t
because he will take revenge
on those hateful enemies
who killed his people.
He will forgive the sins of Israel
and purify their land.t
44-45 Moses spoke the words of the song so that all the Israelites could hear, and Joshuat helped him. When Moses had finished, 46 he said, “Always remember this song I have taught you today. And let it be a warning that you must teach your children to obey everything written in The Book of God's Law.

47 The Law isn't empty words. It can give you a long life in the land that you are going to take.”

Moses Will See the Land

48  t Later that day the [Lord] said to Moses:
49 Go up into the Abarim Mountain range here in Moab across the Jordan River valley from Jericho. And when you reach the top of Mount Nebo, you will be able to see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to Israel. 50 Then you will die and be buried on the mountaintop, just as your brother Aaron died and was buried on Mount Hor. 51 Both of you were unfaithful to me at Meribah Spring near Kadesh in the Zin Desert.t I am God, but there in front of the Israelites, you did not treat me with the honor and respect I deserve. 52 So I will give the land to the people of Israel, but you will only get to see it from a distance.