Deuteronomy 32
32
1Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
2Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.
3I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
4He 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.
5They are corrupt and not his children;
to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
6Is this the way you repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,#32:6 Or Father, who bought you
who made you and formed you?
7Remember 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.
8When 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.#32:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) sons of God
9For the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.
10In 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,
11like 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.
12The Lord alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.
13He 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,
14with curds and milk from herd and flock
and with fattened lambs and goats,
with choice rams of Bashan
and the finest grains of wheat.
You drank the foaming blood of the grape.
15Jeshurun#32:15 Jeshurun means the upright one, that is, Israel. grew fat and kicked;
filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
They abandoned the God who made them
and rejected the Rock their Saviour.
16They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.
17They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God –
gods they had not known,
gods that recently appeared,
gods your ancestors did not fear.
18You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19The 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.
21They 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.
22For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,
one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.
It will devour the earth and its harvests
and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23‘I will heap calamities on them
and expend my arrows against them.
24I 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.
25In the street the sword will make them childless;
in their homes terror will reign.
The young men and young women will perish,
the infants and those with grey hair.
26I said I would scatter them
and erase their name from human memory,
27but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
lest the adversary misunderstand
and say, “Our hand has triumphed;
the Lord has not done all this.” ’
28They are a nation without sense,
there is no discernment in them.
29If only they were wise and would understand this
and discern what their end will be!
30How 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?
31For their rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
32Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
and their clusters with bitterness.
33Their 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?
35It 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.’
36The Lord will vindicate his people
and relent concerning his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
and no-one is left, slave or free.#32:36 Or and they are without a ruler or leader
37He will say: ‘Now where are their gods,
the rock they took refuge in,
38the 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.
40I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear:
as surely as I live for ever,
41when 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.
42I 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.’
43Rejoice, you nations, with his people,#32:43 Or Make his people rejoice, you nations#32:43 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) people, / and let all the angels worship him,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants;
he will take vengeance on his enemies
and make atonement for his land and people.
44Moses came with Joshua#32:44 Hebrew Hoshea, a variant of Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46he 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. 47They 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
48On that same day the Lord told Moses, 49‘Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, opposite Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50There 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. 51This 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. 52Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.’
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Deuteronomy 32: NIVUK
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The Holy Bible, New International Version® (Anglicised), NIV®
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Deuteronomy 32
32
1Earth and Sky,
listen to what I say!
2Israel, I will teach you.
My words will be like gentle rain
on tender young plants,
or like dew on the grass.
3Join with me in praising
the wonderful name
of the LORD our God.
4The LORD is a mighty rock,#32.4 mighty rock: The Hebrew text has “rock”, which is sometimes used in poetry to compare the LORD to a mountain where his people can run for protection from their enemies.
and he never does wrong.
God can always be trusted
to bring justice.
5But you lie and cheat
and are unfaithful to him.
You have disgraced yourselves
and are no longer worthy
to be his children.#32.5 and are unfaithful…children: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
6Israel, the LORD is your Father,
the one who created you,
but you repaid him
by being foolish.
7Think about past generations.
Ask your parents
or any of your elders.
They will tell you
8that God Most High#Ac 17.26.
gave land to every nation.
He assigned a guardian angel
to each of them,#32.8 He assigned…them: The Dead Sea Scrolls and one ancient translation; the Standard Hebrew Text “So there were as many nations as Israel (that is, Jacob) had children.”
9but the LORD himself
takes care of Israel.#32.9 Israel: The Hebrew text has “Jacob”, another name for Israel's ancestor.
10Israel, 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.
11The LORD was like an eagle
teaching its young to fly,
always ready to swoop down
and catch them on its back.
12Israel, the LORD led you,
and without the aid
of a foreign god,
13he 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.
14Your flocks and herds
produced milk and yoghurt,
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.
15Israel,#32.15 Israel: The Standard Hebrew Text has “Jeshurun”, a rare name for Israel related to a word meaning “honest”. The Samaritan Hebrew Text and one ancient translation also use “Jacob”, another name for the ancestor of the nation of Israel. you grew fat and rebelled
against God, your Creator;
you rejected the Mighty Rock,#32.15 Mighty Rock: See the note at 32.4.
your only place of safety.
16You made God jealous and angry
by worshipping disgusting idols
and foreign gods.
17You offered sacrifices#1 Co 10.20.
to demons, those useless gods#32.16,17 disgusting idols…foreign gods…demons…those useless gods: Different ways of referring to gods of other nations.
that never helped you,
new gods that your ancestors
never worshipped.
18You turned away
from God, your Creator;
you forgot the Mighty Rock,#32.18 Mighty Rock: See the note at 32.4.
the source of your life.
19You were the LORD's children,
but you made him angry.
Then he rejected you 20and 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.
21You worshipped worthless idols,#1 Co 10.22; Ro 10.19.
and made me jealous
and angry!
Now I will send a cruel#32.21 cruel: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
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.
23I'll send disaster after disaster
to strike you like arrows.
24You'll be struck by starvation
and deadly diseases,
by the fangs of wild animals
and poisonous snakes.
25Young 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.
27But I dreaded the sound
of your enemies saying,
‘We defeated Israel with no help
from the LORD.’ ”
28People of Israel,
that's what the LORD
has said to you.
But you don't have good sense,
and you never listen
to advice.
29If you did, you could see
where you are headed.
30How 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.
31Even our enemies know
that only our God
is a Mighty Rock.#32.31 Mighty Rock: See the note at 32.4.
32Our enemies are grapevines
rooted in the fields
of Sodom and Gomorrah.#32.32 Sodom and Gomorrah: Two cities that the LORD destroyed because their people were so evil (see Genesis 18.16—19.28).
The grapes they produce
are full of bitter poison;
33their wine is more deadly
than cobra venom.
34But the LORD has written
a list of their sins
and locked it in his vault.
35Soon our enemies will get#Ro 12.19; He 10.30.
what they deserve#32.35 our enemies…deserve: The Samaritan Hebrew Text and one ancient translation; the Standard Hebrew Text “I will pay them back.”—
suddenly they will slip,
and total disaster
will quickly follow.
36When only a few#Ps 135.14.
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.
37But first the LORD will say,
“You ran for safety to other gods—
couldn't they help you?
38You offered them wine
and your best sacrifices.
Can't those gods help you now
or give you protection?
39Don'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 for ever,
41I will take revenge
on my hateful enemies.
I will sharpen my sword
and let it flash
like lightning.
42My 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.”#32.42 leaders: Or “long-haired warriors”, who let their hair grow to show that they had made sacred promises to their gods.
43Tell the heavens to celebrate#Ro 15.10; Rev 19.2.
and all gods to bow down
to the LORD,#32.43 Tell…LORD: The Dead Sea Scrolls and one ancient translation; the Standard Hebrew Text “Let the nations, his people, celebrate.”
because he will take revenge
on those hateful enemies
who killed his people.
He will forgive the sins of Israel
and purify their land.#32.43 because he will…land: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
44-45Moses spoke the words of the song so that all the Israelites could hear, and Joshua#32.44,45 Joshua: The Hebrew text has “Hoshea”, another form of Joshua's name. helped him. When Moses had finished, 46he 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. 47The Law isn't empty words. It can give you a long life in the land that you are going to take.”
Moses sees the land and blesses the tribes of Israel
Moses will see the land
48Later that day the LORD said to Moses:#Nu 27.12-14; Dt 3.23-27.
49Go up into the Abarim Mountain range here in Moab across the Jordan 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. 50Then you will die and be buried on the mountaintop, just as your brother Aaron died and was buried on Mount Hor. 51Both of you were unfaithful to me at Meribah Spring near Kadesh in the Zin Desert.#32.51 Both of you were unfaithful…the Zin Desert: See Numbers 20.1-13. I am God, but there in front of the Israelites, you did not treat me with the honour and respect I deserve. 52So I will give the land to the people of Israel, but you will only get to see it from a distance.
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