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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Deuteronomy 32: CEVUK
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Deuteronomy 32
32
The Song of Moses
1Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
My speech shall distil as the dew,
As the small rain upon the tender herb,
And as the showers upon the grass:
3Because I will publish the name of the LORD:
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect:
For all his ways are judgment:
A God of truth and without iniquity,
Just and right is he.
5They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children:
They are a perverse and crooked generation.
6Do ye thus requite the LORD,
O foolish people and unwise?
Is not he thy father that hath bought thee?
Hath he not made thee, and established thee?
7Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations:
Ask thy father, and he will shew thee;
Thy elders, and they will tell thee.
8When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
When he separated the sons of Adam,
He set the bounds of the people
According to the number of the children of Israel.
9For the LORD's portion is his people;
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10He found him in a desert land,
And in the waste howling wilderness;
He led him about, he instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
Fluttereth over her young,
Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,
Beareth them on her wings:
12 So the LORD alone did lead him,
And there was no strange god with him.
13He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
That he might eat the increase of the fields;
And he made him to suck honey out of the rock,
And oil out of the flinty rock;
14Butter of kine, and milk of sheep,
With fat of lambs,
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the fat of kidneys of wheat;
And thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
15But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:
Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness;
Then he forsook God which made him,
And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods,
With abominations provoked they him to anger.
17They sacrificed unto devils, not to God;
To gods whom they knew not,
To new gods that came newly up,
Whom your fathers feared not.
18Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful,
And hast forgotten God that formed thee.
19And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them,
Because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20And he said, I will hide my face from them,
I will see what their end shall be:
For they are a very froward generation,
Children in whom is no faith.
21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God;
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities:
And I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22For a fire is kindled in mine anger,
And shall burn unto the lowest hell,
And shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23I will heap mischiefs upon them;
I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat,
And with bitter destruction:
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25The sword without,
And terror within,
Shall destroy both the young man and the virgin,
The suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
26I said, I would scatter them into corners,
I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely,
And lest they should say, Our hand is high,
And the LORD hath not done all this.
28For they are a nation void of counsel,
Neither is there any understanding in them.
29O that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their latter end!
30How should one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them,
And the LORD had shut them up?
31For their rock is not as our Rock,
Even our enemies themselves being judges.
32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,
And of the fields of Gomorrah:
Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter:
33Their wine is the poison of dragons,
And the cruel venom of asps.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me,
And sealed up among my treasures?
35To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence;
Their foot shall slide in due time:
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things that shall come upon them make haste.
36For the LORD shall judge his people,
And repent himself for his servants,
When he seeth that their power is gone,
And there is none shut up, or left.
37And he shall say, Where are their gods,
Their rock in whom they trusted,
38Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you,
And be your protection.
39See now that I, even I, am he,
And there is no god with me:
I kill, and I make alive;
I wound, and I heal:
Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40For I lift up my hand to heaven,
And say, I live for ever.
41If I whet my glittering sword,
And mine hand take hold on judgment;
I will render vengeance to mine enemies,
And will reward them that hate me.
42I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,
And my sword shall devour flesh;
And that with the blood of the slain and of the captives,
From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people:
For he will avenge the blood of his servants,
And will render vengeance to his adversaries,
And will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
44And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun. 45And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel: 46and he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
48And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, 49Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: 50and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people: 51because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. 52Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
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