Deuteronomy 32

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

2Let my teaching fall like rain, my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on tender grass, like showers on the plants.

3For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God!

4The Rock—his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, righteous and upright is he.

5They have acted corruptly toward him; they are not his children, to their shame—a crooked and twisted generation.

6Is this how you repay Yahweh, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your father, who created you? He made you and established you.

7Remember the days of old; consider the years of generations long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain it to you.

8When the Most High allotted the nations their inheritance, when he divided humankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

9For Yahweh’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

10He found him in a desert land, in a barren and howling wilderness. He surrounded 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, he spread out his wings, took him up, and carried him on his feathers.

12Yahweh alone led him; no foreign god was with him.

13He made him ride on the heights of the land, and he ate the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

14with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams of the breed of Bashan and goats, with the finest kernels of wheat. And you drank wine, the blood of the grape.

15But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—you grew fat, you grew thick, you were gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

16They made him jealous with foreign gods; they provoked him with detestable things.

17They sacrificed to demons that are not God, to gods they had not known, new gods that had recently come along, whom your ancestors did not fear.

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

19Yahweh saw this and spurned them, because his sons and daughters provoked him.

20He said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be. For they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.

21They made me jealous with what is no god; they provoked me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation.

22For a fire has been kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol. It devours the earth and its harvest and sets the foundations of the mountains ablaze.

23I will heap disasters on them; I will use up my arrows against them.

24They will be wasted by hunger, devoured by plague and bitter pestilence. I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.

25Outside, the sword will take their children; inside, terror will strike—young man and young woman alike, the nursing infant and the gray-haired man.

26I said I would scatter them and erase their memory from humankind,

27had I not dreaded the taunting of the enemy, that their adversaries would misunderstand and say, “Our hand has triumphed; it was not Yahweh who did all this.”’

28For they are a nation without sense, and there is no understanding in them.

29If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would consider what their end will be!

30How could one man chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless Yahweh had handed them over?

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

32For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter.

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

34‘Is this not stored up with me, sealed up in my storehouses?

35Vengeance is mine, and repayment, at the time their foot slips. For the day of their disaster is near, and their doom is rushing toward them.’

36For Yahweh will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.

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 drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your shelter!

39See now that I, I am he, and there is no god besides me. I put to death and I make alive; I wound and I heal, and no one can rescue from my hand.

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

41when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

42I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh—the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the enemy’s leaders.”’

43Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries and make atonement for his land and his people.”

44Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea son of Nun.

45When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

46he said to them, “Take to heart all the words that I am solemnly declaring to you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

47They are not empty words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

48That same day Yahweh spoke to Moses:

49“Go up into these Abarim mountains, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their possession.

50Die on the mountain you are about to climb, and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

51For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat me as holy among the Israelites.

52So you will see the land from a distance, but you will not enter it, the land I am giving to the Israelites.”