32:1 “Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth!
32:2 May my teaching drip as the rain,
My speech trickle as the dew,
As droplets on the fresh grass,
And as the showers on the vegetation.
32:3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
32:4 The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are ①just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and just is He.
▷ ①Or judgment
32:5 ①They have acted corruptly against Him,
They are not His children, because of their defect;
But are a perverse and crooked generation.
▷ ①Lit It has
32:6 Is this what you do to the LORD,
You foolish and unwise people?
Is He not your Father who has purchased you?
He has made you and established you.
32:7 Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of all generations.
Ask your father and he will inform you,
Your elders, and they will tell you.
32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
When He separated the sons of ①mankind,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the ②sons of Israel.
▷ ①Or Adam ②As in MT; DSS sons of God; LXX angels of God
32:9 For the LORD’S portion is His people;
Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
32:10 He found him in a desert land,
And in the howling wasteland of a wilderness;
He encircled him, He cared for him,
He guarded him as the ①apple of His eye.
▷ ①Lit pupil
32:11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
And hovers over its young,
He spread His wings, He caught them,
He carried them on His pinions.
32:12 The LORD alone guided him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
32:13 He had him ride on the high places of the earth,
And he ate the produce of the field;
And He had him suck honey from the rock,
And ①oil from the flinty rock,
▷ ①I.e., olive oil
32:14 Curds of the herd, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs
And rams, the breed of Bashan, and of goats,
With the best of the wheat;
And you drank wine of the blood of grapes.
32:15 “But ①Jeshurun became fat and kicked—
You have become fat, thick, and obstinate—
Then he abandoned God who made him,
And ②rejected the Rock of his salvation.
▷ ①I.e., Israel ②Lit declared void
32:16 They made Him jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, who were not God,
To gods whom they have not known,
New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not know.
32:18 You forgot the Rock who fathered you,
And forgot the God who gave you birth.
32:19 “The LORD saw this, and spurned them
Because of the provocation by His sons and daughters.
32:20 Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be;
For they are a perverse generation,
Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.
32:21 They have made Me jealous with what is not God;
They have provoked Me to anger with their ①idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,
▷ ①Lit nonexistent things
32:22 For a fire has flared in My anger,
And it burns to the lowest part of ①Sheol,
And devours the earth with its yield,
And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
▷ ①I.e., the netherworld
32:23 ‘I will add misfortunes to them;
I will use up My arrows on them.
32:24 They will be wasted by famine, and emaciated by ①plague
And a bitter epidemic;
And the teeth of beasts I will send against them,
With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
▷ ①Lit burning heat
32:25 Outside the sword will make them childless,
And inside, terror—
Both young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hair.
32:26 I would have said, “I will wipe them out,
I will remove the mention of ①their name from humanity,”
▷ ①Lit them
32:27 Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,
That their adversaries would misjudge,
That they would say, “Our hand is ①triumphant,
And the LORD has not performed all this.” ’
▷ ①Lit high
32:28 “For they are a nation ①destitute of counsel,
And there is no understanding in them.
▷ ①Lit perishing of
32:29 If only they were wise and they understood this;
If only they would discern their ①future!
▷ ①Or latter end
32:30 How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the LORD had given them up?
32:31 Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock;
Even our enemies ①themselves judge this.
▷ ①Lit are judges
32:32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,
And from the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of poison,
Their clusters, bitter.
32:33 Their wine is the venom of ①serpents,
And the ②deadly poison of vipers.
▷ ①Lit dragons ②Lit cruel
32:34 ‘Is it not stored up with Me,
Sealed up in My treasuries?
32:35 Vengeance is Mine, and retribution;
In due time their foot will slip.
For the day of their disaster is near,
And the impending things are hurrying to them.’
32:36 For the LORD will vindicate His people,
And will have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their ①strength is gone,
And there is none remaining, bond or free.
▷ ①Lit hand
32:37 And He will say, ‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they took refuge?
32:38 Those who 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!
32:39 See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand.
32:40 Indeed, I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, as I live forever,
32:41 If I have sharpened ①My flashing sword,
And My hand has taken hold of justice,
I will return vengeance on My adversaries,
And I will repay those who hate Me.
▷ ①Lit the lightning of My sword
32:42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword will devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the long-haired ①leaders of the enemy.’
▷ ①Lit head
32:43 Rejoice, you nations, with His people;
For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And will return vengeance on His adversaries,
And will atone for His land and His people.”
32:44 Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with ①Joshua the son of Nun.
▷ ①Lit Hoshea
32:45 When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
32:46 he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you will command your sons to ①follow carefully, all the words of this Law.
▷ ①Lit be careful to perform
32:47 For it is not a ①trivial matter for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, ②which you are about to cross the Jordan to ③possess.”
▷ ①Lit empty word ②Lit where ③Lit possess it
32:48 Now the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying,
32:49 “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab ①opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel as a possession.
▷ ①Lit which is opposite
32:50 Then you are to die on the mountain where you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,
32:51 because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel.
32:52 For you will see the land at a distance but you will not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel.”