Deuteronomy 32

¹ Listen, heavens, while I speak; hear, earth, the words that I shal say!

² May my teaching fal like the rain, may my word drop down like the dew, like showers on the grass,like light rain on the turf!

³ For I shal proclaim the name of Yahweh. Oh, tell the greatness of our God!

⁴ He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for al his ways are equitable. A trustworthy God who does nowrong, he is the Honest, the Upright One!

⁵ They have acted perversely, those he fathered without blemish, a deceitful and underhand brood.

⁶ Is this the return you make to Yahweh? O people brainless and unwise! Is this not your father, whogave you being, who made you, by whom you subsist?

⁷ Think back on the days of old, think over the years, down the ages. Question your father, let himexplain to you, your elders, and let them tel you!

⁸ When the Most High gave the nations each their heritage, when he partitioned out the human race, heassigned the boundaries of nations according to the number of the children of God,

⁹ but Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob was to be the measure of his inheritance.

¹⁰ In the desert he finds him, in the howling expanses of the wastelands. He protects him, rears him,guards him as the pupil of his eye.

¹¹ Like an eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, he spreads out his wings to hold him, hesupports him on his pinions.

¹² Yahweh alone is his guide; no alien god for him!

¹³ He gives him the heights of the land to ride, he feeds him on the yield of the mountains, he gives himhoney from the rock to taste, and oil from the flinty crag;

¹⁴ curds from the cattle, milk from the flock, and the richness of the pasture, rams of Bashan's breed,and goats, the richness of the wheat kernel; the fermented blood of the grape for drink.

¹⁵ Jacob has eaten to his heart's content, Jeshurun, grown fat, has now lashed out. (You have grownfat, gross, bloated.) He has disowned the God who made him, and dishonoured the Rock, his salvation,

¹⁶ whose jealousy they aroused with foreigners -- with things detestable they angered him.

¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons who are not God, to gods hitherto unknown to them, to newcomers ofyesterday whom their ancestors had never respected.

¹⁸ (You forget the Rock who fathered you, the God who made you, you no longer remember.)

¹⁹ Yahweh saw it and, in anger, he spurned his sons and daughters.

²⁰ 'I shal hide my face from them,' he said, 'and see what wil become of them. For they are a deceitfulbrood, children with no loyalty in them.

²¹ They have roused me to jealousy with a non-god, they have exasperated me with their idols. In myturn I shal rouse them to jealousy with a non-people, I shal exasperate them with a stupid nation.

²² Yes, a fire has blazed from my anger, it will burn right down to the depths of Sheol; it will devour theearth and al its produce, it wil set fire to the footings of the mountains.

²³ I shal hurl disasters on them, on them I shal use up al my arrows.

²⁴ They wil be weakened by hunger, eaten away by plague and the bitter scourge. Against them I shalsend the fang of wild animals and the poison of snakes that glide in the dust.

²⁵ Outside, the sword bereaves, while inside terror wil reign. Young man and girl alike will perish,suckling and greybeard both together.

²⁶ I should crush them to dust, I said, I should wipe out al memory of them,

²⁷ did I not fear the boasting of the enemy.' But do not let their foes be mistaken! Do not let them say,'We have got the upper hand and Yahweh plays no part in this.'

²⁸ What a short-sighted nation this is, how thoroughly imperceptive!

²⁹ Were they wise, they would succeed, they would be able to read their destiny.

³⁰ How else could one man rout a thousand, how could two put ten thousand to flight, were it not thattheir Rock has sold them, that Yahweh has delivered them up?

³¹ But their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies cannot pray for us!

³² For their vine springs from the stock of Sodom and from the groves of Gomorrah: their grapes arepoisonous grapes, their clusters are bitter;

³³ their wine is snakes' poison, the vipers' cruel venom.

³⁴ But he, is he not safe with me, sealed inside my treasury?

³⁵ Vengeance is mine, I wil pay them back, for the time when they make a false step. For the day oftheir ruin is close, doom is rushing towards them, for he wil see to it that their power fails. that neither serf norfree man remains.

³⁶ (For Yahweh wil see his people righted, he wil take pity on his servants.)

³⁷ 'Where are their gods then?' he wil ask, 'the rock where they sought refuge,

³⁸ who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations?' Let these arise and help you,let these be the shelter above you!

³⁹ See now that I, I am he, and beside me there is no other god. It is I who deal death and life; when Ihave struck, it is I who heal (no one can rescue anyone from me).

⁴⁰ Yes, I raise my hand to heaven, and I say, 'As surely as I live for ever,

⁴¹ When I have whetted my flashing sword, I shal enforce justice, I shal return vengeance to my foes, Ishall take vengeance on my foes.

⁴² I shal make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword wil feed on flesh: the blood of the woundedand the prisoners, the dishevelled heads of the enemy!'

⁴³ Heavens, rejoice with him, let al the children of God pay him homage! Nations, rejoice with hispeople, let God's envoys tel of his power! For he wil avenge the blood of his servants, he wil return vengeanceto my foes, he will repay those who hate him and purify his people's country.

⁴⁴ Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the people's hearing.

⁴⁵ When Moses had finished reciting these words to al Israel,

⁴⁶ he said to them, 'Take al these words to heart; I intend them today to be evidence against you. Youmust order your children to keep and observe al the words of this Law.

⁴⁷ You must not think of this as empty words, for the Law is your life, and by its means you will live longin the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess.'

⁴⁸ Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day and said to him,

⁴⁹ 'Climb this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, in the country of Moab, opposite Jericho, and viewthe Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites as their domain.

⁵⁰ Die on the mountain you have climbed, and be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron diedon Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

⁵¹ Because, with the other Israelites, you broke faith with me at the Waters of Meribah-Kadesh in thedesert of Zin, because you did not make my holiness clear to the Israelites;

⁵² you may only see the country from outside; you cannot enter it -- the country which I am giving to theIsraelites.'