Chapter 32
1 Give ear , you heavens , and I will speak . Let the earth hear the words of my mouth .
2 My doctrine will drop as the rain . My speech will condense as the dew , as the misty rain on the tender grass , as the showers on the herb .
3 For I will proclaim Yahweh ’s name . Ascribe greatness to our God !
4 The Rock : his work is perfect , for all his ways are just . A God of faithfulness who does no wrong , just and right is he .
5 They have dealt corruptly with him . They are not his children , because of their defect . They are a perverse and crooked generation .
6 Is this the way you repay Yahweh , foolish and unwise people ? Isn’t he your father who has bought you ? He has made you and established you .
7 Remember the days of old . Consider the years of many generations . Ask your father, and he will show you ; your elders , and they will tell you .
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance , when he separated the children of men , he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel .
9 For Yahweh ’s portion is his people . Jacob is the lot of his inheritance .
10 He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness . He surrounded him . He cared for him . He kept him as the apple of his eye .
11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest , that flutters over her young , he spread abroad his wings , he took them , he bore them on his feathers.
12 Yahweh alone led him . There was no foreign god with him .
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field . He caused him to suck honey out of the rock , oil out of the flinty rock ;
14 butter from the herd , and milk from the flock , with fat of lambs , rams of the breed of Bashan , and goats , with the finest of the wheat . From the blood of the grape , you drank wine .
15 But Jeshurun grew fat , and kicked . You have grown fat . You have grown thick . You have become sleek . Then he abandoned God who made him , and rejected the Rock of his salvation .
16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations .
17 They sacrificed to demons , not God , to gods that they didn’t know , to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread .
18 Of the Rock who became your father , you are unmindful , and have forgotten God who gave you birth .
19 Yahweh saw and abhorred , because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters .
20 He said, " I will hide my face from them . I will see what their end will be ; for they are a very perverse generation , children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God . They have provoked me to anger with their vanities . I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people . I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation .
22 For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol , devours the earth with its increase , and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire .
23 " I will heap evils on them . I will spend my arrows on them .
24 They shall be wasted with hunger , and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction . I will send the teeth of animals on them , with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust .
25 Outside the sword will bereave , and in the rooms , terror on both young man and virgin , the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26 I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy , lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘ Our hand is exalted ; Yahweh has not done all this .’"
28 For they are a nation void of counsel . There is no understanding in them .
29 Oh that they were wise , that they understood this , that they would consider their latter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand , and two put ten thousand to flight , unless their Rock had sold them , and Yahweh had delivered them up ?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock , even our enemies themselves concede .
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom , of the fields of Gomorrah . Their grapes are poison grapes . Their clusters are bitter .
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents , the cruel venom of asps .
34 "Isn’t this laid up in store with me , sealed up among my treasures?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides, for the day of their calamity is at hand . Their doom rushes at them ."
36 For Yahweh will judge his people , and have compassion on his servants , when he sees that their power is gone , that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
37 He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge ,
38 which 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 .
39 " See now that I myself am he . There is no god with me . I kill and I make alive . I wound and I heal . There is no one who can deliver out of my hand .
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever ,
41 if I sharpen my glittering sword , my hand grasps it in judgment ; I will take vengeance on my adversaries , and will repay those who hate me .
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood . My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives , from the head of the leaders of the enemy."
43 Rejoice , you nations , with his people , for he will avenge the blood of his servants . He will take vengeance on his adversaries , and will make atonement for his land and for his people .
44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people , he and Joshua the son of Nun .
45 Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel .
46 He said to them , " Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today , which you shall command your children to observe to do , all the words of this law .
47 For it is no vain thing for you , because it is your life , and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it ."
48 Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day , saying ,
49 " Go up into this mountain of Abarim , to Mount Nebo , which is in the land of Moab , that is across from Jericho ; and see the land of Canaan , which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.
50 Die on the mountain where you go up , and be gathered to your people , as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor , and was gathered to his people ;
51 because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh , in the wilderness of Zin ; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel .
52 For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel ."