Deuteronomy 32
1 Attend, O heaven, and I will speak;
and let the earth hear the words out of my mouth.
2 Let my speech be looked for as the
rain, and my words come down as dew, as the shower upon the herbage, and as
snow upon the grass. 3 For I have
called on the name of the Lord: assign ye greatness to our God.
4 As for God,
his works are true, and all his ways
are
aGr. judgments.judgment: God is faithful, and there is no
unrighteousness in him; just and holy
is the Lord.
5 They have sinned, not
pleasing him; spotted children, a froward and
perverse generation. 6 Do ye thus
recompense the Lord? is the people thus foolish and
unwise? did not he himself thy father purchase thee, and make thee, and form
thee? 7 Remember the days of old,
consider the years
bGr. in ages of ages.for past ages: ask thy father, and he shall relate to thee, thine elders, and
they shall tell thee.
8 When the Most High divided the
nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations
according to the number of the angels of God.
9 And his people Jacob became the
portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance.
10 He maintained him in the
wilderness, in burning thirst and a dry land: he led him about and instructed
him, and kept him as the apple of an eye.
11 As an eagle would watch over his
brood, and yearns over his young, receives them having spread his wings, and
takes them up on his back: 12 the
Lord alone led them, there was no strange god with them.
13 He brought them up on the strength
of the land; he fed them with the fruits of the fields; they sucked honey out
of the rock, and oil out of the solid rock.
14 Butter of cows, and milk of sheep,
with the fat of lambs and rams, of calves and kids, with fat of kidneys of
wheat; and he drank wine, the blood of the grape.
15 So Jacob ate and was filled, and
the beloved one kicked; he grew fat, he became thick and broad: then he
forsook the God that made him, and departed from God his Saviour.
16 They provoked me to anger with
strange gods; with their abominations they bitterly angered me.
17 They sacrificed to devils, and not
to God; to gods whom they knew not: new and fresh
gods came in, whom their fathers knew not.
18 Thou hast forsaken God that begot
thee, and forgotten God who feeds thee.
19 And the Lord saw, and was jealous;
and was provoked by the anger of his sons and daughters,
20 and said, I will turn away my face
from them, and will show what shall happen to them in the last days; for it is
a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faith.
21 cRom. 10. 9.
They have provoked me to jealousy with
that which is not God, they have exasperated me with
their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with them that are no nation,
I will anger them with a nation void of understanding.
22 For a fire has been kindled out of
my wrath, it shall burn to hell below; it shall devour the land, and the
fruits of it; it shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will gather evils upon them, and
will
dGr. cause my weapons to war together against them.fight with my weapons against them.
24 They shall be consumed with hunger and the devouring
of birds, and there shall be irremediable
eGr. downfall, or falling away.destruction: I will send forth against them the teeth of wild beasts, with
the rage of serpents creeping on the ground.
25 Without, the sword shall bereave
them of children, and terror shall issue out of the
secret chambers; the young man shall perish with the virgin, the suckling with
him who has grown old. 26 I said, I
will scatter them, and I will cause their memorial to cease from among men.
27 Were it not for the wrath of the
enemy, lest they should live long, lest their enemies should combine against
them; lest they should say, Our own high arm, and not the Lord, has done all
these things.
28 It is a nation that has lost
counsel, neither is there understanding in them.
29 They had not sense to understand:
let them reserve these things against the time to come.
30 How
fGr. shall.should one pursue a thousand, and two rout tens of thousands, if God had not
sold them, and the Lord delivered them up?
31 For their gods are not as our God,
but our enemies are void of understanding.
32 For their vine
is of the vine of Sodom, and their vine-branch of
Gomorrha: their grape is a grape of gall, their
cluster is one of bitterness.
33 Their wine
is the rage of serpents, and the incurable rage of
asps. 34 Lo! are not these things
stored up by me, and sealed among my treasures?
35 In the day of vengeance
gRom. 12. 19.
I will recompense, whensoever their foot shall be tripped up; for the day of
their destruction is near to them, and the judgments
at hand are close upon you. 36 For
the Lord shall judge his people, and shall be comforted over his servants; for
he saw that they were
hGr. paralysed.utterly weakened, and failed in the hostile invasion, and were become feeble:
37 and the Lord said, Where are their
gods on whom they trusted? 38 the fat
of whose sacrifices ye ate, and ye drank the wine of their drink-offerings?
let them arise and help you, and be your protectors.
39 Behold, behold that I am
he, and there is no god beside me: I kill, and I will
make to live: I will smite, and I will heal; and there is none who shall
deliver out of my hands. 40 For I
will lift up my hand to heaven, and swear by my right hand, and I will say, I
live for ever. 41 For I will sharpen
my sword like lightning, and my hand shall take hold of judgment; and I will
render judgment to my enemies, and will recompense them that hate me.
42 I will make my weapons drunk with
blood, and my sword shall devour flesh,
it shall glut itself with the blood of the wounded,
and from the captivity of the
iAlex. ἐθνῶν, Gentiles.heads of their enemies that rule over them.
43 Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and
let all the angels of God worship him;
jRom. 15. 10.
rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen
themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will
render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them
that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.
44 And Moses wrote this song in that
day, and taught it to the children of Israel; and Moses went in and spoke all
the words of this law in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the
son of Naue.
45 And Moses finished speaking to all
Israel. 46 And he said to them, Take
heed with your heart to all these words, which I testify to you this day,
which ye shall command your sons, to observe and do all the words of this law.
47 For this
is no vain word to you; for it
is your life, and because of this word ye shall live
long upon the land, into which ye go over Jordan to inherit it.
48 And the Lord spoke to Moses in
this day, saying, 49 Go up to the
mount Abarim, this mountain Nabau which is in the land of Moab over against
Jericho, and behold the land of Chanaan, which I give to the sons of Israel:
50 and die in the mount whither thou
goest up, and be added to thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Or,
and was added to his people.
51 Because ye disobeyed my word among
the children of Israel, at the waters of strife of Cades in the wilderness of
Sin; because ye sanctified me not among the sons of Israel.
52 Thou shalt see the land before
thee, but thou shalt not enter into it.