The Song of Moses 1Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants. 3For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. 4He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, 5His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the blemish on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.a 6Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you? 7Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you. 8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.b 9But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance. 10He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the applec of His eye. 11As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.d 12The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him. 13He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock 14with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes 15But Jeshurune grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. 16They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations. 17They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear. 18You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters. 20He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation— 21They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people;f I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.g 22For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains. 23I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. 24They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust. 25Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man. 26I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind, 27if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’” 28Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them. 29If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate. 30How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? 31For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.h 32But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; 33Their wine is the venom of serpents, 34“Have I not stored up these things, 35Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.i In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.” 36For the LORD will vindicate His peoplej and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free. 37He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; 39See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one 40For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: 41when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries 42I will make My arrows drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh— the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.” 43Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him.k Rejoice, O nations, with His people;l for He will avenge the blood of His children.m He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him;n He will cleanse His land 44Then Moses came with Joshuao son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law. 47For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Moses’ Death Foretold 48On that same day the LORD said to Moses, 49“Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession. 50And there on the mountain that you climb, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51For at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence. 52Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.” Footnotes: 5 a Cited in Philippians 2:15 8 b DSS; LXX according to the number of the angels of God; MT according to the number of the sons of Israel 10 c Literally the pupil 11 d Pinions are the outer parts of a bird’s wings, including the flight feathers. 15 e Jeshurun means the upright one, a term of endearment for Israel. 21 f Or not a nation; see also LXX. 21 g Cited in Romans 10:19 31 h Hebrew; LXX but our enemies are void of understanding 35 i LXX; Hebrew Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; cited in Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30 36 j Or will judge His people; see also LXX; cited in Hebrews 10:30 43 k See DSS and LXX; MT lacks Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Cited in Hebrews 1:6 43 l Cited in Romans 15:10 43 m DSS and LXX; MT servants 43 n LXX and Vulgate; MT lacks and repay those who hate Him 44 o LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; Hebrew Hoshea, a variant of Joshua The Holy Bible, Majority Standard Bible, MSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God's Word has been dedicated to the public domain. The MSB is the Byzantine Majority Text version of the BSB, including the BSB OT plus the NT translated according to the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Majority Text (byzantinetext.com). The MSB includes footnotes for translatable variants from the modern Critical Texts (CT) such as the Nestle Aland GNT, SBL GNT, and Editio Critica Maior. Major variants between the Majority Text (MT) and Textus Receptus (TR) are also noted. 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