Deuteronomy 32
New King James Version Par ▾ 

The Song of Moses

1“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2Let my [a]teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
3For I proclaim the name of the Lord:
Ascribe greatness to our God.
4He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

5“They have corrupted themselves;
They are not His children,
Because of their blemish:
A perverse and crooked generation.
6Do you thus deal[b] with the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is He not your Father, who bought you?
Has He not 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:
8When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations,
When He separated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the [c]children of Israel.
9For the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

10“He found him in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He kept him as the [d]apple of His eye.
11As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12So the Lord alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him.

13“He made him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;
14Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.

15“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he forsook God who made him,
And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With [e]abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you.

19“And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them,
Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
20And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
Children in whom is no faith.
21They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger by their [f]foolish idols.
But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
22For a fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the [g]lowest [h]hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23‘I will heap disasters on them;
I will spend My arrows on them.
24They shall be wasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
I will also send against them the teeth of beasts,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25The sword shall destroy outside;
There shall be terror within
For the young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,
I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
27Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
Lest they should say, “Our hand is high;
And it is not the Lord who has done all this.” ’

28“For they are a nation void of counsel,
Nor is there any understanding in them.
29Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their latter end!
30How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the Lord had surrendered them?
31For their rock is not like our Rock,
Even our enemies themselves being judges.
32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom
And of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter.
33Their wine is the poison of serpents,
And the cruel venom of cobras.

34Is this not laid up in store with Me,
Sealed up among My treasures?
35Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’

36“For the Lord will judge His people
And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And there is no one remaining, bond or free.
37He will say: ‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you,
And be your refuge.

39‘Now see that I, even I, am He,
And there is no God besides Me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.
40For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “As I live forever,
41If I [i]whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And repay those who hate Me.
42I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’

43“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His [j]people;
For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He will provide atonement for His land and His people.”

44So Moses came with [k]Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46and he said to them: “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 47For it is not a [l]futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses to Die on Mount Nebo

48Then the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: 49“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; 50and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be [m]gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; 51because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of [n]Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”

Footnotes:

  1. Deuteronomy 32:2 doctrine
  2. Deuteronomy 32:6 repay the
  3. Deuteronomy 32:8 LXX, DSS angels of God; Symmachus, Lat. sons of God
  4. Deuteronomy 32:10 pupil
  5. Deuteronomy 32:16 detestable acts
  6. Deuteronomy 32:21 foolishness, lit. vanities
  7. Deuteronomy 32:22 lowest part of
  8. Deuteronomy 32:22 Or Sheol
  9. Deuteronomy 32:41 sharpen
  10. Deuteronomy 32:43 DSS fragment adds And let all the gods (angels) worship Him; cf. LXX and Heb. 1:6
  11. Deuteronomy 32:44 Heb. Hoshea, Num. 13:8, 16
  12. Deuteronomy 32:47 vain
  13. Deuteronomy 32:50 Join your ancestors
  14. Deuteronomy 32:51 Lit. Contention at Kadesh
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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