Beginning of Moses’ Song, (written at the command of God (31:19))

1“Hear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words that I say.”

2“My doctrine shall drop like the rain, my speech shall distil like the dew, as light rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, 3I will proclaim the name of the LORD; and ascribe greatness to our God.”

4“He is the Rock, His works are perfect; for all His ways are just; a faithful God of truth and without iniquity; and He is righteous. 5You have corrupted yourselves, and not acted as His children; you are a perverse and crooked generation. 6Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your father Who has created you? Has He not formed and established you?”

7“Remember the days of old, consider the years of past generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you; ask your elders, and they will tell you. 8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the Israelites. 9For the LORD's portion is His people; Jacob is His allotted inheritance.”

10“He found them in a desert land, a howling wilderness; He sustained and cared for him; He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye. 11As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads her wings to take and carry them aloft: 12The LORD alone led them, and there was no strange god with them.”

13“He caused them to ride on the high places of the earth, and fed them with the fruit of the fields; and He nourished them with honey out of the rock, and with oil from the flinty rock; 14With curds and the milk of cows and sheep, with choice lambs, and rams of Bashan, and goats, with the finest kernels of wheat. They drank the purest and finest from the grape.”

15“But Jeshurun (beloved Israel) soon became fat, bloated and complacent. Then they forsook God Who had made them, and lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation. 16They provoked Him to jealousy with their foreign gods; and their detestable actions provoked Him to anger. 17They sacrificed to demons - not to God, but to strange gods they had not known, to gods that their fathers had never regarded. 18They deserted the Rock Who fathered them, they became unmindful and forgot the God Who had given them birth.”

19“And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them, because His sons and His daughters provoked Him. 20And He said, ‘I will hide My face from them and see what becomes of them: for they are a very perverse generation - children without integrity or faithfulness. 21They have aroused My jealousy and anger with feckless idols and vain idols that are not God; and I will arouse their jealousy by those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish Gentile nation. 22For My anger is blazing like a fire, and it shall burn to the lowest depths of the grave; and shall consume the earth with her harvest, and set ablaze the foundations of the mountains.’

23‘I will heap disasters upon them; I will use My arrows on them. 24I will send a burning heat and a wasting pestilence that shall consume them with bitter plagues; I will also send the fangs of wild beasts upon them, along with the poison of snakes gliding through the dust. 25The sword will bring them death outside, and terror within, destroying both the young man and the virgin, the infants with the man of gray hairs. 26I said I will scatter them and erase the remembrance of them from among men; 27But I wanted to avoid the provocative taunts of their enemy, when they misunderstand and ascribed their victory over Israel to their own prowess, and say, “We have triumphed; and the LORD has not done all this.”’

28‘Israel is a nation without sense – a nation that lacks any discernment or understanding. 29If only they were wise, and understood this, and considered what their latter end would be! 30How could just one of their enemies chase a thousand Israelites, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had forsaken them, and the LORD had given them up? 31For the enemies’ rock is not as our Rock, as even our enemies themselves concede. 32For Israel’s vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. 33Their wine is the poison of snakes - the cruel venom of cobras.’

34‘Have I not kept this in reserve, and sealed it up in My vaults? 35I will take My vengeance, and will pay them back; their foot shall slide in due time. The day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them are hastening.’

36“The LORD shall judge, then will vindicate His people; He will relent and have compassion, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is none left – either slave or free. 37And He shall say, ‘Now where are their gods, the rock in whom they trusted - 38The gods that ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let those gods rise and help you, and be your protection!’

39‘Look and see now that I, - I, alone - am He, and there is no God besides Me: I kill, and I bring to life; I wound, and I heal: there is no one that can rescue anyone out of My hand. 40For I raise My hand to heaven, and solemnly say, “As sure as I live forever, 41If I whet my glittering sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment; I will render vengeance upon My enemies, and will repay those who hate Me. 42My arrows shall be drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh - the blood of the slain and of the captives, but beginning with 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 be merciful and cleanse His people’s land.”

End of Moses’ Song

44Then Moses and Joshua, son of Nun, came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45And when Moses finished reciting these words to all Israel, 46He said to them, “Take to heart all the words which I have declared among you this day, which you shall command your children to observe and do, all the words of this law. 47For these are not just idle words for you; because they are your life; and by them, you shall prolong your days in the land, which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

48And that same day, the LORD told Moses: 49“Go up into the mountain range of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for a possession; 50And there on the mount that you have climbed, you shall die and be gathered to your people; just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people: 51Because you trespassed against Me before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you failed to honor My holiness in the sight of the Israelites. 52You shall see the land that lies before you from a distance; but you shall not enter the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”