Old Testament · Law

Deuteronomy chapter 32

Listen, — I am speaking. Hear my words, .Let my fall like rain, my words settle like — like gentle showers on new grass, like steady rain on growing things.For I will call out the name of — come, declare the of our God!He is the — what he does is flawless, for all his ways are . A God who does no wrong, upright and fair is he.But his people have acted toward him — they are no longer his children, to their shame. A generation.Is this how you repay Yahweh, you foolish and senseless people? Isn’t he your who made you, who you and established you?Remember the , think back through the years of every generation. Ask your father — he will tell you. Ask your elders — they will explain.When the gave the nations their territories, when he divided up the human race, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the .But Yahweh’s own is his people — is his chosen inheritance.He found him in a desert land, in a , empty wasteland. He surrounded him, he watched over him, he guarded him like the .Like an stirring up its nest, hovering over its young, spreading its wings to catch them, carrying them on its feathers —Yahweh led him. No stood beside him.He set him on the of the land and fed him the harvest of the fields. He nursed him with and oil from the flinty stone,with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the richest of lambs, rams of and goats, with the finest kernels of wheat — and you drank the .But grew fat and kicked — you grew fat, thick, bloated. He abandoned the God who made him and treated the with contempt.They provoked him to with foreign gods, with they enraged him.They offered sacrifices to — to , gods they had never known, new arrivals that your ancestors never feared.You forgot the Rock who you. You erased from memory the God who .Yahweh saw it and them, provoked by his own sons and daughters.He said, ‘I will from them. I will see what becomes of them — for they are a perverse generation, children with no in them.They made me jealous with what is , provoked me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with what is — I will provoke them with a foolish nation.For a fire has been kindled by my anger, burning down to the depths of , devouring the earth and its harvest, setting ablaze the foundations of the mountains.I will pile disasters on them, I will spend all my against them:wasted by famine, consumed by plague, devoured by bitter pestilence. I will send the against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.Outside, the sword will take their children. Inside, — the young man and the young woman together, the nursing child and the gray-haired elder.I would have said, ‘I will scatter them to the winds, I will from the earth’ —but I the taunt of the enemy, feared their adversaries would misread it, feared they would say, ‘Our own hand has triumphed — Yahweh had nothing to do with this.’For they are a nation , there is no understanding in them.If only they were — they would grasp this. They would understand what awaits them.How could one chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their had them, unless Yahweh had handed them over?For is not like our Rock — even our enemies can see that.For their vine comes from the vine of , from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter.Their wine is the , the cruel poison of cobras.‘Is this not stored up with me, ? is mine, and payback, for the time when their . For the day of their disaster is near, and what is coming rushes upon them.’For Yahweh will his people and have on his servants, when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left — slave or free.Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods now, the they took shelter in?The gods who and drank the wine of their offerings — let them rise up and help you! Let them be your shelter!See now — , and there is no god beside me. I put to death and I bring to life. I wound and I heal, and no one can from my hand.For I and declare: As surely as —when I sharpen my and my hand takes hold of , I will return vengeance to my adversaries and repay those who hate me.I will make my arrows , my sword will devour flesh — blood of the slain and the captive, from the of the enemy., you , with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will return vengeance to his adversaries and for his land and his people.Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people — he and son of Nun.When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,he said to them, ‘ every single word I have spoken as a warning to you today, so that you can command your children to carefully follow every word of this .For this is no empty word for you — it is . Through this word you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.’That same day Yahweh spoke to Moses:‘Go up into the mountain range — Mount , in the land of Moab, across from Jericho — and look out over the land of Canaan that I am giving to the people of Israel as their possession.Die on the mountain you climb, and be , just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.Because you both with me among the people of Israel at the waters of in the wilderness of Zin. You did not in front of the people of Israel.You will , but you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.