32:1 Listen,¹ O heaven, and I will speak;
Hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,
My sayings settle down like the dew,
As rain showers upon the grass,
And heavy dew upon new growth.
32:3 For I will proclaim the name² of the LORD;
You yourselves attribute greatness to our God.
32:4 As for the Rock,³ his work is perfect,
For all his ways are correct.⁴
A reliable God, one without injustice,
He is righteous and upright.
32:5 His people have acted corruptly⁵ toward him; they are not his children⁶—this is their defect.⁷
They are a crooked and twisted generation.
32:6 Is this how you treat the LORD, you foolish, unwise people?
Is he not your father, your creator?
He has made and established you.
32:7 Remember the ancient days,
Bear in mind⁸ the years of past generations⁹
Ask your father and he will show you,
Your elders and they will tell you.
32:8 When Elyon¹⁰ gave the nations their inheritance,
When he divided up humankind,¹¹
He set the boundaries of the peoples,
According to the number of Israelites.¹²
32:9 For the LORD’s allotment is his people,
Jacob is the portion of his inheritance.¹³
32:10 He found him in a desolate land,
In an empty howling wasteland.
He surrounded and gave tender care to him,
He protected him like the pupil¹⁴ of his eye.
32:11 Like an eagle that arouses its nest,
That hovers over its young,
So the LORD¹⁵ spread out his wings and took him,
He lifted him up upon his plumage.
32:12 The LORD alone guided him,
No foreign god was with him.
32:13 He enabled him to travel the heights of the land,
and he ate of the produce of the fields.
He provided for him¹⁶ honey from the cliffs,
and oil from the hardest of¹⁷ rock.¹⁸
32:14 Butter from the herd and milk from the flock,
With the fat of lambs;
Also, rams and goats of Bashan,
With the best¹⁹ of the kernels²⁰ of wheat,
And from the juice²¹ of grapes you drank wine.
Israel’s Rebellion
32:15 But Yeshurun²² became fat and kicked,
You²³ got fat, thick, and stuffed;
Then he forsook the God who made him,
And treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.
32:16 They provoked him to jealousy with illicit gods,²⁴
They grieved him with abominable idols.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not deity,
To gods they had not known;
To new ones who had recently come,
Ones your ancestors had not known about.
32:18 You have forgotten the Rock who fathered you,
And put out of mind the God who gave you birth.

32:19 But the LORD took note and despised them,
Because of the provocation of his sons and daughters.
32:20 So he said, “I will conceal myself²⁵ from them,
I will see what will happen to them;²⁶
For they are a perverse generation,
Children²⁷ who have no loyalty.
32:21 They have made me jealous²⁸ with non-deities,
Provoking me with their nothingnesses;
So I myself will make them jealous with a non-people,²⁹
With a nation slow to learn I will provoke them.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled through my anger,
And it burns to lowest Sheol;³⁰
It consumes the earth with its produce,
And ignites the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 I will increase their³¹ calamities,
I will use up my arrows on them.
32:24 They will be empty from famine,
eaten by plague, and bitterly stung;³²
I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,
with the poison of things that crawl in the dust.
32:25 The sword will make people childless without,
And terror will do so within;³³
They will devastate both the young man and the virgin,
The infant and³⁴ the gray-headed man.

32:26 I said I will cut them in pieces,
I will make people forget they ever existed;³⁵
32:27 Except that I fear the reaction³⁶ of their enemies,
Lest their³⁷ enemies should misunderstand;
Lest they should say, ‘Our power³⁸ is great,³⁹
And the LORD has not done all this.’”
32:28 They are a nation empty of purpose,
And there is no plan among them.
32:29 O that they were wise and could understand this,
That they might comprehend things to come.⁴⁰
32:30 How can one chase a thousand,
And two pursue ten thousand;
Unless their Rock had delivered them over,⁴¹
And the LORD had sold them out.
32:31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
As even our enemies discern.
32:32 For their vine is from the stock⁴² of Sodom,
And from the fields of Gomorrah;⁴³
Their⁴⁴ grapes are grapes of venom,
Their bunches are bitter to them.⁴⁵
32:33 Their wine is snakes’ poison,
And biting⁴⁶ like the venom of cobras.
32:34 “Is this not stored up with me?” says the LORD,⁴⁷
“Is it not sealed up in my storehouses?
32:35 Vengeance and recompense belong to me,
At the time their foot will slip;
For the day of their disaster is near,
And the events to come are rushing upon them.”⁴⁸
32:36 The LORD will judge his people,
and will change his plans concerning his servants;
When he sees that their power has disappeared,
And that nothing is left whether confined or let free.
32:37 He will say, Where are their⁴⁹ gods,
The rock in whom they found security,
32:38 Who ate the best⁵⁰ of their sacrifices,
and drank the wine of their drink-offerings?
Let them rise and help you,
Let them be your refuge.

32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the LORD,⁵¹
“And there is no other god besides⁵² me.
I am the one who kills and brings to life.
I smash and I heal,
And none can deliver from my power.
32:40 For I raise up my hand to heaven,
And say, as I live forever,
32:41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword,
And my hand will seize onto judgment;⁵³
I will execute vengeance on my foes,
And repay those who hate me.⁵⁴
32:42 I will fully satisfy my arrows with blood,
And my sword will eat flesh;
With the blood of the slaughtered and captured,
From the chief of the enemy’s leaders.”
32:43 Cry out, O nations, with his people,
For he will avenge his servants’ blood;
And will direct vengeance against his enemies,
And make atonement for his land and people.

32:44 Then Moses went and spoke all the words of this song to⁵⁵ the people, he and Joshua⁵⁶ son of Nun. 32:45 When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel 32:46 he said to them, “Instill in⁵⁷ your mind all the things I am testifying to you today, which you must command your children to observe, all the words of this law. 32:47 For this is no idle word for you—it is your life! By this word you will live a long time on the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

32:48 Then the LORD said to Moses that same day, 32:49 “Go up to this Abarim⁵⁸ hill country, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and see the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as a possession, 32:50 And die on the mountain that you ascend and be gathered among your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor⁵⁹ and was gathered to his people, 32:51 for you⁶⁰ rebelled against me in the midst of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the desert of Zin because you would not give me proper respect⁶¹ in the midst of the Israelites. 32:52 You will see the land before you, but you will not enter the land that I am giving to the Israelites.”