Deuteronomy 32 - English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)

32 “Give ear, ^(A)O heavens, and I will speak,
and let ^(B)the earth hear the words of my mouth.
² May ^(C)my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distil as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and ^(D)like showers upon the herb.
³ For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe ^(E)greatness to our God!
^{4 (F)}“The Rock, ^(G)his work is perfect,
for ^(H)all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and ^(I)without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
⁵ They have dealt corruptly with him;
they are no longer his children ^(J)because they are blemished;
they are ^(K)a crooked and twisted generation.
⁶ Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he ^(L)your father, who ^(M)created you,
who ^(N)made you and established you?
^{7 (O)}Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
^(P)ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
⁸ When the Most High ^(Q)gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he ^(R)divided mankind,
he fixed the borders^[a] of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.^[b]
9 But the Lord's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
¹⁰ “He found him ^(S)in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he ^(T)encircled him, he cared for him,
he ^(U)kept him as the apple of his eye.
^{11 (V)}Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
^{12 (W)}the Lord alone guided him,
^(X)no foreign god was with him.
^{13 (Y)}He made him ride on the high places of the land,
and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with ^(Z)honey out of the rock,
and ^(AA)oil out of ^(AB)the flinty rock.
¹⁴ Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat^[c] of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
with the very finest^[d] of the wheat—
and you drank foaming wine made from ^(AC)the blood of the grape.
¹⁵ “But ^(AD)Jeshurun grew fat, and ^(AE)kicked;
^(AF)you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
^(AG)then he forsook God ^(AH)who made him
and scoffed at ^(AI)the Rock of his salvation.
^{16 (AJ)}They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
^{17 (AK)}They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
to gods they had never known,
to ^(AL)new gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.
¹⁸ You were unmindful of ^(AM)the Rock that bore^[e] you,
and you ^(AN)forgot the God who gave you birth.
^{19 (AO)}“The Lord saw it and spurned them,
because of the provocation of ^(AP)his sons and his daughters.
²⁰ And he said, ^(AQ)‘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 faithfulness.
^{21 (AR)}They have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger ^(AS)with their idols.
So ^(AT)I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with ^(AU)a foolish nation.
²² For ^(AV)a fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to ^(AW)the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
²³ “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
^(AX)I will expend my arrows on them;
²⁴ they shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured by plague
and poisonous pestilence;
I will send ^(AY)the teeth of beasts against them,
with the venom of ^(AZ)things that crawl in the dust.
^{25 (BA)}Outdoors the sword shall bereave,
and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
the nursing child with the man of grey hairs.
^{26 (BB)}I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
^(BC)I will wipe them from human memory,”
²⁷ had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, ^(BD)“Our hand is triumphant,
it was not the Lord who did all this.”’
²⁸ “For they are a nation void of counsel,
and there is ^(BE)no understanding in them.
^{29 (BF)}If they were wise, they would understand this;
they would ^(BG)discern their latter end!
³⁰ How could ^(BH)one have chased a thousand,
and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock ^(BI)had sold them,
and the Lord had given them up?
³¹ For ^(BJ)their rock is not as our Rock;
^(BK)our enemies are by themselves.
³² For their vine ^(BL)comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of ^(BM)poison;
their clusters are bitter;
³³ their wine is the poison of ^(BN)serpents
and the cruel venom of asps.
³⁴ “‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
^(BO)sealed up in my treasuries?
^{35 (BP)}Vengeance is mine, and recompense,^[f]
(BQ)for the time when their foot shall slip;
for ^(BR)the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
³⁶ For ^(BS)the Lord will vindicate^[g] his people
^(BT)and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
and there is none remaining, ^(BU)bond or free.
³⁷ Then he will say, ^(BV)‘Where are their gods,
^(BW)the rock in which they took refuge,
³⁸ who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you;
let them be your protection!
³⁹ “‘See now that ^(BX)I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
^(BY)I kill and I make alive;
^(BZ)I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
⁴⁰ For ^(CA)I lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live for ever,
⁴¹ if I ^(CB)sharpen my flashing sword^[h]
and my hand takes hold on judgement,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and will repay those who hate me.
⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and ^(CC)my sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the ^(CD)long-haired heads of the enemy.’
^{43 (CE)}“Rejoice with him, O heavens;
bow down to him, all gods,^[i]
for he ^(CF)avenges the blood of his children^[j]
and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him^[k]
and cleanses^[l] his people's land.”^[m]

⁴⁴ Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and ^(CG)Joshua^[n] the son of Nun. ⁴⁵ And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them, ^(CH)“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, ^(CI)that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ For it is no empty word for you, ^(CJ)but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses' Death Foretold

⁴⁸ That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, ⁴⁹ “Go up ^(CK)this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. ⁵⁰ And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as ^(CL)Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, ^{51 (CM)}because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. ⁵² For ^(CN)you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Footnotes

1. Deuteronomy 32:8 Or territories
2. Deuteronomy 32:8 Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text Israel
3. Deuteronomy 32:14 That is, with the best
4. Deuteronomy 32:14 Hebrew with the kidney fat
5. Deuteronomy 32:18 Or fathered
6. Deuteronomy 32:35 Septuagint and I will repay
7. Deuteronomy 32:36 Septuagint judge
8. Deuteronomy 32:41 Hebrew the lightning of my sword
9. Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text Rejoice his people, O nations
10. Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text servants
11. Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text lacks He repays those who hate him
12. Deuteronomy 32:43 Or atones for
13. Deuteronomy 32:43 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew his land his people
14. Deuteronomy 32:44 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew Hoshea

Cross references

1. Deuteronomy 32:1 : Ps. 50:4; [Josh. 24:27]; See ch. 4:26
2. Deuteronomy 32:1 : Isa. 34:1; Mic. 1:2; 6:1, 2
3. Deuteronomy 32:2 : Isa. 55:10, 11; [Job 29:22, 23]
4. Deuteronomy 32:2 : Ps. 72:6; Mic. 5:7
5. Deuteronomy 32:3 : See ch. 3:24
6. Deuteronomy 32:4 : ver. 15, 18, 30, 31, 37; Ps. 18:2, 31; Isa. 30:29; Hab. 1:12; See 2 Sam. 22:2
7. Deuteronomy 32:4 : [Ps. 18:30]
8. Deuteronomy 32:4 : Dan. 4:37; Rev. 15:3
9. Deuteronomy 32:4 : Job 34:10
10. Deuteronomy 32:5 : [2 Pet. 2:13]
11. Deuteronomy 32:5 : Matt. 17:17; Luke 9:41; Phil. 2:15
12. Deuteronomy 32:6 : Isa. 63:16; 64:8
13. Deuteronomy 32:6 : Ps. 74:2
14. Deuteronomy 32:6 : ver. 15; Isa. 44:2; 51:13
15. Deuteronomy 32:7 : [Isa. 63:11]
16. Deuteronomy 32:7 : Ps. 44:1
17. Deuteronomy 32:8 : Acts 17:26
18. Deuteronomy 32:8 : Gen. 11:8
19. Deuteronomy 32:10 : ch. 8:15; Jer. 2:6; Hos. 13:5
20. Deuteronomy 32:10 : Ps. 32:10
21. Deuteronomy 32:10 : Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2; Zech. 2:8
22. Deuteronomy 32:11 : Ex. 19:4
23. Deuteronomy 32:12 : Ps. 78:52, 53
24. Deuteronomy 32:12 : Isa. 43:12
25. Deuteronomy 32:13 : Isa. 58:14; Ezek. 36:2
26. Deuteronomy 32:13 : Ps. 81:16
27. Deuteronomy 32:13 : Job 29:6
28. Deuteronomy 32:13 : ch. 8:15
29. Deuteronomy 32:14 : Gen. 49:11
30. Deuteronomy 32:15 : ch. 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2
31. Deuteronomy 32:15 : [1 Sam. 2:29]
32. Deuteronomy 32:15 : See ch. 31:20
33. Deuteronomy 32:15 : ch. 31:16
34. Deuteronomy 32:15 : ver. 6
35. Deuteronomy 32:15 : 2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 89:26; 95:1
36. Deuteronomy 32:16 : Ps. 78:58; See Num. 25:11
37. Deuteronomy 32:17 : Ps. 106:37; [1 Cor. 10:20]
38. Deuteronomy 32:17 : [Judg. 5:8]
39. Deuteronomy 32:18 : 2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 89:26; 95:1
40. Deuteronomy 32:18 : Isa. 17:10; Jer. 2:27, 32; Hos. 8:14
41. Deuteronomy 32:19 : [Judg. 2:14]
42. Deuteronomy 32:19 : [Isa. 1:2]
43. Deuteronomy 32:20 : See ch. 31:17
44. Deuteronomy 32:21 : Ps. 78:58; See Num. 25:11
45. Deuteronomy 32:21 : 1 Kgs. 16:13, 26; Ps. 31:6; Jonah 2:8; Acts 14:15
46. Deuteronomy 32:21 : Cited Rom. 10:19; [Hos. 1:9, 10]
47. Deuteronomy 32:21 : [Ps. 74:18]
48. Deuteronomy 32:22 : Jer. 15:14; 17:4; Lam. 4:11
49. Deuteronomy 32:22 : Ps. 86:13
50. Deuteronomy 32:23 : Job 6:4; Ps. 7:12, 13; 38:2; Lam. 3:12, 13; Ezek. 5:16
51. Deuteronomy 32:24 : Lev. 26:22; Ezek. 5:17
52. Deuteronomy 32:24 : Jer. 8:17; Mic. 7:17
53. Deuteronomy 32:25 : Lam. 1:20; Ezek. 7:15
54. Deuteronomy 32:26 : Ezek. 20:23
55. Deuteronomy 32:26 : Job 18:17; Ps. 34:16; 109:15
56. Deuteronomy 32:27 : Ps. 140:8; Isa. 10:13; [Num. 14:16]
57. Deuteronomy 32:28 : Isa. 27:11; Jer. 4:22
58. Deuteronomy 32:29 : ch. 5:29; Ps. 81:13; Luke 19:42
59. Deuteronomy 32:29 : Isa. 47:7; Lam. 1:9
60. Deuteronomy 32:30 : See Lev. 26:8
61. Deuteronomy 32:30 : See Judg. 2:14
62. Deuteronomy 32:31 : 1 Sam. 2:2
63. Deuteronomy 32:31 : [1 Sam. 4:8]
64. Deuteronomy 32:32 : [Isa. 1:10; Jer. 23:14; Ezek. 16:46]
65. Deuteronomy 32:32 : ch. 29:18
66. Deuteronomy 32:33 : Job 20:14, 16; Ps. 58:4 (Heb.)
67. Deuteronomy 32:34 : [Job 14:17; Hos. 13:12; Rom. 2:5]
68. Deuteronomy 32:35 : Ps. 94:1; Isa. 1:24; 59:18; Nah. 1:2; Cited Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30
69. Deuteronomy 32:35 : [Ps. 94:18]
70. Deuteronomy 32:35 : [2 Pet. 2:3]
71. Deuteronomy 32:36 : Ps. 135:14; Cited Heb. 10:30
72. Deuteronomy 32:36 : Judg. 2:18; Ps. 106:45; [Ps. 90:13]
73. Deuteronomy 32:36 : 1 Kgs. 14:10; 21:21; 2 Kgs. 9:8; 14:26
74. Deuteronomy 32:37 : Judg. 10:14; 1 Kgs. 18:27; Jer. 2:28
75. Deuteronomy 32:37 : [ver. 31]
76. Deuteronomy 32:39 : Isa. 41:4; 48:12
77. Deuteronomy 32:39 : 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kgs. 5:7
78. Deuteronomy 32:39 : Job 5:18; Hos. 6:1
79. Deuteronomy 32:40 : See Gen. 14:22
80. Deuteronomy 32:41 : Ps. 7:12; Isa. 27:1; 34:5; 66:16; Ezek. 21:9, 10
81. Deuteronomy 32:42 : Jer. 46:10
82. Deuteronomy 32:42 : See Ps. 68:21
83. Deuteronomy 32:43 : Cited Rom. 15:10
84. Deuteronomy 32:43 : Rev. 6:10; 19:2; [2 Kgs. 9:7; Ps. 79:10]
85. Deuteronomy 32:44 : Num. 13:8, 16
86. Deuteronomy 32:46 : ch. 11:18; See ch. 6:6
87. Deuteronomy 32:46 : See ch. 4:9
88. Deuteronomy 32:47 : [Lev. 18:5]; See ch. 30:20
89. Deuteronomy 32:49 : See Num. 27:12
90. Deuteronomy 32:50 : Num. 20:24, 25, 28; 33:38
91. Deuteronomy 32:51 : Num. 20:11-13; 27:14
92. Deuteronomy 32:52 : ch. 3:27; 34:4