32 ·Hear [L Give ear], heavens, and I will speak. Listen, earth, to ·what I say [L the words of my mouth].
2 My teaching will drop like rain;
my words will ·fall [distill] like dew.
They will be like showers on the grass;
they will pour down like rain on young plants.
3 I will announce the name of the Lord.
·Praise God because he is great [L Ascribe greatness to our God]!
4 He is like a rock; what he does is perfect,
and ·he is always [L all his ways are] fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong,
who is ·right [righteous] and ·fair [virtuous].
5 They ·have done evil against him [are corrupt].
·To their shame [or Their faults show] they are no longer his children [Is. 1:2–4; Hos. 1:9];
they are an ·evil [perverted] and ·lying [crooked] people.
6 This is not the way to repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people.
·He is [L Is he not…?] your Father and Maker,
who made you and formed you.
7 Remember the old days.
Think of the years already passed.
Ask your father and he will tell you;
ask your elders and they will inform you.
8 God Most High gave ·the nations their lands [L each nation its inheritance],
dividing up the ·human race [L sons of man].
He set up borders for the people
·and even numbered the Israelites[a] [L according to the number of the sons/T children of Israel].
9 The Lord took his people as his ·share [portion],
the people of Jacob as his ·very own [L special inheritance].
10 He found them in a ·desert [wilderness],
a windy, ·empty [unformed; Gen. 1:2] land.
He surrounded them and brought them up,
guarding them as ·those he loved very much [L the apple/pupil of his eye].
11 He was like an eagle ·building [watching; stirring up] its nest
that ·flutters [hovers] over its young.
It spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its feathers.
12 The Lord alone led them,
and there was no foreign god ·helping [L with] him.
13 The Lord ·brought them to [or made them ride over] the heights of the land
and fed them the fruit of the fields.
He ·gave them [suckled them with] honey from the rocks,
bringing oil from the ·solid [flint] rock.
14 There were milk curds from the cows and milk from the flock;
there were fat sheep and goats.
There were sheep and goats from Bashan [C a particularly fertile area east of the Sea of Galilee]
and the best of the wheat.
You drank the ·juice [L fermenting/foaming blood] of grapes [C wine].
15 ·Israel [L Jeshurun; C a name for Israel meaning “virtuous”; perhaps intended ironically; 33:5, 26; Is. 44:2] grew fat and kicked;
they were fat and ·full [bloated] and firm.
They ·left [abandoned] the God who made them
and ·rejected [dishonored] the Rock who saved them.
16 They made God jealous with ·foreign [strange] gods [4:24]
and angry with ·hateful idols [L abominations].
17 They made sacrifices to demons, not God,
to gods they had never known,
new gods from nearby,
gods your ·ancestors [fathers] did not fear.
18 You left God who is the Rock, ·your Father [L who bore you; or who begot you],
and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and ·rejected [spurned] them;
his sons and daughters had made him angry.
20 He said, “I will turn ·away [L my face away] from them
and see what ·will happen to them [their end will be].
They are ·evil people [L a perverted generation],
·unfaithful [untrustworthy] children.
21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous [4:24]
and ·worthless idols [vanities; vain idols] to make me angry.
So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous;
I will use a nation that ·does not understand [L is foolish] to make them angry.
22 My anger has started a fire
that burns down to ·the place of the dead [L Sheol; C the grave or the underworld].
It will ·burn up [consume] the ·ground [or earth] and its ·crops [produce],
and it will set fire to the ·base [foundations] of the mountains.
23 “I will pile ·troubles [disasters] upon them
and shoot my arrows at them.
24 They will be starved and sick,
destroyed by terrible diseases.
I will send them ·vicious [L the teeth of] animals
·and gliding, poisonous snakes [L with the poison/venom of creatures that crawl in the dust].
25 In the streets the sword will ·kill [bereave];
in their ·homes [bedrooms] there will be terror.
Young men and women will die,
and so will ·babies [sucklings] and gray-haired men.
26 I will ·scatter them [or dash them to pieces] as I said,
and ·no one will remember them [L I will cause their memory to cease from among humans].
27 But I didn’t want ·their enemy to brag [or to provoke the enemy];
their enemy might misunderstand
and say, ‘·We have won [L Our hand is lifted up]!
The Lord has done none of this.’”
28 ·Israel [L They are a nation that] has no sense;
they do not understand.
29 I wish they were wise and understood this;
I wish they could see ·what will happen to them [their end].
30 ·One person cannot [L How can one person…?] chase a thousand people,
and ·two people cannot [L two…?] fight ten thousand
unless their Rock has sold them,
unless the Lord has ·given them up [surrendered them; 28:25–27].
31 The rock of these people is not like our Rock;
our enemies ·agree to that [L are judges].
32 Their vine comes from Sodom,
and their fields are like Gomorrah [Gen. 19].
Their grapes are full of poison;
their bunches of grapes are bitter.
33 Their wine is like ·snake poison [the venom of serpents],
like the ·deadly [cruel] poison of cobras.
34 “·I have been saving this [L Is this not stored up with me…?],
and I have it ·locked [sealed] in my ·storehouses [treasuries].
35 ·I will punish those who do wrong [L Vengeance is mine; Rom. 12:9]; I will repay them.
Soon their foot will slip,
because their day of ·trouble [disaster] is near,
and their ·punishment [doom] will come quickly.”
36 The Lord will ·defend [vindicate; judge] his people
and have mercy on his servants.
He will see that their ·strength [power; control; L hand] is gone,
that nobody is left, slaves or free.
37 Then he will say, “Where are their gods?
Where is the rock they ·trusted [took refuge in]?
38 Who ate the fat from their sacrifices [Lev. 3:17],
and who drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let those gods come to help you!
Let them protect you!
39 “Now you will see that I am ·the one God [L he]!
There is no god but me.
I ·send death and life [kill and make alive];
I ·can hurt [wound], and I can heal.
No one can escape from ·me [L my hand].
40 I raise my hand toward heaven [C to make a promise]:
As surely as I live forever,
41 I will sharpen my flashing sword,
and I will take it in my hand to judge [Ps. 7:12–13].
I will ·punish [bring vengeance on] my enemies
and pay back those who hate me.
42 My arrows will be ·covered [L drunk] with their blood;
my sword will eat their flesh.
The blood will flow from those who are killed and the captives.
The ·heads of the enemy leaders [or long-haired enemy] will be cut off.”
43 ·Be happy [Rejoice], nations, with his people,
because he will repay you for the blood of his servants.
He will ·punish [work vengeance on] his enemies,
and he will ·remove the sin of [provide atonement for] his land and people.
44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun, and they spoke all the words of this song ·for the people to hear [L in the ears of his people]. 45 When Moses finished speaking these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them: “·Pay careful attention to [L Set your heart on] all the words I ·have said [testify; give witness] to you today, and command your children to obey carefully everything in these ·teachings [laws; instructions]. 47 These should not be unimportant words for you, but rather they mean life for you! By these words you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take as your ·own [possession].”
Moses Goes Up to Mount Nebo
48 The Lord spoke to Moses again that same day and said, 49 “Go up the Abarim Mountains, to Mount Nebo in the country of Moab, across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as their ·own [possession; C one can look far into the Promised Land from Nebo]. 50 On that mountain that you climb, you will die and ·join [be gathered to] your ·ancestors [fathers], just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his ·ancestors [fathers; Num. 20:22–29]. 51 You both sinned against me at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin, and you did not honor me as holy there among the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel; Num. 20:1–13]. 52 So now you will only look at the land from far away. You will not enter the land I am giving the ·people [L sons; T children] of Israel.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Israelites Hebrew copies, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, read “sons of God.” Some Greek copies read “angels of God.”