Deuteronomy

32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

 2 My instruction will fall as the rain;

My words will trickle as the dew,

As gentle rains upon grass

And as copious showers upon vegetation.

 4 The Rock, perfect is his activity,+

For all his ways are justice.+

A God of faithfulness+ who is never unjust;+

Righteous and upright is he.+

 6 Is this the way that you should treat Jehovah,+

O foolish and unwise people?+

Is he not your Father who caused your existence,+

The One who made you and firmly established you?

 7 Remember the days of old;

Consider the years of past generations.

Ask your father, and he can tell you;+

Your elders, and they will inform you.

 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,+

When he divided the sons of Adam* from one another,+

He fixed the boundary of the peoples+

With regard for the number of the sons of Israel.+

 9 For Jehovah’s people are his portion;+

Jacob is his inheritance.+

10 He found him in a wilderness land+

And in an empty, howling desert.+

He protectively encircled him, took care of him,+

And safeguarded him as the pupil of his eye.+

11 Just as an eagle stirs up its nest,

Hovers over its fledglings,

Spreading out its wings, taking them,

Carrying them on its pinions,+

12 Jehovah alone kept leading him;*+

No foreign god was with him.+

13 He made him ride upon earth’s high places,+

So that he ate the produce of the field.+

He nourished him with honey from the crag

And oil out of a flinty rock,

14 Butter of the herd and milk of the flock,

Together with the choicest* sheep,

And rams of Baʹshan, and he-goats,

Together with the finest* wheat;+

And you drank wine from the blood* of grapes.

So he forsook God, who made him,+

And despised the Rock of his salvation.

16 They incited him to fury with foreign gods;+

They were offending him with detestable things.+

17 They were sacrificing to demons, not to God,+

To gods that they had not known,

New ones that came along recently,

To gods that your forefathers did not know.

18 You forgot the Rock+ who fathered you,

And you did not remember the God who gave birth to you.+

19 When Jehovah saw it, he rejected them+

Because his sons and his daughters offended him.

20 So he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;+

I will see what will become of them.

For they are a perverse generation,+

Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.+

21 They have incited me to fury* with what is not a god;+

They have offended me with their worthless idols.+

So I will incite them to jealousy with what is not a people;+

I will offend them with a foolish nation.+

22 For my anger has kindled a fire+

That will burn to the depths of the Grave,*+

And it will consume the earth and its produce

And will set ablaze the foundations of mountains.

23 I will increase their calamities;

I will use up my arrows on them.

24 They will be exhausted from hunger+

And eaten up by burning fever and bitter destruction.+

I will send the teeth of beasts against them+

And the venom of reptiles of the dust.

25 Outside, a sword will bereave them;+

Inside, there is terror+

For both young man and virgin,

Infant together with gray-haired man.+

26 I would have said: “I will scatter them;

I will make the memory of them cease from among men,”

27 If not for my dread of the enemy’s reaction,+

Because the adversaries might misconstrue it.+

They might say: “Our power has triumphed;+

It was not Jehovah who did all of this.”

28 For they are a nation devoid of sense,*

And there is no understanding among them.+

30 How could one chase after 1,000,

And two put 10,000 to flight?+

Not unless their Rock had sold them+

And Jehovah had surrendered them.

31 For their rock is not like our Rock,+

Even our enemies have understood this.+

32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodʹom

And from the terraces of Go·morʹrah.+

Their grapes are grapes of poison,

Their clusters are bitter.+

33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,

The cruel poison of cobras.

34 Is this not stored up with me,

Sealed up in my storehouse?+

35 Vengeance is mine, and retribution,+

At the appointed time when their foot slips,+

For the day of their disaster is near,

And what awaits them will come quickly.’

36 For Jehovah will judge his people,+

And he will feel pity for* his servants+

When he sees that their strength has waned,

And that only the helpless and weak remain.

37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,+

The rock in whom they sought refuge,

38 Who used to eat the fat of their sacrifices,*

To drink the wine of their drink offerings?+

39 See now that I—I am he,+

And there are no gods apart from me.+

I wound,+ and I will heal,+

And no one can rescue from my hand.+

40 For I raise my hand to heaven,

And I swear: “As surely as I live forever,”+

41 If I sharpen my flashing sword

And prepare my hand for judgment,+

I will pay back vengeance on my adversaries+

And bring retribution to those who hate me.

42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

And my sword will eat flesh,

With the blood of the slain and the captives,

With the heads of the leaders of the enemy.’

43 Be glad, you nations, with his people,+

For he will avenge the blood of his servants,+

And he will repay vengeance to his adversaries+

And will make atonement for* the land of his people.”