Deuteronomy 28-32
New King James Version
Blessings on Obedience(A)
28 “Now it shall come to pass, (B)if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God (C)will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and (D)overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
3 (E)“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be (F)in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be (G)the [a]fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 (H)“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The Lord (I)will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The Lord will (J)command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you (K)set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
9 (L)“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are (M)called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be (N)afraid of you. 11 And (O)the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord [b]swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good [c]treasure, the heavens, (P)to give the rain to your land in its season, and (Q)to bless all the work of your hand. (R)You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make (S)you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you [d]heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 (T)So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Curses on Disobedience(U)
15 “But it shall come to pass, (V)if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the [e]fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The Lord will send on you (W)cursing, (X)confusion, and (Y)rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will make the [f]plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 (Z)The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with (AA)scorching,[g] and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And (AB)your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 (AC)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become [h]troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 (AD)Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with (AE)the boils of Egypt, with (AF)tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and (AG)confusion of heart. 29 And you shall (AH)grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 (AI)“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; (AJ)you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; (AK)you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to (AL)another people, and your eyes shall look and (AM)fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be [i]no strength in your (AN)hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat (AO)the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will (AP)bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and (AQ)there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become (AR)an[j] astonishment, a proverb, (AS)and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
38 (AT)“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for (AU)the locust shall [k]consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the (AV)wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for (AW)they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall [l]consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you [m]did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon (AX)you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 (AY)“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, (AZ)for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in (BA)hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He (BB)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 (BC)The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, (BD)as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, (BE)which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall (BF)besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 (BG)You shall eat the [n]fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The [o]sensitive and very refined man among you (BH)will[p] be hostile toward his brother, toward (BI)the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The [q]tender and [r]delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, [s]will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her [t]placenta which comes out (BJ)from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear (BK)this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants (BL)extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all (BM)the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You (BN)shall be left few in number, whereas you were (BO)as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the Lord (BP)rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord (BQ)will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be (BR)plucked[u] from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the Lord (BS)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and (BT)there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And (BU)among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; (BV)but there the Lord will give you a [v]trembling heart, failing eyes, and (BW)anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 (BX)In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and (BY)because of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the Lord (BZ)will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, (CA)‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
The Covenant Renewed in Moab
29 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the (CB)covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: (CC)“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land— 3 (CD)the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 Yet (CE)the Lord has not given you a heart to [w]perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. 5 (CF)And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. (CG)Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. 6 (CH)You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, (CI)Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. 8 We took their land and (CJ)gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. 9 Therefore (CK)keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may (CL)prosper in all that you do.
10 “All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from (CM)the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— 12 that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and (CN)into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, 13 that He may (CO)establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, (CP)just as He has spoken to you, and (CQ)just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “I make this covenant and this oath, (CR)not with you alone, 15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, (CS)as well as with him who is not here with us today 16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, 17 and you saw their [x]abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); 18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, (CT)whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, (CU)and that there may not be among you a root bearing (CV)bitterness or wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I [y]follow the (CW)dictates of my heart’—(CX)as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
20 (CY)“The Lord would not spare him; for then (CZ)the anger of the Lord and (DA)His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord (DB)would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord (DC)would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the (DD)Law, 22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they (DE)see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:
23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, (DF)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, (DG)like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 All nations would say, (DH)‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26 for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, (DI)to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28 And the Lord (DJ)uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The Blessing of Returning to God
30 “Now (DK)it shall come to pass, when (DL)all these things come upon you, the blessing and the (DM)curse which I have set before you, and (DN)you [z]call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you (DO)return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 (DP)that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and (DQ)gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 (DR)If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And (DS)the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
7 “Also the Lord your God will put all these (DT)curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 And you will (DU)again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. 9 (DV)The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the [aa]fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again (DW)rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
11 “For this commandment which I command you today (DX)is [ab]not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 (DY)It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, (DZ)in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 “See, (EA)I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 (EB)I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 (EC)I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that (ED)I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your (EE)life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Joshua the New Leader of Israel(EF)
31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them: “I (EG)am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer (EH)go out and come in. Also the Lord has said to me, (EI)‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God (EJ)Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. (EK)Joshua himself crosses over before you, just (EL)as the Lord has said. 4 (EM)And the Lord will do to them (EN)as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them. 5 (EO)The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you. 6 (EP)Be strong and of good courage, (EQ)do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, (ER)He is the One who goes with you. (ES)He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, (ET)“Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8 And the Lord, (EU)He is the One who goes before you. (EV)He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”
The Law to Be Read Every Seven Years
9 So Moses wrote this law (EW)and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, (EX)who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the (EY)year of release, (EZ)at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to (FA)appear before the Lord your God in the (FB)place which He chooses, (FC)you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 (FD)Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, (FE)who have not known it, (FF)may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”
Prediction of Israel’s Rebellion
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, (FG)“Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that (FH)I may [ac]inaugurate him.”
So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. 15 Now (FI)the Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle.
16 And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will [ad]rest with your fathers; and this people will (FJ)rise and (FK)play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will (FL)forsake Me and (FM)break My covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then My anger shall be (FN)aroused against them in that day, and (FO)I will forsake them, and I will (FP)hide My face from them, and they shall be [ae]devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, (FQ)‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is (FR)not among us?’ 18 And (FS)I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.
19 “Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be (FT)a witness for Me against the children of Israel. 20 When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves (FU)and grown fat, (FV)then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. 21 Then it shall be, (FW)when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for (FX)I know the inclination (FY)of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.”
22 Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. 23 (FZ)Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, (GA)“Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: 26 “Take this Book of the Law, (GB)and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there (GC)as a witness against you; 27 (GD)for I know your rebellion and your (GE)stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? 28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing (GF)and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will (GG)become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And (GH)evil will befall you (GI)in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”
The Song of Moses
30 Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:
The Song of Moses
32 “Give (GJ)ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O (GK)earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let (GL)my [af]teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
(GM)As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
3 For I proclaim the (GN)name of the Lord:
(GO)Ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is (GP)the Rock, (GQ)His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
(GR)A God of truth and (GS)without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.
5 “They(GT) have corrupted themselves;
They are not His children,
Because of their blemish:
A (GU)perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus (GV)deal[ag] with the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is He not (GW)your Father, who (GX)bought you?
Has He not (GY)made you and established you?
7 “Remember(GZ) the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations.
(HA)Ask your father, and he will show you;
Your elders, and they will tell you:
8 When the Most High (HB)divided their inheritance to the nations,
When He (HC)separated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the [ah]children of Israel.
9 For (HD)the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
10 “He found him (HE)in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He (HF)kept him as the [ai]apple of His eye.
11 (HG)As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12 So the Lord alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
13 “He(HH) made him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;
14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
(HI)With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
And you drank wine, the (HJ)blood of the grapes.
15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
(HK)You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he (HL)forsook God who (HM)made him,
And scornfully esteemed the (HN)Rock of his salvation.
16 (HO)They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With [aj]abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 (HP)They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18 (HQ)Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have (HR)forgotten the God who fathered you.
19 “And(HS) when the Lord saw it, He spurned them,
Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
20 And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
(HT)Children in whom is no faith.
21 (HU)They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger (HV)by their [ak]foolish idols.
But (HW)I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
22 For (HX)a fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the [al]lowest [am]hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 ‘I will (HY)heap disasters on them;
(HZ)I will spend My arrows on them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
I will also send against them the (IA)teeth of beasts,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword shall destroy outside;
There shall be terror within
For the young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 (IB)I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,
I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
27 Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
Lest they should say, (IC)“Our hand is high;
And it is not the Lord who has done all this.” ’
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
Nor is there any understanding in them.
29 (ID)Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their (IE)latter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock (IF)had sold them,
And the Lord had surrendered them?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
(IG)Even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For (IH)their vine is of the vine of Sodom
And of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is (II)the poison of serpents,
And the cruel (IJ)venom of cobras.
34 ‘Is this not (IK)laid up in store with Me,
Sealed up among My treasures?
35 (IL)Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
(IM)For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’
36 “For(IN) the Lord will judge His people
(IO)And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And (IP)there is no one remaining, bond or free.
37 He will say: (IQ)‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you,
And be your refuge.
39 ‘Now see that (IR)I, even I, am He,
And (IS)there is no God besides Me;
(IT)I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.
40 For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “As I live forever,
41 (IU)If I [an]whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And repay those who hate Me.
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’
43 “Rejoice,(IV) O Gentiles, with His [ao]people;
For He will (IW)avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He (IX)will provide atonement for His land and His people.”
44 So Moses came with [ap]Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 and he said to them: (IY)“Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your (IZ)children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 47 For it is not a [aq]futile thing for you, because it is your (JA)life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
Moses to Die on Mount Nebo
48 Then the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: 49 (JB)“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; 50 and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be [ar]gathered to your people, just as (JC)Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; 51 because (JD)you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of [as]Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you (JE)did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52 (JF)Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 28:4 offspring
- Deuteronomy 28:11 promised
- Deuteronomy 28:12 storehouse
- Deuteronomy 28:13 listen to
- Deuteronomy 28:18 offspring
- Deuteronomy 28:21 pestilence
- Deuteronomy 28:22 blight
- Deuteronomy 28:25 a terror
- Deuteronomy 28:32 nothing you can do
- Deuteronomy 28:37 a thing of horror
- Deuteronomy 28:38 devour
- Deuteronomy 28:42 possess
- Deuteronomy 28:45 did not listen to
- Deuteronomy 28:53 offspring
- Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. tender
- Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. his eye shall be evil toward
- Deuteronomy 28:56 sensitive
- Deuteronomy 28:56 refined
- Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit. her eye shall be evil toward
- Deuteronomy 28:57 afterbirth
- Deuteronomy 28:63 torn
- Deuteronomy 28:65 anxious
- Deuteronomy 29:4 understand or know
- Deuteronomy 29:17 detestable things
- Deuteronomy 29:19 walk in the stubbornness or imagination
- Deuteronomy 30:1 Lit. cause them to return to your heart
- Deuteronomy 30:9 offspring
- Deuteronomy 30:11 not hidden from
- Deuteronomy 31:14 commission
- Deuteronomy 31:16 Die and join your ancestors
- Deuteronomy 31:17 consumed
- Deuteronomy 32:2 doctrine
- Deuteronomy 32:6 repay the
- Deuteronomy 32:8 LXX, DSS angels of God; Symmachus, Lat. sons of God
- Deuteronomy 32:10 pupil
- Deuteronomy 32:16 detestable acts
- Deuteronomy 32:21 foolishness, lit. vanities
- Deuteronomy 32:22 lowest part of
- Deuteronomy 32:22 Or Sheol
- Deuteronomy 32:41 sharpen
- Deuteronomy 32:43 DSS fragment adds And let all the gods (angels) worship Him; cf. LXX and Heb. 1:6
- Deuteronomy 32:44 Heb. Hoshea, Num. 13:8, 16
- Deuteronomy 32:47 vain
- Deuteronomy 32:50 Join your ancestors
- Deuteronomy 32:51 Lit. Contention at Kadesh
Deuteronomy 28-32
New King James Version
Blessings on Obedience(A)
28 “Now it shall come to pass, (B)if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God (C)will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and (D)overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
3 (E)“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be (F)in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be (G)the [a]fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 (H)“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The Lord (I)will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The Lord will (J)command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you (K)set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
9 (L)“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are (M)called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be (N)afraid of you. 11 And (O)the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord [b]swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good [c]treasure, the heavens, (P)to give the rain to your land in its season, and (Q)to bless all the work of your hand. (R)You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make (S)you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you [d]heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 (T)So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Curses on Disobedience(U)
15 “But it shall come to pass, (V)if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the [e]fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The Lord will send on you (W)cursing, (X)confusion, and (Y)rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will make the [f]plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 (Z)The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with (AA)scorching,[g] and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And (AB)your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 (AC)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become [h]troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 (AD)Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with (AE)the boils of Egypt, with (AF)tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and (AG)confusion of heart. 29 And you shall (AH)grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 (AI)“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; (AJ)you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; (AK)you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to (AL)another people, and your eyes shall look and (AM)fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be [i]no strength in your (AN)hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat (AO)the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will (AP)bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and (AQ)there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become (AR)an[j] astonishment, a proverb, (AS)and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
38 (AT)“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for (AU)the locust shall [k]consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the (AV)wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for (AW)they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall [l]consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you [m]did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon (AX)you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 (AY)“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, (AZ)for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in (BA)hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He (BB)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 (BC)The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, (BD)as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, (BE)which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall (BF)besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 (BG)You shall eat the [n]fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The [o]sensitive and very refined man among you (BH)will[p] be hostile toward his brother, toward (BI)the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The [q]tender and [r]delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, [s]will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her [t]placenta which comes out (BJ)from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear (BK)this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants (BL)extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all (BM)the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You (BN)shall be left few in number, whereas you were (BO)as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the Lord (BP)rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord (BQ)will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be (BR)plucked[u] from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the Lord (BS)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and (BT)there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And (BU)among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; (BV)but there the Lord will give you a [v]trembling heart, failing eyes, and (BW)anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 (BX)In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and (BY)because of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the Lord (BZ)will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, (CA)‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
The Covenant Renewed in Moab
29 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the (CB)covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: (CC)“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land— 3 (CD)the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 Yet (CE)the Lord has not given you a heart to [w]perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. 5 (CF)And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. (CG)Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. 6 (CH)You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, (CI)Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. 8 We took their land and (CJ)gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. 9 Therefore (CK)keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may (CL)prosper in all that you do.
10 “All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from (CM)the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— 12 that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and (CN)into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, 13 that He may (CO)establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, (CP)just as He has spoken to you, and (CQ)just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “I make this covenant and this oath, (CR)not with you alone, 15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, (CS)as well as with him who is not here with us today 16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, 17 and you saw their [x]abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); 18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, (CT)whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, (CU)and that there may not be among you a root bearing (CV)bitterness or wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I [y]follow the (CW)dictates of my heart’—(CX)as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
20 (CY)“The Lord would not spare him; for then (CZ)the anger of the Lord and (DA)His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord (DB)would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord (DC)would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the (DD)Law, 22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they (DE)see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:
23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, (DF)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, (DG)like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 All nations would say, (DH)‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26 for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, (DI)to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28 And the Lord (DJ)uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The Blessing of Returning to God
30 “Now (DK)it shall come to pass, when (DL)all these things come upon you, the blessing and the (DM)curse which I have set before you, and (DN)you [z]call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you (DO)return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 (DP)that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and (DQ)gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 (DR)If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And (DS)the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
7 “Also the Lord your God will put all these (DT)curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 And you will (DU)again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. 9 (DV)The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the [aa]fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again (DW)rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
11 “For this commandment which I command you today (DX)is [ab]not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 (DY)It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, (DZ)in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 “See, (EA)I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 (EB)I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 (EC)I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that (ED)I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your (EE)life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Joshua the New Leader of Israel(EF)
31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them: “I (EG)am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer (EH)go out and come in. Also the Lord has said to me, (EI)‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God (EJ)Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. (EK)Joshua himself crosses over before you, just (EL)as the Lord has said. 4 (EM)And the Lord will do to them (EN)as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them. 5 (EO)The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you. 6 (EP)Be strong and of good courage, (EQ)do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, (ER)He is the One who goes with you. (ES)He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, (ET)“Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8 And the Lord, (EU)He is the One who goes before you. (EV)He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”
The Law to Be Read Every Seven Years
9 So Moses wrote this law (EW)and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, (EX)who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the (EY)year of release, (EZ)at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to (FA)appear before the Lord your God in the (FB)place which He chooses, (FC)you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 (FD)Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, (FE)who have not known it, (FF)may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”
Prediction of Israel’s Rebellion
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, (FG)“Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that (FH)I may [ac]inaugurate him.”
So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. 15 Now (FI)the Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle.
16 And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will [ad]rest with your fathers; and this people will (FJ)rise and (FK)play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will (FL)forsake Me and (FM)break My covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then My anger shall be (FN)aroused against them in that day, and (FO)I will forsake them, and I will (FP)hide My face from them, and they shall be [ae]devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, (FQ)‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is (FR)not among us?’ 18 And (FS)I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.
19 “Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be (FT)a witness for Me against the children of Israel. 20 When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves (FU)and grown fat, (FV)then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. 21 Then it shall be, (FW)when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for (FX)I know the inclination (FY)of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.”
22 Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. 23 (FZ)Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, (GA)“Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: 26 “Take this Book of the Law, (GB)and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there (GC)as a witness against you; 27 (GD)for I know your rebellion and your (GE)stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? 28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing (GF)and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will (GG)become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And (GH)evil will befall you (GI)in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”
The Song of Moses
30 Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:
The Song of Moses
32 “Give (GJ)ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O (GK)earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let (GL)my [af]teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
(GM)As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
3 For I proclaim the (GN)name of the Lord:
(GO)Ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is (GP)the Rock, (GQ)His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
(GR)A God of truth and (GS)without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.
5 “They(GT) have corrupted themselves;
They are not His children,
Because of their blemish:
A (GU)perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus (GV)deal[ag] with the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is He not (GW)your Father, who (GX)bought you?
Has He not (GY)made you and established you?
7 “Remember(GZ) the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations.
(HA)Ask your father, and he will show you;
Your elders, and they will tell you:
8 When the Most High (HB)divided their inheritance to the nations,
When He (HC)separated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the [ah]children of Israel.
9 For (HD)the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
10 “He found him (HE)in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He (HF)kept him as the [ai]apple of His eye.
11 (HG)As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12 So the Lord alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
13 “He(HH) made him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;
14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
(HI)With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
And you drank wine, the (HJ)blood of the grapes.
15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
(HK)You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he (HL)forsook God who (HM)made him,
And scornfully esteemed the (HN)Rock of his salvation.
16 (HO)They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With [aj]abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 (HP)They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18 (HQ)Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have (HR)forgotten the God who fathered you.
19 “And(HS) when the Lord saw it, He spurned them,
Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
20 And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
(HT)Children in whom is no faith.
21 (HU)They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger (HV)by their [ak]foolish idols.
But (HW)I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
22 For (HX)a fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the [al]lowest [am]hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 ‘I will (HY)heap disasters on them;
(HZ)I will spend My arrows on them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
I will also send against them the (IA)teeth of beasts,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword shall destroy outside;
There shall be terror within
For the young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 (IB)I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,
I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
27 Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
Lest they should say, (IC)“Our hand is high;
And it is not the Lord who has done all this.” ’
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
Nor is there any understanding in them.
29 (ID)Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their (IE)latter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock (IF)had sold them,
And the Lord had surrendered them?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
(IG)Even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For (IH)their vine is of the vine of Sodom
And of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is (II)the poison of serpents,
And the cruel (IJ)venom of cobras.
34 ‘Is this not (IK)laid up in store with Me,
Sealed up among My treasures?
35 (IL)Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
(IM)For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’
36 “For(IN) the Lord will judge His people
(IO)And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And (IP)there is no one remaining, bond or free.
37 He will say: (IQ)‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you,
And be your refuge.
39 ‘Now see that (IR)I, even I, am He,
And (IS)there is no God besides Me;
(IT)I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.
40 For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “As I live forever,
41 (IU)If I [an]whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And repay those who hate Me.
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’
43 “Rejoice,(IV) O Gentiles, with His [ao]people;
For He will (IW)avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He (IX)will provide atonement for His land and His people.”
44 So Moses came with [ap]Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 and he said to them: (IY)“Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your (IZ)children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 47 For it is not a [aq]futile thing for you, because it is your (JA)life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
Moses to Die on Mount Nebo
48 Then the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: 49 (JB)“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; 50 and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be [ar]gathered to your people, just as (JC)Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; 51 because (JD)you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of [as]Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you (JE)did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. 52 (JF)Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 28:4 offspring
- Deuteronomy 28:11 promised
- Deuteronomy 28:12 storehouse
- Deuteronomy 28:13 listen to
- Deuteronomy 28:18 offspring
- Deuteronomy 28:21 pestilence
- Deuteronomy 28:22 blight
- Deuteronomy 28:25 a terror
- Deuteronomy 28:32 nothing you can do
- Deuteronomy 28:37 a thing of horror
- Deuteronomy 28:38 devour
- Deuteronomy 28:42 possess
- Deuteronomy 28:45 did not listen to
- Deuteronomy 28:53 offspring
- Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. tender
- Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. his eye shall be evil toward
- Deuteronomy 28:56 sensitive
- Deuteronomy 28:56 refined
- Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit. her eye shall be evil toward
- Deuteronomy 28:57 afterbirth
- Deuteronomy 28:63 torn
- Deuteronomy 28:65 anxious
- Deuteronomy 29:4 understand or know
- Deuteronomy 29:17 detestable things
- Deuteronomy 29:19 walk in the stubbornness or imagination
- Deuteronomy 30:1 Lit. cause them to return to your heart
- Deuteronomy 30:9 offspring
- Deuteronomy 30:11 not hidden from
- Deuteronomy 31:14 commission
- Deuteronomy 31:16 Die and join your ancestors
- Deuteronomy 31:17 consumed
- Deuteronomy 32:2 doctrine
- Deuteronomy 32:6 repay the
- Deuteronomy 32:8 LXX, DSS angels of God; Symmachus, Lat. sons of God
- Deuteronomy 32:10 pupil
- Deuteronomy 32:16 detestable acts
- Deuteronomy 32:21 foolishness, lit. vanities
- Deuteronomy 32:22 lowest part of
- Deuteronomy 32:22 Or Sheol
- Deuteronomy 32:41 sharpen
- Deuteronomy 32:43 DSS fragment adds And let all the gods (angels) worship Him; cf. LXX and Heb. 1:6
- Deuteronomy 32:44 Heb. Hoshea, Num. 13:8, 16
- Deuteronomy 32:47 vain
- Deuteronomy 32:50 Join your ancestors
- Deuteronomy 32:51 Lit. Contention at Kadesh
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Bible Gateway Recommends
