Deuteronomy 32:15-39

New Living Translation

¹⁵ “But Israel^[a] soon became fat and unruly;
    the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed!
Then they abandoned the God who had made them;
    they made light of the Rock of their salvation.
¹⁶ They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods;
    they provoked his fury with detestable deeds.
¹⁷ They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God,
    to gods they had not known before,
to new gods only recently arrived,
    to gods their ancestors had never feared.
¹⁸ You neglected the Rock who had fathered you;
    you forgot the God who had given you birth.

¹⁹ “The Lord saw this and drew back,
    provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters.
²⁰ He said, ‘I will abandon them;
    then see what becomes of them.
For they are a twisted generation,
    children without integrity.
²¹ They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not God;
    they have provoked my anger with their useless idols.
Now I will rouse their jealousy through people who are not even a people;
    I will provoke their anger through the foolish Gentiles.
²² For my anger blazes forth like fire
    and burns to the depths of the grave.^[b]
It devours the earth and all its crops
    and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
²³ I will heap disasters upon them
    and shoot them down with my arrows.
²⁴ I will weaken them with famine,
    burning fever, and deadly disease.
I will send the fangs of wild beasts
    and poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.
²⁵ Outside, the sword will bring death,
    and inside, terror will strike
both young men and young women,
    both infants and the aged.
²⁶ I would have annihilated them,
    wiping out even the memory of them.
²⁷ But I feared the taunt of Israel’s enemy,
    who might misunderstand and say,
“Our own power has triumphed!
    The Lord had nothing to do with this!”’

²⁸ “But Israel is a senseless nation;
    the people are foolish, without understanding.
²⁹ Oh, that they were wise and could understand this!
    Oh, that they might know their fate!
³⁰ How could one person chase a thousand of them,
    and two people put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
    unless the Lord had given them up?
³¹ But the rock of our enemies is not like our Rock,
    as even they recognize.^[c]
32 Their vine grows from the vine of Sodom,
    from the vineyards of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison,
    and their clusters are bitter.
³³ Their wine is the venom of serpents,
    the deadly poison of cobras.

³⁴ “The Lord says, ‘Am I not storing up these things,
    sealing them away in my treasury?
³⁵ I will take revenge; I will pay them back.
    In due time their feet will slip.
Their day of disaster will arrive,
    and their destiny will overtake them.’

³⁶ “Indeed, the Lord will give justice to his people,
    and he will change his mind about^[d] his servants,
when he sees their strength is gone
    and no one is left, slave or free.
³⁷ Then he will ask, ‘Where are their gods,
    the rocks they fled to for refuge?
³⁸ Where now are those gods,
    who ate the fat of their sacrifices
    and drank the wine of their offerings?
Let those gods arise and help you!
    Let them provide you with shelter!
³⁹ Look now; I myself am he!
    There is no other god but me!
I am the one who kills and gives life;
    I am the one who wounds and heals;
    no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!