32 “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak!
    Hear, O earth, the words that I say!
² Let my teaching fall on you like rain;
    let my speech settle like dew.
Let my words fall like rain on tender grass,
    like gentle showers on young plants.
³ I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
    how glorious is our God!
⁴ He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.
    Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
    how just and upright he is!

⁵ “But they have acted corruptly toward him;
    when they act so perversely,
are they really his children?^[a]
    They are a deceitful and twisted generation.
⁶ Is this the way you repay the Lord,
    you foolish and senseless people?
Isn’t he your Father who created you?
    Has he not made you and established you?
⁷ Remember the days of long ago;
    think about the generations past.
Ask your father, and he will inform you.
    Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.
⁸ When the Most High assigned lands to the nations,
    when he divided up the human race,
he established the boundaries of the peoples
    according to the number in his heavenly court.^[b]

⁹ “For the people of Israel belong to the Lord;
    Jacob is his special possession.
¹⁰ He found them in a desert land,
    in an empty, howling wasteland.
He surrounded them and watched over them;
    he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes.^[c]
11 Like an eagle that rouses her chicks
    and hovers over her young,
so he spread his wings to take them up
    and carried them safely on his pinions.
¹² The Lord alone guided them;
    they followed no foreign gods.
¹³ He let them ride over the highlands
    and feast on the crops of the fields.
He nourished them with honey from the rock
    and olive oil from the stony ground.
¹⁴ He fed them yogurt from the herd
    and milk from the flock,
    together with the fat of lambs.
He gave them choice rams from Bashan, and goats,
    together with the choicest wheat.
You drank the finest wine,
    made from the juice of grapes.

¹⁵ “But Israel^[d] 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.^[e]
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.^[f]
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^[g] 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!
⁴⁰ Now I raise my hand to heaven
    and declare, “As surely as I live,
⁴¹ when I sharpen my flashing sword
    and begin to carry out justice,
I will take revenge on my enemies
    and repay those who reject me.
⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
    and my sword will devour flesh—
the blood of the slaughtered and the captives,
    and the heads of the enemy leaders.”’

⁴³ “Rejoice with him, you heavens,
    and let all of God’s angels worship him.^[h]
Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles,
    and let all the angels be strengthened in him.^[i]
For he will avenge the blood of his children^[j];
    he will take revenge against his enemies.
He will repay those who hate him^[k]
    and cleanse his people’s land.”

44 “But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant,
    Israel my chosen one.
² The Lord who made you and helps you says:
Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant,
    O dear Israel,^[a] my chosen one.
³ For I will pour out water to quench your thirst
    and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,
    and my blessing on your children.
⁴ They will thrive like watered grass,
    like willows on a riverbank.
⁵ Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the Lord.’
    Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’
Some will write the Lord’s name on their hands
    and will take the name of Israel as their own.”

“I am the First and the Last;
    there is no other God.
⁷ Who is like me?
    Let him step forward and prove to you his power.
Let him do as I have done since ancient times
    when I established a people and explained its future.
⁸ Do not tremble; do not be afraid.
    Did I not proclaim my purposes for you long ago?
You are my witnesses—is there any other God?
    No! There is no other Rock—not one!”

⁹ How foolish are those who manufacture idols.
    These prized objects are really worthless.
The people who worship idols don’t know this,
    so they are all put to shame.
¹⁰ Who but a fool would make his own god—
    an idol that cannot help him one bit?
¹¹ All who worship idols will be disgraced
    along with all these craftsmen—mere humans—
    who claim they can make a god.
They may all stand together,
    but they will stand in terror and shame.

¹² The blacksmith stands at his forge to make a sharp tool,
    pounding and shaping it with all his might.
His work makes him hungry and weak.
    It makes him thirsty and faint.
¹³ Then the wood-carver measures a block of wood
    and draws a pattern on it.
He works with chisel and plane
    and carves it into a human figure.
He gives it human beauty
    and puts it in a little shrine.
¹⁴ He cuts down cedars;
    he selects the cypress and the oak;
he plants the pine in the forest
    to be nourished by the rain.
¹⁵ Then he uses part of the wood to make a fire.
    With it he warms himself and bakes his bread.
Then—yes, it’s true—he takes the rest of it
    and makes himself a god to worship!
He makes an idol
    and bows down in front of it!
¹⁶ He burns part of the tree to roast his meat
    and to keep himself warm.
    He says, “Ah, that fire feels good.”
¹⁷ Then he takes what’s left
    and makes his god: a carved idol!
He falls down in front of it,
    worshiping and praying to it.
“Rescue me!” he says.
    “You are my god!”

¹⁸ Such stupidity and ignorance!
    Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see.
    Their minds are shut, and they cannot think.
¹⁹ The person who made the idol never stops to reflect,
    “Why, it’s just a block of wood!
I burned half of it for heat
    and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat.
How can the rest of it be a god?
    Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?”
²⁰ The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes.
    He trusts something that can’t help him at all.
Yet he cannot bring himself to ask,
    “Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie?”

²³ Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done this wondrous thing.
    Shout for joy, O depths of the earth!
Break into song,
    O mountains and forests and every tree!
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob
    and is glorified in Israel.

²⁴ This is what the Lord says—
    your Redeemer and Creator:
“I am the Lord, who made all things.
    I alone stretched out the heavens.
Who was with me
    when I made the earth?
²⁵ I expose the false prophets as liars
    and make fools of fortune-tellers.
I cause the wise to give bad advice,
    thus proving them to be fools.
²⁶ But I carry out the predictions of my prophets!
    By them I say to Jerusalem, ‘People will live here again,’
and to the towns of Judah, ‘You will be rebuilt;
    I will restore all your ruins!’
²⁷ When I speak to the rivers and say, ‘Dry up!’
    they will be dry.
²⁸ When I say of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,’
    he will certainly do as I say.
He will command, ‘Rebuild Jerusalem’;
    he will say, ‘Restore the Temple.’”

²² Listen to your father, who gave you life,
    and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Get the truth and never sell it;
    also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.
²⁴ The father of godly children has cause for joy.
    What a pleasure to have children who are wise.^[a]
25 So give your father and mother joy!
    May she who gave you birth be happy.

“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,^[b]
    chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in him
    will never be disgraced.”^[c]

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has now become the cornerstone.”^[e]

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,
    the rock that makes them fall.”^[f]

¹⁰ “Once you had no identity as a people;
    now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
    now you have received God’s mercy.”^[h]

²² He never sinned,
    nor ever deceived anyone.^[m]
23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
    nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
    who always judges fairly.
²⁴ He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed.
²⁵ Once you were like sheep
    who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
    the Guardian of your souls.

¹ God is honored in Judah;
    his name is great in Israel.
² Jerusalem^[a] is where he lives;
    Mount Zion is his home.
³ There he has broken the fiery arrows of the enemy,
    the shields and swords and weapons of war. Interlude

⁴ You are glorious and more majestic
    than the everlasting mountains.^[b]
5 Our boldest enemies have been plundered.
    They lie before us in the sleep of death.
    No warrior could lift a hand against us.
⁶ At the blast of your breath, O God of Jacob,
    their horses and chariots lay still.

⁷ No wonder you are greatly feared!
    Who can stand before you when your anger explodes?
⁸ From heaven you sentenced your enemies;
    the earth trembled and stood silent before you.
⁹ You stand up to judge those who do evil, O God,
    and to rescue the oppressed of the earth. Interlude
¹⁰ Human defiance only enhances your glory,
    for you use it as a weapon.^[c]

¹¹ Make vows to the Lord your God, and keep them.
    Let everyone bring tribute to the Awesome One.
¹² For he breaks the pride of princes,
    and the kings of the earth fear him.