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Deuteronomy 31-32
The Message
Deuteronomy 31-32
The Message
The Charge
31 1-2 Moses went on and addressed these words to all Israel. He said, “I’m 120 years old today. I can’t get about as I used to. And God told me, ‘You’re not going to cross this Jordan River.’
3-5 “God, your God, will cross the river ahead of you and destroy the nations in your path so that you may oust them. (And Joshua will cross the river before you, as God said he would.) God will give the nations the same treatment he gave the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and their land; he’ll destroy them. God will hand the nations over to you, and you’ll treat them exactly as I have commanded you.
6 “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”
7-8 Then Moses summoned Joshua. He said to him with all Israel watching, “Be strong. Take courage. You will enter the land with this people, this land that God promised their ancestors that he’d give them. You will make them the proud possessors of it. God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.”
* * *
9-13 Moses wrote out this Revelation and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the Chest of the Covenant of God, and to all the leaders of Israel. And he gave these orders: “At the end of every seven years, the Year-All-Debts-Are-Canceled, during the pilgrim Festival of Booths when everyone in Israel comes to appear in the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates, read out this Revelation to all Israel, with everyone listening. Gather the people together—men, women, children, and the foreigners living among you—so they can listen well, so they may learn to live in holy awe before God, your God, and diligently keep everything in this Revelation. And do this so that their children, who don’t yet know all this, will also listen and learn to live in holy awe before God, your God, for as long as you live on the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”
14-15 God spoke to Moses: “You are about to die. So call Joshua. Meet me in the Tent of Meeting so that I can commission him.”
So Moses and Joshua went and stationed themselves in the Tent of Meeting. God appeared in the Tent in a Pillar of Cloud. The Cloud was near the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
16-18 God spoke to Moses: “You’re about to die and be buried with your ancestors. You’ll no sooner be in the grave than this people will be up and lusting after the foreign gods of this country that they are entering. They will abandon me and violate my Covenant that I’ve made with them. I’ll get angry, oh so angry! I’ll walk off and leave them on their own, won’t so much as look back at them. Then many calamities and disasters will devastate them because they are defenseless. They’ll say, ‘Isn’t it because our God wasn’t here that all this evil has come upon us?’ But I’ll stay out of their lives, keep looking the other way because of all their evil: they took up with other gods!
19-21 “But for right now, copy down this song and teach the People of Israel to sing it by heart. They’ll have it then as my witness against them. When I bring them into the land that I promised to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they eat and become full and get fat and then begin fooling around with other gods and worshiping them, and then things start falling apart, many terrible things happening, this song will be there with them as a witness to who they are and what went wrong. Their children won’t forget this song; they’ll be singing it. Don’t think I don’t know what they are already scheming to do, and they’re not even in the land yet, this land I promised them.”
22 So Moses wrote down this song that very day and taught it to the People of Israel.
23 Then God commanded Joshua son of Nun saying, “Be strong. Take courage. You will lead the People of Israel into the land I promised to give them. And I’ll be right there with you.”
24-26 After Moses had finished writing down the words of this Revelation in a book, right down to the last word, he ordered the Levites who were responsible for carrying the Chest of the Covenant of God, saying, “Take this Book of Revelation and place it alongside the Chest of the Covenant of God, your God. Keep it there as a witness.
27-29 “I know what rebels you are, how stubborn and willful you can be. Even today, while I’m still alive and present with you, you’re rebellious against God. How much worse when I’ve died! So gather the leaders of the tribes and the officials here. I have something I need to say directly to them with Heaven and Earth as witnesses. I know that after I die you’re going to make a mess of things, abandoning the way I commanded, inviting all kinds of evil consequences in the days ahead. You’re determined to do evil in defiance of God—I know you are—deliberately provoking his anger by what you do.”
30 So with everyone in Israel gathered and listening, Moses taught them the words of this song, from start to finish.
The Song
32 1-5 Listen, Heavens, I have something to tell you.
Attention, Earth, I’ve got a mouth full of words.
My teaching, let it fall like a gentle rain,
my words arrive like morning dew,
Like a sprinkling rain on new grass,
like spring showers on the garden.
For it’s God’s Name I’m preaching—
respond to the greatness of our God!
The Rock: His works are perfect,
and the way he works is fair and just;
A God you can depend upon, no exceptions,
a straight-arrow God.
His messed-up, mixed-up children, his non-children,
throw mud at him but none of it sticks.
6-7 Don’t you realize it is God you are treating like this?
This is crazy; don’t you have any sense of reverence?
Isn’t this your father who created you,
who made you and gave you a place on Earth?
Read up on what happened before you were born;
dig into the past, understand your roots.
Ask your parents what it was like before you were born;
ask the old-ones, they’ll tell you a thing or two.
8-9 When the High God gave the nations their stake,
gave them their place on Earth,
He put each of the peoples within boundaries
under the care of divine guardians.
But God himself took charge of his people,
took Jacob on as his personal concern.
10-14 He found him out in the wilderness,
in an empty, windswept wasteland.
He threw his arms around him, lavished attention on him,
guarding him as the apple of his eye.
He was like an eagle hovering over its nest,
overshadowing its young,
Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air,
teaching them to fly.
God alone led him;
there was not a foreign god in sight.
God lifted him onto the hilltops,
so he could feast on the crops in the fields.
He fed him honey from the rock,
oil from granite crags,
Curds of cattle and the milk of sheep,
the choice cuts of lambs and goats,
Fine Bashan rams, high-quality wheat,
and the blood of grapes: you drank good wine!
15-18 Jeshurun put on weight and bucked;
you got fat, became obese, a tub of lard.
He abandoned the God who made him,
he mocked the Rock of his salvation.
They made him jealous with their foreign trendy gods,
and with obscenities they vexed him no end.
They sacrificed to no-god demons,
gods they knew nothing about,
The latest in gods, fresh from the market,
gods your ancestors would never call “gods.”
You walked out on the Rock who gave you your life,
forgot the birth-God who brought you into the world.
19-25 God saw it and spun around,
angered and hurt by his sons and daughters.
He said, “From now on I’m looking the other way.
Wait and see what happens to them.
Oh, they’re a turned-around, upside-down generation!
Who knows what they’ll do from one moment to the next?
They’ve goaded me with their no-gods,
infuriated me with their hot-air gods;
I’m going to goad them with a no-people,
with a hollow nation incense them.
My anger started a fire,
a wildfire burning deep down in Sheol,
Then shooting up and devouring the Earth and its crops,
setting all the mountains, from bottom to top, on fire.
I’ll pile catastrophes on them,
I’ll shoot my arrows at them:
Starvation, blistering heat, killing disease;
I’ll send snarling wild animals to attack from the forest
and venomous creatures to strike from the dust.
Killing in the streets,
terror in the houses,
Young men and virgins alike struck down,
and yes, breast-feeding babies and gray-haired old men.”
26-27 I could have said, “I’ll hack them to pieces,
wipe out all trace of them from the Earth,”
Except that I feared the enemy would grab the chance
to take credit for all of it,
Crowing, “Look what we did!
God had nothing to do with this.”
28-33 They are a nation of idiots,
they don’t know enough to come in out of the rain.
If they had any sense at all, they’d know this;
they would see what’s coming down the road.
How could one soldier chase a thousand enemies off,
or two men run off two thousand,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
unless God had given them away?
For their rock is nothing compared to our Rock;
even our enemies say that.
They’re a vine that comes right out of Sodom,
who they are is rooted in Gomorrah;
Their grapes are poison grapes,
their grape-clusters bitter.
Their wine is rattlesnake venom,
mixed with lethal cobra poison.
34-35 Don’t you realize that I have my shelves
well stocked, locked behind iron doors?
I’m in charge of vengeance and payback,
just waiting for them to slip up;
And the day of their doom is just around the corner,
sudden and swift and sure.
36-38 Yes, God will judge his people,
but oh how compassionately he’ll do it.
When he sees their weakened plight
and there is no one left, slave or free,
He’ll say, “So where are their gods,
the rock in which they sought refuge,
The gods who feasted on the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink-offerings?
Let them show their stuff and help you,
let them give you a hand!
39-42 “Do you see it now? Do you see that I’m the one?
Do you see that there’s no other god beside me?
I bring death and I give life, I wound and I heal—
there is no getting away from or around me!
I raise my hand in solemn oath;
I say, ‘I’m always around. By that very life I promise:
When I sharpen my lightning sword
and execute judgment,
I take vengeance on my enemies
and pay back those who hate me.
I’ll make my arrows drunk with blood,
my sword will gorge itself on flesh,
Feasting on slain and captive alike,
the proud and vain enemy corpses.’”
43 Celebrate, nations, join the praise of his people.
He avenges the deaths of his servants,
Pays back his enemies with vengeance,
and cleanses his land for his people.
44-47 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun. When Moses had finished saying all these words to all Israel, he said, “Take to heart all these words to which I give witness today and urgently command your children to put them into practice, every single word of this Revelation. Yes. This is no small matter for you; it’s your life. In keeping this word you’ll have a good and long life in this land that you’re crossing the Jordan to possess.”
48-50 That same day God spoke to Moses: “Climb the Abarim Mountains to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, overlooking Jericho, and view the land of Canaan that I’m giving the People of Israel to have and hold. Die on the mountain that you climb and join your people in the ground, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his people.
51-52 “This is because you broke faith with me in the company of the People of Israel at the Waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin—you didn’t honor my Holy Presence in the company of the People of Israel. You’ll look at the land spread out before you but you won’t enter it, this land that I am giving to the People of Israel.”
Deuteronomy 31-32
New International Version
Deuteronomy 31-32
New International Version
Joshua to Succeed Moses
31 Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: 2 “I am now a hundred and twenty years old(A) and I am no longer able to lead you.(B) The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’(C) 3 The Lord your God himself will cross(D) over ahead of you.(E) He will destroy these nations(F) before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross(G) over ahead of you, as the Lord said. 4 And the Lord will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og,(H) the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. 5 The Lord will deliver(I) them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous.(J) Do not be afraid or terrified(K) because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you;(L) he will never leave you(M) nor forsake(N) you.”
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said(O) to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them,(P) and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. 8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you;(Q) he will never leave you nor forsake you.(R) Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
Public Reading of the Law
9 So Moses wrote(S) down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carried(T) the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts,(U) during the Festival of Tabernacles,(V) 11 when all Israel comes to appear(W) before the Lord your God at the place he will choose,(X) you shall read this law(Y) before them in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn(Z) to fear(AA) the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13 Their children,(AB) who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Israel’s Rebellion Predicted
14 The Lord said to Moses, “Now the day of your death(AC) is near. Call Joshua(AD) and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, where I will commission him.(AE)” So Moses and Joshua came and presented themselves at the tent of meeting.(AF)
15 Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent.(AG) 16 And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors,(AH) and these people will soon prostitute(AI) themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake(AJ) me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 And in that day I will become angry(AK) with them and forsake(AL) them; I will hide(AM) my face(AN) from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters(AO) and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’(AP) 18 And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.
19 “Now write(AQ) down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness(AR) for me against them. 20 When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors,(AS) and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods(AT) and worship them,(AU) rejecting me and breaking my covenant.(AV) 21 And when many disasters and calamities come on them,(AW) this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do,(AX) even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.” 22 So Moses wrote(AY) down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.
23 The Lord gave this command(AZ) to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous,(BA) for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.”
24 After Moses finished writing(BB) in a book the words of this law(BC) from beginning to end, 25 he gave this command to the Levites who carried(BD) the ark of the covenant of the Lord: 26 “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.(BE) 27 For I know how rebellious(BF) and stiff-necked(BG) you are. If you have been rebellious against the Lord while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! 28 Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officials, so that I can speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to testify against them.(BH) 29 For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt(BI) and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster(BJ) will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord and arouse his anger by what your hands have made.”
The Song of Moses
30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:
32 Listen,(BK) you heavens,(BL) and I will speak;
hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.(BM)
2 Let my teaching fall like rain(BN)
and my words descend like dew,(BO)
like showers(BP) on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.
3 I will proclaim(BQ) the name of the Lord.(BR)
Oh, praise the greatness(BS) of our God!
4 He is the Rock,(BT) his works are perfect,(BU)
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God(BV) who does no wrong,
upright(BW) and just is he.(BX)
5 They are corrupt and not his children;
to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.(BY)
6 Is this the way you repay(BZ) the Lord,
you foolish(CA) and unwise people?(CB)
Is he not your Father,(CC) your Creator,[a]
who made you and formed you?(CD)
7 Remember the days of old;(CE)
consider the generations long past.(CF)
Ask your father and he will tell you,
your elders, and they will explain to you.(CG)
8 When the Most High(CH) gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided all mankind,(CI)
he set up boundaries(CJ) for the peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.[b](CK)
9 For the Lord’s portion(CL) is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.(CM)
10 In a desert(CN) land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.(CO)
He shielded(CP) him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,(CQ)
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,(CR)
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them aloft.(CS)
12 The Lord alone led(CT) him;(CU)
no foreign god was with him.(CV)
13 He made him ride on the heights(CW) of the land
and fed him with the fruit of the fields.
He nourished him with honey from the rock,(CX)
and with oil(CY) from the flinty crag,
14 with curds and milk from herd and flock
and with fattened lambs and goats,
with choice rams of Bashan(CZ)
and the finest kernels of wheat.(DA)
You drank the foaming blood of the grape.(DB)
15 Jeshurun[c](DC) grew fat(DD) and kicked;
filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
They abandoned(DE) the God who made them
and rejected the Rock(DF) their Savior.
16 They made him jealous(DG) with their foreign gods
and angered(DH) him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed(DI) to false gods,(DJ) which are not God—
gods they had not known,(DK)
gods that recently appeared,(DL)
gods your ancestors did not fear.
18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot(DM) the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them(DN)
because he was angered by his sons and daughters.(DO)
20 “I will hide my face(DP) from them,” he said,
“and see what their end will be;
for they are a perverse generation,(DQ)
children who are unfaithful.(DR)
21 They made me jealous(DS) by what is no god
and angered me with their worthless idols.(DT)
I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.(DU)
22 For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,(DV)
one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.(DW)
It will devour(DX) the earth and its harvests(DY)
and set afire the foundations of the mountains.(DZ)
23 “I will heap calamities(EA) on them
and spend my arrows(EB) against them.
24 I will send wasting famine(EC) against them,
consuming pestilence(ED) and deadly plague;(EE)
I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts,(EF)
the venom of vipers(EG) that glide in the dust.(EH)
25 In the street the sword will make them childless;
in their homes terror(EI) will reign.(EJ)
The young men and young women will perish,
the infants and those with gray hair.(EK)
26 I said I would scatter(EL) them
and erase their name from human memory,(EM)
27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
lest the adversary misunderstand(EN)
and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed;
the Lord has not done all this.’”(EO)
28 They are a nation without sense,
there is no discernment(EP) in them.
29 If only they were wise and would understand this(EQ)
and discern what their end will be!(ER)
30 How could one man chase a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,(ES)
unless their Rock had sold them,(ET)
unless the Lord had given them up?(EU)
31 For their rock is not like our Rock,(EV)
as even our enemies concede.(EW)
32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom(EX)
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,(EY)
and their clusters with bitterness.(EZ)
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.(FA)
34 “Have I not kept this in reserve
and sealed it in my vaults?(FB)
35 It is mine to avenge;(FC) I will repay.(FD)
In due time their foot will slip;(FE)
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them.(FF)”
36 The Lord will vindicate his people(FG)
and relent(FH) concerning his servants(FI)
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave(FJ) or free.[d]
37 He will say: “Now where are their gods,
the rock they took refuge in,(FK)
38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?(FL)
Let them rise up to help you!
Let them give you shelter!
39 “See now that I myself am he!(FM)
There is no god besides me.(FN)
I put to death(FO) and I bring to life,(FP)
I have wounded and I will heal,(FQ)
and no one can deliver out of my hand.(FR)
40 I lift my hand(FS) to heaven and solemnly swear:
As surely as I live forever,(FT)
41 when I sharpen my flashing sword(FU)
and my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance(FV) on my adversaries
and repay those who hate me.(FW)
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,(FX)
while my sword devours flesh:(FY)
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”
43 Rejoice,(FZ) you nations, with his people,[e][f]
for he will avenge the blood of his servants;(GA)
he will take vengeance on his enemies(GB)
and make atonement for his land and people.(GC)
44 Moses came with Joshua[g](GD) son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day,(GE) so that you may command(GF) your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.(GG) By them you will live long(GH) in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Moses to Die on Mount Nebo
48 On that same day the Lord told Moses,(GI) 49 “Go up into the Abarim(GJ) Range to Mount Nebo(GK) in Moab, across from Jericho,(GL) and view Canaan,(GM) the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die(GN) and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died(GO) on Mount Hor(GP) and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh(GQ) in the Desert of Zin(GR) and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.(GS) 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance;(GT) you will not enter(GU) the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:6 Or Father, who bought you
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) sons of God
- Deuteronomy 32:15 Jeshurun means the upright one, that is, Israel.
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Or and they are without a ruler or leader
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Or Make his people rejoice, you nations
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) people, / and let all the angels worship him, /
- Deuteronomy 32:44 Hebrew Hoshea, a variant of Joshua
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