Deuteronomy 32:19-28
New King James Version
19 “And(A) 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,
(B)Children in whom is no faith.
21 (C)They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger (D)by their [a]foolish idols.
But (E)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 (F)a fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the [b]lowest [c]hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 ‘I will (G)heap disasters on them;
(H)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 (I)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 (J)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, (K)“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.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:21 foolishness, lit. vanities
- Deuteronomy 32:22 lowest part of
- Deuteronomy 32:22 Or Sheol
Deuteronomy 32:19-28
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
19 The Lord saw and was filled with loathing,
provoked by his sons and daughters.(A)
20 He said, I will hide my face from them,
and see what becomes of them.
For they are a fickle generation,
children with no loyalty in them!(B)
21 Since they have incited me with a “no-god,”
and provoked me with their empty idols,
I will incite them with a “no-people”;[a]
with a foolish nation I will provoke them.(C)
22 For by my wrath a fire is kindled
that has raged to the depths of Sheol,
It has consumed the earth with its yield,
and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.(D)
23 I will heap evils upon them
and exhaust all my arrows against them:(E)
24 Emaciating hunger and consuming fever
and bitter pestilence,
And the teeth of wild beasts I will send among them,
with the venom of reptiles gliding in the dust.(F)
25 Out in the street the sword shall bereave,
and at home the terror
For the young man and the young woman alike,
the nursing babe as well as the gray beard.(G)
26 I said: I will make an end of them
and blot out their name from human memory,
27 Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,
that their foes might misunderstand,
And say, “Our own hand won the victory;
the Lord had nothing to do with any of it.”(H)
28 For they are a nation devoid of reason,[b]
having no understanding.
Footnotes
- 32:21 “No-god”…“no-people”: worship of the gods of the nations brings destruction at the hands of a foreign invader. A false god cannot sustain or protect (cf. Jer 14:22); and though the nations seem “foolish” (see their characterization in such passages as Ps 114:1; Is 28:11; 33:19), they will prove to be anything but nonentities when the Lord stirs them up against Israel (Is 9:10–12). For the “no-” or “not-” construction, see Hos 1:6, 9; 2:1, 25.
- 32:28–35 The reference is to the nations, not to Israel.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.