Deuteronomy 32
English Standard Version
32 “Give ear, (A)O heavens, and I will speak,
and let (B)the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May (C)my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and (D)like showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe (E)greatness to our God!
4 (F)“The Rock, (G)his work is perfect,
for (H)all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and (I)without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him;
they are no longer his children (J)because they are blemished;
they are (K)a crooked and twisted generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he (L)your father, who (M)created you,
who (N)made you and established you?
7 (O)Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
(P)ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High (Q)gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he (R)divided mankind,
he fixed the borders[a] of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.[b]
9 But the Lord's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him (S)in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he (T)encircled him, he cared for him,
he (U)kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 (V)Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
12 (W)the Lord alone guided him,
(X)no foreign god was with him.
13 (Y)He made him ride on the high places of the land,
and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with (Z)honey out of the rock,
and (AA)oil out of (AB)the flinty rock.
14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat[c] of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
with the very finest[d] of the wheat—
and you drank foaming wine made from (AC)the blood of the grape.
15 “But (AD)Jeshurun grew fat, and (AE)kicked;
(AF)you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
(AG)then he forsook God (AH)who made him
and scoffed at (AI)the Rock of his salvation.
16 (AJ)They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
17 (AK)They sacrificed to demons that were not God,
to gods they had never known,
to (AL)new gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of (AM)the Rock that bore[e] you,
and you (AN)forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 (AO)“The Lord saw it and spurned them,
because of the provocation of (AP)his sons and his daughters.
20 And he said, (AQ)‘I will hide my face from them;
I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 (AR)They have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger (AS)with their idols.
So (AT)I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with (AU)a foolish nation.
22 For (AV)a fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to (AW)the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
(AX)I will spend my arrows on them;
24 they shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured by plague
and poisonous pestilence;
I will send (AY)the teeth of beasts against them,
with the venom of (AZ)things that crawl in the dust.
25 (BA)Outdoors the sword shall bereave,
and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 (BB)I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
(BC)I will wipe them from human memory,”
27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, (BD)“Our hand is triumphant,
it was not the Lord who did all this.”’
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
and there is (BE)no understanding in them.
29 (BF)If they were wise, they would understand this;
they would (BG)discern their latter end!
30 How could (BH)one have chased a thousand,
and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock (BI)had sold them,
and the Lord had given them up?
31 For (BJ)their rock is not as our Rock;
(BK)our enemies are by themselves.
32 For their vine (BL)comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of (BM)poison;
their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of (BN)serpents
and the cruel venom of asps.
34 “‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
(BO)sealed up in my treasuries?
35 (BP)Vengeance is mine, and recompense,[f]
(BQ)for the time when their foot shall slip;
for (BR)the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
36 For (BS)the Lord will vindicate[g] his people
(BT)and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
and there is none remaining, (BU)bond or free.
37 Then he will say, (BV)‘Where are their gods,
(BW)the rock in which they took refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you;
let them be your protection!
39 “‘See now that (BX)I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
(BY)I kill and I make alive;
(BZ)I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For (CA)I lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live forever,
41 if I (CB)sharpen my flashing sword[h]
and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and (CC)my sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the (CD)long-haired heads of the enemy.’
43 (CE)“Rejoice with him, O heavens;[i]
bow down to him, all gods,[j]
for he (CF)avenges the blood of his children[k]
and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him[l]
and cleanses[m] his people's land.”[n]
44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and (CG)Joshua[o] the son of Nun. 45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, (CH)“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, (CI)that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, (CJ)but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
Moses' Death Foretold
48 That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49 “Go up (CK)this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50 And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as (CL)Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 (CM)because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. 52 For (CN)you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Or territories
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text sons of Israel
- Deuteronomy 32:14 That is, with the best
- Deuteronomy 32:14 Hebrew with the kidney fat
- Deuteronomy 32:18 Or fathered
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Septuagint and I will repay
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Septuagint judge
- Deuteronomy 32:41 Hebrew the lightning of my sword
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text Rejoice his people, O nations
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Masoretic Text lacks bow down to him, all gods
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text servants
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text lacks He repays those who hate him
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Or atones for
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew his land his people
- Deuteronomy 32:44 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew Hoshea
Deuteronomy 32
Living Bible
32 “Listen, O heavens and earth!
Listen to what I say!
2 My words shall fall upon you
Like the gentle rain and dew,
Like rain upon the tender grass,
Like showers on the hillside.
3 I will proclaim the greatness of the Lord.
How glorious he is!
4 He is the Rock. His work is perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is faithful, without sin.
5 But Israel has become corrupt,
Smeared with sin. They are no longer his;
They are a stubborn, twisted generation.
6 Is this the way you treat Jehovah?
O foolish people,
Is not God your Father?
Has he not created you?
Has he not established you and made you strong?
7 Remember the days of long ago!
(Ask your father and the aged men;
They will tell you all about it.)
8 When God divided up the world among the nations,
He gave each of them a supervising angel!
9 But he appointed none for Israel;
For Israel was God’s own personal possession!
10 God protected them in the howling wilderness
As though they were the apple of his eye.
11 He spreads his wings over them,
Even as an eagle overspreads her young.
She carries them upon her wings—
As does the Lord his people!
12 When the Lord alone was leading them,
And they lived without foreign gods,
13 God gave them fertile hilltops,
Rolling, fertile fields,
Honey from the rock,
And olive oil from stony ground![a]
14 He gave them milk and meat—
Choice Bashan rams, and goats—
And the finest of the wheat;
They drank the sparkling wine.
15 But Israel[b] was soon overfed;
Yes, fat and bloated;
Then, in plenty, they forsook their God.
They shrugged away the Rock of their salvation.
16 Israel began to follow foreign gods,
And Jehovah was very angry;
He was jealous of his people.
17 They sacrificed to heathen gods,
To new gods never before worshiped.
18 They spurned the Rock who had made them,
Forgetting it was God who had given them birth.
19 God saw what they were doing,
And detested them!
His sons and daughters were insulting him.
20 He said, ‘I will abandon them;
See what happens to them then!
For they are a stubborn, faithless generation.
21 They have made me very jealous of their idols,
Which are not gods at all.
Now I, in turn, will make them jealous
By giving my affections
To the foolish Gentile nations of the world.
22 For my anger has kindled a fire
That burns to the depths of the underworld,
Consuming the earth and all of its crops,
And setting its mountains on fire.
23 I will heap evils upon them
And shoot them down with my arrows.
24 I will waste them with hunger,
Burning fever, and fatal disease.
I will devour them! I will set wild beasts upon them,
To rip them apart with their teeth;
And deadly serpents
Crawling in the dust.
25 Outside, the enemies’ sword—
Inside, the plague[c]—
Shall terrorize young men and girls alike;
The baby nursing at the breast,
And aged men.
26 I had decided to scatter them to distant lands,
So that even the memory of them
Would disappear.
27 But then I thought,
“My enemies will boast,
‘Israel is destroyed by our own might;
It was not the Lord
Who did it!’”
28 Israel is a stupid nation;
Foolish, without understanding.
29 Oh, that they were wise!
Oh, that they could understand!
Oh, that they would know what they are getting into!
30 How could one single enemy chase a thousand of them,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had abandoned them,
Unless the Lord had destroyed them?
31 But the rock of other nations
Is not like our Rock;
Prayers to their gods are valueless.
32 They act like men of Sodom and Gomorrah:
Their deeds[d] are bitter with poison;
33 They drink the wine of serpent venom.
34 But Israel[e] is my special people,
Sealed as jewels within my treasury.
35 Vengeance is mine,
And I decree the punishment of all her enemies:
Their doom is sealed.
36 The Lord will see his people righted,
And will have compassion on them when they slip.
He will watch their power ebb away,
Both slave and free.
37 Then God will ask,
‘Where are their gods—
The rocks they claimed to be their refuge?
38 Where are these gods now,
To whom they sacrificed their fat and wine?
Let those gods arise,
And help them!
39 Don’t you see that I alone am God?
I kill and make live.
I wound and heal—
No one delivers from my power.
40-41 I raise my hand to heaven
And vow by my existence,
That I will whet the lightning of my sword!
And hurl my punishments upon my enemies!
42 My arrows shall be drunk with blood!
My sword devours the flesh and blood
Of all the slain and captives.
The heads of the enemy
Are gory with blood.’
43 Praise his people,
Gentile nations,
For he will avenge his people,
Taking vengeance on his enemies,
Purifying his land
And his people.”
44-45 When Moses and Joshua had recited all the words of this song to the people, 46 Moses made these comments:
“Meditate upon all the laws I have given you today, and pass them on to your children. 47 These laws are not mere words—they are your life! Through obeying them you will live long, plentiful lives in the land you are going to possess across the Jordan River.”
48 That same day, the Lord said to Moses, 49 “Go to Mount Nebo in the mountains of Abarim, in the land of Moab across from Jericho. Climb to its heights and look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel. 50 After you see the land, you must die and join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died in Mount Hor and joined them. 51 For you dishonored me among the people of Israel at the springs of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. 52 You will see spread out before you the land I am giving the people of Israel, but you will not enter it.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:13 oil from stony ground, or “oil from flinty rocks.”
- Deuteronomy 32:15 Israel, literally, “Jeshurun.”
- Deuteronomy 32:25 the plague, implied.
- Deuteronomy 32:32 deeds, literally, “grapes.”
- Deuteronomy 32:34 Israel, implied.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.