Deuteronomy 31:30-32:47
Lexham English Bible
30 So Moses spoke into the ears of the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were complete.[a]
The Song of Moses
32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching trickle like the dew,
my words like rain showers on tender grass,
and like spring showers on new growth.
3 For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh;
ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are just;
he is a faithful God, and without injustice;[b]
righteous and upright is he.
5 They have behaved corruptly toward[c] him;
they are not his children; this is their flaw,
a generation crooked and perverse.
6 Like this do you treat Yahweh,
foolish and unwise[d] people?
Has he not, your father, created you?
He made you, and he established you.
7 Remember the old days, the years long past;[e]
ask your father, and he will inform you,
your elders and they will tell you.[f]
8 When the Most High apportioned[g] the nations,
at his dividing up of the sons of humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples,
according to the number of the children of Israel.[h]
9 For Yahweh’s portion was his people,
Jacob the share of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land,
and in a howling, desert wasteland;
he encircled him,[i] he cared for him,
he protected him like the apple[j] of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
hovers over its young,
spreads out its wings, takes them,[k]
carries them[l] on its pinions,[m]
12 so Yahweh alone guided him,[n]
and there was no foreign god accompanying him.[o]
13 And he set him on the high places of the land,
and he fed him the crops[p] of the field,
and he nursed him with honey from crags,[q]
and with oil from flinty rock,
14 With curds[r] from the herd,
and with milk from the flock,
with the fat of young rams,
and rams, the offspring of Bashan,
and with goats along with the finest kernels of wheat,
and from the blood of grapes[s] you drank fermented wine.[t]
15 And Jeshurun grew fat, and he kicked;
you grew fat, you bloated, and you became obstinate;
and he abandoned God, his maker,
and he scoffed at the rock of his salvation.
16 They made him jealous with strange gods;
with detestable things they provoked him.
17 They sacrificed to the demons, not God,
to gods whom[u] they had not known,
new gods who[v] came from recent times;
their ancestors had not known them.[w]
18 The rock who[x] bore you, you neglected,
and you forgot God, the one giving you birth.
19 Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them,
because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 So he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;
I will see what will be their end,
for they are a generation of perversity,
children in whom there is no faithfulness.[y]
21 They annoyed me with what is not a god;
they provoked me with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those not a people,
with a foolish nation I will provoke them.
22 For a fire was kindled[z] by my anger,
and it burned up to the depths of Sheol,[aa]
and it devoured the earth and its produce,
and it set afire the foundation of the mountains.
23 I will heap disasters upon them;
my arrows I will spend on them.
24 They will become weakened by famine,
and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence;
and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them,
with the poison of the creeping things in the dust;
25 From outside her boundaries the sword will make her childless,
and from inside, terror;
both for the young man and also the young woman,
the infant along with the gray-headed man.
26 I thought, “I will wipe them out;
I will make people forget they ever existed.”[ab]
27 If I had not feared a provocation of the enemy,
lest their foes might misunderstand, [ac]
lest they should say, [ad] “Our hand is
triumphant,[ae] and Yahweh did not do all this.”’
28 For they are a nation void of sense,[af]
and there is not any understanding in them.
29 If only they were wise, they would understand this;
they would discern for themselves their end.[ag]
30 How could one chase a thousand
and two could cause a myriad to flee,
if their Rock had not sold them,
and Yahweh had not given them up?
31 For the fact of the matter is,
their rock is not like our Rock,
and our enemies recognize[ah] this.
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,
and from the terraces of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
their clusters are bitter.[ai]
33 Their wine is the poison of snakes,
and the deadly poison of horned vipers.
34 ‘Is not this stored up with me,
sealed in my treasuries?’[aj]
35 Vengeance belongs to me[ak] and also recompense,
for at the time their foot slips,[al]
because the day of their disaster is near,
and fate comes quickly for them.’[am]
36 For Yahweh will judge on behalf of his people,
and concerning his servants;
he will change his mind when he sees that their power has disappeared,
and there is no one left, confined[an] or free.[ao]
37 And he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
their rock in whom[ap] they took refuge?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their libations?
Let them rise up, and let them help you;
Let them be to you a refuge.[aq]
39 See, now, that I, even I am he,
and there is not a god besides me;
I put to death and I give life;
I wound and I heal;
there is not one who delivers from my hand!
40 For indeed I lift up my hand to heaven,
And I promise as I live forever,[ar]
41 When I sharpen[as] my flashing sword,[at]
and my hand takes hold[au] of it in judgment,
I will take reprisals against my foes,[av]
and my haters I will repay.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain,
and captives[aw] from the heads[ax] of the leaders of the enemy.’
43 Call for songs of joy, O nations, concerning his people,[ay]
for the blood of his servants he will avenge,
and he will take reprisals against his foes,[az]
and he will make atonement for his land, his people.”
44 And Moses came, and he spoke[ba] all the words of this song in the ears of the people; that is, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45 And when Moses finished speaking[bb] all these words to all Israel, 46 then he said to them, “Take to heart all the words[bc] that I am admonishing against you today[bd] concerning which you should instruct them with respect to your children[be] so that they will observe diligently[bf] all the words of this law, 47 for it is not a trifling matter among you, but it is your life, and through this word you will live long in the land[bg] that you are about to cross the Jordan to get there to take possession of it.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 31:30 Literally “until their to be complete”
- Deuteronomy 32:4 Literally “there is not injustice”
- Deuteronomy 32:5 Or “with”
- Deuteronomy 32:6 Literally “not wise”
- Deuteronomy 32:7 Literally “the years of from generation to generation”
- Deuteronomy 32:7 Hebrew “to you”
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Literally “In/at the apportioning of the Most High”
- Deuteronomy 32:8 LXX reads “the number of the angels of God”; Dead Sea Scrolls reads “the number of the sons of God”
- Deuteronomy 32:10 Literally “moved around him”
- Deuteronomy 32:10 Literally “pupil”
- Deuteronomy 32:11 Hebrew “it” but used poetically and with plural sense in context
- Deuteronomy 32:11 Hebrew “it” but used poetically and with plural sense in context
- Deuteronomy 32:11 Hebrew “pinion”
- Deuteronomy 32:12 That is, Jacob, standing for Israel
- Deuteronomy 32:12 Literally “and there was not with him a god foreign/strange”
- Deuteronomy 32:13 Hebrew “crop”
- Deuteronomy 32:13 Hebrew “crag”
- Deuteronomy 32:14 Hebrew “curd”
- Deuteronomy 32:14 Hebrew “grape”
- Deuteronomy 32:14 Or “partially fermented wine”; others translate simply as wine (NASB, NEB); HALOT 330, “still fermenting wine”
- Deuteronomy 32:17 Hebrew “them”
- Deuteronomy 32:17 Hebrew “they,” understood in the verb form
- Deuteronomy 32:17 Literally “their fathers not knew them”
- Deuteronomy 32:18 Hebrew “he,” understood in verb form
- Deuteronomy 32:20 Literally “sons not faithfulness is in them”
- Deuteronomy 32:22 Or “ignited”
- Deuteronomy 32:22 Literally “up to Sheol depths”
- Deuteronomy 32:26 Literally “I will blot out from among human being their remembrance”
- Deuteronomy 32:27 Or “so that they not make a false construal” of what has happened
- Deuteronomy 32:27 Or “so that they might not”
- Deuteronomy 32:27 Literally “raised/held high”
- Deuteronomy 32:28 Literally “they a nation perishing of counsel”
- Deuteronomy 32:29 Literally “they would discern for end their”
- Deuteronomy 32:31 The meaning of this expression is uncertain, but “discerns” or “judges” seem good choices; see HALOT 932, which allows for “judges” or “in the estimation of our enemies”
- Deuteronomy 32:32 Literally “clusters of bitter are for them”
- Deuteronomy 32:34 Or “storehouses
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Literally “To me is vengeance”
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Literally “at the time when it shall slip foot their”
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Literally “and comes quickly/hurries events to come to them”
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Or “bond/bound”
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Or “freed”
- Deuteronomy 32:37 Hebrew “in him”
- Deuteronomy 32:38 Literally “let there be/him/them unto you as a shelter”
- Deuteronomy 32:40 Literally “live I to eternity”
- Deuteronomy 32:41 Or “have sharpened”
- Deuteronomy 32:41 Literally “the flashing of my sword”
- Deuteronomy 32:41 Or “seizes”
- Deuteronomy 32:41 Literally “I will let return vengeance to foes my”
- Deuteronomy 32:42 Hebrew “captive”
- Deuteronomy 32:42 Hebrew “head”
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Dead Sea Scrolls reads: “Rejoice, O heavenly ones, with him! Bow down, all you gods, before him!”
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Literally “vengeance he will let return to his foes”
- Deuteronomy 32:44 Or “recited”
- Deuteronomy 32:45 Literally “And he finished Moses to speak”
- Deuteronomy 32:46 Literally “Put heart your to all the words”
- Deuteronomy 32:46 Literally “the day”
- Deuteronomy 32:46 Or “sons”
- Deuteronomy 32:46 Literally “to keep to do”
- Deuteronomy 32:47 Literally “you will make long days on the land”
Deuteronomy 31:30-32:47
International Standard Version
30 So Moses spoke the words of this song—to the very end—in front of the entire assembly of Israel.
The Song of Moses
32 Hear, heavens, and I will speak!
Listen, earth, to the words of my mouth!
2 May my instructions descend like rain
and may my words flow like dew,
as light rain upon the grass,
and as showers upon new plants.
3 For I’ll proclaim the name of our Lord.
Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 Flawless is the work of the Rock,
because all his ways are just.
A faithful God—never unjust—
righteous and upright is he.
5 But those who are not his children
acted corruptly against him;
they are a defective and perverted generation.
6 This is not the way to repay the Lord, is it,
you foolish and witless people?
Is he not your father,
who bought you, formed you, and established you?
An Exhortation to Remember God’s Work
7 Remember the days of old,
reflect on the years of previous generations.
Ask your father,
and he’ll tell you;
your elders will inform you.
8 When the Most High gave nations as their inheritance,
when he separated the human race,
he set boundaries for the people
according to the number of the children of God.[a]
9 For the Lord’s portion is his people;
Jacob is his allotted portion.
The Lord’s Work on Behalf of Israel
10 The Lord[b] found him[c] in a desert land,
in a barren, eerie[d] wilderness.
He surrounded, cared for, and guarded him
as the pupil of his eye.
11 Like an eagle stirs its nest,
hovering near its young,
spreading out his wings to take him
and carry him on his pinions,
12 the Lord alone guided him.
There was no foreign god with him.
13 He mounted him on a high place above the earth,
feeding him from the produce of the field.
He nourished[e] him with honey from the rock
and with oil from the flint rock,
14 with curds from cattle and with milk from sheep,
with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan,
with the fat of goats, with the finest[f] of wheat—
and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.
Israel’s Rebellion
15 Jacob dined until satisfied;[g]
Jeshurun[h] grew fat and kicked.
He[i] grew fat, coarse, and gross,
so that he abandoned the God who made him
and spurned the Rock that was his salvation.
16 They provoked him to jealousy over foreigners
and to anger over detestable things.
17 They sacrificed to demons—
not to the real God—
gods whom they didn’t know,
new neighbors who had recently appeared,
whom your ancestors never feared.
18 You[j] neglected the Rock that fathered you;
you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth.[k]
The Lord’s Response
19 The Lord saw it and became jealous,[l]
provoked by his sons and daughters.
20 So he said:
“Let me hide my face from them.
I will observe what their end will be,
because they are a perverted generation,
children within whom there is no loyalty.
21 They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods,
and to be angry over their vanity.
Now I’ll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people;
and over a foolish nation I’ll provoke them to anger.
22 For a fire breaks out in my anger—
burning to the deepest part of[m] the afterlife,[n]
consuming the earth and its produce
and igniting the foundations of the mountains.
23 I’ll bury them in misfortunes
and bring them to an end with my arrows.
24 Emaciated from famine,
feverish from plague,
and destroyed by bitterness,
I’ll send fanged beasts against them,
along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust.
25 Outside, the sword will cause bereavement;
within,[o] there will be terror
for the young man and virgin alike,
also for the nursing infant and the aged man.”[p]
26 “I said,
‘I will scatter them,[q]
erasing their memory from the human race,[r]
27 if it weren’t for dreading the taunting of their enemies—
otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say,
“Our power is great.
It isn’t the Lord who made all of this happen.”’”
Moses Warns Israel
28 They are a nation devoid of purpose
and without insight.
29 O, that they were wise to understand this
and consider their future![s]
30 How can one person[t] chase a thousand of them
and two put a myriad[u] to flight,
unless their Rock delivers them
and the Lord gives them up?
31 For their rock isn’t like our Rock,
as even[v] our enemies admit.[w]
32 Instead,[x] their vine is from the vines of Sodom
and the vineyards of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous,
their clusters bitter.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
a poisonous cobra.
The Lord’s Response
34 “Is this not kept in reserve,
sealed up with me in my treasury?
35 To me belong vengeance and recompense.
In due time their feet will slip,
because their time of calamity is near
and the things prepared for them draw near.
36 For the Lord will vindicate his people
and bring comfort to his servants,
because he will observe that their power[y] has waned,
when neither prisoner[z] nor free person remain.
37 “He will say, ‘Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge?
38 Who ate the fat of their offerings
and drank the wine that was their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you
and be your hiding place!’
39 “Look now! I AM,[aa]
and there is no other god besides me.
I myself cause death
and I sustain life;
I wound severely
and I also heal;
from my power[ab] no one can deliver.
40 “I solemnly swear[ac] to heaven—
I say ‘As certainly as I’m alive and living forever,
41 I’ll whet my shining sword,
with my hands in firm grasp of judgment.
I’ll show vengeance on my adversary
and repay those who keep on hating me.
42 I’ll make my arrows drunk with blood.
My sword will devour flesh,
along with the blood of the slain,
and I’ll take their enemy leaders captive.’
43 “Sing for joy, nations!
Sing for joy,[ad] people who belong to him!
For he’ll avenge the blood of his servants,
turn on his adversary,
and cleanse both his land and his people.”
Moses’ Final Counsel
44 So Moses and Nun’s son Joshua came and recited all the words of this song while the people were assembled. 45 When Moses had finished addressing all of these words to all Israel, 46 he told them, “Take to heart my entire testimony against you today. Command your children to observe carefully every word of this Law, 47 because they’re not just empty words for you—they are your very life. Through these instructions you will live long in the land that you are about to cross over the Jordan River to possess.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:8 So with LXX and DSS 4QDeut. MT reads the Israelis
- Deuteronomy 32:10 Lit. He
- Deuteronomy 32:10 I.e. Jacob as a personification of national Israel; and so throughout the song
- Deuteronomy 32:10 Lit. howling
- Deuteronomy 32:13 Or nursed
- Deuteronomy 32:14 Lit. kernel
- Deuteronomy 32:15 So DSS Q Sam and LXX; the Heb. lacks Jacob dined until satisfied
- Deuteronomy 32:15 I.e. a poetic term for national Israel; the Heb. name means Upright One
- Deuteronomy 32:15 Lit. You
- Deuteronomy 32:18 I.e. the nation of Israel personified in the second person sing. pronoun, and so throughout the verse
- Deuteronomy 32:18 Or who was giving birth to you
- Deuteronomy 32:19 So DSS, LXX. MT reads and was repulsed
- Deuteronomy 32:22 The Heb. lacks part of
- Deuteronomy 32:22 Lit. Sheol
- Deuteronomy 32:25 Lit. within the room
- Deuteronomy 32:25 Lit. and a man of gray hair
- Deuteronomy 32:26 Or will break them to pieces
- Deuteronomy 32:26 Lit. from among men
- Deuteronomy 32:29 Lit. end
- Deuteronomy 32:30 The Heb. lacks person
- Deuteronomy 32:30 Or put countless ones; Lit. put ten thousand
- Deuteronomy 32:31 Lit. and
- Deuteronomy 32:31 Or concede
- Deuteronomy 32:32 Lit. Because
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Lit. hand
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Or slave
- Deuteronomy 32:39 So LXX; MT reads I, I myself, am he
- Deuteronomy 32:39 Lit. hand
- Deuteronomy 32:40 Lit. raise my hand
- Deuteronomy 32:43 The Heb. lacks Sing for joy
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