16
The
Lord
said to Moses, “You are about to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon commit adultery with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
17
My anger will burn against them on that day; I will abandon them and hide My face from them so that they will become easy prey. Many troubles and afflictions will come to them. On that day they will say, ‘Haven't these troubles come to us because our God is no longer with us? '
18
I will certainly hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.
19
Therefore write down this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the Israelites.
20
When I bring them into the land I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. They will turn to other gods and worship them, despising Me and breaking My covenant.
21
And when many troubles and afflictions come to them, this song will testify against them, because their descendants will not have forgotten it. For I know what they are prone to do, even before I bring them into the land I swore to give them.”
22
So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.
23
The
Lord
commissioned Joshua son of Nun, “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
Moses Warns the People
24
When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word of this law,
25
he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the
Lord
's covenant,
26
“Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the
Lord
your God so that it may remain there as a witness against you.
27
For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the
Lord
now, while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after I am dead!
28
Assemble all your tribal elders and officers before me so that I may speak these words directly to them and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.
29
For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the
Lord
's sight, infuriating Him with what your hands have made.”
30
Then Moses recited aloud every single word of this song to the entire assembly of Israel:
Deuteronomy
Song of Moses
32
Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;
listen, earth, to the words of my mouth.
2
Let my teaching fall like rain
and my word settle like dew,
like gentle rain on new grass
and showers on tender plants.
3
For I will proclaim
•Yahweh
's name.
Declare the greatness of our God!
4
The Rock — His work is perfect;
all His ways are entirely just.
A faithful God, without prejudice,
He is righteous and true.
5
His people have acted corruptly toward Him;
this is their defect — they are not His children
but a devious and crooked generation.
6
Is this how you repay the
Lord
,
you foolish and senseless people?
Isn't He your Father and Creator?
Didn't He make you and sustain you?
7
Remember the days of old;
consider the years long past.
Ask your father, and he will tell you,
your elders, and they will teach you.
8
When the
•Most
High gave the nations their inheritance
and divided the
•human
race,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the people of Israel.
9
But the
Lord
's portion is His people,
Jacob, His own inheritance.
10
He found him in a desolate land,
in a barren, howling wilderness;
He surrounded him, cared for him,
and protected him as the pupil of His eye.
11
He watches over His nest like an eagle
and hovers over His young;
He spreads His wings, catches him,
and lifts him up on His pinions.
12
The
Lord
alone led him,
with no help from a foreign god.
13
He made him ride on the heights of the land
and eat the produce of the field.
He nourished him with honey from the rock
and oil from flint-like rock,
14
cream from the herd and milk from the flock,
with the fat of lambs,
rams from Bashan, and goats,
with the choicest grains of wheat;
you drank wine from the finest grapes.
15
Then Jeshurun became fat and rebelled —
you became fat, bloated, and gorged.
He abandoned the God who made him
and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
16
They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods;
they enraged Him with detestable practices.
17
They sacrificed to demons, not God,
to gods they had not known,
new gods that had just arrived,
which your fathers did not fear.
18
You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;
you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
19
When the
Lord
saw this, He despised them,
provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
20
He said: “I will hide My face from them;
I will see what will become of them,
for they are a perverse generation —
unfaithful children.
21
They have provoked My jealousy
with their so-called gods;
they have enraged Me with their worthless idols.
So I will provoke their jealousy
with an inferior people;
I will enrage them with a foolish nation.
22
For fire has been kindled because of My anger
and burns to the depths of
•Sheol
;
it devours the land and its produce,
and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
23
“I will pile disasters on them;
I will use up My arrows against them.
24
They will be weak from hunger,
ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;
I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,
as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.
25
Outside, the sword will take their children,
and inside, there will be terror;
the young man and the young woman will be killed,
the infant and the gray-haired man.
26
“I would have said: I will cut them to pieces
and blot out the memory of them from mankind,
27
if I had not feared insult from the enemy,
or feared that these foes might misunderstand
and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed;
it wasn't the
Lord
who did all this.' ”
28
Israel is a nation lacking sense
with no understanding at all.
29
If only they were wise, they would figure it out;
they would understand their fate.
30
How could one man pursue a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the
Lord
had given them up?
31
But their “rock” is not like our Rock;
even our enemies concede.
32
For their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous;
their clusters are bitter.
33
Their wine is serpents' venom,
the deadly poison of cobras.
34
“Is it not stored up with Me,
sealed up in My vaults?
35
Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay.
In time their foot will slip,
for their day of disaster is near,
and their doom is coming quickly.”
36
The
Lord
will indeed vindicate His people
and have compassion on His servants
when He sees that their strength is gone
and no one is left — slave or free.
37
He will say: “Where are their gods,
the ‘rock' they found refuge in?
38
Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their
•drink
offerings?
Let them rise up and help you;
let it be a shelter for you.
39
See now that I alone am He;
there is no God but Me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from My hand.
40
I raise My hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,
41
when I sharpen My flashing sword,
and My hand takes hold of judgment,
I will take vengeance on My adversaries
and repay those who hate Me.
42
I will make My arrows drunk with blood
while My sword devours flesh —
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”
43
Rejoice, you nations, concerning His people,
for He will avenge the blood of His servants.
He will take vengeance on His adversaries;
He will purify His land and His people.
44
Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the presence of the people.
45
After Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
46
he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I am giving as a warning to you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.
47
For they are not meaningless words to you but they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Moses' Impending Death
48
On that same day the
Lord
spoke to Moses,
49
“Go up Mount Nebo in the Abarim range in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan I am giving the Israelites as a possession.
50
Then you will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
51
For both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence.
52
Although from a distance you will view the land that I am giving the Israelites, you will not go there.”
Deuteronomy
Moses' Blessings
33
This is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, gave the Israelites before his death.
2
He said:
The
Lord
came from Sinai
and appeared to them from Seir;
He shone on them from Mount Paran
and came with ten thousand holy ones,
with lightning from His right hand for them.
3
Indeed He loves the people.
All Your holy ones are in Your hand,
and they assemble at Your feet.
Each receives Your words.
4
Moses gave us instruction,
a possession for the assembly of Jacob.
5
So He became King in Jeshurun
when the leaders of the people gathered
with the tribes of Israel.
6
Let Reuben live and not die
though his people become few.
7
He said this about Judah:
Lord
, hear Judah's cry and bring him to his people.
He fights for his cause with his own hands,
but may You be a help against his foes.
8
He said about Levi:
Your
•Thummim
and Urim belong to Your faithful one;
You tested him at Massah
and contended with him at the waters of Meribah.
9
He said about his father and mother,
“I do not regard them.”
He disregarded his brothers
and didn't acknowledge his sons,
for they kept Your word
and maintained Your covenant.
10
They will teach Your ordinances to Jacob
and Your instruction to Israel;
they will set incense before You
and whole
•burnt
offerings on Your altar.
11
Lord
, bless his possessions,
and accept the work of his hands.
Smash the loins of his adversaries and enemies,
so that they cannot rise again.