May
8
Deuteronomy
31, 32
Deu
31:1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.
Deu
31:2 He said to them, I am one hundred twenty years old this day; I
can no more go out and come in: and Yahweh has said to me, You shall
not go over this Jordan.
Deu
31:3 Yahweh your God, he will go over before you; he will destroy
these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them: and
Joshua, he shall go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken.
Deu
31:4 Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings
of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed.
Deu
31:5 Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to
them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.
Deu
31:6 Be strong and of good courage, don't be afraid, nor be scared
of them: for Yahweh your God, he it is who does go with you; he will
not fail you, nor forsake you.
Deu
31:7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all
Israel, Be strong and of good courage: for you shall go with this
people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give
them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.
Deu
31:8 Yahweh, he it is who does go before you; he will be with you,
he will not fail you, neither forsake you: don't be afraid, neither
be dismayed.
Deu
31:9 Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons
of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the
elders of Israel.
Deu
31:10 Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every
seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of
tents,
Deu
31:11 when all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh your God in
the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all
Israel in their hearing.
Deu
31:12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little
ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may
hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe
to do all the words of this law;
Deu
31:13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and
learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where
you go over the Jordan to possess it.
Deu
31:14 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must
die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that
I may commission him. Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves
in the Tent of Meeting.
Deu
31:15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the
pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.
Deu
31:16 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your
fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after
the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and
will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
Deu
31:17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I
will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall
be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that
they will say in that day, Haven't these evils come on us because our
God is not among us?
Deu
31:18 I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which
they shall have worked, in that they are turned to other gods.
Deu
31:19 Now therefore write you this song for you, and teach you it
the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be
a witness for me against the children of Israel.
Deu
31:20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore
to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have
eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to
other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
Deu
31:21 It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on
them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it
shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know
their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought
them into the land which I swore.
Deu
31:22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the
children of Israel.
Deu
31:23 He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and
of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the
land which I swore to them: and I will be with you.
Deu
31:24 It happened, when Moses had made an end of writing the words
of this law in a book, until they were finished,
Deu
31:25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the
covenant of Yahweh, saying,
Deu
31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark
of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a
witness against you.
Deu
31:27 For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while
I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against
Yahweh; and how much more after my death?
Deu
31:28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your
officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven
and earth to witness against them.
Deu
31:29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt
yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you;
and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do
that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger
through the work of your hands.
Deu
31:30 Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the
words of this song, until they were finished.
Deu
32:1 Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the
words of my mouth.
Deu
32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as
the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the
herb.
Deu
32:3 For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to
our God!
Deu
32:4 The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a
God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.
Deu
32:5 They have dealt corruptly with him, they
are not his children, it
is their blemish. They
are a perverse and crooked generation.
Deu
32:6 Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he
your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.
Deu
32:7 Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many
generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and
they will tell you.
Deu
32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when
he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel.
Deu
32:9 For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance.
Deu
32:10 He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling
wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the
apple of his eye.
Deu
32:11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her
young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his
feathers.
Deu
32:12 Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
Deu
32:13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the
increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock,
oil out of the flinty rock;
Deu
32:14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs,
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat.
Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
Deu
32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You
have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made
him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Deu
32:16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods.
They provoked him to anger with abominations.
Deu
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, which
were no God, to gods that they didn't
know, to new gods
that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread.
Deu
32:18 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and
have forgotten God who gave you birth.
Deu
32:19 Yahweh saw it,
and abhorred them,
because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
Deu
32:20 He said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their
end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in
whom is no faithfulness.
Deu
32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them
to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to
anger with a foolish nation.
Deu
32:22 For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol,
Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the
mountains on fire.
Deu
32:23 I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
Deu
32:24 They shall be
wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter
destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the
poison of crawling things of the dust.
Deu
32:25 Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers, terror;
on both young man and virgin, The suckling with the gray-haired man.
Deu
32:26 I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of
them to cease from among men;
Deu
32:27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest
their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, Our
hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.
Deu
32:28 For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no
understanding in them.
Deu
32:29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they
would consider their latter end!
Deu
32:30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to
flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered
them up?
Deu
32:31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves
being judges.
Deu
32:32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of
Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.
Deu
32:33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.
Deu
32:34 Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my
treasures?
Deu
32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot
slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are
to come on them shall make haste.
Deu
32:36 For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his
servants, when he sees that their
power is gone, There is none remaining,
shut up or left at large.
Deu
32:37 He will say, Where are their gods, The rock in which they took
refuge;
Deu
32:38 Which 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.
Deu
32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I
kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can
deliver out of my hand.
Deu
32:40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,
Deu
32:41 if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment;
I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those
who hate me.
Deu
32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour
flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of
the leaders of the enemy.
Deu
32:43 Rejoice, you nations, with
his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will
render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his
land, for his people.
Deu
32:44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of
the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
Deu
32:45 Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;
Deu
32:46 He said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I
testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to
observe to do, even
all the words of this law.
Deu
32:47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and
through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you
go over the Jordan to possess it.
Deu
32:48 Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
Deu
32:49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in
the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of
Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;
Deu
32:50 and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to
your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was
gathered to his people:
Deu
32:51 because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children
of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of
Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of
Israel.
Deu
32:52 For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go
there into the land which I give the children of Israel.