Deuteronomy 32

₁Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;

hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.

₂Let my teaching fall like rain

and my words descend like dew,

like showers on new grass,

like abundant rain on tender plants.

₃I will proclaim the name of the Lord.

Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

₄He is the Rock, his works are perfect,

and all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong,

upright and just is he.

₅They are corrupt and not his children;

to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.

₆Is this the way you repay the Lord,

you foolish and unwise people?

Is he not your Father, your Creator,

who made you and formed you?

₇Remember the days of old;

consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will explain to you.

₈When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,

when he divided all mankind,

he set up boundaries for the peoples

according to the number of the sons of Israel.

₉For the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted inheritance.

₁₀In a desert land he found him,

in a barren and howling waste.

He shielded him and cared for him;

he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

₁₁like an eagle that stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them

and carries them on its pinions.

₁₂The Lord alone led him;

no foreign god was with him.

₁₃He made him ride on the heights of the land

and fed him with the fruit of the fields.

He nourished him with honey from the rock,

and with oil from the flinty crag,

₁₄with curds and milk from herd and flock

and with fattened lambs and goats,

with choice rams of Bashan

and the finest grains of wheat.

You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

₁₅Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;

filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.

They abandoned the God who made them

and rejected the Rock their Saviour.

₁₆They made him jealous with their foreign gods

and angered him with their detestable idols.

₁₇They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God –

gods they had not known,

gods that recently appeared,

gods your ancestors did not fear.

₁₈You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;

you forgot the God who gave you birth.

₁₉The Lord saw this and rejected them

because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

₂₀‘I will hide my face from them,’ he said,

‘and see what their end will be;

for they are a perverse generation,

children who are unfaithful.

₂₁They made me jealous by what is no god

and angered me with their worthless idols.

I will make them envious by those who are not a people;

I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

₂₂For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,

one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.

It will devour the earth and its harvests

and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

₂₃‘I will heap calamities on them

and expend my arrows against them.

₂₄I will send wasting famine against them,

consuming pestilence and deadly plague;

I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts,

the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

₂₅In the street the sword will make them childless;

in their homes terror will reign.

The young men and young women will perish,

the infants and those with grey hair.

₂₆I said I would scatter them

and erase their name from human memory,

₂₇but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,

lest the adversary misunderstand

and say, “Our hand has triumphed;

the Lord has not done all this.” ’

₂₈They are a nation without sense,

there is no discernment in them.

₂₉If only they were wise and would understand this

and discern what their end will be!

₃₀How could one man chase a thousand,

or two put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

unless the Lord had given them up?

₃₁For their rock is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

₃₂Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are filled with poison,

and their clusters with bitterness.

₃₃Their wine is the venom of serpents,

the deadly poison of cobras.

₃₄‘Have I not kept this in reserve

and sealed it in my vaults?

₃₅It is mine to avenge; I will repay.

In due time their foot will slip;

their day of disaster is near

and their doom rushes upon them.’

₃₆The Lord will vindicate his people

and relent concerning his servants

when he sees their strength is gone

and no-one is left, slave or free.

₃₇He will say: ‘Now where are their gods,

the rock they took refuge in,

₃₈the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up to help you!

Let them give you shelter!

₃₉‘See now that I myself am he!

There is no god besides me.

I put to death and I bring to life,

I have wounded and I will heal,

and no-one can deliver out of my hand.

₄₀I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear:

as surely as I live for ever,

₄₁when I sharpen my flashing sword

and my hand grasps it in judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and repay those who hate me.

₄₂I 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.’

₄₃Rejoice, you nations, with his people,,

for he will avenge the blood of his servants;

he will take vengeance on his enemies

and make atonement for his land and people.