32 1 Listen, heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2 May my teaching fall like rain, my speech settle like dew, like gentle showers upon the tender grass, and like rain upon the growing plants. 3 For I will proclaim the name of our Father; ascribe greatness to our Father! 4 The Rock — our Father — his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. Our Father is faithful and does no wrong; just and upright is he. 5 They have acted corruptly toward him; they are no longer his children, but a blemish — a crooked and twisted generation. 6 Is this how you repay our Father, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your Father, who created you, who made you and established you? a a v6 Here the Song says it plainly: our Father is the one who created Israel, made them, and established them — the heart of who he has always been to his children. 7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of generation after generation. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain. 8 When the Most High, our Father, gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided humanity, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. 9 For our Father's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. 10 He found him in a desert land, in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he guarded him as the apple of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, he spread out his wings and caught them, carrying them on his wings. 12 Our Father alone guided him, and there was no foreign god with him. 13 He set him atop the heights of the land, and he ate the produce of the field; he nourished him with honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty crag. 14 curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat — and you drank the foaming wine of the blood of grapes. 15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked — you grew fat, bloated, and sleek — then he abandoned our Father who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. b b v15 Jeshurun is a poetic name for Israel, meaning "the upright one." 16 They stirred him to jealousy with foreign gods; they provoked him to anger with abominations. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were not God, to gods they had never known, new gods who had only recently appeared, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You neglected the Rock who fathered you, and you forgot our Father who gave you birth. 19 Our Father saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 And he said, "I will hide my face from them; I will see what becomes of them, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness. 21 They made me jealous with what is no god; they provoked me to anger with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For my anger has kindled a fire that burns to the depths of the grave; it devours the earth and its produce and sets ablaze the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will exhaust my arrows against them. 24 wasted by hunger, consumed by burning plague and bitter destruction; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25 Outside, the sword will bring death, and inside, terror — for young man and young woman alike, the nursing infant with the gray-haired elder. 26 I would have said, 'I will cut them to pieces; I will blot out their memory from among mankind,' 27 had I not feared the taunt of the enemy, for fear their adversaries would misjudge and say, 'Our own hand has triumphed; it was not God who did all this.' 28 For they are a nation without wisdom, and there is no understanding in them. 29 If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would see their final fate. 30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and our Father had given them up? 31 For their rock is not like our Rock; even our enemies concede it. 32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter. 33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the cruel poison of cobras. 34 "Is this not stored up with me, sealed within my treasuries? 35 Justice and recompense are mine, for the time when their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and their doom rushes upon them. 36 For our Father will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, neither slave nor free. 37 Then he will say, "Where are their gods, 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 and help you; let them be your shelter! 39 Look — I myself am he, and there is no god beside me. I put to death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and no one can deliver from my hand. 40 For I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, 41 when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps judgment, I will bring justice on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh — with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy."
43 Rejoice, nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his children and bring justice on his adversaries; he will make atonement for his land and his people.
44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song to the people, he and Joshua son of Nun. 45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 He told them, "Set your heart to all these words I testify to you today, that you command your children to keep and do all the words of this law." 47 This is no empty word for you — it is your life. Through this word you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
Our Father Calls Moses Home
48 That very day our Father spoke to Moses, saying,
49 Go up this Abarim mountain, Mount Nebo, in Moab facing Jericho, and view Canaan, which I'm giving Israel's people as their possession. 50 Then die on the mountain you are climbing, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 because you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat me as holy among the Israelites. 52 For you will see the land from a distance, but not enter it — the land I'm giving Israel's people.
