Deuteronomy 31:30-32:47
Expanded Bible
Moses’ Song
30 And Moses spoke this whole song ·for all the people of Israel to hear [L in the ears of the whole assembly of Israel]:
32 ·Hear [L Give ear], heavens, and I will speak. Listen, earth, to ·what I say [L the words of my mouth].
2 My teaching will drop like rain;
my words will ·fall [distill] like dew.
They will be like showers on the grass;
they will pour down like rain on young plants.
3 I will announce the name of the Lord.
·Praise God because he is great [L Ascribe greatness to our God]!
4 He is like a rock; what he does is perfect,
and ·he is always [L all his ways are] fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong,
who is ·right [righteous] and ·fair [virtuous].
5 They ·have done evil against him [are corrupt].
·To their shame [or Their faults show] they are no longer his children [Is. 1:2–4; Hos. 1:9];
they are an ·evil [perverted] and ·lying [crooked] people.
6 This is not the way to repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people.
·He is [L Is he not…?] your Father and Maker,
who made you and formed you.
7 Remember the old days.
Think of the years already passed.
Ask your father and he will tell you;
ask your elders and they will inform you.
8 God Most High gave ·the nations their lands [L each nation its inheritance],
dividing up the ·human race [L sons of man].
He set up borders for the people
·and even numbered the Israelites[a] [L according to the number of the sons/T children of Israel].
9 The Lord took his people as his ·share [portion],
the people of Jacob as his ·very own [L special inheritance].
10 He found them in a ·desert [wilderness],
a windy, ·empty [unformed; Gen. 1:2] land.
He surrounded them and brought them up,
guarding them as ·those he loved very much [L the apple/pupil of his eye].
11 He was like an eagle ·building [watching; stirring up] its nest
that ·flutters [hovers] over its young.
It spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its feathers.
12 The Lord alone led them,
and there was no foreign god ·helping [L with] him.
13 The Lord ·brought them to [or made them ride over] the heights of the land
and fed them the fruit of the fields.
He ·gave them [suckled them with] honey from the rocks,
bringing oil from the ·solid [flint] rock.
14 There were milk curds from the cows and milk from the flock;
there were fat sheep and goats.
There were sheep and goats from Bashan [C a particularly fertile area east of the Sea of Galilee]
and the best of the wheat.
You drank the ·juice [L fermenting/foaming blood] of grapes [C wine].
15 ·Israel [L Jeshurun; C a name for Israel meaning “virtuous”; perhaps intended ironically; 33:5, 26; Is. 44:2] grew fat and kicked;
they were fat and ·full [bloated] and firm.
They ·left [abandoned] the God who made them
and ·rejected [dishonored] the Rock who saved them.
16 They made God jealous with ·foreign [strange] gods [4:24]
and angry with ·hateful idols [L abominations].
17 They made sacrifices to demons, not God,
to gods they had never known,
new gods from nearby,
gods your ·ancestors [fathers] did not fear.
18 You left God who is the Rock, ·your Father [L who bore you; or who begot you],
and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and ·rejected [spurned] them;
his sons and daughters had made him angry.
20 He said, “I will turn ·away [L my face away] from them
and see what ·will happen to them [their end will be].
They are ·evil people [L a perverted generation],
·unfaithful [untrustworthy] children.
21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous [4:24]
and ·worthless idols [vanities; vain idols] to make me angry.
So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous;
I will use a nation that ·does not understand [L is foolish] to make them angry.
22 My anger has started a fire
that burns down to ·the place of the dead [L Sheol; C the grave or the underworld].
It will ·burn up [consume] the ·ground [or earth] and its ·crops [produce],
and it will set fire to the ·base [foundations] of the mountains.
23 “I will pile ·troubles [disasters] upon them
and shoot my arrows at them.
24 They will be starved and sick,
destroyed by terrible diseases.
I will send them ·vicious [L the teeth of] animals
·and gliding, poisonous snakes [L with the poison/venom of creatures that crawl in the dust].
25 In the streets the sword will ·kill [bereave];
in their ·homes [bedrooms] there will be terror.
Young men and women will die,
and so will ·babies [sucklings] and gray-haired men.
26 I will ·scatter them [or dash them to pieces] as I said,
and ·no one will remember them [L I will cause their memory to cease from among humans].
27 But I didn’t want ·their enemy to brag [or to provoke the enemy];
their enemy might misunderstand
and say, ‘·We have won [L Our hand is lifted up]!
The Lord has done none of this.’”
28 ·Israel [L They are a nation that] has no sense;
they do not understand.
29 I wish they were wise and understood this;
I wish they could see ·what will happen to them [their end].
30 ·One person cannot [L How can one person…?] chase a thousand people,
and ·two people cannot [L two…?] fight ten thousand
unless their Rock has sold them,
unless the Lord has ·given them up [surrendered them; 28:25–27].
31 The rock of these people is not like our Rock;
our enemies ·agree to that [L are judges].
32 Their vine comes from Sodom,
and their fields are like Gomorrah [Gen. 19].
Their grapes are full of poison;
their bunches of grapes are bitter.
33 Their wine is like ·snake poison [the venom of serpents],
like the ·deadly [cruel] poison of cobras.
34 “·I have been saving this [L Is this not stored up with me…?],
and I have it ·locked [sealed] in my ·storehouses [treasuries].
35 ·I will punish those who do wrong [L Vengeance is mine; Rom. 12:9]; I will repay them.
Soon their foot will slip,
because their day of ·trouble [disaster] is near,
and their ·punishment [doom] will come quickly.”
36 The Lord will ·defend [vindicate; judge] his people
and have mercy on his servants.
He will see that their ·strength [power; control; L hand] is gone,
that nobody is left, slaves or free.
37 Then he will say, “Where are their gods?
Where is the rock they ·trusted [took refuge in]?
38 Who ate the fat from their sacrifices [Lev. 3:17],
and who drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let those gods come to help you!
Let them protect you!
39 “Now you will see that I am ·the one God [L he]!
There is no god but me.
I ·send death and life [kill and make alive];
I ·can hurt [wound], and I can heal.
No one can escape from ·me [L my hand].
40 I raise my hand toward heaven [C to make a promise]:
As surely as I live forever,
41 I will sharpen my flashing sword,
and I will take it in my hand to judge [Ps. 7:12–13].
I will ·punish [bring vengeance on] my enemies
and pay back those who hate me.
42 My arrows will be ·covered [L drunk] with their blood;
my sword will eat their flesh.
The blood will flow from those who are killed and the captives.
The ·heads of the enemy leaders [or long-haired enemy] will be cut off.”
43 ·Be happy [Rejoice], nations, with his people,
because he will repay you for the blood of his servants.
He will ·punish [work vengeance on] his enemies,
and he will ·remove the sin of [provide atonement for] his land and people.
44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun, and they spoke all the words of this song ·for the people to hear [L in the ears of his people]. 45 When Moses finished speaking these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them: “·Pay careful attention to [L Set your heart on] all the words I ·have said [testify; give witness] to you today, and command your children to obey carefully everything in these ·teachings [laws; instructions]. 47 These should not be unimportant words for you, but rather they mean life for you! By these words you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take as your ·own [possession].”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Israelites Hebrew copies, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, read “sons of God.” Some Greek copies read “angels of God.”
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