Deuteronomy 32 - Joshua 1

New International Version - UK

32 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
    hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
² Let my teaching fall like rain
    and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
    like abundant rain on tender plants.

³ I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
    Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
⁴ He 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.

⁵ They are corrupt and not his children;
    to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
⁶ Is this the way you repay the Lord,
    you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,^[a]
    who made you and formed you?

⁷ Remember 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.
⁸ When 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.^[b]
9 For the Lord’s portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted inheritance.

¹⁰ In 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,
¹¹ like 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.
¹² The Lord alone led him;
    no foreign god was with him.

¹³ He 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,
¹⁴ with 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.

¹⁵ Jeshurun^[c] 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.
¹⁶ They made him jealous with their foreign gods
    and angered him with their detestable idols.
¹⁷ They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God –
    gods they had not known,
    gods that recently appeared,
    gods your ancestors did not fear.
¹⁸ You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
    you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹ The 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.
²¹ They 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.
²² For 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.
²⁴ I 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.
²⁵ In 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.
²⁶ I said I would scatter them
    and erase their name from human memory,
²⁷ but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
    lest the adversary misunderstand
and say, “Our hand has triumphed;
    the Lord has not done all this.”’

²⁸ They are a nation without sense,
    there is no discernment in them.
²⁹ If only they were wise and would understand this
    and discern what their end will be!
³⁰ How 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?
³¹ For their rock is not like our Rock,
    as even our enemies concede.
³² Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
    and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
    and their clusters with bitterness.
³³ Their 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?
³⁵ It 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.’

³⁶ The 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.^[d]
37 He will say: ‘Now where are their gods,
    the rock they took refuge in,
³⁸ the 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.
⁴⁰ I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear:
    as surely as I live for ever,
⁴¹ when 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.
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, with his people,^[e][f]
    for he will avenge the blood of his servants;
he will take vengeance on his enemies
    and make atonement for his land and people.

‘The Lord came from Sinai
    and dawned over them from Seir;
    he shone forth from Mount Paran.
He came with^[h] myriads of holy ones
    from the south, from his mountain slopes.^[i]
3 Surely it is you who love the people;
    all the holy ones are in your hand.
At your feet they all bow down,
    and from you receive instruction,
⁴ the law that Moses gave us,
    the possession of the assembly of Jacob.
⁵ He was king over Jeshurun^[j]
    when the leaders of the people assembled,
    along with the tribes of Israel.

⁶ ‘Let Reuben live and not die,
    nor^[k] his people be few.’

‘Hear, Lord, the cry of Judah;
    bring him to his people.
With his own hands he defends his cause.
    Oh, be his help against his foes!’

‘Your Thummim and Urim belong
    to your faithful servant.
You tested him at Massah;
    you contended with him at the waters of Meribah.
⁹ He said of his father and mother,
    “I have no regard for them.”
He did not recognise his brothers
    or acknowledge his own children,
but he watched over your word
    and guarded your covenant.
¹⁰ He teaches your precepts to Jacob
    and your law to Israel.
He offers incense before you
    and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
¹¹ Bless all his skills, Lord,
    and be pleased with the work of his hands.
Strike down those who rise against him,
    his foes till they rise no more.’

‘Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him,
    for he shields him all day long,
    and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.’

‘May the Lord bless his land
    with the precious dew from heaven above
    and with the deep waters that lie below;
¹⁴ with the best the sun brings forth
    and the finest the moon can yield;
¹⁵ with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains
    and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills;
¹⁶ with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness
    and the favour of him who dwelt in the burning bush.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
    on the brow of the prince among^[l] his brothers.
¹⁷ In majesty he is like a firstborn bull;
    his horns are the horns of a wild ox.
With them he will gore the nations,
    even those at the ends of the earth.
Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim;
    such are the thousands of Manasseh.’

‘Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
    and you, Issachar, in your tents.
¹⁹ They will summon peoples to the mountain
    and there offer the sacrifices of the righteous;
they will feast on the abundance of the seas,
    on the treasures hidden in the sand.’

‘Blessed is he who enlarges Gad’s domain!
    Gad lives there like a lion,
    tearing at arm or head.
²¹ He chose the best land for himself;
    the leader’s portion was kept for him.
When the heads of the people assembled,
    he carried out the Lord’s righteous will,
    and his judgments concerning Israel.’

‘Dan is a lion’s cub,
    springing out of Bashan.’

‘Naphtali is abounding with the favour of the Lord
    and is full of his blessing;
    he will inherit southward to the lake.’

‘Most blessed of sons is Asher;
    let him be favoured by his brothers,
    and let him bathe his feet in oil.
²⁵ The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze,
    and your strength will equal your days.

²⁶ ‘There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
    who rides across the heavens to help you
    and on the clouds in his majesty.
²⁷ The eternal God is your refuge,
    and underneath are the everlasting arms.
He will drive out your enemies before you,
    saying, “Destroy them!”
²⁸ So Israel will live in safety;
    Jacob will dwell^[m] secure
in a land of grain and new wine,
    where the heavens drop dew.
²⁹ Blessed are you, Israel!
    Who is like you,
    a people saved by the Lord?
He is your shield and helper
    and your glorious sword.
Your enemies will cower before you,
    and you will tread on their heights.’