Font Size
Deuteronomy 32
Living Bible
Deuteronomy 32
Living Bible
32 “Listen, O heavens and earth!
Listen to what I say!
2 My words shall fall upon you
Like the gentle rain and dew,
Like rain upon the tender grass,
Like showers on the hillside.
3 I will proclaim the greatness of the Lord.
How glorious he is!
4 He is the Rock. His work is perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is faithful, without sin.
5 But Israel has become corrupt,
Smeared with sin. They are no longer his;
They are a stubborn, twisted generation.
6 Is this the way you treat Jehovah?
O foolish people,
Is not God your Father?
Has he not created you?
Has he not established you and made you strong?
7 Remember the days of long ago!
(Ask your father and the aged men;
They will tell you all about it.)
8 When God divided up the world among the nations,
He gave each of them a supervising angel!
9 But he appointed none for Israel;
For Israel was God’s own personal possession!
10 God protected them in the howling wilderness
As though they were the apple of his eye.
11 He spreads his wings over them,
Even as an eagle overspreads her young.
She carries them upon her wings—
As does the Lord his people!
12 When the Lord alone was leading them,
And they lived without foreign gods,
13 God gave them fertile hilltops,
Rolling, fertile fields,
Honey from the rock,
And olive oil from stony ground![a]
14 He gave them milk and meat—
Choice Bashan rams, and goats—
And the finest of the wheat;
They drank the sparkling wine.
15 But Israel[b] was soon overfed;
Yes, fat and bloated;
Then, in plenty, they forsook their God.
They shrugged away the Rock of their salvation.
16 Israel began to follow foreign gods,
And Jehovah was very angry;
He was jealous of his people.
17 They sacrificed to heathen gods,
To new gods never before worshiped.
18 They spurned the Rock who had made them,
Forgetting it was God who had given them birth.
19 God saw what they were doing,
And detested them!
His sons and daughters were insulting him.
20 He said, ‘I will abandon them;
See what happens to them then!
For they are a stubborn, faithless generation.
21 They have made me very jealous of their idols,
Which are not gods at all.
Now I, in turn, will make them jealous
By giving my affections
To the foolish Gentile nations of the world.
22 For my anger has kindled a fire
That burns to the depths of the underworld,
Consuming the earth and all of its crops,
And setting its mountains on fire.
23 I will heap evils upon them
And shoot them down with my arrows.
24 I will waste them with hunger,
Burning fever, and fatal disease.
I will devour them! I will set wild beasts upon them,
To rip them apart with their teeth;
And deadly serpents
Crawling in the dust.
25 Outside, the enemies’ sword—
Inside, the plague[c]—
Shall terrorize young men and girls alike;
The baby nursing at the breast,
And aged men.
26 I had decided to scatter them to distant lands,
So that even the memory of them
Would disappear.
27 But then I thought,
“My enemies will boast,
‘Israel is destroyed by our own might;
It was not the Lord
Who did it!’”
28 Israel is a stupid nation;
Foolish, without understanding.
29 Oh, that they were wise!
Oh, that they could understand!
Oh, that they would know what they are getting into!
30 How could one single enemy chase a thousand of them,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had abandoned them,
Unless the Lord had destroyed them?
31 But the rock of other nations
Is not like our Rock;
Prayers to their gods are valueless.
32 They act like men of Sodom and Gomorrah:
Their deeds[d] are bitter with poison;
33 They drink the wine of serpent venom.
34 But Israel[e] is my special people,
Sealed as jewels within my treasury.
35 Vengeance is mine,
And I decree the punishment of all her enemies:
Their doom is sealed.
36 The Lord will see his people righted,
And will have compassion on them when they slip.
He will watch their power ebb away,
Both slave and free.
37 Then God will ask,
‘Where are their gods—
The rocks they claimed to be their refuge?
38 Where are these gods now,
To whom they sacrificed their fat and wine?
Let those gods arise,
And help them!
39 Don’t you see that I alone am God?
I kill and make live.
I wound and heal—
No one delivers from my power.
40-41 I raise my hand to heaven
And vow by my existence,
That I will whet the lightning of my sword!
And hurl my punishments upon my enemies!
42 My arrows shall be drunk with blood!
My sword devours the flesh and blood
Of all the slain and captives.
The heads of the enemy
Are gory with blood.’
43 Praise his people,
Gentile nations,
For he will avenge his people,
Taking vengeance on his enemies,
Purifying his land
And his people.”
44-45 When Moses and Joshua had recited all the words of this song to the people, 46 Moses made these comments:
“Meditate upon all the laws I have given you today, and pass them on to your children. 47 These laws are not mere words—they are your life! Through obeying them you will live long, plentiful lives in the land you are going to possess across the Jordan River.”
48 That same day, the Lord said to Moses, 49 “Go to Mount Nebo in the mountains of Abarim, in the land of Moab across from Jericho. Climb to its heights and look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel. 50 After you see the land, you must die and join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died in Mount Hor and joined them. 51 For you dishonored me among the people of Israel at the springs of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. 52 You will see spread out before you the land I am giving the people of Israel, but you will not enter it.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:13 oil from stony ground, or “oil from flinty rocks.”
- Deuteronomy 32:15 Israel, literally, “Jeshurun.”
- Deuteronomy 32:25 the plague, implied.
- Deuteronomy 32:32 deeds, literally, “grapes.”
- Deuteronomy 32:34 Israel, implied.
Deuteronomy 32
New International Version
Deuteronomy 32
New International Version
32 Listen,(A) you heavens,(B) and I will speak;
hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.(C)
2 Let my teaching fall like rain(D)
and my words descend like dew,(E)
like showers(F) on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.
3 I will proclaim(G) the name of the Lord.(H)
Oh, praise the greatness(I) of our God!
4 He is the Rock,(J) his works are perfect,(K)
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God(L) who does no wrong,
upright(M) and just is he.(N)
5 They are corrupt and not his children;
to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.(O)
6 Is this the way you repay(P) the Lord,
you foolish(Q) and unwise people?(R)
Is he not your Father,(S) your Creator,[a]
who made you and formed you?(T)
7 Remember the days of old;(U)
consider the generations long past.(V)
Ask your father and he will tell you,
your elders, and they will explain to you.(W)
8 When the Most High(X) gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided all mankind,(Y)
he set up boundaries(Z) for the peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.[b](AA)
9 For the Lord’s portion(AB) is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.(AC)
10 In a desert(AD) land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.(AE)
He shielded(AF) him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,(AG)
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,(AH)
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them aloft.(AI)
12 The Lord alone led(AJ) him;(AK)
no foreign god was with him.(AL)
13 He made him ride on the heights(AM) of the land
and fed him with the fruit of the fields.
He nourished him with honey from the rock,(AN)
and with oil(AO) from the flinty crag,
14 with curds and milk from herd and flock
and with fattened lambs and goats,
with choice rams of Bashan(AP)
and the finest kernels of wheat.(AQ)
You drank the foaming blood of the grape.(AR)
15 Jeshurun[c](AS) grew fat(AT) and kicked;
filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
They abandoned(AU) the God who made them
and rejected the Rock(AV) their Savior.
16 They made him jealous(AW) with their foreign gods
and angered(AX) him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed(AY) to false gods,(AZ) which are not God—
gods they had not known,(BA)
gods that recently appeared,(BB)
gods your ancestors did not fear.
18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot(BC) the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them(BD)
because he was angered by his sons and daughters.(BE)
20 “I will hide my face(BF) from them,” he said,
“and see what their end will be;
for they are a perverse generation,(BG)
children who are unfaithful.(BH)
21 They made me jealous(BI) by what is no god
and angered me with their worthless idols.(BJ)
I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.(BK)
22 For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,(BL)
one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.(BM)
It will devour(BN) the earth and its harvests(BO)
and set afire the foundations of the mountains.(BP)
23 “I will heap calamities(BQ) on them
and spend my arrows(BR) against them.
24 I will send wasting famine(BS) against them,
consuming pestilence(BT) and deadly plague;(BU)
I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts,(BV)
the venom of vipers(BW) that glide in the dust.(BX)
25 In the street the sword will make them childless;
in their homes terror(BY) will reign.(BZ)
The young men and young women will perish,
the infants and those with gray hair.(CA)
26 I said I would scatter(CB) them
and erase their name from human memory,(CC)
27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
lest the adversary misunderstand(CD)
and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed;
the Lord has not done all this.’”(CE)
28 They are a nation without sense,
there is no discernment(CF) in them.
29 If only they were wise and would understand this(CG)
and discern what their end will be!(CH)
30 How could one man chase a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,(CI)
unless their Rock had sold them,(CJ)
unless the Lord had given them up?(CK)
31 For their rock is not like our Rock,(CL)
as even our enemies concede.(CM)
32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom(CN)
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,(CO)
and their clusters with bitterness.(CP)
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.(CQ)
34 “Have I not kept this in reserve
and sealed it in my vaults?(CR)
35 It is mine to avenge;(CS) I will repay.(CT)
In due time their foot will slip;(CU)
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them.(CV)”
36 The Lord will vindicate his people(CW)
and relent(CX) concerning his servants(CY)
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave(CZ) or free.[d]
37 He will say: “Now where are their gods,
the rock they took refuge in,(DA)
38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?(DB)
Let them rise up to help you!
Let them give you shelter!
39 “See now that I myself am he!(DC)
There is no god besides me.(DD)
I put to death(DE) and I bring to life,(DF)
I have wounded and I will heal,(DG)
and no one can deliver out of my hand.(DH)
40 I lift my hand(DI) to heaven and solemnly swear:
As surely as I live forever,(DJ)
41 when I sharpen my flashing sword(DK)
and my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance(DL) on my adversaries
and repay those who hate me.(DM)
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,(DN)
while my sword devours flesh:(DO)
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”
43 Rejoice,(DP) you nations, with his people,[e][f]
for he will avenge the blood of his servants;(DQ)
he will take vengeance on his enemies(DR)
and make atonement for his land and people.(DS)
44 Moses came with Joshua[g](DT) son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day,(DU) so that you may command(DV) your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.(DW) By them you will live long(DX) in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Moses to Die on Mount Nebo
48 On that same day the Lord told Moses,(DY) 49 “Go up into the Abarim(DZ) Range to Mount Nebo(EA) in Moab, across from Jericho,(EB) and view Canaan,(EC) the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die(ED) and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died(EE) on Mount Hor(EF) and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh(EG) in the Desert of Zin(EH) and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.(EI) 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance;(EJ) you will not enter(EK) the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 32:6 Or Father, who bought you
- Deuteronomy 32:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) sons of God
- Deuteronomy 32:15 Jeshurun means the upright one, that is, Israel.
- Deuteronomy 32:36 Or and they are without a ruler or leader
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Or Make his people rejoice, you nations
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) people, / and let all the angels worship him, /
- Deuteronomy 32:44 Hebrew Hoshea, a variant of Joshua
Living Bible (TLB)
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.