Deuteronomy 32

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1Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O 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 have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.

6Is this the way you repay the Lord, O 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 kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

15Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior.

16They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

17They sacrificed to demons, which are not God– gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers 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 has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

23“I will heap calamities upon them and spend 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. Young men and young women will perish, infants and gray-haired men.

26I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind,

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 judge his people and have compassion on 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 declare: As surely as I live forever,

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, O 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.

44Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

45When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,

46he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.

47They are not just idle words for you–they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

48On that same day the Lord told Moses,

49“Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.

50There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

51This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.

52Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Commentary

32:1,2 Moses begins with a solemn appeal to heaven and earth, concerning the truth and importance of what he was about to say. His doctrine is the gospel, the speech of God, the doctrine of Christ; the doctrine of grace and mercy through him, and of life and salvation by him.

32:1 O heavens, O earth - You lifeless and senseless creatures, which he calls upon partly to accuse the stupidity of Israel, that were more dull of hearing than these: and partly as witnesses of the truth of his sayings and the justice of God's proceedings against them.

Chapter 32 In this chapter we have, I. The song which Moses, by the appointment of God, delivered to the children of Israel, for a standing admonition to them, to take heed of forsaking God. This takes up most of the chapter, in which we have, 1. The preface (v. 1, 2). 2. A high character of God, and, in opposition to that, a bad character of the people of Israel (v. 3-6). 3. A rehearsal of the great things God had done for them, and in opposition to that an account of their ill carriage towards him (v. 7–18). 4. A prediction of the wasting destroying judgments which God would bring upon them for their sins, in which God is here justified by the many aggravations of their impieties (v. 19–33). 5. A promise of the destruction of their enemies and oppressors at last, and the glorious deliverance of a remnant of Israel (v. 36–43). II. The exhortation with which Moses delivered this song to them (v. 41–47). III. The orders God gives to Moses to go up to Mount Nebo and die (v. 48, etc.).Verses 1-6 Here is, I. A commanding preface or introduction to this song of Moses, v. 1, 2. He begins, 1. With a solemn appeal to heaven and earth concerning the truth and importance of what he was about to say, and the justice of the divine proceedings against a rebellious and backsliding people, for he had said (ch. 31:28) that he would in this song call heaven and earth to record against them. Heaven and earth would sooner hear than this perverse and unthinking people; for they revolt not from the obedience to their Creator, but continue to this day, according to his ordinances, as his servants (Ps. 119:89–91), and therefore will rise up in judgment against rebellious Israel. Heaven and earth will be witnesses against sinners, witnesses of the warning given them and of their refusal to take the warning (see Job 20:27); the heaven shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him. Or heaven and earth are here put for the inhabitants of both, angels and men; both shall agree to justify God in his proceedings against Israel, and to declare his righteousness, Ps. 50:6; see Rev. 19:1, 2. 2. he begins with a solemn application of what he was about to say to the people (v. 2): My doctrine shall drop as the rain. "It shall be a beating sweeping rain to the rebellious;" so one of the Chaldee paraphrasts expounds the first clause. Rain is sometimes sent for judgment, witness that with which the world was deluged; and so the word of God, while to some it is reviving and refreshing—a savour of life unto life, is to others terrifying and killing—a savour of death unto death. It shall be as a sweet and comfortable dew to those who are rightly prepared to receive it. Observe, (1.) The subject of this song is doctrine; he had given them a song of praise and thanksgiving (Ex. 15), but this is a song of instruction, for in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, we are not only to give glory to god, but to teach and admonish one another, Col. 3:16. Hence many of David’s psalms are entitled Maschil—to give instruction. (2.) This doctrine is fitly compared to rain and showers which come from above, to make the earth fruitful, and accomplish that for which they are sent. (Isa. 55:10, 11), and depend not upon the wisdom or will of man, Mic. 5:7. It is a mercy to have this rain come often upon us, and our duty to drink it in, Heb. 6:7. (3.) He promises that his doctrine shall drop and distil as the dew, and the small rain, which descend silently and without noise. The word preached is likely to profit when it comes gently, and sweetly insinuates itself into the hearts and affections of the hearers. (4.) He bespeaks their acceptance and entertainment of it, and that it might be as sweet, and pleasant, and welcome to them as rain to the thirsty earth, Ps. 72:6. And the word of God is likely to do us good when it is thus acceptable. (5.) The learned bishop Patrick understands it as a prayer that his words which were sent from heaven to them might sink into their hearts and soften them, as the rain softens the earth, and so make them fruitful in obedience.II. An awful declaration of the greatness and righteousness of God, v. 3, 4.1. He begins with this, and lays it down as his first principle, (1.) To preserve the honour of God, that no reproach might be cast upon him for the sake of the wickedness of his people Israel; how wicked and corrupt soever those are who are called by his name, he is just, and right, and all that is good, and is not to be thought the worse of for their badness. (2.) To aggravate the wickedness of Israel, who knew and worshipped such a holy god, and yet were themselves so unholy. And, (3.) To justify God in his dealings with them; we must abide by it, that God is righteous, even when his judgments are a great deep, Jer. 12:1; Ps. 36:6.2. Moses here sets himself to publish the name of the Lord (v. 3), that Israel, knowing what a God he is whom they had avouched for theirs, might never be such fools as to exchange him for a false god, a dunghill god. He calls upon them therefore to ascribe greatness to him. It will be of great use to us for the preventing of sin, and the preserving of us in the way of our duty, always to keep up high and honourable thoughts of God, and to take all occasions to express them: Ascribe greatness to our God. We cannot add to his greatness, for it is infinite; but we must acknowledge it, and give him the glory of it.

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG ሰማያት ሆይ፥ አድምጡ፥ እኔም እናገራለሁ፤ ምድርም የአፌን ቃሎች ትስማ። አማርኛ BCV “ክዛረብ እየ እሞ፥ ሰማያት ፅን በሉ፤ ምድሪ ኸዓ ቓል ኣፈይ ትስማዕ። ትግርኛ GAZBIB Yaa bantiiwwan waaqaa ani nan dubbadhaa mee dhaga'aa! Yaa lafaa dubbii afaan kootii dhaggeeffadhu! Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወይቤ እጽምእ ሰማይ ወእንግር፡ ወስማዕ ምድር ቃለ አፉየ። giz GAZGAZ Yaa bantiiwwan waaqaa ani nan dubbadhaa mee dhaga'aa! Yaa lafaa dubbii afaan kootii dhaggeeffadhu! Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum “ክዛረብ እየ እሞ፥ ሰማያት ፅን በሉ፤ ምድሪ ኸዓ ቓል ኣፈይ ትስማዕ። ትግርኛ AMHNIV ሰማያት ሆይ፤ አድምጡ፤ እኔም እናገራለሁ፤ ምድር ሆይ፤ አንቺም የአፌን ቃል ስሚ። አማርኛ SWAHSUV Sikilizeni, enyi mbingu, nami nitanena; Na nchi isikie maneno ya kinywa changu. Kiswahili