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Deuteronomy 32

1Give ear, heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2May my teaching drop like rain, my speech flow like dew, like showers upon tender grass, like heavy rain upon growing plants. 3For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name; ascribe greatness to our God. 4The Rock—his work is complete, for all his ways are justice; a God of faithfulness, without injustice, righteous and upright is he.

5They have acted corruptly toward him; they are not his sons—this is their blemish— a crooked and twisted generation. 6Is this how you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Is he not your father, who acquired you? He made you and established you. 7Remember the days of old; consider the years of generation after generation. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will say to you: 8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9For Yahweh’s portion is his people; Jacob is his allotted inheritance.

10He found him in a wilderness land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded him, gave him understanding, guarded him like the pupil of his eye. 11Like an eagle stirring up its nest, hovering over its young, he spread his wings, took him, and carried him on his pinions. 12Yahweh alone guided him; no foreign god was with him. 13He made him ride on the heights of the earth, and he ate the produce of the fields. He made him suck honey from the crag and oil from flinty rock: 14curds from cattle and milk from flocks, with the fat of lambs, rams from Bashan, and goats, with the rich kidney-fat of wheat; and you drank the blood of the grape as wine.

15Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— you grew fat, thick, and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. 16They made him jealous with foreign gods; with detestable things they provoked him to anger. 17They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known, newcomers who had recently arrived, whom your fathers had not feared. 18You neglected the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19Yahweh saw and spurned them, provoked by his sons and daughters.

20He said, “I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be. For they are a perverse generation, sons with no faithfulness in them. 21They made me jealous with what is no god; they provoked me with their empty things. So I will make them jealous with what is no people; with a foolish nation I will provoke them. 22For fire is kindled in my anger and burns to the depths of Sheol. It consumes the earth and its produce and sets the mountains’ foundations ablaze. 23I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows against them: 24wasted by hunger, consumed by burning plague and bitter pestilence. I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25Outside, the sword will bereave; inside the rooms, terror— young man and virgin alike, nursing child and gray-haired man. 26I said, ‘I would scatter them, make their memory cease from humankind,’ 27had I not dreaded the enemy’s provocation, lest their adversaries misunderstand, lest they say, ‘Our hand is raised in triumph; Yahweh did not do all this.’”

28For they are a nation bereft of counsel; there is no understanding in them. 29If only they were wise and understood this, and considered their end! 30How could one pursue a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them and Yahweh had handed them over? 31For their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies themselves are judges of this. 32Their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous grapes; their clusters are bitter. 33Their wine is serpents’ venom, the deadly poison of cobras.

34“Is this not stored up with me, sealed in my treasuries? 35Vengeance and repayment are mine, for the time when their foot slips; for the day of their calamity is near, and what is prepared for them hastens.”

36For Yahweh will judge his people and relent concerning his servants when he sees that their power is gone and none remains, confined or free. 37He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise and help you; let them be a shelter over you. 39See now that I, I am he; there is no god beside me. I put to death, and I bring to life; I have wounded, and I heal. There is no one who can rescue from my hand. 40For I lift my hand to heaven and say, ‘As I live forever,’ 41when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will return vengeance to my adversaries and repay those who hate me. 42I 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.”

43Rejoice, heavens, with him; bow down to him, all gods. For he will avenge the blood of his sons; he will return vengeance to his adversaries. He will repay those who hate him and make atonement for the land of his people.

44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the people’s hearing, he and Hoshea son of Nun. 45When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them, “Take to heart all the words with which I am warning you today. Command your children to carefully carry out all the words of this instruction. 47For it is no empty word for you; it is your life. Through this word you will live long on the ground you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

48On that very day Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 49“Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and see the land of Canaan that I am giving the sons of Israel as a possession. 50Die on the mountain you are going up, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51because you both acted unfaithfully toward me among the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat me as holy among the sons of Israel. 52You will see the land from a distance, but you will not enter it, the land I am giving the sons of Israel.”

Translation notes 11

32:4–6 — Rock, sons, and father. “Rock” is a repeated image of strength and refuge. Verse 5 has difficult, compressed wording; it links the people’s corruption with their failure to be his sons. “Acquired” in verse 6 can also be understood as “created.” The parental and family language is retained.

32:8 — The sons of God. The translation follows an early Hebrew reading preserved at Qumran: “sons of God.” The received Jewish Hebrew text and the Samaritan Torah read “sons of Israel”; Greek witnesses also have wording about divine beings, including “angels of God.” The divine-beings reading fits the allotment of nations followed by Yahweh’s portion, Jacob, in verse 9. This does not by itself settle every question about how the poem understands the heavenly beings or the relationship of its divine titles.

32:9–14 — Jacob as one person. The poem describes the people collectively as Jacob, using singular pronouns. Those pronouns and the eagle’s wings, the pupil of the eye, suckling from rock, kidney-fat, and grape blood preserve its imagery. “Kidney-fat of wheat” pictures the richest grain.

32:15 — Jeshurun. This poetic name for Israel is related to the word “upright.” Its flattering sense sharpens the irony when the well-fed people kick and abandon their maker.

32:17–18 — Demons and birth. The beings receiving sacrifice are called “demons”; the poem contrasts them with God. The next line portrays the same God as fathering and giving birth. Neither image has been removed to make the imagery uniform.

32:21–25 — Jealousy and calamity. “No god” and “no people” are paired expressions. The poem does not identify the unnamed nation with a later religious community. “Sheol” names the realm of the dead or the depths below; the verse does not supply a developed account of final punishment. The disease terms are ancient and may be personified.

32:26–31 — Difficult lines and changing referents. The verb rendered “scatter” in verse 26 is rare and uncertain; “cut them to pieces” and “make an end of them” are other proposals. The identity of “they” in the following lines shifts or remains debated. “Our enemies themselves are judges” in verse 31 is another compressed expression; “our enemies are not judges” requires a different understanding of the line.

32:36 — Judgment and relief. “Judge” can include vindicating the people against their enemies. The following verb describes relenting or showing compassion concerning his servants. “Confined or free” represents a difficult paired formula for all who remain, also understood in terms of helpless and abandoned persons.

32:42 — The enemy’s heads. The final expression can describe long-haired enemy warriors, their heads, or an enemy leader. The translation retains the head and unbound-hair imagery; the exact construction is uncertain.

32:43 — Different endings. This translation follows the complete six-line ending preserved in the Qumran Hebrew manuscript 4Q44. The received Jewish Hebrew has four lines, opening with the nations and his people, and speaks of his servants’ blood. The Greek has an expanded eight-line form. The Qumran reading calls on heaven and all gods, speaks of his sons, adds repayment to those who hate him, and ends with the land of his people. No extra lines have been assembled from different witnesses. The choice remains provisional; “make atonement” here concerns cleansing the land from bloodguilt.

32:44, 50–51 — Hoshea and the two brothers. Hoshea is Joshua’s earlier name. The death command retains “be gathered to your people,” an expression for joining the dead. The accusation in verse 51 is plural, including Moses and Aaron.