October 30, 2005

Deuteronomy 32- The Song Of Israel

Golden Cornfields Near Butler Ohio

Deuteronomy 32


Listen, O heavens, and I will speak!
Hear, O earth, the words that I say!

My teaching will fall on you like rain;
my speech will settle like dew.
My words will fall like rain on tender grass,
like gentle showers on young plants.

I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
how glorious is our God!

He is the Rock; his work is perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright he is!

"But they have acted corruptly toward him;
when they act like that, are they really his children?*
They are a deceitful and twisted generation.

Is this the way you repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Isn't he your Father who created you?
Has he not made you and established you?

Remember the days of long ago;
think about the generations past.
Ask your father and he will inform you.
Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.

When the Most High assigned lands to the nations,
when he divided up the human race,
he established the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of angelic beings.*

For the people of Israel belong to the Lord;
Jacob is his special possession.

"He found them in a desert land,
in an empty, howling wasteland.
He surrounded them and watched over them;
he guarded them as his most precious possession.*

Like an eagle that rouses her chicks
and hovers over her young,
so he spread his wings to take them in
and carried them aloft on his pinions.

The Lord alone guided them;
they lived without any foreign gods.

He made them ride over the highlands;
he let them feast on the crops of the fields.
He nourished them with honey from the cliffs,
with olive oil from the hard rock.

He fed them curds from the herd and milk from the flock,
together with the fat of lambs and goats.
He gave them choice rams and goats from Bashan,
together with the choicest wheat.
You drank the finest wine,
made from the juice of grapes.

But Israel* soon became fat and unruly;
the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed!
Then they abandoned the God who had made them;
they made light of the Rock of their salvation.

They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods;
they provoked his fury with detestable acts.

They offered sacrifices to demons, non-gods,
to gods they had not known before,
to gods only recently arrived,
to gods their ancestors had never feared.

You neglected the Rock who had fathered you;
you forgot the God who had given you birth.

"The Lord saw this and was filled with loathing.
He was provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters.

He said, `I will abandon them;
I will see to their end!
For they are a twisted generation,
children without integrity.

They have roused my jealousy by worshiping non-gods;
they have provoked my fury with useless idols.
Now I will rouse their jealousy by blessing other nations;
I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.

For my anger blazes forth like fire
and burns to the depths of the grave.*
It devours the earth and all its crops
and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

I will heap disasters upon them
and shoot them down with my arrows.

I will send against them wasting famine,
burning fever, and deadly disease.
They will be troubled by the fangs of wild beasts,
by poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.

Outside, the sword will bring death,
and inside, terror will strike
both young men and young women,
both infants and the aged.

I decided to scatter them,*
so even the memory of them would disappear.

But I feared the taunt of the enemy,
that their adversaries might misunderstand and say,
"Our power has triumphed!
It was not the Lord who did this!" '

"Israel is a nation that lacks sense;
the people are foolish, without understanding.

Oh, that they were wise and could understand this!
Oh, that they might know their fate!

How could one person chase a thousand of them,
and two people put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the Lord had given them up?

But the rock of our enemies is not like our Rock,
as even they recognize.*

Their vine grows from the vine of Sodom,
from the vineyards of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison,
and their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the venom of snakes,
the deadly poison of vipers.

" `I am storing up these things,
sealing them away within my treasury.

I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it.
In due time their feet will slip.
Their day of disaster will arrive,
and their destiny will overtake them.'

"Indeed, the Lord will judge his people,
and he will change his mind about* his servants,
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.

Then he will ask, `Where are their gods,
the rocks they fled to for refuge?

Where now are those gods,
who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their offerings?
Let those gods arise and help you!
Let them provide you with shelter!

Look now; I myself am he!
There is no god other than me!
I am the one who kills and gives life;
I am the one who wounds and heals;
no one delivers from my power!

Now I raise my hand to heaven
and declare, "As surely as I live,

when I sharpen my flashing sword
and begin to carry out justice,
I will bring vengeance on my enemies
and repay those who hate me.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword will devour flesh-
the blood of the slaughtered and the captives,
and the heads of the enemy leaders." '

"Rejoice with him, O heavens,
and let all the angels of God worship him,*
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
He will take vengeance on his enemies
and cleanse his land and his people."

So Moses came with Joshua* son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people. When Moses had finished reciting these words to Israel, he added: "Take to heart all the words I have given you today. Pass them on as a command to your children so they will obey every word of this law. These instructions are not mere words-they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to occupy."
Moses' Death Foretold
That same day the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Moab, to the mountains east of the river,* and climb Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho. Look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel as their own possession. Then you must die there on the mountain and join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors. For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh* in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there. 52 So you will see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel."