Deuteronomy 32 :: Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The Song of Moses

Deu 32:1"Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

Deu 32:2May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distil as the dew, as the gentle rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb.

Deu 32:3

Deu 32:3For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!

Deu 32:4

Deu 32:4"The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deu 32:5

Deu 32:5They have dealt corruptly with him, they are no longer his children because of their blemish; they are a perverse and crooked generation.

Deu 32:6

Deu 32:6Do you thus requite the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

Deu 32:7

Deu 32:7Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.

Deu 32:8

Deu 32:8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

Deu 32:9

Deu 32:9For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

Deu 32:10

Deu 32:10"He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Deu 32:11

Deu 32:11Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions,

Deu 32:12

Deu 32:12the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no foreign god with him.

Deu 32:13

Deu 32:13He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field; and he made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.

Deu 32:14

Deu 32:14Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams, herds of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat--and of the blood of the grape you drank wine.

Deu 32:15

Deu 32:15"But Jesh'urun waxed fat, and kicked; you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek; then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

Deu 32:16

Deu 32:16They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominable practices they provoked him to anger.

Deu 32:17

Deu 32:17They sacrificed to demons which were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come in of late, whom your fathers had never dreaded.

Deu 32:18

Deu 32:18You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

Deu 32:19

Deu 32:19"The LORD saw it, and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

Deu 32:20

Deu 32:20And he said, 'I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

Deu 32:21

Deu 32:21They have stirred me to jealousy with what is no god; they have provoked me with their idols. So I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation.

Deu 32:22

Deu 32:22For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Deu 32:23

Deu 32:23"'And I will heap evils upon them; I will spend my arrows upon them;

Deu 32:24

Deu 32:24they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence; and I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with venom of crawling things of the dust.

Deu 32:25

Deu 32:25In the open the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers shall be terror, destroying both young man and virgin, the sucking child with the man of gray hairs.

Deu 32:26

Deu 32:26I would have said, "I will scatter them afar, I will make the remembrance of them cease from among men,"

Deu 32:27

Deu 32:27had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge amiss, lest they should say, "Our hand is triumphant, the LORD has not wrought all this."'

Deu 32:28

Deu 32:28"For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.

Deu 32:29

Deu 32:29If they were wise, they would understand this, they would discern their latter end!

Deu 32:30

Deu 32:30How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?

Deu 32:31

Deu 32:31For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Deu 32:32

Deu 32:32For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomor'rah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter;

Deu 32:33

Deu 32:33their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.

Deu 32:34

Deu 32:34"Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?

Deu 32:35

Deu 32:35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.

Deu 32:36

Deu 32:36For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free.

Deu 32:37

Deu 32:37Then he will say, 'Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,

Deu 32:38

Deu 32:38who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection!

Deu 32:39

Deu 32:39"'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Deu 32:40

Deu 32:40For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear, As I live for ever,

Deu 32:41

Deu 32:41if I whet my glittering sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will requite those who hate me.

Deu 32:42

Deu 32:42I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh--with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.'

Deu 32:43

Deu 32:43"Praise his people, O you nations; for he avenges the blood of his servants, and takes vengeance on his adversaries, and makes expiation for the land of his people."

Deu 32:44

Deu 32:44Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

Deu 32:45

Deu 32:45And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

Deu 32:46

Deu 32:46he said to them, "Lay to heart all the words which I enjoin upon you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.

Deu 32:47

Deu 32:47For it is no trifle for you, but it is your life, and thereby you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess."

Deu 32:48

Deu 32:48And the LORD said to Moses that very day,

Deu 32:49

Deu 32:49"Ascend this mountain of the Ab'arim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho; and view the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel for a possession;

Deu 32:50

Deu 32:50and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;

Deu 32:51

Deu 32:51because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Mer'i-bath-ka'desh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not revere me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.

Deu 32:52

Deu 32:52For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there, into the land which I give to the people of Israel."

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Source: Transcribed from: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version containing the Old and New Testaments, translated from the original tongues: being the version set forth A.D. 1611, revised A.D. 1881-1885 and A.D. 1901: compared with the most ancient authorities and revised A.D. 1946-52. — 2nd ed. of New Testament A.D. 1971. There should be enough in the rest of the description to identify the text.

Language: English

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Deuteronomy 32 :: Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The Song of Moses

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