32:1 ·Hear [L Give ear], heavens, and I will speak. Listen, earth, to ·what I say [L the words of my mouth].
32:2 My teaching will drop like rain; my words will ·fall [distill] like dew. They will be like showers on the grass; they will pour down like rain on young plants.
32:3 I will announce the name of the Lord. ·Praise God because he is great [L Ascribe greatness to our God]!
32:4 He is like a rock; what he does is perfect, and ·he is always [L all his ways are] fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong, who is ·right [righteous] and ·fair [virtuous].
32:5 They ·have done evil against him [are corrupt]. ·To their shame [or Their faults show] they are no longer his children [Is. 1:2–4; Hos. 1:9]; they are an ·evil [perverted] and ·lying [crooked] people.
32:6 This is not the way to repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people. ·He is [L Is he not…?] your Father and Maker, who made you and formed you.
32:7 Remember the old days. Think of the years already passed. Ask your father and he will tell you; ask your elders and they will inform you.
32:8 God Most High gave ·the nations their lands [L each nation its inheritance], dividing up the ·human race [L sons of man]. He set up borders for the people ·and even numbered the Israelites [L according to the number of the sons/T children of Israel].
32:9 The Lord took his people as his ·share [portion], the people of Jacob as his ·very own [L special inheritance].
32:10 He found them in a ·desert [wilderness], a windy, ·empty [unformed; Gen. 1:2] land. He surrounded them and brought them up, guarding them as ·those he loved very much [L the apple/pupil of his eye].
32:11 He was like an eagle ·building [watching; stirring up] its nest that ·flutters [hovers] over its young. It spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its feathers.
32:12 The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god ·helping [L with] him.
32:13 The Lord ·brought them to [or made them ride over] the heights of the land and fed them the fruit of the fields. He ·gave them [suckled them with] honey from the rocks, bringing oil from the ·solid [flint] rock.
32:14 There were milk curds from the cows and milk from the flock; there were fat sheep and goats. There were sheep and goats from Bashan [C a particularly fertile area east of the Sea of Galilee] and the best of the wheat. You drank the ·juice [L fermenting/foaming blood] of grapes [C wine].
32:15 ·Israel [L Jeshurun; C a name for Israel meaning “virtuous”; perhaps intended ironically; 33:5, 26; Is. 44:2] grew fat and kicked; they were fat and ·full [bloated] and firm. They ·left [abandoned] the God who made them and ·rejected [dishonored] the Rock who saved them.
32:16 They made God jealous with ·foreign [strange] gods [4:24] and angry with ·hateful idols [L abominations].
32:17 They made sacrifices to demons, not God, to gods they had never known, new gods from nearby, gods your ·ancestors [fathers] did not fear.
32:18 You left God who is the Rock, ·your Father [L who bore you; or who begot you], and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
32:19 The Lord saw this and ·rejected [spurned] them; his sons and daughters had made him angry.
32:20 He said, “I will turn ·away [L my face away] from them and see what ·will happen to them [their end will be]. They are ·evil people [L a perverted generation], ·unfaithful [untrustworthy] children.
32:21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous [4:24] and ·worthless idols [vanities; vain idols] to make me angry. So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous; I will use a nation that ·does not understand [L is foolish] to make them angry.
32:22 My anger has started a fire that burns down to ·the place of the dead [L Sheol; C the grave or the underworld]. It will ·burn up [consume] the ·ground [or earth] and its ·crops [produce], and it will set fire to the ·base [foundations] of the mountains.
32:23 “I will pile ·troubles [disasters] upon them and shoot my arrows at them.
32:24 They will be starved and sick, destroyed by terrible diseases. I will send them ·vicious [L the teeth of] animals ·and gliding, poisonous snakes [L with the poison/venom of creatures that crawl in the dust].
32:25 In the streets the sword will ·kill [bereave]; in their ·homes [bedrooms] there will be terror. Young men and women will die, and so will ·babies [sucklings] and gray-haired men.
32:26 I will ·scatter them [or dash them to pieces] as I said, and ·no one will remember them [L I will cause their memory to cease from among humans].
32:27 But I didn’t want ·their enemy to brag [or to provoke the enemy]; their enemy might misunderstand and say, ‘·We have won [L Our hand is lifted up]! The Lord has done none of this.’”
32:28 ·Israel [L They are a nation that] has no sense; they do not understand.
32:29 I wish they were wise and understood this; I wish they could see ·what will happen to them [their end].
32:30 ·One person cannot [L How can one person…?] chase a thousand people, and ·two people cannot [L two…?] fight ten thousand unless their Rock has sold them, unless the Lord has ·given them up [surrendered them; 28:25–27].
32:31 The rock of these people is not like our Rock; our enemies ·agree to that [L are judges].
32:32 Their vine comes from Sodom, and their fields are like Gomorrah [Gen. 19]. Their grapes are full of poison; their bunches of grapes are bitter.
32:33 Their wine is like ·snake poison [the venom of serpents], like the ·deadly [cruel] poison of cobras.
32:34 “·I have been saving this [L Is this not stored up with me…?], and I have it ·locked [sealed] in my ·storehouses [treasuries].
32:35 ·I will punish those who do wrong [L Vengeance is mine; Rom. 12:9]; I will repay them. Soon their foot will slip, because their day of ·trouble [disaster] is near, and their ·punishment [doom] will come quickly.”
32:36 The Lord will ·defend [vindicate; judge] his people and have mercy on his servants. He will see that their ·strength [power; control; L hand] is gone, that nobody is left, slaves or free.
32:37 Then he will say, “Where are their gods? Where is the rock they ·trusted [took refuge in]?
32:38 Who ate the fat from their sacrifices [Lev. 3:17], and who drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let those gods come to help you! Let them protect you!
32:39 “Now you will see that I am ·the one God [L he]! There is no god but me. I ·send death and life [kill and make alive]; I ·can hurt [wound], and I can heal. No one can escape from ·me [L my hand].
32:40 I raise my hand toward heaven [C to make a promise]: As surely as I live forever,
32:41 I will sharpen my flashing sword, and I will take it in my hand to judge [Ps. 7:12–13]. I will ·punish [bring vengeance on] my enemies and pay back those who hate me.
32:42 My arrows will be ·covered [L drunk] with their blood; my sword will eat their flesh. The blood will flow from those who are killed and the captives. The ·heads of the enemy leaders [or long-haired enemy] will be cut off.”
32:43 ·Be happy [Rejoice], nations, with his people, because he will repay you for the blood of his servants. He will ·punish [work vengeance on] his enemies, and he will ·remove the sin of [provide atonement for] his land and people.
32:44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun, and they spoke all the words of this song ·for the people to hear [L in the ears of his people].
32:45 When Moses finished speaking these words to all Israel,
32:46 he said to them: “·Pay careful attention to [L Set your heart on] all the words I ·have said [testify; give witness] to you today, and command your children to obey carefully everything in these ·teachings [laws; instructions].
32:47 These should not be unimportant words for you, but rather they mean life for you! By these words you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take as your ·own [possession].”
32:48 The Lord spoke to Moses again that same day and said,
32:49 “Go up the Abarim Mountains, to Mount Nebo in the country of Moab, across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as their ·own [possession; C one can look far into the Promised Land from Nebo].
32:50 On that mountain that you climb, you will die and ·join [be gathered to] your ·ancestors [fathers], just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his ·ancestors [fathers; Num. 20:22–29].
32:51 You both sinned against me at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin, and you did not honor me as holy there among the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel; Num. 20:1–13].
32:52 So now you will only look at the land from far away. You will not enter the land I am giving the ·people [L sons; T children] of Israel.”
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