1Listen, heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words I say.
2My teaching will fall like rain. My words will settle like dew, like a light rain on young grass, like showers on plants.
3For I will announce Yahweh’s name. Give our God his greatness!
4He is like a rock; his work is perfect, for all his ways are fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; he is just and upright.
5They have acted corruptly toward him. They are not his pure children; they are a flawed generation, twisted and perverted.
6Is this how you repay Yahweh, you foolish and unwise people? Isn't he your father who created you? He made you and gave you your place.
7Remember the ancient days. Think about the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you; ask your elders, and they will explain it to you.
8When the Most High gave the nations their land, when he divided humanity, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
9For Yahweh’s people are his share. Jacob is what he inherited.
10He found him in a desert land, in a vast, howling wilderness. He surrounded him, took care of him, and protected him like the apple of his eye.
11Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, fluttering over its young, he spread his wings, took them up, and carried them on his feathers.
12Yahweh alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
13He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the produce of the field. He made him get honey from the rock and oil from the hard flinty rock.
14He gave him butter from cows and milk from flocks, along with the fat of lambs, rams from Bashan's breed, and goats, with the finest wheat. You drank wine made from the blood of grapes.
15But Jeshurun grew fat and rebellious. You became fat, thick, and sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16They made him jealous with foreign gods. They angered him with detestable practices.
17They offered sacrifices to demons, not God—to gods they didn’t know, to new gods that had only recently appeared, gods their ancestors had not feared.
18You forgot the Rock who became your father; you forgot God, who gave you birth.
19Yahweh saw this and hated it, because his sons and daughters had made him angry.
20He said, “I will turn my face from them and see what happens to them in the end. For they are a very twisted generation, children who cannot be trusted.”
21They made me jealous with what is not God; they made me angry with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with a people who are not a people; I will make them angry with a foolish nation.
22My anger is like a fire that burns to the deepest hell, consuming the earth and everything that grows on it, and setting the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23“I will pile troubles on them. I will use all my arrows against them.
24They will waste away from hunger and be consumed by burning heat and terrible destruction. I will send wild animals to attack them, along with the venom of snakes that slither in the dust.
25Outside, the sword will kill, and inside their homes, there will be terror, affecting both young men and young women, nursing babies and old men.
26I said I would scatter them far away, that I would erase their memory from among people,
27if I were not afraid of the enemy's taunting, afraid that their adversaries would misunderstand and say, ‘We did this ourselves; Yahweh had no part in it.’”
28For they are a nation without good advice; there is no understanding in them.
29I wish they were wise and understood this, and would consider what their end would be!
30How could one person chase a thousand, or two people put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had given them up?
31For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
32Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous, their clusters are bitter.
33Their wine is the poison of snakes, the cruel venom of cobras.
34“Is this not stored up with me, sealed away among my treasures?
35Vengeance belongs to me, and I will repay, at the time when their feet slip. For their day of disaster is near, and their destiny is rushing toward them.”
36For Yahweh will judge his people and have pity on his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone, and that no one is left, whether slave or free.
37He will ask, “Where are their gods, the rock where they sought protection?
38They ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their offerings. Let them get up and help you! Let them be your protection.
39“Now see that I am the one; there is no other god with me. I kill and I give life. I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from my power.
40For I raise my hand to heaven and declare, as surely as I live forever,
41if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it for judgment, I will take revenge on my enemies and repay those who hate me.
42I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the enemy leaders.”
43Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take revenge on his adversaries and make things right for his land and his people.
44Moses and Joshua son of Nun came and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.
45Moses finished speaking all these words to all the people of Israel.
46He told them, “Pay close attention to all the words I am telling you today. You must command your children to obey and follow all the words of this law.
47For this is not a pointless thing for you; it is your life! Through it, you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to possess.”
48That same day, Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
49“Go up this Abarim mountain, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their possession.
50You will die on the mountain you go up, and you will be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
51This is because you offended me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. You did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.
52You will see the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land I am giving to the Israelites.”