Song of Moses

1Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;

listen, earth, to the words from my mouth.a

2Let my teaching fall like rain

and my word settle like dew,

like gentle rain on new grass

and showers on tender plants.

3For I will proclaim the Lord’s name.a

Declare the greatness of our God!

4The Rocka — his work is perfect;

all his ways are just.b

A faithful God,c without bias,

he is righteous and true.

5His people have acted corruptly toward him;a

this is their defectA — they are not his children

but a devious and crooked generation.b

6Is this how you repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?a

Isn’t he your Father and Creator?a b

Didn’t he make you and sustain you?

7Remember the days of old;

consider the years of past generations.

Ask your father, and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will teach you.

8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritanceA

and divided the human race,a

he set the boundaries of the peoplesb

according to the number of the people of Israel.B

9But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob, his own inheritance.a

10He found him in a desolate land,

in a barren, howling wilderness;

he surrounded him, cared for him,a

and protected him as the pupil of his eye.b

11He watches overA his nest like an eagle

and hovers over his young;

he spreads his wings, catches him,

and carries him on his feathers.a

12The Lord alone led him,

with no help from a foreign god.

13He made him ride on the heights of the landa

and eat the produce of the field.

He nourished him with honey from the rock

and oil from flinty rock,

14curds from the herd and milk from the flock,

with the fat of lambs,

rams from Bashan,a and goats,

with the choicest grains of wheat;

you drank wine from the finest grapes.A

15ThenA JeshurunB a became fat and rebelled —

you became fat, bloated, and gorged.

He abandoned the God who made him

and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

16They provoked his jealousy with different gods;

they enraged him with detestable practices.a

17They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known,

new gods that had just arrived,

which your ancestors did not fear.a

18You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;

you forgot the God who gave birth to you.

19When the Lord saw this, he despised them,

angered by his sons and daughters.

20He said, “I will hide my face from them;a

I will see what will become of them,

for they are a perverse generation —

unfaithful children.

21They have provoked my jealousy

with what is not a god;A

they have enraged me with their worthless idols.a

So I will provoke their jealousy

with what is not a people;B

I will enrage them with a foolish nation.b

22For fire has been kindled because of my anger

and burns to the depths of Sheol;a

it devours the land and its produce,

and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

23“I will pile disasters on them;

I will use up my arrows against them.

24They will be weak from hunger,

ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;

I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,

as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.

25Outside, the sword will take their children,

and inside, there will be terror;

the young man and the young woman will be killed,

the infant and the gray-haired man.a

26“I would have said: I will cut them to piecesA

and blot out the memory of them from mankind,a

27if I had not feared provocation from the enemy,

or feared that these foes might misunderstand

and say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed;

it wasn’t the Lord who did all this.’ ”

28Israel is a nation lacking sense

with no understanding at all.a

29If only they were wise, they would comprehend this;

they would understand their fate.

30How could one pursue a thousand,

or two put ten thousand to flight,a

unless their Rock had sold them,

unless the Lord had given them up?b

31But their “rock” is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

32For their vine is from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are poisonous;

their clusters are bitter.

33Their wine is serpents’ venom,

the deadly poison of cobras.a

34“Is it not stored up with me,

sealed up in my vaults?

35Vengeance and retribution belong to me.a a

In time their foot will slip,

for their day of disaster is near,

and their doom is coming quickly.”

36The Lord will indeed vindicate his people

and have compassion on his servantsa

when he sees that their strength is gone

and no one is left — slave or free.A

37He will say, “Where are their gods,

the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?

38Who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up and help you;

let itA be a shelter for you.

39See now that I alone am he;

there is no God but me.a

I bring death and I give life;

I wound and I heal.

No one can rescue anyone from my power.b

40I raise my hand to heaven and declare:

As surely as I live forever,

41when I sharpen my flashing sword,

and my hand takes hold of judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and repay those who hate me.

42I will make my arrows drunk with blood

while my sword devours flesh —

the blood of the slain and the captives,

the heads of the enemy leaders.”A

43Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people,a a

for he will avenge the blood of his servants.B

He will take vengeance on his adversaries;C b

he will purify his land and his people.D

44Moses came with JoshuaA son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the presence of the people. 45After Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I am giving as a warning to you today,a so that you may command your children to follow all the words of this law carefully.b 47For they are not meaningless words to you but they are your life,a and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Moses’s Impending Death

48On that same day the Lord spoke to Moses,a 49“Go up Mount Neboa in the Abarim range in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan I am giving the Israelites as a possession. 50Then you will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people,a just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.b 51For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the Waters of Meribath-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin by failing to treat me as holy in their presence. 52Although from a distance you will view the land that I am giving the Israelites, you will not go there.”a