1 Earth and Sky,
listen to what I say!
2 Israel, I will teach you.
My words will be like gentle rain
on tender young plants,
or like dew on the grass.
3 Join with me in praising
the wonderful name
of the Lord our God.
4 The Lord is a mighty rock,
and he never does wrong.
God can always be trusted
to bring justice.
5 But you lie and cheat
and are unfaithful to him.
You have disgraced yourselves
and are no longer worthy
to be his children.
6 Israel, the Lord is your Father,
the one who created you,
but you repaid him
by being foolish.
7 Think about past generations.
Ask your parents
or any of your elders.
They will tell you
8 that God Most High
gave land to every nation.
He assigned a guardian angel
to each of them,
9 but the Lord himself
takes care of Israel.
10 Israel, the Lord discovered you
in a barren desert
filled with howling winds.
God became your fortress,
protecting you as though
you were his own eyes.
11 The Lord was like an eagle
teaching its young to fly,
always ready to swoop down
and catch them on its back.
12 Israel, the Lord led you,
and without the aid
of a foreign god,
13 he helped you
capture the land.
Your fields were rich
with grain.
Olive trees grew
in your stony soil,
and honey was found
among the rocks.
14 Your flocks and herds
produced milk and yogurt,
and you got choice meat
from your sheep and goats
that grazed in Bashan.
Your wheat was the finest,
and you drank the best wine.
15 Israel, you grew fat and rebelled
against God, your Creator
you rejected the Mighty Rock,
your only place of safety.
16 You made God jealous and angry
by worshiping disgusting idols
and foreign gods.
17 You offered sacrifices
to demons, those useless gods
that never helped you,
new gods that your ancestors
never worshiped.
18 You turned away
from God, your Creator;
you forgot the Mighty Rock,
the source of your life.
19 You were the Lord's children,
but you made him angry.
Then he rejected you 20 and said,
“You are unfaithful
and can't be trusted.
So I won't answer your prayers;
I'll just watch and see
what happens to you.
21 You worshiped worthless idols,
and made me jealous
and angry!
Now I will send a cruel
and worthless nation
to make you jealous and angry.
22 “My people, I will breathe out fire
that sends you down
to the world of the dead.
It will scorch your farmlands
and burn deep down
under the mountains.
23 I'll send disaster after disaster
to strike you like arrows.
24 You'll be struck by starvation
and deadly diseases,
by the fangs of wild animals
and poisonous snakes.
25 Young and old alike
will be killed in the streets
and terrified at home.
26 “I wanted to scatter you,
so no one would remember
that you had ever lived.
27 But I dreaded the sound
of your enemies saying,
‘We defeated Israel with no help
from the Lord.’ ”
28 People of Israel,
that's what the Lord
has said to you.
But you don't have good sense,
and you never listen
to advice.
29 If you did, you could see
where you are headed.
30 How could one enemy soldier
chase a thousand
of Israel's troops?
Or how could two of theirs
pursue ten thousand of ours?
It can only happen if the Lord
stops protecting Israel
and lets the enemy win.
31 Even our enemies know
that only our God
is a Mighty Rock.
32 Our enemies are grapevines
rooted in the fields
of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The grapes they produce
are full of bitter poison;
33 their wine is more deadly
than cobra venom.
34 But the Lord has written
a list of their sins
and locked it in his vault.
35 Soon our enemies will get
what they deserve —
suddenly they will slip,
and total disaster
will quickly follow.
36 When only a few
of the Lord's people remain,
when their strength is gone,
and some of them are slaves,
the Lord will feel sorry for them
and give them justice.
37 But first the Lord will say,
“You ran for safety to other gods—
couldn't they help you?
38 You offered them wine
and your best sacrifices.
Can't those gods help you now
or give you protection?
39 Don't you understand?
I am the only God;
there are no others.
I am the one who takes life
and gives it again.
I punished you with suffering.
But now I will heal you,
and nothing can stop me!
40 “I make this solemn promise:
Just as I live forever,
41 I will take revenge
on my hateful enemies.
I will sharpen my sword
and let it flash
like lightning.
42 My arrows will get drunk
on enemy blood;
my sword will taste the flesh
and the blood of the enemy.
It will kill prisoners,
and cut off the heads
of their leaders.”
43 Tell the heavens to celebrate
and all gods to bow down
to the Lord,
because he will take revenge
on those hateful enemies
who killed his people.
He will forgive the sins of Israel
and purify their land.
44-45 Moses spoke the words of the song so that all the Israelites could hear, and Joshua helped him. When Moses had finished, 46 he said, “Always remember this song I have taught you today. And let it be a warning that you must teach your children to obey everything written in The Book of God's Law. 47 The Law isn't empty words. It can give you a long life in the land that you are going to take.”
Moses Will See the Land
48 Later that day the Lord said to Moses:
49 Go up into the Abarim Mountain range here in Moab across the Jordan River valley from Jericho. And when you reach the top of Mount Nebo, you will be able to see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to Israel. 50 Then you will die and be buried on the mountaintop, just as your brother Aaron died and was buried on Mount Hor. 51 Both of you were unfaithful to me at Meribah Spring near Kadesh in the Zin Desert. I am God, but there in front of the Israelites, you did not treat me with the honor and respect I deserve. 52 So I will give the land to the people of Israel, but you will only get to see it from a distance.
1 Hearken, ye heauens, and I will speake: and let the earth heare the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine shall drop as the raine, and my speach shall stil as the dew, as the showre vpon the herbes, and as the great raine vpon the grasse. 3 For I will publish the name of the Lord: giue ye glorie vnto our God. 4 Perfect is the worke of the mighty God: for all his wayes are iudgement. God is true, and without wickednesse: iust, and righteous is he. 5 They haue corrupted them selues towarde him by their vice, not being his children, but a frowarde and crooked generation. 6 Doe ye so rewarde the Lord, O foolish people and vnwise? is not he thy father, that hath bought thee? he hath made thee, and proportioned thee. 7 Remember the dayes of olde: consider the yeeres of so many generations: aske thy father, and he will shewe thee: thine Elders, and they will tell thee. 8 When the most hie God deuided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sonnes of Adam, he appoynted the borders of the people, according to the nomber of the children of Israel. 9 For the Lordes portion is his people: Iaakob is the lot of his inheritance. 10 He found him in ye land of ye wildernes, in a waste, and roaring wildernes: he led him about, he taught him, and kept him as ye apple of his eye. 11 As an eagle stereth vp her nest, flootereth ouer her birdes, stretcheth out her wings, taketh them, and beareth them on her wings, 12 So the Lord alone led him, and there was no strange god with him. 13 He caryed him vp to the hie places of the earth, that he might eate the fruites of the fieldes, and he caused him to sucke hony out of the stone, and oyle out of the hard rocke: 14 Butter of kine, and milke of sheepe with fat of the lambes, and rammes fed in Bashan, and goates, with the fat of the graines of wheat, and the red licour of the grape hast thou drunke. 15 But he that should haue bene vpright, when he waxed fat, spurned with his heele: thou art fat, thou art grosse, thou art laden with fatnes: therefore he forsooke God that made him, and regarded not the strong God of his saluation. 16 They prouoked him with strange gods: they prouoked him to anger with abominations. 17 They offred vnto deuils, not to God, but to gods whome they knew not: new gods that came newly vp, whome their fathers feared not. 18 Thou hast forgotten the mightie God that begate thee, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. 19 The Lord then sawe it, and was angrie, for the prouocation of his sonnes and of his daughters. 20 And he said, I will hide my face from the: I will see what their ende shalbe: for they are a frowarde generation, children in who is no faith. 21 They haue moued me to ielousie with that which is not God: they haue prouoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will moue them to ielousie with those which are no people: I wil prouoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burne vnto the bottome of hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountaines. 23 I will spend plagues vpon them: I will bestowe mine arrowes vpon them. 24 They shalbe burnt with hunger, and consumed with heate, and with bitter destruction: I will also sende the teeth of beastes vpon them, with the venime of serpents creeping in the dust. 25 The sworde shall kill them without, and in the chambers feare: both the yong man and the yong woman, the suckeling with the man of gray heare. 26 I haue said, I would scatter them abroade: I would make their remembrance to cease from among men, 27 Saue that I feared the furie of the enemie, least their aduersaries should waxe proude, and least they should say, Our hie hande and not the Lord hath done all this: 28 For they are a nation voide of counsel, neither is there any vnderstanding in them. 29 Oh that they were wise, then they would vnderstand this: they would consider their latter ende. 30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousande to flight, except their strong God had sold the, and the Lord had shut them vp? 31 For their god is not as our God, euen our enemies being iudges. 32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the vines of Gomorah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters be bitter. 33 Their wine is the poyson of dragons, and the cruel gall of aspes. 34 Is not this laide in store with me, and sealed vp among my treasures? 35 Vengeance and recompence are mine: their foote shall slide in due time: for the day of their destruction is at hand, and the things that shall come vpon them, make haste. 36 For the Lord shall iudge his people, and repent towarde his seruants, when hee seeth that their power is gone, and none shut vp in holde nor left abroad. 37 When men shall say, Where are their gods, their mighty God in whome they trusted, 38 Which did eate the fat of their sacrifices, and did drinke the wine of their drinke offring? let them rise vp, and help you: let him be your refuge. 39 Behold now, for I, I am he, and there is no gods with me: I kill, and giue life: I wound, and I make whole: neither is there any that can deliuer out of mine hand. 40 For I lift vp mine hand to heauen, and say, I liue for euer. 41 If I whet my glittering sworde, and mine hand take holde on iudgement, I will execute vengeance on mine enemies, and will rewarde them that hate me. 42 I will make mine arrowes drunke with blood, (and my sword shall eate flesh) for the blood of the slaine, and of the captiues, when I beginne to take vengeance of the enemie. 43 Ye nations, praise his people: for he will auenge the blood of his seruants, and will execute vengeance vpon his aduersaries, and will bee mercifull vnto his lande, and to his people. 44 Then Moses came and spake all ye words of this song in the audience of the people, he and Hoshea the sonne of Nun. 45 When Moses had made an end of speaking all these wordes to all Israel, 46 Then hee said vnto them, Set your heartes vnto all the wordes which I testifie against you this day, that ye may commande them vnto your children, that they may obserue and doo all the wordes of this Lawe. 47 For it is no vaine worde concerning you, but it is your life, and by this worde ye shall prolong your dayes in the land, whither yee go ouer Iorden to possesse it. 48 And the Lord spake vnto Moses the selfe same day, saying, 49 Goe vp into the mountaine of Abarim, vnto the mount Nebo, which is in the lande of Moab, that is ouer against Iericho: and beholde the lande of Canaan, which I giue vnto the children of Israel for a possession, 50 And die in the mount which thou goest vp vnto, and thou shalt be gathered vnto thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered vnto his people, 51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel, at the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the wildernesse of Zin: for ye sanctified me not among the children of Israel. 52 Thou shalt therefore see the lande before thee, but shalt not go thither, I meane, into the land which I giue the children of Israel.