1 “Earth and sky, hear my words,
listen closely to what I say.
2 My teaching will fall like drops of rain
and form on the earth like dew.
My words will fall like showers on young plants,
like gentle rain on tender grass.
3 I will praise the name of the Lord,
and his people will tell of his greatness.
4 “The Lord is your mighty defender,
perfect and just in all his ways;
Your God is faithful and true;
he does what is right and fair.
5 But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people,
a sinful and deceitful nation.
6 Is this the way you should treat the Lord,
you foolish, senseless people?
He is your father, your Creator,
he made you into a nation.
7 “Think of the past, of the time long ago;
ask your parents to tell you what happened,
ask the old people to tell of the past.
8 The Most High assigned nations their lands;
he determined where peoples should live.
He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,
9 but Jacob's descendants he chose for himself.
10 “He found them wandering through the desert,
a desolate, wind-swept wilderness.
He protected them and cared for them,
as he would protect himself.
11 Like an eagle teaching its young to fly,
catching them safely on its spreading wings,
the Lord kept Israel from falling.
12 The Lord alone led his people
without the help of a foreign god.
13 “He let them rule the highlands,
and they ate what grew in the fields.
They found wild honey among the rocks;
their olive trees flourished in stony ground.
14 Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk;
they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle,
the finest wheat, and the choicest wine.
15 “The Lord's people grew rich, but rebellious;
they were fat and stuffed with food.
They abandoned God their Creator
and rejected their mighty savior.
16 Their idolatry made the Lord jealous;
the evil they did made him angry.
17 They sacrificed to gods that are not real,
new gods their ancestors had never known,
gods that Israel had never obeyed.
18 They forgot their God, their mighty savior,
the one who had given them life.
19 “When the Lord saw this, he was angry
and rejected his sons and daughters.
20 ‘I will no longer help them,’ he said;
‘then I will see what happens to them,
those stubborn, unfaithful people.
21 With their idols they have made me angry,
jealous with their so-called gods,
gods that are really not gods.
So I will use a so-called nation to make them angry;
I will make them jealous with a nation of fools.
22 My anger will flame up like fire
and burn everything on earth.
It will reach to the world below
and consume the roots of the mountains.
23 “‘I will bring on them endless disasters
and use all my arrows against them.
24 They will die from hunger and fever;
they will die from terrible diseases.
I will send wild animals to attack them,
and poisonous snakes to bite them.
25 War will bring death in the streets;
terrors will strike in the homes.
Young men and young women will die;
neither babies nor old people will be spared.
26 I would have destroyed them completely,
so that no one would remember them.
27 But I could not let their enemies boast
that they had defeated my people,
when it was I myself who had crushed them.’
28 “Israel is a nation without sense;
they have no wisdom at all.
29 They fail to see why they were defeated;
they cannot understand what happened.
30 Why were a thousand defeated by one,
and ten thousand by only two?
The Lord, their God, had abandoned them;
their mighty God had given them up.
31 Their enemies know that their own gods are weak,
not mighty like Israel's God.
32 Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah,
are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,
33 like wine made from the venom of snakes.
34 “The Lord remembers what their enemies have done;
he waits for the right time to punish them.
35 The Lord will take revenge and punish them;
the time will come when they will fall;
the day of their doom is near.
36 The Lord will rescue his people
when he sees that their strength is gone.
He will have mercy on those who serve him,
when he sees how helpless they are.
37 Then the Lord will ask his people,
‘Where are those mighty gods you trusted?
38 You fed them the fat of your sacrifices
and offered them wine to drink.
Let them come and help you now;
let them run to your rescue.
39 “‘I, and I alone, am God;
no other god is real.
I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal,
and no one can oppose what I do.
40 As surely as I am the living God,
I raise my hand and I vow
41 that I will sharpen my flashing sword
and see that justice is done.
I will take revenge on my enemies
and punish those who hate me.
42 My arrows will drip with their blood,
and my sword will kill all who oppose me.
I will spare no one who fights against me;
even the wounded and prisoners will die.’
43 “Nations, you must praise the Lord's people—
he punishes all who kill them.
He takes revenge on his enemies
and forgives the sins of his people.”
44 Moses and Joshua son of Nun recited this song, so that the people of Israel could hear it.
Moses' Final Instructions
45 When Moses had finished giving God's teachings to the people, 46 he said, “Be sure to obey all these commands that I have given you today. Repeat them to your children, so that they may faithfully obey all of God's teachings. 47 These teachings are not empty words; they are your very life. Obey them and you will live long in that land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy.”
48 That same day the Lord said to Moses, 49 “Go to the Abarim Mountains in the land of Moab opposite the city of Jericho; climb Mount Nebo and look at the land of Canaan that I am about to give the people of Israel. 50 You will die on that mountain as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, 51 because both of you were unfaithful to me in the presence of the people of Israel. When you were at the waters of Meribah, near the town of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, you dishonored me in the presence of the people. 52 You will look at the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land that I am giving the people of Israel.”
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.