Deuteronomy

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

1Listen, sky. I am going to speak. Listen, earth, to the words I say.

2My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

2Let my teaching fall like rain. Let my words settle like morning dew. Like soft rain on new grass. Like showers on young plants.

3Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

3I will tell everyone the name of the LORD. Say how great our God is!

4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

4He is the Rock. Everything he does is perfect. All his ways are fair. He always keeps his word. He never does wrong. He is good and right.

5They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.

5His people acted badly toward him. They stopped acting like his children. They became a twisted, crooked group.

6Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

6Is this how you pay the LORD back, you foolish people? He is your father. He made you. He set you in your place.

7Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

7Remember the days long ago. Think about all the years gone by. Ask your father, and he will tell you. Ask the old people, and they will explain.

8When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

8Long ago God, the Most High, gave each nation its own land. He divided up all people. He set the borders of each nation, counting the children of Israel.

9For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

9But the LORD's own share is his people. Jacob's family, Israel, belongs to him.

10He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

10He found his people in a dry, empty land where the wind howled. He circled around them. He taught them. He guarded them like his own eyes.

11As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

11An eagle stirs up its nest and flies over its babies. It spreads its wings, catches them, and carries them along.

12So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

12That is how the LORD led his people, all by himself. No other god was with him.

13He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

13He let them ride high over the land. He fed them food from the fields. He gave them honey from the rocks. He gave them oil from hard stone.

14Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

14He gave them thick milk from cows and milk from sheep. He gave fat lambs, strong rams from Bashan, and goats. He gave the best wheat. You drank wine from the finest grapes.

15But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

15But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat and heavy and full. Then he left the God who made him. He said the Rock who saved him did not matter.

NoteJeshurun is a nickname for Israel. "Grew fat and kicked" pictures a well-fed animal that kicks the owner who feeds it.

16They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.

16They made God jealous by loving other gods. Their awful idols made him angry.

17They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

17They gave offerings to demons, not to God. These were gods they had never known. They were brand new gods. Their fathers had never worshiped them.

18Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

18You paid no attention to the Rock who gave you life. You forgot the God who made you.

19And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.

19The LORD saw this and turned away from them. His own sons and daughters had made him angry.

20And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

20He said, "I will hide my face from them. I will see how they end up. They are a twisted group. They are children who will not trust me."

21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

21"They made me jealous with something that is not God. They made me angry with worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with a people who are barely a nation. I will make them angry with a foolish nation."

22For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

22"My anger burns like a fire. It burns all the way down to the place of the dead. It eats up the land and its crops. It sets the roots of the mountains on fire."

NoteThe KJV says "hell" here. The Hebrew word is Sheol, which means the deep place where the dead are, not a place of punishment.

23I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.

23"I will pile troubles on them. I will shoot all my arrows at them."

24They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

24"Hunger will make them weak. Sickness and disease will eat them up. I will send wild animals to bite them. I will send poison snakes from the dust."

25The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

25"Outside, swords will kill them. Inside, fear will fill the house. Young men and young women will die. Babies and gray-haired men will die too."

26I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:

26"I said I would scatter them far away. I would make people forget they ever lived."

27Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

27"But I did not want their enemies to brag. I did not want them to get it wrong and say, 'We won by our own strength. The LORD did not do this.'"

28For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.

28Israel is a nation that makes no wise plans. Not one of them understands.

29O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

29If only they were wise! Then they would understand this. They would see where all of it leads.

30How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

30How could one enemy chase a thousand of them away? How could two chase away ten thousand? Only if their Rock had handed them over. Only if the LORD had given them up.

31For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

31Their enemies' rock is not like our Rock. Even our enemies know that is true.

32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

32Their vine comes from Sodom. It grows in the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison. Their bunches taste bitter.

33Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

33Their wine is like the poison of snakes. It is the deadly venom of a cobra.

34Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?

34God says, "I have stored all this up. It is locked away safe with me."

35To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

35"I am the one who pays people back for wrong. In time their feet will slip. Their day of trouble is close. It is coming fast."

36For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.

36The LORD will stand up for his people. He will feel sorry for his servants. He sees that their strength is gone. He sees that no one at all is left.

37And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,

37He will say, "Where are their gods now? Where is the rock they hid behind?"

38Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

38"Those gods ate the fat of their offerings. They drank the wine they poured out. Let them get up and help you now! Let them keep you safe!"

39See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

39"Look now. I am the one. There is no other God with me. I take life and I give life. I wound and I heal. No one can pull anything out of my hand."

40For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.

40"I raise my hand toward the sky and promise: I live forever."

41If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.

41"I will sharpen my shining sword. My hand will take hold of it to judge. I will pay back my enemies. I will pay back those who hate me."

42I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

42"My arrows will drink blood. My sword will eat flesh. It will be the blood of the dead and the prisoners. It will be the blood of the enemy's leaders."

43Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

43Be glad, you nations, along with his people! He will pay back those who killed his servants. He will punish his enemies. He will make his land and his people clean.

44And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.

44Moses came and said every word of this song out loud. All the people heard it. Hoshea son of Nun was there with him.

NoteHoshea is another name for Joshua, the man who led Israel after Moses died.

45And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:

45Moses finished saying all these words to all Israel.

46And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

46He said, "Hold on to every word I have told you today. Tell your children to obey all the words of this law."

47For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

47"These words are not empty. They are your life. Because of them you will live a long time in the land. You are crossing the Jordan River to take that land."

48And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,

48That same day the LORD spoke to Moses.

49Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:

49"Go up into the Abarim mountains. Climb Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab, across from Jericho. Look out at the land of Canaan. I am giving it to Israel to keep."

50And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:

50"You will die on that mountain. You will join your family who died before you. Your brother Aaron died the same way on Mount Hor."

51Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of MeribahKadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.

51"This is because you two were not faithful to me. It happened at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the desert of Zin. You did not honor me as holy in front of the people."

52Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

52"You will see the land from far away. But you will not go into it. I am giving that land to Israel."