1“Earth and sky, hear my words,
listen closely to what I say.
2My 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.
3I 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.
5But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people,
a sinful and deceitful nation.
6Is 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.
8The Most High assigned nations their lands;
he determined where peoples should live.
He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,
9but Jacob's descendants he chose for himself.
10“He found them wandering through the desert,
a desolate, windswept wilderness.
He protected them and cared for them,
as he would protect himself.
11Like an eagle teaching its young to fly,
catching them safely on its spreading wings,
the LORD kept Israel from falling.
12The 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.
14Their 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 saviour.
16Their idolatry made the LORD jealous;
the evil they did made him angry.
17They sacrificed to gods that are not real,
new gods their ancestors had never known,
gods that Israel had never obeyed,
18They forgot their God, their mighty saviour,
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.
21With 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.
22My 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.
24They 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.
25War 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.
26I would have destroyed them completely,
so that no one would remember them.
27But 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.
29They fail to see why they were defeated;
they cannot understand what happened.
30Why were a thousand defeated by one,
and 10,000 by only two?
The LORD, their God, had abandoned them;
their mighty God had given them up.
31Their enemies know that their own gods are weak,
not mighty like Israel's God.
32Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah,
are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,
33like 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.
35The LORD will take revenge and punish them;
the time will come when they will fall;
the day of their doom is near.
36The 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.
37Then the LORD will ask his people,
‘Where are those mighty gods you trusted?
38You fed them with 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.
40As surely as I am the living God,
I raise my hand and I vow
41that 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.
42My 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.”
44Moses and Joshua son of Nun recited this song, so that the people of Israel could hear it.
Moses' Final Instructions
45When Moses had finished giving God's teachings to the people, 46he said, “Make sure you obey all these commands that I have given you today. Repeat them to your children, so that they may faithfully obey all God's teachings. 47These 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.”
