the First Week of Advent
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Legacy Standard Bible
Deuteronomy 32
1 "(C1)Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak;
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 "(C1)Let what I have learned drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
(C2)As the droplets on the fresh grass
And as the showers on the herb.
3 "(C1)For I proclaim the name of Yahweh;
(C2)Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 "(C1)The Rock! His work is (F1)perfect,
(C2)For all His ways are (F2)just;
(C3)A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.
5 "(F1)(C1)They have acted corruptly toward Him,
They are not His children because of their defect;
(C2)But are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 "Do you thus (C1)repay Yahweh,
(C2)O people who are wickedly foolish and without wisdom?
(C3)Is not He your Father who has bought you?
(C4)He has made you and established you.
7 "Remember the ancient days,
Consider the years from generation to generation.
(C1)Ask your father, and he will declare to you,
Your elders, and they will speak to you.
8 "(C1)When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
When He separated the sons of (F1)man,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
(C2)According to the number of the (F2)sons of Israel.
9 "(C1)For Yahweh's portion is His people;
Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
10 "(C1)He found him in a desert land,
And in the howling waste of a wilderness;
He encircled him; He cared for him;
He guarded him as (C2)the pupil of His eye.
11 "(C1)Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
That hovers over its young,
(C2)He spread His wings and caught them;
He carried them on His pinions.
12 "(C1)Yahweh alone guided him,
(C2)And there was no foreign god with him.
13 "(C1)He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
And he ate the produce of the field;
(C2)And He made him suck honey from the rock,
And (C3)oil from the flinty rock,
14 Curds of cows, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs,
And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats,
(C1)With the finest of the wheat—
And of the (C2)blood of grapes you drank wine.
15 "(C1)But (F1)Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
You grew fat, thick, and sleek—
(C2)Then he abandoned God (C3)who made him,
And treated (C4)the Rock of his salvation with wicked foolishness.
16 "(C1)They made Him jealous with strange gods;
(C2)With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 "(C1)They sacrificed to demons who were not God,
(C2)To gods whom they have not known,
(C3)New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not dread.
18 "You neglected (C1)the Rock who begot you,
(C2)And forgot the God who brought you forth.
19 "(C1)And Yahweh saw this and spurned them
(C2)Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters.
20 "Then He said, 'I will hide My face from them;
(C1)I will see what their end shall be;
(C2)For they are a perverse generation,
(C3)Sons in whom is no faithfulness.
21 '(C1)They have made Me jealous with what is not God;
They have provoked Me to anger with their (F1)(C2)idols.
(C3)So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a wickedly foolish nation,
22 (C1)For a fire is kindled in My anger,
And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol,
(C2)And it consumes the earth with its produce,
And it sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 '(C1)I will heap calamities on them;
(C2)I will exhaust My arrows on them.
24 '(C1)They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by (F1)plague
(C2)And bitter destruction;
(C3)And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them,
(C4)With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
25 '(C1)Outside the sword will bereave,
And inside terror—
(C2)Both choice man and virgin,
The nursing baby with the man of gray hair.
26 'I would have said, "(C1)I will cut them to pieces;
(C2)I will cause the memory of them to cease from men,"
27 Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,
Lest their adversaries misjudge,
Lest they say, "(C1)Our hand is (F1)triumphant,
And Yahweh has not done all this."'
28 "(C1)For they are a nation where counsel perishes,
And there is no discernment in them.
29 "(C1)Would that they were wise, that they had insight into this,
(C2)That they would understand their (F1)future!
30 "(C1)How could one pursue one thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their (C2)Rock had sold them,
And Yahweh had handed them over?
31 "Indeed their rock is not like our Rock,
(C1)Even our enemies (F1)themselves judge this.
32 "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,
And from the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of (C1)poison,
Their clusters, bitter.
33 "Their wine is the venom of (F1)serpents,
And the (F2)deadly poison of cobras.
34 '(C1)Is it not laid up in store with Me,
Sealed up in My treasuries?
35 '(C1)Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,
(C2)In due time their foot will stumble;
(C3)For the day of their disaster is near,
And the impending things are hastening upon them.'
36 "(C1)For Yahweh will render justice to His people,
(C2)And will have compassion on His slaves,
When He sees that their (F1)strength is gone,
And there is none remaining, bond or free.
37 "And He will say, '(C1)Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38 '(C1)Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
(C2)Let them rise up and help you,
Let them be your hiding place!
39 '(C1)See now that I, I am He,
(C2)And there is no god besides Me;
(C3)It is I who put to death and give life.
(C4)I have wounded, and it is I who heal,
(C5)And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
40 'Indeed, (C1)I lift up My hand to heaven,
And say, as I live forever,
41 (C1)If I sharpen My (F1)flashing sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
(C2)I will render vengeance on My adversaries,
And I will repay those who hate Me.
42 '(C1)I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
(C2)And My sword will devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the long-haired (F1)leaders of the enemy.'
43 "(C1)O nations, cause His people to shout for joy;
(C2)For He will avenge the blood of His slaves,
(C3)And He will render vengeance on His adversaries,
(C4)And He will atone for His land and His people."
44 Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and (F1)(C1)Joshua the son of Nun.45 Then Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,46 and he said to them, "(C1)Place in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command (C2)your sons to be careful to do, even all the words of this law.47 "For it is not an idle word for you; indeed (C1)it is your life. And (C2)by this word you will prolong your days in the land, (F1)which you are about to cross the Jordan to (F2)possess."
Moses to Go Up Mount Nebo
48 (C1)And Yahweh spoke to Moses that very same day, saying,49 "(C1)Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab (F1)opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession.50 "Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be (C1)gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,51 (C1)because you both acted unfaithfully with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the (C2)wilderness of Zin, because you both did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel.52 "(C1)For you shall see the land at a distance, but (C2)you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel."
