1 Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth. 2 Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass. 3 Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God. 4 The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right. 5 They have sinned against him, and are nose of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation. 6 Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee? 7 Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee. 8◆ When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel. 9◆ But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance. 10 He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders. 12 The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him. 13 He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone, 14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep with the fat of lambs, and of the rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape. 15 The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and gross, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his saviour. 16 They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations. 17 They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not. 18 Thou hast forsaken the God that beget thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee. 19 The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him. 20 And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children. 21 They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation. 22 A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them. 24 They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents. 25 Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years. 26 I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men. 27 But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things. 28 They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom. 29 O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end. 30 How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up? 31 For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges. 32 Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter. 33 Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable. 34 Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures? 35 Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come. 36 The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed. 37 And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted? 38 Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress. 39 See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. 40 I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever. 41 If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies. 43 Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people. 44 So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun. 45 And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel. 46 And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words, which I testify to you this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to fulfill all that is written in this law: 47 For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them, and that doing them you may continue a long time in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it. 48 And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying: 49 Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of passages,) unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho: and see the land of Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die thou in the mountain. 50 When thou art gone up into it thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Her, and was gathered to his people: 51 Because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of contradiction in Cades of the desert of Sin: and you did not sanctify me among the children of Israel. 52 Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
Deuteronomy · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
Deuteronomy 32 Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (51)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Isaiah 1:2; Deuteronomy 4:26; Jeremiah 22:29; Psalm 49:1; Jeremiah 6:19
- 2 Isaiah 55:10–11; Psalm 72:6; Micah 5:7; Job 29:22–23; Hosea 14:5
- 3 Jeremiah 10:6; Psalm 150:2; Ephesians 1:19; Deuteronomy 5:24; Exodus 33:19
- 4 Psalm 18:30–31; Psalm 92:15; Isaiah 26:4; Psalm 18:2; 2 Samuel 22:31–32
- 5 Philippians 2:15; Isaiah 1:4; Deuteronomy 31:29; Matthew 17:17; Luke 9:41
- 6 Isaiah 63:16; 1 John 3:1; Isaiah 64:8; Isaiah 44:2; Psalm 74:2
- 7 Psalm 78:3–4; Psalm 44:1; Job 8:8–10; Isaiah 46:9; Psalm 77:5–6
- 8 Acts 17:26; Genesis 11:8–9; Daniel 4:17; Genesis 15:18–21; Psalm 115:16
- 9 Jeremiah 10:16; 1 Peter 2:9–10; 1 Kings 8:51; Exodus 19:5–6; 1 Kings 8:53
- 10 Psalm 17:8; Zechariah 2:8; Deuteronomy 8:15–16; Hosea 13:5; Jeremiah 2:6
- 11 Exodus 19:4; Isaiah 46:4; Isaiah 63:9; Isaiah 40:31; Isaiah 31:5
- 12 Isaiah 46:4; Psalm 78:52–53; Isaiah 44:7–8; Deuteronomy 1:31; Isaiah 43:11–12
- 13 Isaiah 58:14; Job 29:6; Psalm 81:16; Ezekiel 36:2; Deuteronomy 33:29
- 14 Genesis 49:11; Psalm 81:16; Psalm 147:14; Matthew 26:28–29; Psalm 22:12
- 15 Deuteronomy 31:20; Hosea 13:6; Deuteronomy 33:5; Psalm 89:26; Acts 28:27
- 16 Psalm 78:58; 1 Corinthians 10:22; 2 Kings 23:13; Deuteronomy 7:25; Deuteronomy 5:9
- 17 Judges 5:8; Deuteronomy 28:64; Leviticus 17:7; Isaiah 44:8; 1 Timothy 4:1
- 18 Isaiah 17:10; Jeremiah 2:32; Psalm 106:21; Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15
- 19 Psalm 106:40; Isaiah 1:2; Judges 2:14; Psalm 5:4; Jeremiah 44:21–23
- 20 Deuteronomy 31:17–18; Luke 7:31–32; Deuteronomy 32:5; Matthew 17:17; Mark 9:19
- 21 Romans 10:19; Romans 9:25; Romans 11:11–14; 1 Kings 16:26; 1 Kings 16:13
- 22 Lamentations 4:11; Jeremiah 15:14; Zephaniah 3:8; Micah 1:4; Numbers 16:35
- 23 Ezekiel 5:16; Psalm 7:12–13; Isaiah 24:17–18; Ezekiel 14:21; Isaiah 26:15
- 24 Leviticus 26:22; Ezekiel 5:17; Genesis 3:14; Deuteronomy 28:22; Lamentations 5:10
- 25 Ezekiel 7:15; Lamentations 1:20; Jeremiah 9:21; 2 Corinthians 7:5; Lamentations 4:4
- 26 Deuteronomy 28:64; Isaiah 63:16; Leviticus 26:38; Deuteronomy 28:37; Leviticus 26:33
- 27 Numbers 14:15–16; Zechariah 1:14–15; 1 Samuel 12:22; Joshua 7:9; Psalm 140:8
- 28 Jeremiah 4:22; Hosea 4:6; Proverbs 1:7; Job 28:28; Isaiah 27:11
- 29 Psalm 81:13; Deuteronomy 5:29; Hosea 14:9; Luke 19:41–42; Luke 12:20
- 30 Leviticus 26:8; Joshua 23:10; Isaiah 30:17; Psalm 31:8; Psalm 44:12
- 31 1 Samuel 4:8; Exodus 14:25; Jeremiah 40:3; Daniel 2:47; 1 Samuel 2:2
- 32 Deuteronomy 29:18; Isaiah 1:10; Ezekiel 16:45–51; Isaiah 5:4; Jeremiah 2:21
- 33 Psalm 58:4; Romans 3:13; Jeremiah 8:14; Job 20:14–16; Psalm 140:3
- 34 Job 14:17; Hosea 13:12; Jeremiah 2:22; Romans 2:5; 1 Corinthians 4:5
- 35 Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30; Nahum 1:2; Psalm 73:17–19; 2 Peter 2:3
- 36 Psalm 135:14; Psalm 106:45; 2 Kings 14:26; Judges 2:18; Joel 2:14
- 37 Jeremiah 2:28; Judges 10:14; 2 Kings 3:13
- 38 Judges 10:14; Ezekiel 16:18–19; Leviticus 21:21; Psalm 50:13; Zephaniah 2:11
- 39 1 Samuel 2:6; Hosea 6:1; Job 5:18; Isaiah 45:5; Isaiah 45:22
- 40 Hebrews 6:17–18; Genesis 14:22; Revelation 10:5–6; Jeremiah 4:2; Numbers 14:28–30
- 41 Isaiah 66:16; Isaiah 34:5–6; Exodus 20:5; Psalm 7:12; Isaiah 27:1
- 42 Deuteronomy 32:23; Jeremiah 46:10; Jeremiah 30:14; Lamentations 2:5; Ezekiel 38:21–22
- 43 Revelation 19:2; Romans 12:19; Revelation 6:10; Psalm 85:1; Deuteronomy 32:35
- 44 Numbers 13:16; Numbers 13:8; Deuteronomy 31:30; Deuteronomy 31:22
- 46 1 Chronicles 22:19; Ezekiel 40:4; Deuteronomy 11:18; Proverbs 3:1–4; Hebrews 2:1
- 47 Proverbs 4:22; Leviticus 18:5; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 Peter 3:10–12; Proverbs 3:22
- 48 Numbers 27:12–13
- 49 Numbers 27:12; Numbers 33:47–48; Deuteronomy 34:1–5; Isaiah 33:17; 2 Corinthians 5:1
- 50 Genesis 25:8; Numbers 33:38; Numbers 20:24–29; Genesis 15:15; Genesis 25:17
- 51 Numbers 27:14; Numbers 20:11–14; 1 Kings 13:21–26; Deuteronomy 3:23–27; Numbers 20:24
- 52 Deuteronomy 34:1–4; Deuteronomy 1:37; Deuteronomy 32:49; Numbers 27:12; Hebrews 11:13
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
Why does my Bible say something different?
- Deuteronomy 32:8: “sons of Israel” or “sons of God”?
The Masoretic Hebrew says God fixed the borders of the peoples “according to the number of the sons of Israel.” A Hebrew manuscript from Qumran reads “sons of God,” and the Septuagint reads “angels of God.” Many scholars, Jewish and Christian, now think “sons of God” is the older reading. The Orthodox Church reads “angels of God.”
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, and Israel the lot of His inheritance." And in another place [the Scripture] saith, "Behold, the Lord taketh unto Himself a nation out of the midst of the nations, as a man takes the first-fruits of his threshing-floor; and from that nation shall come forth the Most Holy." Chapter XXX — …
… also make one race of men to dwell upon all the earth; as also Moses declared: "When the Most High divided the nations, as He scattered the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations after the number of the angels of God;" but that people which believes in God is not now under the power of angels, …
But where I could meet with such except in Thee, O Lord, I could not find,--except in Thee, who teachest by sorrow, and woundest us to heal us, and killest us that we may not die from Thee.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
For the apostle too saith of the woman, "That she ought to have power on her head because of the angels." And Moses, "He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God." But here He is discoursing not of angels only, but rather of angels that are greater than others.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Do ye thus requite the Lord? This people is foolish and unwise.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)