Deuteronomy · Free Bible Version
Deuteronomy 32 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Heaven, listen as I speak; Earth, hear what I'm saying.
1 Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching fall gently like the rain; may my words drop lightly like the dew, like soft rain on new grass, like spring showers on growing plants.
2 My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
3 I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
3 For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 He is the Rock. Everything he does is perfect, for all his ways are right. He is the trustworthy God who is never unjust; he is fair and honest.
4 The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
5 His children have acted immorally towards him; so they are no longer his children because of their sinful stains. They are a perverse and corrupt people.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Is this any way to repay the Lord, you foolish, stupid people? Isn't he your Father who created you? Isn't he the one who turned you into a nation and made you strong?
6 Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.
7 Remember the olden days; think about the generations of the past. Go and ask your father about them, and he will explain them to you. Talk to your elders, and they will tell you what you need to know.
7 Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8◆ The Most High gave the nations their lands when he divided the human race; he fixed their borders depending on their gods.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For Yahweh’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found you in a desert land, in a desolate wasteland of whirlwinds. He protected you; he cared for you; he looked after you as the one he loved the most.
10 He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle watching over its nest, hovering over its chicks, he spread his wings and picked you up and carried you along.
11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.
12 The Lord was the only one who led you; no foreign god was with him.
12 Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
13 The Lord gave you the high country to rule, and fed you with the crops of the field to eat. He sustained you with honey from the rock and olive oil from the flinty crag,
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
14 with yogurt from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, along with the best wheat. You drank the wine made from the best grapes.
14 butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
15 But Israel, you grew fat and rebelled—fat, overweight, and bloated with food. You abandoned the God who made you and despised the Rock of your salvation.
15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16 You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17 You offered sacrifices to demons instead of God, to gods you didn't know anything about, to brand-new gods that your forefathers didn't worship.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.
18 You dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
18 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord rejected them when he saw this; his sons and daughters made him angry.
19 Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 He said: “I will turn away from them. Then I'll see what happens to them! They are a perverse people, unfaithful children.
20 He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have made me jealous by worshiping things that are not God; they have made me angry with their useless idols. So I will make them jealous using a people that aren't really a nation; I will make them angry using ignorant foreigners.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 My anger has been set on fire, burning down to the depths of the grave, destroying the earth and all it produces, even setting fire to the foundations of the mountains.
22 For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23 I will pile disasters on them; I will use up my arrows shooting at them.
23 “I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
24 They will waste away from hunger, destroyed by disease and poisonous plague. I will send wild animals to bite them with their teeth, the fangs of snakes that slide along the ground.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25 Outside in the streets the sword kills their children, inside their homes, they die from fright; young men and young women, children and old people.
25 Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26 I would have told them I was going to cut them to pieces and wipe out even the memory of them;
26 I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
27 but I didn't want to hear their conquerors jeering, their enemies misunderstanding what had happened and saying, ‘We won all by ourselves, the Lord didn't have anything to do with it.’
27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted; Yahweh has not done all this.’”
28 Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
28 For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
29 How I wish they were wise, so they could understand it; they would recognize what was going to happen to them.
29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30 How on earth could one man chase after a thousand, or two make ten thousand run away, unless their Rock of protection had sold them, unless the Lord had surrendered them?
30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31 The rock they rely on is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede.
32 But their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; they are bitter bunches.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, deadly snake venom.
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
34 I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
34 “Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
35 I make sure justice is done, I will repay. The time is coming when they will fall, their day of disaster is approaching, their doom will soon arrive.”
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides, for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
36 The Lord is going to vindicate his people; he will be merciful to his servants when he sees that they have no strength left, and that everyone is gone, whether slave or free.
36 For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
37 He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where you went for protection?
37 He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
38 Who ate the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine of your drink offerings? Have them come and help you; have them come and protect you!
38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.
39 Listen! I am the only God! There is no other God except me! I bring death, and I give life; I wound, and I heal. No one can be rescued from my power.
39 “See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40 I hold up my hand to heaven and solemnly declare on my eternal life,
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,
41 when I sharpen my shining sword and pick it up to execute judgment, I will repay my enemies and punish those who hate me as they deserve.
41 if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
42 My arrows will become drunk with blood, as my sword eats flesh; the blood of those who are killed and captured, the heads of the enemy's leaders.”
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”
43 Celebrate with him! Let all God's angels worship him! Celebrate, foreigners, with his people; because he will pay back those who killed his children. He will punish his enemies, and repay those who hate him; he will purify his land and his people.
43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
44 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.
44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
45 After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
45 Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel.
46 he told them, “Think about all these words I've declared to you today, so you can order your children to follow carefully everything in this law.
46 He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47 Don't treat these words as trivial because they are your life, and by them you will have long lives in the country that you will own after crossing the Jordan.”
47 For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
48 That same day the Lord told Moses,
48 Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
49 “Climb up into the Abarim mountains to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look over the country of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for them to own.
49 “Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.
50 There on the mountain you've climbed, you will die and join your people in death, in the same way your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his people.
50 Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people;
51 For there at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Desert of Zin, you both were unfaithful to me. You misrepresented me to the Israelites when you didn't treat me as holy in their presence.
51 because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel.
52 Though you will see the country that I am giving the Israelites from a distance, you won't enter it.”
52 For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”
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
Places
Mount Nebo
A summit in the Transjordan highlands of Moab. From here Moses surveyed Canaan before his death; the view spans the Jordan Valley, Jericho, and the Dead Sea.
Cited in the guide: Deuteronomy 34:1; Deuteronomy 32:49
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)