Deuteronomy 28-33

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

28 If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God.

³ Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field.

⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.

⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.

⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷ The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

⁸ The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

⁹ The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.

¹⁰ And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name [and in the presence of] the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

¹¹ And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

¹² The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

¹³ And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day and are watchful to do them.

¹⁴ And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁵ But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field.

¹⁷ Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.

¹⁸ Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, of your land, of the increase of your cattle and the young of your sheep.

¹⁹ Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ The Lord shall send you curses, confusion, and rebuke in every enterprise to which you set your hand, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly because of the evil of your doings by which you have forsaken me [Moses and God as one].

²¹ The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land into which you go to possess.

²² The Lord will smite you with consumption, with fever and inflammation, fiery heat, sword and drought, blasting and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.

²³ The heavens over your head shall be brass and the earth under you shall be iron.

²⁴ The Lord shall make the rain of your land powdered soil and dust; from the heavens it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.

²⁵ The Lord shall cause you to be struck down before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, and you shall be tossed to and fro and be a terror among all the kingdoms of the earth. [Fulfilled in II Chron. 29:8.]

²⁶ And your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

²⁷ The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and the tumors, the scurvy and the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

²⁸ The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and dismay of [mind and] heart.

²⁹ And you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness. And you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to save you.

³⁰ You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but not gather its grapes.

³¹ Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away before your face and not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to help you.

³² Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day; and there shall be no power in your hands to prevent it. [Fulfilled in II Chron. 29:9.]

³³ A nation which you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your land and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, [Fulfilled in Judg. 6:1-6; 13:1.]

³⁴ So that you shall be driven mad by the sights which your eyes shall see.

³⁵ The Lord will smite you on the knees and on the legs with a sore boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

³⁶ The Lord shall bring you and your king whom you have set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall [be forced to] serve other gods, of wood and stone. [Fulfilled in II Kings 17:4, 6; 24:12, 14; 25:7, 11; Dan. 6:11, 12.]

³⁷ And you shall become an amazement, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples to which the Lord will lead you.

³⁸ You shall carry much seed out into the field and shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. [Fulfilled in Hag. 1:6.]

³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and dress them but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.

⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory but you shall not anoint yourselves with the oil, for your olive trees shall drop their fruit.

⁴¹ You shall beget sons and daughters but shall not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity. [Fulfilled in Lam. 1:5.]

⁴² All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess. [Fulfilled in Joel 1:4.]

⁴³ The transient (stranger) among you shall mount up higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ All these curses shall come upon you and shall pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

⁴⁶ They shall be upon you for a sign [of warning to other nations] and for a wonder, and upon your descendants forever.

⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness of [mind and] heart [in gratitude] for the abundance of all [with which He had blessed you],

⁴⁸ Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in want of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you shall not understand,

⁵⁰ A nation of unyielding countenance who will not regard the person of the old or show favor to the young,

⁵¹ And shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, who also shall not leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your cattle or the young of your sheep until they have caused you to perish.

⁵² They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you.

⁵³ And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the [pressing] misery with which your enemies shall distress you. [Fulfilled in II Kings 6:24-29.]

⁵⁴ The man who is most tender among you and extremely particular and well-bred, his eye shall be cruel and grudging of food toward his brother and toward the wife of his bosom and toward those of his children still remaining,

⁵⁵ So that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children which he is eating, because he has nothing left to him in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you in all your towns.

⁵⁶ The most tender and daintily bred woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground because she is so dainty and kind, will grudge to the husband of her bosom, to her son and to her daughter

⁵⁷ Her afterbirth that comes out from her body and the children whom she shall bear. For she will eat them secretly for want of anything else in the siege and distress with which your enemies shall distress you in your towns.

⁵⁸ If you will not be watchful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may [reverently] fear this glorious and fearful name [and presence]—the lord your god—

⁵⁹ Then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary strokes and blows, great plagues of long continuance, and grievous sicknesses of long duration.

⁶⁰ Moreover, He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.

⁶¹ Also every sickness and every affliction which is not written in this Book of the Law the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed.

⁶² And you shall be ^[a]left few in number, whereas you had been as the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

⁶³ And as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice to bring ruin upon you and to destroy you; and you shall be ^[b]plucked from the land into which you go to possess.

⁶⁴ And the Lord shall scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall [be forced to] serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. [Fulfilled in Dan. 3:6.]

⁶⁵ And among these nations you shall find no ease and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes [from disappointment of hope], fainting of mind, and languishing of spirit.

⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; day and night you shall be worried, and have no assurance of your life.

⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, Would that it were evening! and at evening you shall say, Would that it were morning!—because of the anxiety and dread of your [minds and] hearts and the sights which you shall see with your [own] eyes.

⁶⁸ And the Lord shall ^[c]bring you into Egypt again with ships by the way about which I said to you, You shall never see it again. And there you shall be sold to your enemies as bondmen and bondwomen, but no man shall buy you.^(A)

29 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

² Moses called to all Israel and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land;

³ The great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.

⁴ Yet the Lord has not given you a [mind and] heart to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this day.

⁵ I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.

⁶ You have not eaten [grain] bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you might recognize and know [your dependence on Him Who is saying], I am the Lord your God.

⁷ And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them.

⁸ We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites.

⁹ Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may deal wisely and prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰ All of you stand today before the Lord your God—your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,

¹¹ Your little ones, your wives, and the stranger and sojourner in your camp, from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water—

¹² That you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, and into His oath which He makes with you today,

¹³ That He may establish you this day as a people for Himself, and that He may be to you a God as He said to you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ It is not with you only that I make this sworn covenant

¹⁵ But with future Israelites who do not stand here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with those who are here with us this day.

¹⁶ You know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came through the midst of the nations you crossed.

¹⁷ And you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.

¹⁸ Beware lest there should be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose [mind and] heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a [poisonous] root that bears gall and wormwood,

¹⁹ And lest, when he hears the words of this curse and oath, he flatters and congratulates himself in his [mind and] heart, saying, I shall have peace and safety, ^[d]though I walk in the stubbornness of my [mind and] heart [bringing down a hurricane of destruction] and sweep away the watered land with the dry.

²⁰ The Lord will not pardon him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall settle on him; the Lord will blot out his very name from under the heavens.

²¹ And the Lord will single him out for ruin and destruction from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law,

²² So that the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a distant land, shall say, when they see the plagues of this land and the diseases with which the Lord has made it sick—

²³ The whole land is brimstone and salt and a burned waste, not sown or bearing anything, where no grass can take root, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and wrath—

²⁴ Even all the nations shall say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?

²⁵ Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.

²⁶ For they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they knew not and that He had not given to them.

²⁷ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses that are written in this book.

²⁸ And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath and in great indignation and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

²⁹ The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law.

30 And when all these things have come upon you, the blessings and the curses which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you,

² And shall return to the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your [mind and] heart and with all your being,

³ Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion upon you and will gather you again from all the nations where He has scattered you.

⁴ Even if any of your dispersed are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there will He bring you.

⁵ And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do you good and multiply you above your fathers.

⁶ And the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with all your being, that you may live.

⁷ And the Lord your God will put all these curses upon your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecute you.

⁸ And you shall return and obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today.

⁹ And the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, of your cattle, of your land, for good; for the Lord will again delight in prospering you, as He took delight in your fathers,

¹⁰ If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with all your being.

¹¹ For this commandment which I command you this day is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off.

¹² It is not [a secret laid up] in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?

¹³ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?

¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your mind and in your heart, so that you can do it.

¹⁵ See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil.

¹⁶ [If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which] I command you today, to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land into which you go to possess.

¹⁷ But if your [mind and] heart turn away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,

¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish, and you shall not live long in the land which you pass over the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live

²⁰ And may love the Lord your God, obey His voice, and cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

31 And Moses went on speaking these words to all Israel:

² And he said to them, I am 120 years old this day; I can no more go out and come in. And the Lord has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan.

³ The Lord your God will Himself go over before you, and He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. And Joshua shall go over before you, as the Lord has said.

⁴ And the Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them.

⁵ And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you.

⁶ Be strong, courageous, and firm; fear not nor be in terror before them, for it is the Lord your God Who goes with you; He will not fail you or forsake you.

⁷ And Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong, courageous, and firm, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to possess it.

⁸ It is the Lord Who goes before you; He will [march] with you; He will not fail you or let you go or forsake you; [let there be no cowardice or flinching, but] fear not, neither become broken [in spirit—depressed, dismayed, and unnerved with alarm].

⁹ And Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰ And Moses commanded them, At the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release [of debtors from their debts], at the Feast of Booths,

¹¹ When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses [for His sanctuary], you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

¹² Assemble the people—men, women, and children, and the stranger and the sojourner within your towns—that they may hear and learn [reverently] to fear the Lord your God and be watchful to do all the words of this law,

¹³ And that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn [reverently] to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you go over the Jordan to possess.

¹⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, your days are nearing when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, that I may give him his charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁵ And the Lord appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers, and this people will rise up and play the harlot after the strange gods of the land where they go to be among them; and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

¹⁷ Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them. And they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?

¹⁸ And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done in turning to other gods.

¹⁹ And now write this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the Israelites.

²⁰ For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves and become fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise and scorn Me and break My covenant.

²¹ And when many evils and troubles have befallen them, this [sacred] song will confront them as a witness, for it will never be forgotten from the mouths of their descendants. For I know their strong desire and the purposes which they are forming even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swore to give them.

²² Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the Israelites.^(B)

²³ And [the Lord] charged Joshua son of Nun, Be strong and courageous and firm, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land which I swore to give them, and I will be with you.

²⁴ And when Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end,

²⁵ He commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord,

²⁶ Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.

²⁷ For I know your rebellion and stubbornness; behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death!

²⁸ Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

²⁹ For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.

³⁰ And Moses spoke in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:

32 Give ear, O heavens, and I [Moses] will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

² My message shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the light rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb.

³ For I will proclaim the name [and presence] of the Lord. Concede and ascribe greatness to our God.

⁴ He is the Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are law and justice. A God of faithfulness without breach or deviation, just and right is He.

⁵ They [Israel] have spoiled themselves. They are not sons to Him, and that is their blemish—a perverse and crooked generation!

⁶ Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not He your Father Who acquired you for His own, Who made and established you [as a nation]?

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 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 Israelites.

⁹ For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob (Israel) is the lot of His inheritance.

¹⁰ He found him in a desert land, in the howling void of the wilderness; He kept circling around him, He scanned him [penetratingly], He kept him as the pupil of His eye.

¹¹ As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, He spread abroad His wings and He took them, He bore them on His pinions.^(C)

¹² So the Lord alone led him; there was no foreign god with Him.

¹³ He made Israel ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the increase of the field; and He made him suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock,

¹⁴ Butter and curds of the herd and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with the finest of the wheat; and you drank wine of the blood of the grape.

¹⁵ But Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat and kicked. You became fat, you grew thick, you were gorged and sleek! Then he forsook God Who made him and forsook and despised the Rock of his salvation.

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

¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, not to God—to gods whom they knew not, to new gods lately come up, whom your fathers never knew or feared.

¹⁸ Of the Rock Who bore you you were unmindful; you forgot the God Who travailed in your birth.

¹⁹ And the Lord saw it and He spurned and rejected them, out of indignation with His sons and His daughters.

²⁰ And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

²¹ They have moved Me to jealousy with what is not God; they have angered Me with their idols. So I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will anger them with a foolish nation.

²² For a fire is kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³ And I will heap evils upon them; I will spend My arrows upon them.

²⁴ They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence; and the teeth of beasts will I send against them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust.

²⁵ From without the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers shall be terror, destroying both young man and virgin, the sucking child with the man of gray hairs.

²⁶ I said, I would scatter them afar and I would have made the remembrance of them to cease from among men,

²⁷ Had I not feared the provocation of the foe, lest their enemies misconstrue it and lest they should say, Our own hand has prevailed; all this was not the work of the Lord.

²⁸ For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.

²⁹ O that they were wise and would see through this [present triumph] to their ultimate fate!

³⁰ How could one have chased a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had delivered them up?

³¹ For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves judge this.

³² For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of [poisonous] gall, their clusters are bitter.

³³ Their wine is the [furious] venom of serpents, and the pitiless poison of vipers.

³⁴ Is not this laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries?

³⁵ Vengeance is Mine, and recompense, in the time when their foot shall slide; for the day of their disaster is at hand and their doom comes speedily.

³⁶ For the Lord will revoke sentence for His people and relent for His servants’ sake when He sees that their power is gone and none remains, whether bond or free.

³⁷ And He will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,

³⁸ Who 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 See now that I, I am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand.

⁴⁰ For I lift up My hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever,

⁴¹ If I whet My lightning sword and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will wreak vengeance on My foes and recompense those who hate Me.

⁴² I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the foe.

⁴³ Rejoice [with] His people, O you nations, for He avenges the blood of His servants, and vengeance He inflicts on His foes and clears guilt from the land of His people.

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

⁴⁵ And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

⁴⁶ He said to them, Set your [minds and] hearts on all the words which I command you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they may be watchful to do all the words of this law.

⁴⁷ For it is not an empty and worthless trifle for you; it is your [very] life. By it you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.

⁴⁸ And the Lord said to Moses that same day,

⁴⁹ Get up into this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan which I give to the Israelites for a possession.

⁵⁰ And die on the mountain which you ascend and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,

⁵¹ Because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin and because you did not set Me apart as holy in the midst of the Israelites.

⁵² For you shall see the land opposite you at a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I give the Israelites.

33 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the Israelites before his death.

² He said, The Lord came from Sinai and beamed upon us from Seir; He flashed forth from Mount Paran, from among ten thousands of holy ones, a flaming fire, a law, at His right hand.

³ Yes, He loves [the tribes] His people; all those consecrated to Him are in Your hand. They followed in Your steps; they [accepted Your word and] received direction from You,

⁴ When Moses commanded us a law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.

⁵ [The Lord] was King in Jeshurun (Israel) when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

⁶ Let [the tribe of] Reuben live and not die out, but ^[e]let his men be few.

⁷ And this he [Moses] said of Judah: Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people! With his hands he contended for himself; but may You be a help against his enemies.

⁸ And of Levi he said: Your Thummim and Your Urim [by which the priest sought God’s will for the nation] are for Your pious one [Aaron on behalf of the tribe], whom You tried and proved at Massah, with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah;^(D)

⁹ [Aaron] who ^[f]said of his father and mother, I do not regard them; nor did he acknowledge his brothers or openly recognize his own children. For the priests observed Your word and kept Your covenant [as to their limitations].

¹⁰ [The priests] shall teach Jacob Your ordinances and Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You and whole burnt offerings upon Your altar.

¹¹ Bless, O Lord, [Levi’s] substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, and of those who hate him, that they arise no more.

¹² Of Benjamin he said: The beloved of the Lord shall ^[g]dwell in safety by Him; He covers him all the day long, and makes His dwelling between his shoulders.

¹³ And of Joseph he said: Blessed by the Lord be his land, with the precious gifts of heaven from the dew and from the deep that couches beneath,

¹⁴ With the precious things of the fruits of the sun and with the precious yield of the months,

¹⁵ With the chief products of the ancient mountains and with the precious things of the everlasting hills,

¹⁶ With the precious things of the earth and its fullness and the favor and goodwill of Him Who dwelt in the bush. Let these blessings come upon the head of Joseph, upon the crown of the head of him who was separate and prince among his brothers.^(E)

¹⁷ Like a firstling young bull his majesty is, and his horns like the horns of the wild ox; with them he shall push the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth. And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

¹⁸ And of Zebulun he said: ^[h]Rejoice, Zebulun, in your interests abroad, and you, Issachar, in your tents [at home].

¹⁹ They shall call the people unto Mount [Carmel]; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness, for ^[i]they shall suck the abundance of the seas and the treasures hid in the sand.

²⁰ And of Gad he said: Blessed is He Who enlarges Gad! Gad lurks like a lioness, and tears the arm, yes, the crown of the head.

²¹ He selected the best land for himself, for there was the leader’s portion reserved; yet he came with the chiefs of the nation, and the righteous will of the Lord he performed, and His ordinances with Israel.^(F)

²² Of Dan he said: Dan is a lion’s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan.

²³ Of Naphtali he said: O Naphtali, ^[j]satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord, possess the Sea [of Galilee] and [its warm, sunny climate like] the south.

²⁴ Of Asher he said: Blessed above sons is Asher; let him be acceptable to his brothers, and ^[k]let him dip his foot in oil.

²⁵ Your castles and strongholds shall have bars of iron and bronze, and as your day, so shall your strength, your rest and security, be.

²⁶ There is none like God, O Jeshurun [Israel], Who rides through the heavens to your help and in His majestic glory through the skies.

²⁷ The eternal God is your refuge and dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He drove the enemy before you and thrust them out, saying, Destroy!

²⁸ And Israel dwells in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone in a land of grain and new wine; yes, His heavens drop dew.

²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel, and blessing is yours! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the Shield of your help, the Sword that exalts you! Your enemies shall come fawning and cringing, and submit feigned obedience to you, and you shall march on their high places.