Folks, Deuteronomy Chapters 31 and 32 are included, in full, below. This is from the Charles Thomson translation of the Greek Old Testament:
Deuteronomy
Chapter 31
When Moses had finished speaking all these words, to all the children of Israel, he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty years old. I shall no more be able to go out, and come in before you: for the Lord hath said to me, Thou shalt not cross the Jordan. The Lord thy God, who goeth before thee, will himself drive out those nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them; and Joshua is to go before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. The Lord thy God will indeed do to them as he did to Seon, and Og, the two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side the Jordan, and to their land; in the same manner as the Lord rooted them out, and delivered them up to you. And you shall do to them as I have commanded you. Act manfully, and be strong; fear not, nor be faint hearted, nor terrified at them; for the Lord thy God, who goeth before you, is with you; is among you. May he never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Then Moses called Joshua, and said to him before all Israel, Be courageous, and strong; for thou shalt go before this people, into the land which the Lord solemnly promised your fathers to give them; and thou shalt put them in possession of it; and the Lord, who marcheth with thee, will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Now Moses had written the words of this law in a book; so he gave it to the priests, the children of Levi, who carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to the elders of the children of Israel. And Moses gave them a charge on that day saying, At the end of every seven years, at the Solemnity of the release, during the festival of tabernacles, when all Israel assemble, to appear before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord shall chuse; you shall read this law before all Israel, in their hearing. Let the people be assembled, the men, and the women, and the children, and the proselyte who is in your cities, that they may hear, and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God; and let them hearken to do all the words of this law. And let their children who have not known, hearken, and learn to fear the Lord thy God, all the days they live in the land to which you are going, to cross the Jordan, there to take possession of it. Now when the Lord said to Moses, Behold the time of thy death approacheth, call Joshua, and stand at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and I will give him a charge; thereupon Moses went with Joshua to the tabernacle of the testimony, and they stood at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and the Lord descended in a cloud, and stood at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, and while the pillar of the cloud stood at the doors of the tabernacle of the testimony, the Lord said to Moses, Behold when thou sleepest with thy fathers, this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the strange gods of the land to which they are going. And when they forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them, I shall be provoked to wrath against them that day, and I will leave them, and turn away my face from them, and they shall be devoured. And when many evils and afflictions shall befal them, then will one say in that day, Because the Lord my God is not with me, these evils have befallen me. But I will turn away my face from them, on that day, because of all their wickedness which they have committed, because they have turned to strange gods. Now therefore write the words of this Ode and teach it to the children of Israel, and put it into their mouth, that this Ode may be an open witness for me among the children of Israel. For when I bring them into that good land, which I solemnly promised their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat, and be satiated, and they will turn to strange gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant; but this Ode will rise up, and witness against them; for it shall never be forgotten out of their mouth, nor out of the mouth of their seed: for I know their wickedness, what they do even now before I have brought them into that good land which I solemnly promised their fathers. So Moses wrote the Ode that day and taught it to the children of Israel. And the Lord gave a charge to Joshua, and said, Be courageous, and strong, for thou shalt conduct the children of Israel into the land which the Lord solemnly promised them, and he will be with thee. Now when Moses had made an end of writing all the words of this law in a book, even to the close, he gave a charge to the Levites, who carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law; and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; and it shall be there for a witness against thee; for I know thy contentious disposition, and thy stiff neck. For even now while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against God; how then can it be otherwise after my death? Assemble before me the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and your judges, and your under officers, that I may speak in their hearing all these words and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will commit iniquity, and turn aside out of the way which I commanded you, and evils will befal you in the latter days, because you will do evil before the Lord, to provoke him to wrath by the works of your hands. Then for a conclusion Moses spoke in the hearing of all the congregation the words of this Ode.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 32
Listen, heaven, and I will speak, And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my doctrine be expected like rain, And my words distil as the dew; Like gentle rain on the tender herb, And like a heavy shower on the grass. Since I have proclaimed the name of the Lord, Ascribe ye majesty to our God. He is God, his works are perfect; All his ways are acts of judgment; A faithful God; he doth no injustice; Righteous and holy is the Lord. They have sinned! blemished children are not his. Crooked and perverse generation! Do ye thus requite the Lord? Are the people so foolish and unwise? Did not this thy father purchase thee? Did he not make and fashion thee? Remember the days of old; Consider the years of ages past; Ask thy father; he can tell thee; Thine elders; they can inform thee: When the Most High divided nations; When he dispersed the children of Adam, He settled the boundaries of nations, According to the number of God’s messengers; And the Lord’s portion was his people Jacob; Israel was his lot of inheritance. He sustained them in the wilderness, In the drought of heat, in a land without water. He led them about, and instructed them; He kept them as the apple of his eye. As an eagle would defend his nest, And, when anxious for his young, would spread out his wings, and receive them, And bare them up on his shoulders; The Lord alone conducted them, And there was not a strange god with them. He brought them up to the strength of this land, He fed them with the products of the fields; They sucked honey out of a rock, And oil out of a flinty rock; With butter of kine, and with milk of sheep; With the fattest of lambs and rams, young bulls and goats, And with bread of the choicest wheat; And they drank wine, the pure juice of the grape. When Jacob had eaten and was filled, Then he who was beloved began to kick; He grew fat, waxed thick, and became corpulent, Then he forsook the God who made him; And apostatised from God his saviour. They exasperated me with strange gods, With their abominations they provoked me, They sacrificed to demons, and not to God; To gods, which they had never known, Which had started up, new and fictitious, Of which their fathers had no knowledge, The God who begot thee, thou hast forsaken, And hast forgot the God who nourished thee; And the Lord saw, and was provoked to jealousy; He was provoked at the temper of his sons and daughters, and said, I will turn away my face from them, And shew what shall befal them in the latter days. Because they are a perverse generation; Children, who have no faith in them; They have provoked me by what is not God; Have exasperated me with their idols; I therefore will provoke them by what is not a nation, By a foolish nation I will vex them. Since a fire is kindled because of my wrath, It shall burn down to the lowest Hades; It shall consume the land, and the products thereof; It shall set on fire the foundations of mountains: I will assemble evils against them, And hurl my bolts at them. While they are wasting by famine, and voracious birds; The burning carbuncle also shall be incurable; I will send against them the teeth of wild beasts, With the venom of serpents, trailing on the ground. Abroad the sword shall bereave them of children, And in their chambers terror shall destroy. The youth shall perish with the young virgin, The sucking infant with the venerable sage. I had determined to disperse them, And cause the remembrance of them to cease among men; Had it not been for the temper of enemies; That the adversaries might not out live them; That they might not fall upon them at once; Lest they should say, Our own high hand, And not the Lord, hath done all this. It is a nation devoid of counsel; There is no knowledge among them. They have not bent their minds to understand; Let them lay up these things for time to come. How could one man chase a thousand, And two put myriads to flight, Had not God cast them off; Had not the Lord delivered them up? For their gods are not like our God; And our enemies are without understanding. As their vine is from the vine of Sodom And their shoot from that of Gomorra; Their cluster of grapes will be a cluster of gall; A cluster of bitterness it shall be to them: Their wine shall be the venom of dragons; The incurable venom of asps. Behold! are not these things stored up with me? And sealed up among my treasures? In the day of vengeance I will requite, When their foot shall be supplanted. Because the day of destruction is nigh for them, Therefore at hand are the things prepared for you. Because the Lord will judge his people; When he shall be appeased for his servants, (For he saw that they were enfeebled, Made faint by hostile invasions and dejected) Then the Lord said, where are their gods; The gods in which they placed their confidence? The fat of those sacrifices you ate And drank the wine of their libations? Let them arise and help you, And let them be your protectors. See! See! that I am the Self existent, And that there is no God besides me; I kill, and I can cause to live, I can smite and I can heal, And none can rescue out of my hand: For I can lift up my hand to heaven, And swear by my right hand, and say, as I live forever, I will make my sword sharp as lightning, And my hand will support judgment; And I will execute vengeance on mine enemies, And make retribution to them who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh With the blood of slain and captives. From the head of enemy chiefs. Rejoice, heavens, with him, And let all the angels of God worship him: Rejoice, nations, with his people, And let all the children of God rely on him: For he avengeth the blood of his children, And will judge, and execute vengeance on his enemies, To them who hate him he will render retribution, And the Lord will purify the land of his people. Now on that day when Moses had written this Ode and taught it to the children of Israel; and he, and Joshua the son of Naue, had come, and spoken all the words of this law in the hearing of the people, Moses concluded his speech to all Israel with this address to them: Attend with your heart to all these words which I this day testify to you, and which you are to give in charge to your children, that they may keep, and perform all the words of this law; for this is not a vain thing for you; for it is your life; and, for the sake of this word, you shall prolong your days in the land to which you are going, to cross the Jordan to take possession. Then the Lord spoke to Moses that day, saying, Go up the mountain Abarim, to that mount Nabo, which is in the land of Moab, fronting Jericho, and take a view of the land of Chanaan, which I give to the children of Israel; and die on the mount to which thou goest up, and be gathered to thy people, in the same manner as thy brother Aaron died on mount Or, and was gathered to his people, because you disobeyed my word among the children of Israel, at the water of strife, at Kades, in the wilderness of Sin. Because you did not hallow me among the children of Israel, thou shalt see the land at a distance, but shalt not go in thither.
Notable Considerations:
- We see prophesied proof, above, that Israel would break their covenant with God. And scriptural proof, below, that that prophesy was, indeed, fulfilled, as was God’s promise to make a new covenant which is the covenant which Jesus Christ brought to all the world:
Behold the days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Juda. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not abide by this covenant of mine, therefore I took no care of them.
(Jeremiah 31:31-32 Charles Thomson Bible)Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
(Jeremiah 31:31-32 KJV) - “Did not this thy father purchase thee? Did he not make and fashion thee?” — Isn’t it Jesus Christ who purchased, that is, redeemed, us? Isn’t it Jesus Christ who made us (and all of creation)? See the below scriptures:
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:13-14 KJV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:1-7 KJV)
- “Then he [Jacob/Israel] forsook the God who made him; And apostatised from God his saviour” — Please note: a) this is from the very same chapter as the verse from Number 2, above, and b) this is, of course, the same one and only God who made us and who is our Savior as shown, again, in Number 2, above.
Question: What, then, are we being shown, above (Numbers 2 and 3, specifically)?
