[31:30] Then Moses recited the entire song while all the people of Israel listened.
[32:1] “Earth and sky, hear my words, listen closely to what I say.
[32:2] My teaching will fall like drops of rain and form on the earth like dew. My words will fall like showers on young plants, like gentle rain on tender grass.
[32:3] I will praise the name of the Lord, and his people will tell of his greatness.
[32:4] “The Lord is your mighty defender, perfect and just in all his ways; Your God is faithful and true; he does what is right and fair.
[32:5] But you are unfaithful, unworthy to be his people, a sinful and deceitful nation.
[32:6] Is this the way you should treat the Lord, you foolish, senseless people? He is your father, your Creator, he made you into a nation.
[32:7] “Think of the past, of the time long ago; ask your parents to tell you what happened, ask the old people to tell of the past.
[32:8] The Most High assigned nations their lands; he determined where peoples should live. He assigned to each nation a heavenly being,
[32:9] but Jacob's descendants he chose for himself.
[32:10] “He found them wandering through the desert, a desolate, wind-swept wilderness. He protected them and cared for them, as he would protect himself.
[32:11] Like an eagle teaching its young to fly, catching them safely on its spreading wings, the Lord kept Israel from falling.
[32:12] The Lord alone led his people without the help of a foreign god.
[32:13] “He let them rule the highlands, and they ate what grew in the fields. They found wild honey among the rocks; their olive trees flourished in stony ground.
[32:14] Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk; they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle, the finest wheat, and the choicest wine.
[32:15] “The Lord's people grew rich, but rebellious; they were fat and stuffed with food. They abandoned God their Creator and rejected their mighty savior.
[32:16] Their idolatry made the Lord jealous; the evil they did made him angry.
[32:17] They sacrificed to gods that are not real, new gods their ancestors had never known, gods that Israel had never obeyed.
[32:18] They forgot their God, their mighty savior, the one who had given them life.
[32:19] “When the Lord saw this, he was angry and rejected his sons and daughters.
[32:20] ‘I will no longer help them,’ he said; ‘then I will see what happens to them, those stubborn, unfaithful people.
[32:21] With their idols they have made me angry, jealous with their so-called gods, gods that are really not gods. So I will use a so-called nation to make them angry; I will make them jealous with a nation of fools.
[32:22] My anger will flame up like fire and burn everything on earth. It will reach to the world below and consume the roots of the mountains.
[32:23] “‘I will bring on them endless disasters and use all my arrows against them.
[32:24] They will die from hunger and fever; they will die from terrible diseases. I will send wild animals to attack them, and poisonous snakes to bite them.
[32:25] War will bring death in the streets; terrors will strike in the homes. Young men and young women will die; neither babies nor old people will be spared.
[32:26] I would have destroyed them completely, so that no one would remember them.
[32:27] But I could not let their enemies boast that they had defeated my people, when it was I myself who had crushed them.’
[32:28] “Israel is a nation without sense; they have no wisdom at all.
[32:29] They fail to see why they were defeated; they cannot understand what happened.
[32:30] Why were a thousand defeated by one, and ten thousand by only two? The Lord, their God, had abandoned them; their mighty God had given them up.
[32:31] Their enemies know that their own gods are weak, not mighty like Israel's God.
[32:32] Their enemies, corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah, are like vines that bear bitter and poisonous grapes,
[32:33] like wine made from the venom of snakes.
[32:34] “The Lord remembers what their enemies have done; he waits for the right time to punish them.
[32:35] The Lord will take revenge and punish them; the time will come when they will fall; the day of their doom is near.
[32:36] The Lord will rescue his people when he sees that their strength is gone. He will have mercy on those who serve him, when he sees how helpless they are.
[32:37] Then the Lord will ask his people, ‘Where are those mighty gods you trusted?
[32:38] You fed them the fat of your sacrifices and offered them wine to drink. Let them come and help you now; let them run to your rescue.
[32:39] “‘I, and I alone, am God; no other god is real. I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal, and no one can oppose what I do.
[32:40] As surely as I am the living God, I raise my hand and I vow
[32:41] that I will sharpen my flashing sword and see that justice is done. I will take revenge on my enemies and punish those who hate me.
[32:42] My arrows will drip with their blood, and my sword will kill all who oppose me. I will spare no one who fights against me; even the wounded and prisoners will die.’
[32:43] “Nations, you must praise the Lord's people— he punishes all who kill them. He takes revenge on his enemies and forgives the sins of his people.”
[32:44] Moses and Joshua son of Nun recited this song, so that the people of Israel could hear it.