New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
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Listen, Heavens, I have something to tell you. Attention, Earth, I've got a mouth full of words.
2 May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew; like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth.
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My teaching, let it fall like a gentle rain, my words arrive like morning dew, Like a sprinkling rain on new grass, like spring showers on the garden.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!
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For it's God's Name I'm preaching - respond to the greatness of our God!
4 The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;
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The Rock: His works are perfect, and the way he works is fair and just; A God you can depend upon, no exceptions, a straight-arrow God.
5 yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him, a perverse and crooked generation.
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His messed-up, mixed-up children, his non-children, throw mud at him but none of it sticks.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
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Don't you realize it is God you are treating like this? This is crazy; don't you have any sense of reverence? Isn't this your father who created you, who made you and gave you a place on Earth?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.
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Read up on what happened before you were born; dig into the past, understand your roots. Ask your parents what it was like before you were born; ask the old-ones, they'll tell you a thing or two.
8 When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;
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When the High God gave the nations their stake, gave them their place on Earth, He put each of the peoples within boundaries under the care of divine guardians.
9 the Lord's own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
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But God himself took charge of his people, took Jacob on as his personal concern.
10 He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.
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He found him out in the wilderness, in an empty, windswept wasteland. He threw his arms around him, lavished attention on him, guarding him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions,
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He was like an eagle hovering over its nest, overshadowing its young, Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air, teaching them to fly.
12 the Lord alone guided him; no foreign god was with him.
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God alone led him; there was not a foreign god in sight.
13 He set him atop the heights of the land, and fed him with produce of the field; he nursed him with honey from the crags, with oil from flinty rock;
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God lifted him on to the hilltops, so he could feast on the crops in the fields. He fed him honey from the rock, oil from granite crags,
14 curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams; Bashan bulls and goats, together with the choicest wheat— you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.
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Curds of cattle and the milk of sheep, the choice cuts of lambs and goats, Fine Bashan rams, high-quality wheat, and the blood of grapes: you drank good wine!
15 Jacob ate his fill; Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You grew fat, bloated, and gorged! He abandoned God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
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Jeshurun put on weight and bucked; you got fat, became obese, a tub of lard. He abandoned the God who made him, he mocked the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made him jealous with strange gods, with abhorrent things they provoked him.
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They made him jealous with their foreign newfangled gods, and with obscenities they vexed him no end.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known, to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared.
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They sacrificed to no-god demons, gods they knew nothing about, The latest in gods, fresh from the market, gods your ancestors would never call "gods."
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
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You walked out on the Rock who gave you your life, forgot the birth-God who brought you into the world.
19 The Lord saw it, and was jealous; he spurned his sons and daughters.
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God saw it and turned on his heel, angered and hurt by his sons and daughters.
20 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 there is no faithfulness.
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He said, "From now on I'm looking the other way. Wait and see what happens to them. Oh, they're a turned-around, upside-down generation! Who knows what they'll do from one moment to the next?
21 They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation.
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They've goaded me with their no-gods, infuriated me with their hot-air gods; I'm going to goad them with a no-people, with a hollow nation incense them.
22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
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My anger started a fire, a wildfire burning deep down in Sheol, Then shooting up and devouring the Earth and its crops, setting all the mountains, from bottom to top, on fire.
23 I will heap disasters upon them, spend my arrows against them:
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I'll pile catastrophes on them, I'll shoot my arrows at them:
24 wasting hunger, burning consumption, bitter pestilence. The teeth of beasts I will send against them, with venom of things crawling in the dust.
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Starvation, blistering heat, killing disease; I'll send snarling wild animals to attack from the forest and venomous creatures to strike from the dust.
25 In the street the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers terror, for young man and woman alike, nursing child and old gray head.
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Killing in the streets, terror in the houses, Young men and virgins alike struck down, and yes, breast-feeding babies and gray-haired old men."
26 I thought to scatter them and blot out the memory of them from humankind;
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I could have said, "I'll hack them to pieces, wipe out all trace of them from the Earth,"
27 but I feared provocation by the enemy, for their adversaries might misunderstand and say, "Our hand is triumphant; it was not the Lord who did all this."
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Except that I feared the enemy would grab the chance to take credit for all of it, Crowing, "Look what we did! God had nothing to do with this."
28 They are a nation void of sense; there is no understanding in them.
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They are a nation of ninnies, they don't know enough to come in out of the rain.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern what the end would be.
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If they had any sense at all, they'd know this; they would see what's coming down the road.
30 How could one have routed a thousand, and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, the Lord had given them up?
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How could one soldier chase a thousand enemies off, or two men run off two thousand, Unless their Rock had sold them, unless God had given them away?
31 Indeed their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools.
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For their rock is nothing compared to our Rock; even our enemies say that.
32 Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter;
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They're a vine that comes right out of Sodom, who they are is rooted in Gomorrah; Their grapes are poison grapes, their grape-clusters bitter.
33 their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
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Their wine is rattlesnake venom, mixed with lethal cobra poison.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?
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Don't you realize that I have my shelves well stocked, locked behind iron doors?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly.
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I'm in charge of vengeance and payback, just waiting for them to slip up; And the day of their doom is just around the corner, sudden and swift and sure.
36 Indeed the Lord will vindicate his people, have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, neither bond nor free remaining.
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Yes, God will judge his people, but oh how compassionately he'll do it. When he sees their weakened plight and there is no one left, slave or free,
37 Then he will say: Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
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He'll say, "So where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection!
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The gods who feasted on the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? Let them show their stuff and help you, let them give you a hand!
39 See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.
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"Do you see it now? Do you see that I'm the one? Do you see that there's no other god beside me? I bring death and I give life, I wound and I heal - there is no getting away from or around me!
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear: As I live forever,
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I raise my hand in solemn oath; I say, 'I'm always around. By that very life I promise:
41 when I whet my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
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When I sharpen my lightning sword and execute judgment, I take vengeance on my enemies and pay back 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 enemy.
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I'll make my arrows drunk with blood, my sword will gorge itself on flesh, Feasting on slain and captive alike, the proud and vain enemy corpses.'"
43 Praise, O heavens, his people, worship him, all you gods! For he will avenge the blood of his children, and take vengeance on his adversaries; he will repay those who hate him, and cleanse the land for his people.
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Celebrate, nations, join the praise of his people. He avenges the deaths of his servants, Pays back his enemies with vengeance, and cleanses his land for his people.
44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun.
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Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun.
45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
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When Moses had finished saying all these words to all Israel,
46 he said to them: "Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law.
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he said, "Take to heart all these words to which I give witness today and urgently command your children to put them into practice, every single word of this Revelation.
47 This is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess."
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Yes. This is no small matter for you; it's your life. In keeping this word you'll have a good and long life in this land that you're crossing the Jordan to possess."
48 On that very day the Lord addressed Moses as follows:
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That same day God spoke to Moses:
49 "Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession;
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"Climb the Abarim Mountains to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, overlooking Jericho, and view the land of Canaan that I'm giving the People of Israel to have and hold.
50 you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin;
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Die on the mountain that you climb and join your people in the ground, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his people.
51 because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites.
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"This is because you broke faith with me in the company of the People of Israel at the Waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin - you didn't honor my Holy Presence in the company of the People of Israel.
52 Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelites."
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You'll look at the land spread out before you but you won't enter it, this land that I am giving to the People of Israel."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.