Deuteronomy 32; Proverbs 16

Deuteronomy 32

1 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.

3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

5 They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.

6 Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator,who made you and formed you?

7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.

8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

9 For the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.

12 The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.

13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag,

14 with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior.

16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear.

18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.

21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

22 For a fire will be kindled by my wrath, one that burns down to the realm of the dead below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

23 “I will heap calamities on them and spend my arrows against them.

24 I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

25 In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. The young men and young women will perish, the infants and those with gray hair.

26 I said I would scatter them and erase their name from human memory,

27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.’ ”

28 They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.

29 If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!

30 How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?

31 For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.

32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.

33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.

34 “Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?

35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.”

36 The LORD will vindicate his people and relent concerning his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.

37 He will say: “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,

38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!

39 “See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.

40 I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear: As surely as I live forever,

41 when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”

43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people,for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.

44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,

46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.

47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

48 On that same day the LORD told Moses,

49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.

50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.

52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Proverbs 16

1 To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue.

2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.

3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

4 The LORD works out everything to its proper end— even the wicked for a day of disaster.

5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided.

7 When the LORD takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.

8 Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.

9 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

10 The lips of a king speak as an oracle, and his mouth does not betray justice.

11 Honest scales and balances belong to the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making.

12 Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness.

13 Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value the one who speaks what is right.

14 A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but the wise will appease it.

15 When a king’s face brightens, it means life; his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!

17 The highway of the upright avoids evil; those who guard their ways preserve their lives.

18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

19 Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.

20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,and blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD.

21 The wise in heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction.

22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent, but folly brings punishment to fools.

23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.

24 Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

25 There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

26 The appetite of laborers works for them; their hunger drives them on.

27 A scoundrel plots evil, and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.

28 A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.

29 A violent person entices their neighbor and leads them down a path that is not good.

30 Whoever winks with their eye is plotting perversity; whoever purses their lips is bent on evil.

31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.

32 Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.

33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.