Deuteronomy 32:1-52
Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 1 to verse 52
Summary
Moses is giving his final address to the Children of Israel. God has told Moses to write down a song or poem to teach the Israelites. This is because God knows that when the Israelites enter into the Promised Land, they will turn away from God. This poem is to be reminder to the people of the consequences of their actions.
It begins with Moses praising God and describing how God has taken care of the people of Israel. However, despite this the people will turn away from God. The poem describes how the people will disobey the commandments, as they worship other gods. Because of this unfaithfulness, the people will suffer God’s anger, and will be punished.
But ultimately, God will forgive the people, and will deliver them from their enemies. The Children of Israel will see God’s power and atone.
Moses tells the people to take this warning very seriously. Obeying God is a very serious matter. The laws that the people have received from God will be central to their lives.
The parasha ends with God telling moses to climb Mt. Nebo and look out at the Promised Land, He will die soon on that mountain as a punishment for not obeying God during the wandering in the desert.
Torah Portion in English
Moses is giving his final address to the Children of Israel. God has told Moses to write down a song or poem to teach the Israelites. This is because God knows that when the Israelites enter into the Promised Land, they will turn away from God. This poem is to be reminder to the people of the consequences of their actions.
It begins with Moses praising God and describing how God has taken care of the people of Israel. However, despite this the people will turn away from God. The poem describes how the people will disobey the commandments, as they worship other gods. Because of this unfaithfulness, the people will suffer God’s anger, and will be punished.
But ultimately, God will forgive the people, and will deliver them from their enemies. The Children of Israel will see God’s power and atone.
Moses tells the people to take this warning very seriously. Obeying God is a very serious matter. The laws that the people have received from God will be central to their lives.
The parasha ends with God telling moses to climb Mt. Nebo and look out at the Promised Land, He will die soon on that mountain as a punishment for not obeying God during the wandering in the desert.
Torah Portion in English
1) Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
2) May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.
3) For the name of the Lord I proclaim;
Give glory to our God!
4) The Rock!—His deeds are perfect,
Yea, all His ways are just;
A faithful God, never false,
True and upright is He.
5) Children unworthy of Him—
That crooked, perverse generation—
Their baseness has played Him false.
6) Do you thus requite the Lord,
O dull and witless people?
Is not He the Father who created you,
Fashioned you and made you endure!
7) Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of ages past;
Ask your father, he will inform you,
Your elders, they will tell you:
8) When the Most High gave nations their homes
And set the divisions of man,
He fixed the boundaries of peoples
In relation to Israel’s numbers.
9) For the Lord‘s portion is His people,
Jacob His own allotment.
10) He found him in a desert region,
In an empty howling waste.
He engirded him, watched over him,
Guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
11) Like an eagle who rouses his nestlings,
Gliding down to his young,
So did He spread His wings and take him,
Bear him along on His pinions;
12) The Lord alone did guide him,
No alien god at His side.
Getting to Know my Parasha
What Does my Parasha Say?
- How is God described in this poem? What image comes up frequently?
- How does the text suggest that the people learn God’s law?
- What does Jeshurun mean?
- How did God take care of Jacob?
- Why does God not destroy the Israelites after they have disobeyed God’s laws?
- When Moses finishes the poem, what does he say to the Israelites?
- Where does God tell Moses to go to die?
- Why is Moses not allowed into the land?
- Who takes over for Moses?