Deuteronomy 32:19-43

19When the Lord saw this, he despised them, angered by his sons and daughters.

20He said, “I will hide my face from them; I will see what will become of them, for they are a perverse generation — unfaithful children.

21They have provoked my jealousy with what is not a god; they have enraged me with their worthless idols. So I will provoke their jealousy with what is not a people; I will enrage them with a foolish nation.

22For fire has been kindled because of my anger and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the land and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

23“I will pile disasters on them; I will use up my arrows against them.

24They will be weak from hunger, ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs, as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.

25Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, there will be terror; the young man and the young woman will be killed, the infant and the gray-haired man.

26“I would have said: I will cut them to pieces and blot out the memory of them from mankind,

27if I had not feared provocation from the enemy, or feared that these foes might misunderstand and say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it wasn’t the Lord who did all this.’”

28Israel is a nation lacking sense with no understanding at all.

29If only they were wise, they would comprehend this; they would understand their fate.

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

31But their “rock” is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.

32For their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters are bitter.

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

34“Is it not stored up with me, sealed up in my vaults?

35Vengeance and retribution belong to me. In time their foot will slip, for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

36The Lord will indeed vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees that their strength is gone and no one is left — slave or free.

37He will say, “Where are their gods, the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?

38Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let it be a shelter for you.

39See now that I alone am he; there is no God but me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from my power.

40I raise my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,

41when I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

42I 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.”

43Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries; he will purify his land and his people.