Deuteronomy 31:14–32:18 (NIV)

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Now the day of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, where I will commission him.” So Moses and Joshua came and presented themselves at the tent of meeting. ¹⁵ Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. ¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. ¹⁷ And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ ¹⁸ And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods. ¹⁹ “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. ²⁰When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. ²¹ And when many disasters and calamities come on them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.” ²² So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites. ²³ The Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.” ²⁴ After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, ²⁵he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: ²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. ²⁷ For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the Lord while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! ²⁸ Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officials, so that I can speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to testify against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord and arouse his anger by what your hands have made.” ³⁰ And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel: 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.

Matthew 15:32–16:4 (NIV)

³² Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” ³³ His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” ³⁴ “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.” ³⁵ He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. ³⁶ Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. ³⁷ They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ³⁸ The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. ³⁹ After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan. ¹ The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. ² He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ ³ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. ⁴ A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.