Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Give ear O ye heavens and I will speak, And let the earth hear the sayings of my mouth:
2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
Let my teaching drop as the rain, Let my speech distil as the dew, —As copious rains on tender grass, As myriad drops on seeding plants.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!
When, the name of Yahweh, I proclaim, Ascribe ye greatness unto our God: —
4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
A Rock! faultless his work, For, all his ways, are just, A GOD of faithfulness and without perversity, Right and fair, is he!
5 His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.
They have broken faith with him to be no sons of his—their fault, —A generation twisted and crooked.
6 Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?
Is it Yahweh, ye thus requite, O impious people and unwise? Is not, he, thy father who begat thee? He, that made thee and established thee?
7 Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.
Remember the days of age-past times, Remark the years of many generations, —Ask thy father and he will tell thee, Thine elders and they will say to thee: —
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
When the Most High gave inheritances unto the nations, When he spread abroad the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples, According to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
For, Yahweh’s portion is his people, —Jacob, his inherited possession.
10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
He met him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness, —He encompassed him watched over him, Shielded him as the pupil of his own eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
As, an eagle, stirreth up his nest, Over his young ones, fluttereth, Spreadeth abroad his wings, taketh one, Beareth it up on his pinions,
12 The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.
Yahweh alone did lead him, —And there was with him no GOD of a stranger.
13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,
He made him ride on the high places of the land, Caused him to eat the increase of the fields, —And gave him to suck honey out of the cliff, And oil out of the rock of flint:
14 with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.
Curds of kine and milk of sheep, —With fat of well-fed lambs, Yea rams bred in Bashan, and he-goats, With the white of the kernels of wheat, —And, the blood of the grape, thou didst drink as it foamed.
15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
Then Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: Thou wast fat, Thou wast thick, Thou wast gorged, So he forsook the GOD who made him, And treated as foolish his Rock of salvation.
16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
They moved him to jealousy with foreign [gods], —With abominations, angered they him:
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear.
They sacrificed to mischievous demons to a No-GOD, Gods whom they knew not, —New ones lately come in, Your fathers never shuddered at them!
18 You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
Of the Rock who had begotten thee, thou wast unmindful, —And didst forget GOD who had given thee birth.
19 When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
When Yahweh saw, he derided, —Because his sons and his daughters gave provocation.
20 He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation— children of unfaithfulness.
So he said: —I will hide my face from them, I will see what will be their hereafter, —For a generation given to intrigue, they are, Sons, whom there is no trusting;
21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
They have moved me to jealousy with a No-GOD, They have angered me with their vanities: I, therefore, will move them to jealousy with a No-people, With an impious nation, will I anger them.
22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
For, a fire, is kindled in mine anger, And shall burn as far as hades beneath, —And consume the earth with her produce, And set ablaze the foundations of the mountains: (Sheol h7585)
23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
I will heap on them, calamities, —Mine arrows, will I spend upon them:
24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
The meltings of hunger, The devourings of fever, And the dangerous pestilence, —And, the tooth of beasts, will I send among them, With the poison of crawlers of the dust:
25 Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.
Without, shall the sword bereave, In the inmost recesses, terror, —To both young man and virgin, Suckling, with man of grey hairs.
26 I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,
I said, I would puff them away, I would destroy from mortals, their memory;
27 if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’”
Were it not that the taunt of the foe, I feared, Lest their adversaries should mistake, —Lest they should say—Our own hand, is exalted, It is not Yahweh, therefore who hath wrought all this!
28 Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.
For a nation of vanished sagacity, they are, —And there is in them no understanding.
29 If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
If they had been wise, they would have understood this, —They would have given heed to their here-after!
30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
Oh! how would one, have chased, a thousand! And, two, put, ten thousand to flight, —Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And, Yahweh, had abandoned them;
31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.
For, not like our Rock, is their rock, Our enemies themselves, being judges;
32 But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters are bitter.
For of the vine of Sodom, is their vine, And of the vineyards of Gomorrah, —Their grapes, are grapes of gall, Clusters of bitter things, are theirs:
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
The poison of large serpents, is their wine, —Yea the fierce venom of asps.
34 “Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults?
Is not, that, stored up with me, —Sealed up amongst my treasures;
35 Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
Unto the days of vengeance and requital: Unto the time their foot shall totter? For, near, is the day of their fate, And their destiny speedeth on.
36 For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.
For Yahweh will vindicate his people, And upon his servants, will have compassion, —When he seeth that strength is exhausted, And there is no one shut up or at large,
37 He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
Then will he say, Where are their gods, The rock in whom they have trusted;
38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter!
Who used to eat the fat of their sacrifices, To drink the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be over you for a coveting!
39 See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
See, now, that, I, I, am, he that is, And there are no gods with me, —I, kill—and make alive, I wound and, I, heal, And there is none who, from my hand, can deliver,
40 For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,
For I lift up unto the heavens my hand, —And say, Living am, I, unto times age-abiding:
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.
If I whet my flashing sword, And my hand take hold on justice, I will return vengeance unto mine adversaries, And them who hate me, will I requite:
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh— the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, And, my sword, shall devour flesh, —With the blood of the slain and the captive, With the flesh of the chief leader of the foe.
43 Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and His people.
Shout for joy O ye nations [with] his people, For the blood of his servants, he avengeth, —And, vengeance, he returneth unto his adversaries, And is propitious unto the soil of his people.
44 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
So Moses came in and spake all the words of this Song in the hearing of the people, —he and Hoshea son of Nun.
45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
And, when Moses made an end of speaking all these words unto all Israel,
46 he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.
he said unto them—Apply your hearts unto all the words which I am witnessing against you, to-day, —how that ye must command your sons to observe to do all the words of this law;
47 For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
for it is not, too small a thing, for you, for, it, is your life, —and, hereby, shall ye prolong your days upon the soil whereunto ye are, passing over the Jordan to possess it.
48 On that same day the LORD said to Moses,
And Yahweh spake unto Moses, on this selfsame day, saying:
49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession.
Get thee up into this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is over against Jericho—and behold the land of Canaan which I am giving unto the sons of Israel, for a possession;
50 And there on the mountain that you climb, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
and die thou in the mount whither thou art going up, and be withdrawn unto thy kinsfolk, —as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was withdrawn unto his kinsfolk;
51 For at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence.
for that ye acted unfaithfully against me in the midst of the sons of Israel, regarding the waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the desert of Zin, —for that ye hallowed me not in the midst of the sons of Israel.
52 Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”
Yet, over against thee, shalt thou behold the land, —but thereinto, shalt thou not enter, into the land which I am giving unto the sons of Israel.
