Deuteronomy 32

1 Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note of 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 My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden 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 give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great.

When, the name of Yahweh, I proclaim, Ascribe ye greatness unto our God: —

4 He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true 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 They have become false, they are not his children, the mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted generation.

They have broken faith with him to be no sons of his—their fault, —A generation twisted and crooked.

6 Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.

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 Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you the story.

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 heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel.

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 For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage.

For, Yahweh’s portion is his people, —Jacob, his inherited possession.

10 He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light 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, teaching her young to make their flight, with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her strong feathers:

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 So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.

Yahweh alone did lead him, —And there was with him no GOD of a stranger.

13 He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock;

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 Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape.

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 became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to 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 The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath.

They moved him to jealousy with foreign [gods], —With abominations, angered they him:

17 They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers.

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 have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of 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 And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters.

When Yahweh saw, he derided, —Because his sons and his daughters gave provocation.

20 And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled generation, children in whom is no faith.

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 given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation,

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 my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase, and firing the deep roots 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 send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be showered on them.

I will heap on them, calamities, —Mine arrows, will I spend upon them:

24 They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of 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 they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-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 said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men:

I said, I would puff them away, I would destroy from mortals, their memory;

27 But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done 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 For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them.

For a nation of vanished sagacity, they are, —And there is in them no understanding.

29 If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future!

If they had been wise, they would have understood this, —They would have given heed to their here-after!

30 How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not 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 haters themselves being judges.

For, not like our Rock, is their rock, Our enemies themselves, being judges;

32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries 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 poison of dragons, the cruel poison of snakes.

The poison of large serpents, is their wine, —Yea the fierce venom of asps.

34 Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?

Is not, that, stored up with me, —Sealed up amongst my treasures;

35 Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate.

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 be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up 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 And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith?

Then will he say, Where are their gods, The rock in whom they have trusted;

38 Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation.

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, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free 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 lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life,

For I lift up unto the heavens my hand, —And say, Living am, I, unto times age-abiding:

41 If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters.

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 red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters.

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 Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for 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 So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.

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 And after saying all this to the people,

And, when Moses made an end of speaking all these words unto all Israel,

46 Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your children to do every word 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 And this is no small thing for you, but it is your life, and through this you may make your days long in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.

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 That same day the Lord said to Moses,

And Yahweh spake unto Moses, on this selfsame day, saying:

49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab opposite Jericho; there you may see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for their heritage:

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 let death come to you on the mountain where you are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to rest with 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 Because of your sin against me before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath Kadesh in the waste land of Zin; because you did not keep my name holy among the children of Israel.

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 So you will see the land before you, but you will not go into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.

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.