Deuteronomy 32
1 Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.
Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
3 Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
5 They have sinned against him, and are nose of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?
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?
7 Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee.
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.
8 When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel.
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.
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye.
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.
11 As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders.
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.
12 The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.
13 He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone,
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,
14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep with the fat of lambs, and of the rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape.
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.
15 The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and gross, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his saviour.
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.
16 They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.
They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear.
18 Thou hast forsaken the God that beget thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him.
When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.
20 And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children.
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.
21 They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation.
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.
22 A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
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)
23 I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.
I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
24 They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.
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.
25 Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years.
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.
26 I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,
27 But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things.
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.’”
28 They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.
29 O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
30 How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
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?
31 For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.
For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.
32 Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter.
But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
34 Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
“Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults?
35 Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come.
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.”
36 The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed.
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.
37 And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?
He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
38 Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress.
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!
39 See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
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.
40 I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.
For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,
41 If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me.
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.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies.
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.”
43 Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people.
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.
44 So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun.
Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
45 And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.
When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
46 And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words, which I testify to you this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to fulfill all that is written in this law:
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.
47 For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them, and that doing them you may continue a long time in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it.
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.”
48 And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:
On that same day the LORD said to Moses,
49 Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of passages, ) unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho: and see the land of Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die thou in the mountain.
“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.
50 When thou art gone up into it thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Her, and was gathered to his people:
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.
51 Because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of contradiction in Cades of the desert of Sin: and you did not sanctify me among the children of Israel.
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.
52 Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”
