Deuteronomy 32
1 Heaven, listen as I speak; Earth, hear what I'm saying.
Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching fall gently like the rain; may my words drop lightly like the dew, like soft rain on new grass, like spring showers on growing plants.
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.
3 I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
4 He is the Rock. Everything he does is perfect, for all his ways are right. He is the trustworthy God who is never unjust; he is fair and honest.
The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
5 His children have acted immorally towards him; so they are no longer his children because of their sinful stains. They are a perverse and corrupt people.
They have sinned against him, and are nose of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
6 Is this any way to repay the Lord, you foolish, stupid people? Isn't he your Father who created you? Isn't he the one who turned you into a nation and made you strong?
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?
7 Remember the olden days; think about times long ago. God and ask your father, and he will explain them to you. Talk to your elders, and they will let you know.
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.
8 The Most High gave the nations their lands when he divided the human race; he fixed their borders depending on their gods.
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.
9 But the Lord's people are his, Israel is his chosen one.
But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found you in a desert land, in a desolate wasteland of whirlwinds. He protected you; he cared for you; he looked after you as the one he loved the most.
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.
11 Like an eagle watching over its nest, hovering over its chicks, he spread his wings and picked you up and carried you along.
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.
12 The Lord was the only one who led you; no foreign god was with him.
The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
13 The Lord gave you the high country to rule, and fed you with the crops of the field to eat. He sustained you with honey from the rock and olive oil from the flinty crag,
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,
14 with yogurt from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, along with the best wheat. You drank the wine made from the best grapes.
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.
15 But Israel, you grew fat and rebelled—fat, overweight, and bloated with food. You abandoned the God who made you and despised the Rock of your salvation.
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.
16 You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.
17 You offered sacrifices to demons instead of God, to gods you didn't know anything about, to brand-new gods that your forefathers didn't worship.
They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not.
18 You dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
Thou hast forsaken the God that beget thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
19 The Lord rejected them when he saw this; his sons and daughters made him angry.
The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him.
20 He said: “I will turn away from them. Then I'll see what happens to them! They are a perverse people, unfaithful children.
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.
21 They have made me jealous by worshiping things that are not God; they have made me angry with their useless idols. So I will make them jealous using a people that aren't really a nation; I will make them angry using ignorant foreigners.
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.
22 My anger has been set on fire, burning down to the depths of the grave, destroying the earth and all it produces, even setting fire to the foundations of the mountains. (Sheol h7585)
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)
23 I will pile disasters on them; I will use up my arrows shooting at them.
I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.
24 They will waste away from hunger, destroyed by disease and poisonous plague. I will send wild animals to bite them with their teeth, the fangs of snakes that slide along the ground.
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.
25 Outside in the streets the sword kills their children, inside their homes, they die from fright; young men and young women, children and old people.
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.
26 I would have told them I was going to cut them to pieces and wipe out even the memory of them;
I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
27 but I didn't want to hear their conquerors jeering, their enemies misunderstanding what had happened and saying, ‘We won all by ourselves, the Lord didn't have anything to do with it.’
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.
28 Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
29 How I wish they were wise, so they could understand it; they would recognize what was going to happen to them.
O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
30 How on earth could one man chase after a thousand, or two make ten thousand run away, unless their Rock of protection had sold them, unless the Lord had surrendered them?
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?
31 The rock they rely on is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.
32 But their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; they are bitter bunches.
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.
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, deadly snake venom.
Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
34 I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
35 I make sure justice is done, I will repay. The time is coming when they will fall, their day of disaster is approaching, their doom will soon arrive.”
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.
36 The Lord is going to vindicate his people; he will be merciful to his servants when he sees that they have no strength left, and that everyone is gone, whether slave or free.
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.
37 He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where your went for protection?
And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?
38 Who ate the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine of your drink offerings? Have them come and help you; have them come and protect you!
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.
39 Listen! I am the only God! There is no other God except me! I bring death, and I give life; I wound, and I heal. No one can be rescued from my power.
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.
40 I hold up my hand to heaven and solemnly declare on my eternal life,
I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.
41 when I sharpen my shining sword and pick it up to execute judgment, I will repay my enemies and punish those who hate me as they deserve.
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.
42 My arrows will become drunk with blood, as my sword eats flesh; the blood of those who are killed and captured, the heads of the enemy's leaders.”
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.
43 Celebrate with him! Let all God's angels worship him! Celebrate, foreigners, with his people; because he will pay back those who killed his children. He will punish his enemies, and repay those who hate him; he will purify his land and his people.
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.
44 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.
So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun.
45 After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.
46 he told them, “Think about all these words I've declared to you today, so you can order your children to follow carefully everything in this law.
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:
47 Don't treat these words as trivial because they are your life, and by them you will have long lives in the country that you will own after crossing the Jordan.”
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.
48 That same day the Lord told Moses,
And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:
49 “Climb up into the Abarim mountains to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look over the country of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for them to own.
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.
50 There on the mountain you've climbed, you will die and join your people in death, in the same way your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his people.
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:
51 For there at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Desert of Zin, you both were unfaithful to me. You misrepresented me to the Israelites when you didn't treat me as holy in their presence.
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.
52 Though you will see the country that I am giving the Israelites from a distance, you won't enter it.”
Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
