Deuteronomy, 32

1. Listen, heavens, while I speak; hear, earth, the words that I shall say!

1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2. May my teaching fall like the rain, may my word drop down like the dew, like showers on the grass, like light rain on the turf!

2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

3. For I shall proclaim the name of Yahweh. Oh, tell the greatness of our God!

3. Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

4. He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are equitable. A trustworthy God who does no wrong, he is the Honest, the Upright One!

4. [He is] the Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he.

5. They have acted perversely, those he fathered without blemish, a deceitful and underhand brood.

5. They have corrupted themselves, their spot [is] not [the spot] of his children: [they are] a perverse and crooked generation.

6. Is this the return you make to Yahweh? O people brainless and unwise! Is this not your father, who gave you being, who made you, by whom you subsist?

6. Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? [is] not he thy father [that] hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

7. Think back on the days of old, think over the years, down the ages. Question your father, let him explain to you, your elders, and let them tell you!

7. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

8. When the Most High gave the nations each their heritage, when he partitioned out the human race, he assigned the boundaries of nations according to the number of the children of God,

8. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

9. but Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob was to be the measure of his inheritance.

9. For the LORD'S portion [is] his people; Jacob [is] the lot of his inheritance.

10. In the desert he finds him, in the howling expanses of the wastelands. He protects him, rears him, guards him as the pupil of his eye.

10. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

11. Like an eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, he spreads out his wings to hold him, he supports him on his pinions.

11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

12. Yahweh alone is his guide; no alien god for him!

12. [So] the LORD alone did lead him, and [there was] no strange god with him.

13. He gives him the heights of the land to ride, he feeds him on the yield of the mountains, he gives him honey from the rock to taste, and oil from the flinty crag;

13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

14. curds from the cattle, milk from the flock, and the richness of the pasture, rams of Bashan's breed, and goats, the richness of the wheat kernel; the fermented blood of the grape for drink.

14. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

15. Jacob has eaten to his heart's content, Jeshurun, grown fat, has now lashed out. (You have grown fat, gross, bloated.) He has disowned the God who made him, and dishonoured the Rock, his salvation,

15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness]; then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

16. whose jealousy they aroused with foreigners -- with things detestable they angered him.

16. They provoked him to jealousy with strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger.

17. They sacrificed to demons who are not God, to gods hitherto unknown to them, to newcomers of yesterday whom their ancestors had never respected.

17. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

18. (You forget the Rock who fathered you, the God who made you, you no longer remember.)

18. Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

19. Yahweh saw it and, in anger, he spurned his sons and daughters.

19. And when the LORD saw [it], he abhorred [them], because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.

20. 'I shall hide my face from them,' he said, 'and see what will become of them. For they are a deceitful brood, children with no loyalty in them.

20. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end [shall be]: for they [are] a very froward generation, children in whom [is] no faith.

21. They have roused me to jealousy with a non-god, they have exasperated me with their idols. In my turn I shall rouse them to jealousy with a non-people, I shall exasperate them with a stupid nation.

21. They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

22. Yes, a fire has blazed from my anger, it will burn right down to the depths of Sheol; it will devour the earth and all its produce, it will set fire to the footings of the mountains.

22. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23. I shall hurl disasters on them, on them I shall use up all my arrows.

23. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.

24. They will be weakened by hunger, eaten away by plague and the bitter scourge. Against them I shall send the fang of wild animals and the poison of snakes that glide in the dust.

24. [They shall be] burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

25. Outside, the sword bereaves, while inside terror will reign. Young man and girl alike will perish, suckling and greybeard both together.

25. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling [also] with the man of gray hairs.

26. I should crush them to dust, I said, I should wipe out all memory of them,

26. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:

27. did I not fear the boasting of the enemy.' But do not let their foes be mistaken! Do not let them say, 'We have got the upper hand and Yahweh plays no part in this.'

27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, [and] lest they should say, Our hand [is] high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

28. What a short-sighted nation this is, how thoroughly imperceptive!

28. For they [are] a nation void of counsel, neither [is there any] understanding in them.

29. Were they wise, they would succeed, they would be able to read their destiny.

29. O that they were wise, [that] they understood this, [that] they would consider their latter end!

30. How else could one man rout a thousand, how could two put ten thousand to flight, were it not that their Rock has sold them, that Yahweh has delivered them up?

30. How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

31. But their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies cannot pray for us!

31. For their rock [is] not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves [being] judges.

32. For their vine springs from the stock of Sodom and from the groves of Gomorrah: their grapes are poisonous grapes, their clusters are bitter;

32. For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes [are] grapes of gall, their clusters [are] bitter:

33. their wine is snakes' poison, the vipers' cruel venom.

33. Their wine [is] the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

34. But he, is he not safe with me, sealed inside my treasury?

34. [Is] not this laid up in store with me, [and] sealed up among my treasures?

35. Vengeance is mine, I will pay them back, for the time when they make a false step. For the day of their ruin is close, doom is rushing towards them, for he will see to it that their power fails. that neither serf nor free man remains.

35. To me [belongeth] vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in [due] time: for the day of their calamity [is] at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

36. (For Yahweh will see his people righted, he will take pity on his servants.)

36. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that [their] power is gone, and [there is] none shut up, or left.

37. 'Where are their gods then?' he will ask, 'the rock where they sought refuge,

37. And he shall say, Where [are] their gods, [their] rock in whom they trusted,

38. who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations?' Let these arise and help you, let these be the shelter above you!

38. Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, [and] be your protection.

39. See now that I, I am he, and beside me there is no other god. It is I who deal death and life; when I have struck, it is I who heal (no one can rescue anyone from me).

39. See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand.

40. Yes, I raise my hand to heaven, and I say, 'As surely as I live for ever,

40. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.

41. When I have whetted my flashing sword, I shall enforce justice, I shall return vengeance to my foes, I shall take vengeance on my foes.

41. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.

42. I shall make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will feed on flesh: the blood of the wounded and the prisoners, the dishevelled heads of the enemy!'

42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; [and that] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

43. Heavens, rejoice with him, let all the children of God pay him homage! Nations, rejoice with his people, let God's envoys tell of his power! For he will avenge the blood of his servants, he will return vengeance to my foes, he will repay those who hate him and purify his people's country.

43. Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, [and] to his people.

44. Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the people's hearing.

44. And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.

45. When Moses had finished reciting these words to all Israel,

45. And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:

46. he said to them, 'Take all these words to heart; I intend them today to be evidence against you. You must order your children to keep and observe all the words of this Law.

46. And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

47. You must not think of this as empty words, for the Law is your life, and by its means you will live long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess.'

47. For it [is] not a vain thing for you; because it [is] your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong [your] days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

48. Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day and said to him,

48. And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,

49. 'Climb this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, in the country of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites as their domain.

49. Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, [unto] mount Nebo, which [is] in the land of Moab, that [is] over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:

50. Die on the mountain you have climbed, and be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

50. And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:

51. Because, with the other Israelites, you broke faith with me at the Waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the desert of Zin, because you did not make my holiness clear to the Israelites;

51. Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.

52. you may only see the country from outside; you cannot enter it -- the country which I am giving to the Israelites.'

52. Yet thou shalt see the land before [thee]; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.