Deuteronomy, 32

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

1. Listen, O heavens, as I speak; hear, earth, the words of my mouth.

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:

2. May my teaching be drenching as the rain, and my words, permeate gently as the dew: like abundant rain upon the grass, like a gentle shower on the tender crops.

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

3. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord and declare the greatness of our God.

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.

4. He is the Rock, and perfect are all his works, just are all his ways. A faithful God he is, upright and just and unerring.

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

5. Yet he has been treated perversely by his degenerate children - a deceitful and crooked generation.

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?

6. Is this how you repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? He is your father, your creator, who formed you and set you up.

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.

7. Recall the days of old, think of the years gone by; your father will teach you about them, your elders will enlighten you.

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.

8. When the Most High divided mankind and gave the nations their inheritance, he set up boundaries for the peoples after the number of the sons of God.

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

9. But the Lord keeps for himself his portion Jacob, his chosen one.

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.

10. In the wilderness he found them, in a barren, howling wasteland; he shielded them and cared for them as the apple of his eye.

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

11. Like an eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, supporting them on its spread wings and carrying them on its pinions,

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

12. the Lord alone led them, without the aid of a foreign god.

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;

13. He made them ride on the heights and live on the produce of the earth. He gave them honey to suck from the rock, olive oil from the hard stony crag,

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.

14. curds from the herd, milk from the flock, fattened lambs and goats and Bashan bulls, the finest wheat and the best grape wine.

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.

15. Israel grew up well nourished - you were fat, heavy and overfed. But they abandoned God, their creator; they rejected the rock, their savior.

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

16. They made him jealous with their strange gods; they angered him with their abominable deeds.

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.

17. They sacrificed not to him but to the demons, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods they feared but which their fathers never revered.

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

18. They have disowned the Rock who fathered them; they have forgotten the God who gave them birth.

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

19. The Lord saw this, and in his anger rejected his sons and daughters.

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.

20. He said, "I will hide my face from them and see what will become of them. They are so perverse, so unfaithful!

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.

21. They made me jealous with their false gods and angered me with their idols. I will, therefore, make them envious of a foolish people, I will provoke them to anger with an empty-headed nation.

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.

22. For my wrath has kindled a fire, burning the world of death to its depths, devouring the earth and its harvests, setting ablaze the foundations of the mountains.

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

23. I will send them trouble upon trouble and spend all my arrows upon them;

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.

24. I will afflict them with famine, deadly diseases and pestilence. I will send them wild beasts and venomous snakes.

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.

25. Their children will fall by the sword; terror shall reign within, destroying both young man and virgin, both the sucking child and the old man.

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

26. I said I would scatter them afar and blot out their memory among mankind,

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.

27. but I feared the enemy's boasting, lest the adversary misunderstand and say; 'We have triumphed, the Lord has brought this about.'

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

28. They are a senseless and undiscerning nation. Had they wisdom, they would have known

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

29. the meaning of this and the end awaiting them.

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?

30. For how could one or two men put to flight a thousand or ten thousand, unless their Rock had abandoned them, unless their Lord had given them up?

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

31. Even our enemies understand this: their rock indeed is not like our Rock:

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:

32. They are an offshoot of Sodom's vinestock, an outgrowth from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are poison, their clusters bitter,

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

33. their wine contains venom from the cruel fangs of deadly vipers.

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

34. I have kept this in reserve and sealed up in my storehouse.

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.

35. Vengeance and recompense is mine. Their feet will slip in due time, their day of calamity is at hand, and swiftly their doom will come.

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.

36. The Lord will give justice to his people and have mercy on his servants, when he sees their strength failing and both slave and free disappearing.

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

37. He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock they thought could be their refuge,

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.

38. who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise up now and help you, let them give you protection!

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.

39. Learn this now - that I alone am He; there is no god besides me. It is I who give both death and life; it is I who wound and heal as well and out of my hand no one can deliver.

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

40. I raise my hand to heaven and swear: as truly as I live forever,

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.

41. when I sharpen my glittering sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will deal out vengeance upon my foes and retribution upon those who hate me.

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.

42. My arrows will drip with blood, my sword will sink deep into the flesh - blood of the wounded and slain captives, flesh of beheaded enemy leaders.

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.

43. Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge his servants' blood, take vengeance on his adversaries, and perform the rite of expiation for his people and his land.

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.

44. Moses recited the words of this song in the hearing of the people, and Joshua, son of Nun, was with him.

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

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

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.

46. he said to them, "Be attentive to all these words which I declare to you today. Repeat them to your children so that they may take care to put all these laws into practice.

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.

47. It is no slight matter: on this depends your life, and by this, you shall lengthen your days in the land you are going to conquer after crossing the Jordan."

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

48. Yahweh spoke to Moses on that same day and he said:

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:

49. "Go up to the mountains of Abarim in the land of Moab and climb Mount Nebo facing Jericho. From there you shall see the land of Canaan which I give to the children of Israel.

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:

50. Then you shall die on Mount Nebo and join your fathers as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and went to join them.

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.

51. Remember that you did not trust me at the waters of Meribah in the desert of Zion, when you did not proclaim me before 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.

52. Therefore you shall not enter the Land, but shall only see it from afar."