Deuteronomy 32
1 Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
Give ear, you heavens, and let me speak. Let the earth listen to 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 drop down like the rain, let my speech distill like the dew, like the gentle rain on the tender grass, and like the showers on the plants.
3 Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, and 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.
The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his paths are just. He is the faithful God, without iniquity. He is just and upright.
5 They have sinned against him, and are nose of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
They have acted corruptly against him. They are not his children. It is their disgrace. They are a perverted 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?
Do you reward Yahweh in this way, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your father, the one who has created you? He 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.
Call to mind the days of ancient times, think about the years of many ages past. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell 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 all of mankind, and he set the boundaries of the peoples, as he also fixed the number of their gods.
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
For Yahweh's portion is his people; Jacob is his apportioned 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, and in the barren and howling wilderness; he shielded him and cared for 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 that guards her nest and flutters over her young, Yahweh spread out his wings and took them, and carried them on his pinions.
12 The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
Yahweh alone led him; 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 high places of the land, and he fed him the fruits 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.
He ate butter from the herd and drank milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the juice of grapes.
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— you grew fat, you were too fat, and you had eaten your fill— he abandoned the God who made him, and he rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16 They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.
They made Yahweh jealous by their strange gods; with their abominations they angered him.
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, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
18 Thou hast forsaken the God that beget thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
You have deserted the Rock, who became your father, and 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.
Yahweh saw this and he rejected them, because his sons and his daughters provoked him so.
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.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.
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 made me jealous by what is not god and angered me by their worthless things. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; by a foolish nation I will make them angry.
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 is kindled by my anger and is burning to the lowest Sheol; it is devouring the earth and its harvest; it is setting on fire 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 on them; I will shoot all my arrows at 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 by hunger and devoured by burning heat and bitter destruction; I will send on them the teeth of wild animals, with the poison of things that crawl 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 bereave, and in the bedrooms terror will do so. It will destroy both young man and virgin, the nursing baby, and the man of gray hairs.
26 I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
I said that I would scatter them far away, that I would make the memory of them to cease from among 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.
Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, and that their enemies would judge mistakenly, and that they would say, 'Our hand is exalted,' I would have done all this.
28 They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
For Israel is a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding in them.
29 O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their coming 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 chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had given them up?
31 For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.
For our enemies' rock is not like our Rock, just as even our enemies admit.
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.
For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
Their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps.
34 Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
Is not this plan secretly kept by me, sealed up among my treasures?
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 to give, and recompense, at the time when their foot slips; for the day of disaster for them is near, and the things that are to come on them will hurry to happen.”
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 Yahweh will give justice to his people, and he will pity his servants. He will see that their power is gone, and no one remains, either slaves or free people.
37 And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?
Then he will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in whom 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.
The gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection.
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, even I, am God, and that there is no god besides me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal, and there is no one who can save you from my might.
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 say, 'As I live forever, I will act.
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 glittering sword, and when my hand begins to bring justice, I will render vengeance on my enemies, and I will pay back 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, and my sword will devour flesh with the blood of the killed and the captives, and from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.'”
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, you nations, with God's people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will render vengeance on his enemies, and he will make atonement for his land, for 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.
Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Joshua son of Nun.
45 And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.
Then Moses 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, “Fix your mind on all the words that I have witnessed to you today, so that you may command your children to keep them, 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 this is no trivial matter for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you will prolong your days in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
48 And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:
Yahweh spoke to Moses on that same day and said,
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 this range of the mountains of Abarim, up Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho. You will look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel as their 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:
You will die on the mountain that you go up, and you will be gathered to your people, as Aaron your fellow Israelite 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.
This will happen because you were unfaithful to me among the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not treat me with honor and respect among the people of Israel.
52 Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
For you will see the land before you, but you will not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
