Deuteronomy 32
1 Heaven, listen as I speak; Earth, hear what I'm saying.
Give ear O ye heavens and I will speak, And let the earth hear the sayings 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 teaching drop as the rain, Let my speech distil as the dew, —As copious rains on tender grass, As myriad drops on seeding plants.
3 I will praise the Lord's character. Tell everyone how great he is!
When, the name of Yahweh, I proclaim, Ascribe ye greatness unto 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.
A Rock! faultless his work, For, all his ways, are just, A GOD of faithfulness and without perversity, Right and fair, is he!
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 broken faith with him to be no sons of his—their fault, —A generation twisted and crooked.
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 it Yahweh, ye thus requite, O impious people and unwise? Is not, he, thy father who begat thee? He, that made thee and established 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 age-past times, Remark the years of many generations, —Ask thy father and he will tell thee, Thine elders and they will say to 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 gave inheritances unto the nations, When he spread abroad the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples, According to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 But the Lord's people are his, Israel is his chosen one.
For, Yahweh’s portion is his people, —Jacob, his inherited possession.
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 met him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness, —He encompassed him watched over him, Shielded him as the pupil of his own 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, an eagle, stirreth up his nest, Over his young ones, fluttereth, Spreadeth abroad his wings, taketh one, Beareth it up on his pinions,
12 The Lord was the only one who led you; no foreign god was with him.
Yahweh alone did lead him, —And there was with him no GOD of a stranger.
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 made him ride on the high places of the land, Caused him to eat the increase of the fields, —And gave him to suck honey out of the cliff, And oil out of the rock of flint:
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.
Curds of kine and milk of sheep, —With fat of well-fed lambs, Yea rams bred in Bashan, and he-goats, With the white of the kernels of wheat, —And, the blood of the grape, thou didst drink as it foamed.
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.
Then Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: Thou wast fat, Thou wast thick, Thou wast gorged, So he forsook the GOD who made him, And treated as foolish his Rock of salvation.
16 You made the Lord jealous by worshiping foreign gods; you made him angry with such disgusting practices.
They moved him to jealousy with foreign [gods], —With abominations, angered they him:
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 mischievous demons to a No-GOD, Gods whom they knew not, —New ones lately come in, Your fathers never shuddered at them!
18 You dismissed the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.
Of the Rock who had begotten thee, thou wast unmindful, —And didst forget GOD who had given thee birth.
19 The Lord rejected them when he saw this; his sons and daughters made him angry.
When Yahweh saw, he derided, —Because his sons and his daughters gave provocation.
20 He said: “I will turn away from them. Then I'll see what happens to them! They are a perverse people, unfaithful children.
So he said: —I will hide my face from them, I will see what will be their hereafter, —For a generation given to intrigue, they are, Sons, whom there is no trusting;
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 moved me to jealousy with a No-GOD, They have angered me with their vanities: I, therefore, will move them to jealousy with a No-people, With an impious nation, will I anger them.
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)
For, a fire, is kindled in mine anger, And shall burn as far as hades beneath, —And consume the earth with her produce, And set ablaze 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 on them, calamities, —Mine arrows, will I spend upon 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.
The meltings of hunger, The devourings of fever, And the dangerous pestilence, —And, the tooth of beasts, will I send among them, With the poison of crawlers of the dust:
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, shall the sword bereave, In the inmost recesses, terror, —To both young man and virgin, Suckling, with man of grey hairs.
26 I would have told them I was going to cut them to pieces and wipe out even the memory of them;
I said, I would puff them away, I would destroy from mortals, their memory;
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.’
Were it not that the taunt of the foe, I feared, Lest their adversaries should mistake, —Lest they should say—Our own hand, is exalted, It is not Yahweh, therefore who hath wrought all this!
28 Israel is a nation that doesn't think straight; none of them understand anything.
For a nation of vanished sagacity, they are, —And there is in them no understanding.
29 How I wish they were wise, so they could understand it; they would recognize what was going to happen to them.
If they had been wise, they would have understood this, —They would have given heed to their here-after!
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?
Oh! how would one, have chased, a thousand! And, two, put, ten thousand to flight, —Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And, Yahweh, had abandoned them;
31 The rock they rely on is not like our Rock, as even our enemies admit.
For, not like our Rock, is their rock, Our enemies themselves, being judges;
32 But their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; they are bitter bunches.
For of the vine of Sodom, is their vine, And of the vineyards of Gomorrah, —Their grapes, are grapes of gall, Clusters of bitter things, are theirs:
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, deadly snake venom.
The poison of large serpents, is their wine, —Yea the fierce venom of asps.
34 I've stored this all up; it's sealed in my vaults.
Is not, that, stored up with me, —Sealed up amongst 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.”
Unto the days of vengeance and requital: Unto the time their foot shall totter? For, near, is the day of their fate, And their destiny speedeth on.
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.
For Yahweh will vindicate his people, And upon his servants, will have compassion, —When he seeth that strength is exhausted, And there is no one shut up or at large,
37 He'll ask, “What happened to your gods, the rock where your went for protection?
Then will he say, Where are their gods, The rock in whom they have 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!
Who used to eat the fat of their sacrifices, To drink the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be over you for a coveting!
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, now, that, I, I, am, he that is, And there are no gods with me, —I, kill—and make alive, I wound and, I, heal, And there is none who, from my hand, can deliver,
40 I hold up my hand to heaven and solemnly declare on my eternal life,
For I lift up unto the heavens my hand, —And say, Living am, I, unto times age-abiding:
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 whet my flashing sword, And my hand take hold on justice, I will return vengeance unto mine adversaries, And them who hate me, will I requite:
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 mine arrows drunk with blood, And, my sword, shall devour flesh, —With the blood of the slain and the captive, With the flesh of the chief leader of the foe.
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.
Shout for joy O ye nations [with] his people, For the blood of his servants, he avengeth, —And, vengeance, he returneth unto his adversaries, And is propitious unto the soil 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 in and spake all the words of this Song in the hearing of the people, —he and Hoshea son of Nun.
45 After Moses finished reciting the whole song to all the Israelites,
And, when Moses made an end of speaking all these words unto 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.
he said unto them—Apply your hearts unto all the words which I am witnessing against you, to-day, —how that ye must command your sons to observe to do all the words of 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 it is not, too small a thing, for you, for, it, is your life, —and, hereby, shall ye prolong your days upon the soil whereunto ye are, passing over the Jordan to possess it.
48 That same day the Lord told Moses,
And Yahweh spake unto Moses, on this selfsame 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.
Get thee up into this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is over against Jericho—and behold the land of Canaan which I am giving unto the sons of Israel, for a possession;
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.
and die thou in the mount whither thou art going up, and be withdrawn unto thy kinsfolk, —as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was withdrawn unto his kinsfolk;
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.
for that ye acted unfaithfully against me in the midst of the sons of Israel, regarding the waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the desert of Zin, —for that ye hallowed me not in the midst of the sons of Israel.
52 Though you will see the country that I am giving the Israelites from a distance, you won't enter it.”
Yet, over against thee, shalt thou behold the land, —but thereinto, shalt thou not enter, into the land which I am giving unto the sons of Israel.
