Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note of the words of my mouth:
Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
2 My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden 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 For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great.
Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
4 He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.
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 They have become false, they are not his children, the mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted generation.
They have sinned against him, and are nose of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
6 Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.
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 Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you the story.
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 When the Most High gave the nations their heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel.
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 For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage.
But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
10 He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light of his eye.
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 As an eagle, teaching her young to make their flight, with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her strong feathers:
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 So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.
The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
13 He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock;
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 Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape.
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 Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to the Rock of his 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 The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath.
They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.
17 They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers.
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 have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of the God who gave you birth.
Thou hast forsaken the God that beget thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
19 And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters.
The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him.
20 And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled generation, children in whom is no faith.
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 given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation,
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 For my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase, and firing the deep roots 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 send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be showered on them.
I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.
24 They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust.
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 they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man.
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 said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men:
I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
27 But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this.
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 For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them.
They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
29 If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future!
O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
30 How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?
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 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges.
For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.
32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries are bitter:
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 dragons, the cruel poison of snakes.
Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
34 Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?
Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
35 Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate.
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 For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up 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 And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith?
And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?
38 Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation.
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 See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand.
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 For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life,
I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.
41 If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters.
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 I will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters.
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 Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for 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 So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.
So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun.
45 And after saying all this to the people,
And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.
46 Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your children to do every word of 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 And this is no small thing for you, but it is your life, and through this you may make your days long in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.
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 said to Moses,
And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:
49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab opposite Jericho; there you may see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for their heritage:
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 And let death come to you on the mountain where you are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to rest with 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 Because of your sin against me before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath Kadesh in the waste land of Zin; because you did not keep my name holy among the children of Israel.
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 So you will see the land before you, but you will not go into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.
Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
