Deuteronomy

32 “Listen, heavens, and I will speak;

hear, earth, the words of my mouth.

2 My prompting shall drop like rain,

my say shall trickle like dew,

Like fine rain on plants

and like showers on herbage,

3 Because I will proclaim Jehovah’s name.

Give greatness to our God!

4 The Rock, his doing is faultless,

for all his paths are the right;

A deity of fair dealing and no cheating,

honest and straightforward is he.

5* Sons of disgrace have done viciously by him,

a devious and shifty generation.

6 Will you treat Jehovah thus,

unreasonable and unwise people?

Is not he your Father that framed you,

himself made you and organized you?

7 Remember the days of old,

consider the years generation upon generation;

Ask your father and let him tell you,

your elders and let them say to you:

8 When the Lord above distributed nations,

when he separated the sons of men,

He set the boundaries of the peoples

by the number of the sons of Deity,

9 Because Jehovah’s portion is his people,

Jacob is his marked-out estate.

10 He found them in wilderness country

and in the howling chaos of the desert,

He cared for them, gave his mind to them,

guarded them like the apple of his eye;

11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,

hovers over its young,

Spreads its wings and takes them,

carries them on its pinions,

12 Sole Jehovah led them

and had no foreign deity with him.

13 He mounted them on earth’s heights,

and they ate crops of the champaign;

And he let them suck honey from cliffs

and oil from pyrite rocks,

14** Clabber of cows and milk of sheep

with fat of lambs,

And Bashan-bred rams, and he-goats,

with richest wheat,

and blood of grapes you drink in foam;

15* And Jeshurun grew fat and kicked,

you grew fat, burly, lusty,

And he abandoned the God who made him

and held cheap the Rock of his salvation.

16 They took to stirring his jealousy with alien rivals,

provoking him with abominations,

17 Sacrificing to non-divine demons,

gods they did not know,

New ones that have come from the neighborhood,

of whom your fathers never felt apprehensions.

18 Of the Rock that brought you forth you are unmindful

and have forgotten the Deity who gave you birth.

19 And Jehovah saw, and was contemptuous

at the provocation from his sons and daughters,

20 And said ‘I will conceal my face from them,

‘I will see what their future will be,

Because they are an ill-natured generation,

children with no loyalty in them.

21 They have challenged my jealousy with what is not a deity,

provoked me with their superstitions;

And I will challenge their jealousy with what is not a people,

provoke them with an uncivilized nation.

22** For a fire of anger is kindled in my breath,

and burns to the lowest of the world of the dead;

It will consume the earth and its growth

and set ablaze the foundations of mountains.

23* I will sweep mischiefs upon them,

exhaust my arrows on them:

24* Wasted with famine, fed on

by firebolt and bitter infection,

I will let loose beasts’ teeth on them

with venom of crawlers of the dust;

25 From outside shall the sword bereave,

and out of the closets terror,

Of both youth and maiden,

nursing babe with gray-haired man.

26* I had thought I would dissipate them,

abolish the memory of them from mankind,

27* But that I dreaded the insolence of enemies,

for fear their foes should misconceive,

For fear they should say “Our hand goes high,

and it was not Jehovah that did all this,”

28 Because they are an ill-advised nation,

with no sense in them.

29 If they were wise they would look into this,

would consider their future:

30 How should one be chasing a thousand

and two putting ten thousand to flight

Unless their Rock had sold them

and Jehovah had handed them over!

31 For their Rock is not like ours

even letting our enemies be judges.

32 For their vine comes of the vines of Sodom

and of the terraces of Ghomorrah,

Their grapes are poison-berries,

virulent clusters are theirs,

33 Reptiles’ venom is their wine

and vipers’ cruel poison.

34* Do I not have it laid away,

sealed up in my arsenals,

35* For the day of vengeance and requital,

for the time when their foot slips?’

For their day of calamity is near

and destiny is hastening for them,

36 Because Jehovah will pronounce judgment for his people

and repent as to his servants

When he sees their powers are gone

and there is nobody barred or unbarred,

37 And thinks ‘Where are their gods,

the rock that they took refuge in,

38 Those that eat the fat of their sacrifices,

drink the wine of their libations?

Let them stand up and help you,

be a screen over you!

39 See now that it is I, I,

and there is no God with me;

I put to death and bring to life,

have mangled and I will heal,

and there is no deliverer out of my hands.

40 For I raise my hand skyward

and say “By my eternal life,

41** If I whet my lightning-sword

and take judgment in hand

I will pay my foes off in vengeance

and settle with my haters,

42 I will let my arrows drink deep of their blood,

and my sword shall eat flesh,

Of blood of battle-slain and prisoners,

of the heads of the enemy’s braves.”’

43 Applaud his people, nations,

because he avenges his servants’ blood,

He pays his foes off in vengeance

and purges the guilt of his people’s soil.”