Deuteronomy
2 My instruction will drip as the rain,+
My saying will trickle as the dew,+
As gentle rains upon grass+
And as copious showers upon vegetation.+
4 The Rock, perfect is his activity,*+
For all his ways are justice.+
A God* of faithfulness,+ with whom there is no injustice;+
Righteous and upright is he.+
5 They have* acted ruinously on their own part;*+
They are not his children, the defect is their own.*+
A generation crooked and twisted!+
6 Is it to Jehovah* that YOU keep doing this way,+
O people stupid and not wise?+
Is he not your Father who has produced you,+
He who made you and proceeded to give you stability?+
CONSIDER the years back from generation to generation;
Ask your father, and he can tell you;+
Your old men, and they can say it to you.+
8 When the Most High gave the nations an inheritance,*+
When he parted the sons of Adam* from one another,+
He proceeded to fix the boundary of the peoples+
With regard for the number of the sons of Israel.+
10 He came to find him in a wilderness land,+
And in an empty,* howling desert.+
He began to encircle him,+ to take care of him,+
To safeguard him as the pupil of his eye.+
11 Just as an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its fledglings,+
Spreads out its wings, takes them,
Carries them on its pinions,+
13 He kept making him ride upon earth’s high places,+
So that he ate* the produce of the field.+
And he kept making him suck honey out of a crag,+
And oil out of a flinty rock;+
14 Butter* of the herd and milk of the flock+
Together with the fat of rams,
And male sheep, the breed of Baʹshan, and he-goats+
Together with the kidney fat of wheat;+
15 When Jeshʹu·run*+ began to grow fat, then he kicked.*+
You have grown fat, you have become thick, you have become gorged.+
16 They began inciting him to jealousy+ with strange gods;+
With detestable things they kept offending him.+
17 They went sacrificing to demons,* not to God,*+
Gods* whom they had not known,+
New ones who recently came in,+
With whom YOUR forefathers were not acquainted.*
18 The Rock who fathered you, you proceeded to forget,+
And you began to leave God out of memory, the One bringing you forth with childbirth pains.+
19 When Jehovah* saw it, then he came to disrespect them,+
Because of the vexation his sons and his daughters gave.
20 So he said, ‘Let me conceal my face from them,+
Let me see what their end will be afterward.
For they are a generation of perverseness,+
Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.+
21 They, for their part, have incited me to jealousy with what is no god;+
They have vexed me with their vain idols;*+
And I, for my part, shall incite them to jealousy with what is no people;+
With a stupid nation I shall offend them.+
22 For a fire has been ignited in my anger+
And it will burn down to Sheʹol, the lowest place,*+
And it will consume the earth and its produce+
And will set ablaze the foundations of mountains.+
24 Exhausted from hunger+ they will be and eaten up by burning fever+
And bitter destruction.+
And the teeth of beasts I shall send upon them,+
With the venom of reptiles of the dust.+
25 Outdoors a sword will bereave them,+
Of both young man and virgin,+
Suckling together with gray-haired man.+
26 I should have said: “I shall disperse them,*+
I will make the mention of them cease from mortal men,”+
27 Were it not that I was afraid of vexation from the enemy,+
That their adversaries might misconstrue it,+
That they might say: “Our hand* has proved superior,+
And it was not Jehovah who worked all this out.”+
29 O that they were wise!+ Then they would ponder over this.+
They would consider their end afterward.+
30 How could one pursue a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight?+
Not unless their Rock had sold them*+
And Jehovah had surrendered them.*
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodʹom
And from the terraces of Go·morʹrah.+
Their grapes are grapes of poison,
Their clusters are bitter.+
35 Vengeance is mine, and retribution.+
At the appointed time their foot will move unsteadily,+
For the day of their disaster is near,+
And the events in readiness for them do make haste.’+
36 For Jehovah will judge his people+
And he will feel regret over his servants,+
Because he will see that support* has disappeared
And there is only a helpless and worthless one.*
37 And he will certainly say, ‘Where are their gods,*+
The rock in whom they sought refuge,*+
38 Who used to eat the fat of their sacrifices,+
To drink the wine of their drink offerings?+
Let them get up and help YOU.+
Let them become a concealment place for YOU.+
And there are no gods together with me.+
I put to death, and I make alive.*+
I have severely wounded,+ and I—I will heal,+
And there is no one snatching out of my hand.+
40 For I raise my hand to heaven [in an oath],+
And I do say: “As I am alive to time indefinite,”*+
41 If I do indeed sharpen my glittering sword,*+
And my hand takes hold on judgment,+
I will pay back vengeance to my adversaries+
And render retribution to those who intensely hate me.+
42 I shall intoxicate my arrows with blood,+
While my sword will eat flesh,+
With the blood of the slain and the captives,*
43 Be glad, YOU nations, with his people,*+
For he will avenge the blood of his servants,+
And he will pay back vengeance to his adversaries+
And will indeed make atonement for the ground of his people.”*
44 Thus Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing* of the people,+ he and Ho·sheʹa* the son of Nun.+ 45 After Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he went on to say to them: “Apply YOUR hearts to all the words that I am speaking in warning to YOU* today,+ that YOU may command YOUR sons to take care to do all the words of this law.+ 47 For it is no valueless word for YOU,+ but it means YOUR life,+ and by this word YOU may lengthen YOUR days upon the soil to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it.”+
48 And Jehovah proceeded to speak to Moses on this same day, saying: 49 “Go up into this mountain of Abʹa·rim,*+ Mount Neʹbo,+ which is in the land of Moʹab, which fronts toward Jerʹi·cho, and see the land of Caʹnaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel as a possession.+ 50 Then die on the mountain into which you are going up, and be gathered to your people,+ just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor+ and got to be gathered to his people; 51 for the reason that YOU men acted undutifully toward me+ in the middle of the sons of Israel at the waters of Merʹi·bah+ of Kaʹdesh in the wilderness of Zin; for the reason that YOU men did not sanctify me* in the middle of the sons of Israel.+ 52 For from a distance you will see the land, but you will not go there into the land that I am giving to the sons of Israel.”+