1 “Giveear, O heavens, and I will speak;
# And hear, Oearth, the words of my mouth.
2 Letmy teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
# As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
3 For I proclaim thename of theLord:
# Ascribe greatness to our God.
4 Heisthe Rock,His workisperfect;
For all His waysarejustice,
# A God of truth andwithout injustice;
Righteous and uprightisHe.
5 “Theyhave corrupted themselves;
Theyarenot His children,
Because of their blemish:
# Aperverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thusdeal with theLord,
O foolish and unwise people?
# IsHe notyour Father,whobought you?
# Has He notmade you and established you?
7 “Rememberthe days of old,
Consider the years of many generations.
# Ask your father, and he will show you;
Your elders, and they will tell you:
8 When the Most Highdivided their inheritance to the nations,
# When Heseparated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the children of Israel.
9 FortheLord’s portionisHis people;
Jacobisthe place of His inheritance.
10 “He found himin a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
# Hekept him as the apple of His eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12 SotheLordalone led him,
Andtherewasno foreign god with him.
13 “Hemade him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;
14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
# With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
# And you drank wine, theblood of the grapes.
15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
# You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
# Then heforsook Godwhomade him,
# And scornfully esteemed theRock of his salvation.
16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreigngods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
Togodsthey did not know,
To newgods,new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18 Of the Rockwhobegot you, you are unmindful,
# And haveforgotten the God who fathered you.
19 “Andwhen theLordsawit,He spurnedthem,
Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
20 And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their endwillbe,
For theyarea perverse generation,
# Children in whomisno faith.
21 They have provoked Me to jealousy bywhatis not God;
# They have moved Me to angerby their foolish idols.
# ButI will provoke them to jealousy bythosewhoarenot a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
22 Fora fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the lowest hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 ‘I willheap disasters on them;
# I will spend My arrows on them.
24 Theyshallbewasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
# I will also send against them theteeth of beasts,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword shall destroy outside;
Thereshallbeterror within
For the young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,
I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
27 Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
# Lest they should say,“Our handishigh;
And it is not theLordwho has done all this.” ’
28 “For theyarea nation void of counsel,
Noristhereanyunderstanding in them.
29 Oh, that they were wise,thatthey understood this,
# Thatthey would consider theirlatter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
# Unless their Rockhad sold them,
And theLordhad surrendered them?
31 For their rockisnot like our Rock,
# Even our enemies themselvesbeingjudges.
32 Fortheir vineisof the vine of Sodom
And of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapesaregrapes of gall,
Their clustersarebitter.
33 Their wineisthe poison of serpents,
# And the cruelvenom of cobras.
34 ‘Isthis notlaid up in store with Me,
Sealed up among My treasures?
35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip induetime;
# For the day of their calamityisat hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’
36 “FortheLordwill judge His people
# And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees thattheirpower is gone,
# Andthereisno oneremaining,bond or free.
37 He will say:‘Wherearetheir gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
Anddrank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you,
Andbe your refuge.
39 ‘Now see thatI,evenI,amHe,
# Andthereisno God besides Me;
# I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Noristhereanywho can deliver from My hand.
40 For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “AsI live forever,
41 If I whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And repay those who hate Me.
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’
43 “Rejoice,O Gentiles,withHis people;
# For He willavenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
# Hewill provide atonement for His landandHis people.”
44 So Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.
45 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
46 and he said to them:“Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command yourchildren to be careful to observe—all the words of this law.
47 For itisnot a futile thing for you, because itisyourlife, and by this word you shall prolongyourdays in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
Moses to Die on Mount Nebo
48 Then theLordspoke to Moses that very same day, saying:
49 “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, whichisin the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession;
50 and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just asAaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;
51 becauseyou trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because youdid not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel.
52 Yet you shall see the land beforeyou,though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”