The Song of Moses begins
1Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2May my teaching fall like rain, my speech settle like dew, like showers on new grass, like gentle rain on the tender plants. 3For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh — ascribe greatness to our God! 4The Rock — his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A faithful God, without wrong, righteous and upright is he. 5His children have dealt corruptly with him — that is their blemish; they are a crooked and twisted generation. 6Is this how you repay Yahweh, you foolish, senseless people? Is he not your father, who bought you? He made you and formed you. 7Remember the days of old; consider the years of generation after generation. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will say it to you: 8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. 9For Yahweh’s portion is his people; Jacob is the share of his inheritance. 10He found him in a wilderness land, in the howling waste of the desert. He surrounded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye. 11Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, he spread his wings and took him, he carried him on his pinions. 12Yahweh alone led him; no foreign god was with him. 13He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field; he nursed him with honey from the rock, with oil from the flinty crag, 14curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the finest of the wheat — and you drank the blood of the grape, foaming wine.
Jeshurun grows fat and forsakes the Rock
15But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked — you grew fat, thick, and gorged — that is, he abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. 16They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him to anger. 17They sacrificed to demons, not to God — gods they had not known, new gods that had just arrived, gods your fathers never feared. 18You neglected the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19Yahweh saw this and rejected them, provoked to anger by his sons and daughters. 20He said: I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be. For they are a perverse generation, children with no faithfulness in them. 21They made me jealous with what is no god; they provoked me to anger with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with what is no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22For a fire has been kindled by my anger; it burns to the depths of Sheol. It devours the earth and its harvest and sets ablaze the foundations of the mountains. 23I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows against them. 24Wasted by hunger, devoured by fever and bitter plague, I will send against them the teeth of wild beasts, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25Outside, the sword will bring bereavement; inside, terror — for young man and young woman alike, infant and gray-haired man together. 26I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind, 27were it not that I feared the taunt of the enemy, lest their foes misread it and say, “Our own hand triumphed; Yahweh had no part in any of this.”
A nation void of counsel
28For they are a nation void of counsel; there is no understanding in them. 29If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern what their end will be. 30How could one man chase a thousand, or two men put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless Yahweh had given them up? 31For their rock is not like our Rock — even our enemies concede it. 32For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter. 33Their wine is the venom of serpents, the cruel poison of asps. 34Is this not laid up in store with me, sealed among my treasuries? 35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time their foot will slip; the day of their calamity is near, and their doom rushes upon them.
Vengeance is mine
36For Yahweh will vindicate his people and relent concerning his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free. 37He will say: Where are their gods, the rock in whom they took refuge, 38who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your shelter! 39See now that I, I am he; there is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life; I have wounded, and I heal; no one can deliver out of my hand. 40For I raise my hand to heaven and declare: As I live forever, 41when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will bring vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. 42I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh — the blood of the slain and the captive, from the head of the enemy’s leaders. 43Sing for joy, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will bring vengeance on his adversaries and make atonement for his land and his people.
The song delivered, and Moses called to Nebo
44Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea son of Nun. 45When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them: Take to heart all the words I am testifying against you today, so that you may command your children to carefully do all the words of this law. 47For it is no empty word for you — it is your life, and by this word you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. 48That very day Yahweh spoke to Moses: 49Go up this mountain of the Abarim range, Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as a possession. 50There on the mountain you are climbing, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52You will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the Israelites.
