Deuteronomy 32:1-33 ▼

1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I speak; And you hear, O earth, sayings of my mouth!

2 My doctrine drops as rain; My sayings flow as dew; As storms on the tender grass, || And as showers on the herb,

3 For I proclaim the Name of YHWH; Ascribe greatness to our God!

4 The Rock—His work [is] perfect, || For all His ways [are] just; God of steadfastness, and without iniquity; Righteous and upright [is] He.

5 It has done corruptly to Him; Their blemish is not of His sons, || A generation perverse and crooked!

6 Do you act thus to YHWH, || O people foolish and not wise? Is He not your Father—He who bought you? He made you, and establishes you.

7 Remember days of old—Understand the years of many generations—Ask your father, and he tells you; Your elderly, and they say to you:

8 In the Most High causing nations to inherit, || In His separating sons of Adam—He sets up the borders of the peoples || By the number of the sons of God [[or sons of Israel]].

9 For YHWH’s portion [is] His people, || Jacob [is] the line of His inheritance.

10 He finds him in a land—a desert, || And in a void—a howling wilderness, || He turns him around—He causes him to understand—He keeps him as the apple of His eye.

11 As an eagle wakes up its nest, || Flutters over its young ones, || Spreads its wings [and] takes them, || Carries them on its pinions—

12 YHWH alone leads him, || And there is no strange god with him.

13 He makes him ride on high places of earth, || And he eats increase of the fields, || And He makes him suck honey from a rock, || And oil out of the flint of a rock;

14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, || With fat of lambs, and rams of sons of Bashan, || And male goats, with fat of kidneys of wheat; And of the blood of the grape you drink wine!

15 And Yeshurun waxes fat, and kicks: You have been fat, you have been thick, || You have been covered. And he leaves God who made him, || And dishonors the Rock of his salvation.

16 They make Him zealous with strangers, || They make Him angry with abominations.

17 They sacrifice to the demons, not God, || To gods they have not known, || New ones—they came from the vicinity; Your fathers have not feared them!

18 You forget the Rock that begot you, || And neglect God who forms you.

19 And YHWH sees and despises—For the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

20 And He says: I hide My face from them, || I see what their latter end [is]; For they [are] a contrary generation, || Sons in whom is no steadfastness.

21 They have made Me jealous by [what is] not God, || They made Me angry by their vanities; And I make them jealous by [what is] not a people, || I make them angry by a foolish nation.

22 For a fire has been kindled in My anger, || And it burns to the lowest [part] of Sheol, || And consumes earth and its increase, || And sets on fire [the] foundations of mountains.

23 I heap calamities on them, || I consume My arrows on them.

24 Exhausted by famine, || And consumed by heat and bitter destruction—I also send the teeth of beasts on them, || With poison of fearful things of the dust.

25 The sword destroys from outside, || And out of the inner-chambers—terror, || Both youth and virgin, || Suckling with man of grey hair.

26 I have said: I blow them away, || I cause their remembrance to cease from man;

27 If I do not fear the anger of an enemy, || Lest their adversaries know—Lest they say, Our hand is high, || And YHWH has not worked all this.

28 For they [are] a nation lost to counsels, || And there is no understanding in them.

29 If only they were wise, || They would deal wisely [with] this, || They would attend to their latter end!

30 How does one pursue a thousand, || And two cause a myriad to flee, || If not that their Rock has sold them, || And YHWH has shut them up?

31 For their rock [is] not as our Rock || (And our enemies [are] judges!)

32 For their vine [is] of the vine of Sodom, || And of the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes [are] grapes of gall—They have bitter clusters;

33 The poison of dragons [is] their wine || And the fierce venom of cobras.