Deuteronomy 32

1Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.

2Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.

3Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.

4The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.

5They have sinned against him, and are nose of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.

6Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?

7Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee.

8When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel.

9But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.

10He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye.

11As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders.

12The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.

13He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone,

14Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep with the fat of lambs, and of the rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape.

15The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and gross, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his saviour.

16They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.

17They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not.

18Thou hast forsaken the God that beget thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.

19The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him.

20And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children.

21They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation.

22A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains.

23I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.

24They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.

25Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years.

26I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.

27But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things.

28They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.

29O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.

30How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?

31For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.

32Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter.

33Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.

34Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?

35Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come.

36The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed.

37And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?

38Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress.

39See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

40I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.

41If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me.

42I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies.

43Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people.

44So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun.

45And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.

46And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words, which I testify to you this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to fulfill all that is written in this law:

47For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them, and that doing them you may continue a long time in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it.

48And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:

49Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of passages,) unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho: and see the land of Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die thou in the mountain.

50When thou art gone up into it thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Her, and was gathered to his people:

51Because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of contradiction in Cades of the desert of Sin: and you did not sanctify me among the children of Israel.

52Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.

1[Audite, cæli, quæ loquor: audiat terra verba oris mei.

2Concrescat ut pluvia doctrina mea, fluat ut ros eloquium meum, quasi imber super herbam, et quasi stillæ super gramina.

3Quia nomen Domini invocabo: date magnificentiam Deo nostro.]

4[Dei perfecta sunt opera, et omnes viæ ejus judicia: Deus fidelis, et absque ulla iniquitate, justus et rectus.

5Peccaverunt ei, et non filii ejus in sordibus: generatio prava atque perversa.

6Hæccine reddis Domino, popule stulte et insipiens? numquid non ipse est pater tuus, qui possedit te, et fecit, et creavit te?

7Memento dierum antiquorum, cogita generationes singulas: interroga patrem tuum, et annuntiabit tibi: majores tuos, et dicent tibi.

8Quando dividebat Altissimus gentes, quando separabat filios Adam, constituit terminos populorum juxta numerum filiorum Israël.

9Pars autem Domini, populus ejus: Jacob funiculus hæreditatis ejus.

10Invenit eum in terra deserta, in loco horroris, et vastæ solitudinis: circumduxit eum, et docuit: et custodivit quasi pupillam oculi sui.

11Sicut aquila provocans ad volandum pullos suos, et super eos volitans, expandit alas suas, et assumpsit eum, atque portavit in humeris suis.

12Dominus solus dux ejus fuit, et non erat cum eo deus alienus:

13constituit eum super excelsam terram, ut comederet fructus agrorum: ut sugeret mel de petra, oleumque de saxo durissimo;

14butyrum de armento, et lac de ovibus cum adipe agnorum, et arietum filiorum Basan: et hircos cum medulla tritici, et sanguinem uvæ biberet meracissimum.]

15[Incrassatus est dilectus, et recalcitravit: incrassatus, impinguatus, dilatatus, dereliquit Deum factorem suum, et recessit a Deo salutari suo.

16Provocaverunt eum in diis alienis, et in abominationibus ad iracundiam concitaverunt.

17Immolaverunt dæmoniis et non Deo, diis quos ignorabant: novi recentesque venerunt, quos non coluerunt patres eorum:

18Deum qui te genuit dereliquisti, et oblitus es Domini creatoris tui.]

19[Vidit Dominus, et ad iracundiam concitatus est: quia provocaverunt eum filii sui et filiæ.

20Et ait: Abscondam faciem meam ab eis, et considerabo novissima eorum: generatio enim perversa est, et infideles filii.

21Ipsi me provocaverunt in eo qui non erat Deus, et irritaverunt in vanitatibus suis: et ego provocabo eos in eo qui non est populus, et in gente stulta irritabo illos.

22Ignis succensus est in furore meo, et ardebit usque ad inferni novissima: devorabitque terram cum germine suo, et montium fundamenta comburet.

23Congregabo super eos mala, et sagittas meas complebo in eis.

24Consumentur fame, et devorabunt eos aves morsu amarissimo: dentes bestiarum immittam in eos, cum furore trahentium super terram, atque serpentium.

25Foris vastabit eos gladius, et intus pavor, juvenem simul ac virginem, lactentem cum homine sene.]

26[Dixi: Ubinam sunt? cessare faciam ex hominibus memoriam eorum.

27Sed propter iram inimicorum distuli: ne forte superbirent hostes eorum, et dicerent: Manus nostra excelsa, et non Dominus, fecit hæc omnia.

28Gens absque consilio est, et sine prudentia.

29Utinam saperent, et intelligerent, ac novissima providerent.

30Quomodo persequatur unus mille, et duo fugent decem millia? nonne ideo, quia Deus suus vendidit eos, et Dominus conclusit illos?

31Non enim est Deus noster ut dii eorum: et inimici nostri sunt judices.

32De vinea Sodomorum, vinea eorum, et de suburbanis Gomorrhæ: uva eorum, uva fellis, et botri amarissimi.

33Fel draconum vinum eorum, et venenum aspidum insanabile.

34Nonne hæc condita sunt apud me, et signata in thesauris meis?

35Mea est ultio, et ego retribuam in tempore, ut labatur pes eorum: juxta est dies perditionis, et adesse festinant tempora.

36Judicabit Dominus populum suum, et in servis suis miserebitur: videbit quod infirmata sit manus, et clausi quoque defecerunt, residuique consumpti sunt.]

37[Et dicet: Ubi sunt dii eorum, in quibus habebant fiduciam?

38de quorum victimis comedebant adipes, et bibebant vinum libaminum: surgant, et opitulentur vobis, et in necessitate vos protegant.

39Videte quod ego sim solus, et non sit alius deus præter me: ego occidam, et ego vivere faciam: percutiam, et ego sanabo, et non est qui de manu mea possit eruere.

40Levabo ad cælum manum meam, et dicam: Vivo ego in æternum.

41Si acuero ut fulgur gladium meum, et arripuerit judicium manus mea: reddam ultionem hostibus meis, et his qui oderunt me retribuam.

42Inebriabo sagittas meas sanguine, et gladius meus devorabit carnes; de cruore occisorum et de captivitate, nudati inimicorum capitis.

43Laudate, gentes, populum ejus, quia sanguinem servorum suorum ulciscetur: et vindictam retribuet in hostes eorum, et propitius erit terræ populi sui.]

44Venit ergo Moyses, et locutus est omnia verba cantici hujus in auribus populi, ipse et Josue filius Nun.

45Complevitque omnes sermones istos, loquens ad universum Israël,

46et dixit ad eos: Ponite corda vestra in omnia verba, quæ ego testificor vobis hodie: ut mandetis ea filiis vestris custodire et facere, et implere universa quæ scripta sunt legis hujus:

47quia non incassum præcepta sunt vobis, sed ut singuli in eis viverent: quæ facientes longo perseveretis tempore in terra, ad quam, Jordane transmisso, ingredimini possidendam.

48Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen in eadem die, dicens:

49Ascende in montem istum Abarim, id est, transitum, in montem Nebo, qui est in terra Moab contra Jericho: et vide terram Chanaan, quam ego tradam filiis Israël obtinendam, et morere in monte.

50Quem conscendens jungeris populis tuis, sicut mortuus est Aaron frater tuus in monte Hor, et appositus populis suis:

51quia prævaricati estis contra me in medio filiorum Israël ad aquas contradictionis in Cades deserti Sin: et non sanctificastis me inter filios Israël.

52E contra videbis terram, et non ingredieris in eam, quam ego dabo filiis Israël.

1“Listen, O heavens, to what I am saying. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

2Let my doctrine accumulate like the rain. Let my eloquence form like the dew, like a mist upon the plants, and like water droplets upon the grass.

3For I will invoke the name of the Lord. Acknowledge the magnificence of our God!

4The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments. God is faithful and without any iniquity. He is just and upright.

5They have sinned against him, and in their filth they are not his sons. They are a depraved and perverse generation.

6How can this be the return you would offer to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is he himself not your Father, who has possessed you, and made you, and created you?

7Remember the days of antiquity. Consider each generation. Question your father, and he will declare it to you. Question your elders, and they will tell it to you.

8When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the limits of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

9But the Lord’s portion is his people: Jacob, the lot of his inheritance.

10He discovered him in a desert land, in a place of horror and a vast wilderness. He led him around and taught him, and he guarded him like the pupil of his eye,

11just as an eagle encourages its young to fly, and, flying above them, stretches out its wings, and takes them up, and carries them on its shoulders.

12The Lord alone was his leader, and there was no strange god with him.

13He stood him upon an exalted land, so that he might eat the fruits of the fields, so that he might eat honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone,

14butter from the herd, and milk from the sheep, with fat from the lambs, and with rams and goats from the sons of Bashan, with the kernel of the wheat, and so that he might drink the undiluted blood of the grape.

15The beloved grew fat, and he kicked. Having grown fat and thick and wide, he abandoned God, his Maker, and he withdrew from God, his Savior.

16They provoked him with strange gods, and they stirred him to anger by their abominations.

17They immolated to demons and not to God, to gods whom they did not know, who were new and recent arrivals, whom their fathers did not worship.

18You have forsaken the God who conceived you, and you have forgotten the Lord who created you.

19The Lord saw, and he was stirred to anger. For his own sons and daughters provoked him.

20And he said: ‘I will hide my face from them, and I will consider their very end. For this is a perverse generation, and they are unfaithful sons.

21They have provoked me with that which was not God, and they have angered me with their emptiness. And so, I will provoke them with that which is not a people, and I will anger them with a foolish nation.

22A fire has been kindled in my fury, and it will burn even to the deepest Hell, and it will devour the earth with its produce, and it will burn the foundations of the mountains.

23I will heap evils upon them, and I will expend my arrows among them.

24They will be consumed by famine, and birds with a very bitter bite will devour them. I will send forth the teeth of wild beasts among them, along with the fury of creatures that scurry across the ground, and of serpents.

25Outside, the sword will devastate them; and inside, there will be dread, as much for the young man as for the maiden, and as much for the newborn as for the old man.

26I said: Where are they? I will cause their memory to cease from among men.

27But because of the wrath of the enemies, I have delayed it. Otherwise, perhaps their enemies would be arrogant and would say: “Our exalted hand, and not the Lord, has done all these things.”

28They are a nation without counsel and without prudence.

29I wish that they would be wise and understanding, and would provide for the very end.’

30How is it that one pursues a thousand, and two chases ten thousand? Is it not because their God has sold them, and because the Lord has enclosed them?

31For our God is not like their gods. And our enemies are judges.

32Their vines are of the vines of Sodom, but from the suburbs of Gomorrah. Their grapes are the grapes of gall, and their grape clusters are most bitter.

33Their wine is the gall of snakes, and it is the incurable venom of asps.

34‘Have not these things been stored up with me, and sealed up amid my treasures?

35Vengeance is mine, and I will repay them in due time, so that their foot may slip and fall. The day of perdition is near, and the time rushes to appear.’

36The Lord will judge his people, and he will take pity on his servants. He will see that their hand has been weakened, and that those who have been enclosed have likewise failed, and that those who have been left behind have been consumed.

37And he shall say: ‘Where are their gods, in whom they had confidence?

38They ate the fat of their victims, and they drank the wine of their libations. So let these rise up, and bring relief to you, and protect you in your distress.

39See that I am alone, and there is no other god beside me. I will kill, and I will cause to live. I will strike, and I will heal. And there is no one who is able to rescue from my hand.

40I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live in eternity.

41When I sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand takes hold of judgment, then I will render vengeance to my enemies, and I will repay those who hate me.

42I will inebriate my arrows with blood, and my sword will devour flesh: from the blood of the slain and from the captive, from the exposed head of the enemies.’

43You nations, praise his people! For he will avenge the blood of his servants. And he will distribute vengeance to their enemies. And he will be merciful to the land of his people.”

44Therefore, Moses went and spoke all the words of this canticle to the ears of the people, both he and Joshua, the son of Nun.

45And he completed all these words, speaking to all of Israel.

46And he said to them: “Set your hearts upon all the words which I am testifying to you this day. So shall you command your sons, to keep, and to do, and to fulfill all the things that have been written in this law.

47For these things have not been entrusted to you to no purpose, but so that each one would live by them, and so that, in doing these, you may continue for a long time in the land, which you will enter upon crossing the Jordan in order to possess it.”

48And the Lord spoke to Moses on the same day, saying:

49“Ascend this mountain, Abarim, (that is, of crossings) onto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and look upon the land of Canaan, which I will deliver to the sons of Israel to obtain it. And you shall die upon the mountain.

50After climbing it, you will be joined to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, and was placed with his people.

51For you trespassed against me in the midst of the sons of Israel, at the Waters of Contradiction, in Kadesh, in the desert of Sin. And you did not sanctify me among the sons of Israel.

52You shall see the land opposite you, which I will give to the sons of Israel, but you shall not enter into it.”