The Song of Moses 1'Give ear, O heavens, and I speak; And thou dost hear, O earth, sayings of my mouth! 2Drop as rain doth My doctrine; Flow as dew doth My sayings; As storms on the tender grass, And as showers on the herb, 3For the Name of Jehovah I proclaim, Ascribe ye greatness to our God! 4The Rock! -- perfect is His work, For all His ways are just; God of stedfastness, and without iniquity: Righteous and upright is He. 5It hath done corruptly to Him; Their blemish is not His sons', A generation perverse and crooked! 6To Jehovah do ye act thus, O people foolish and not wise? Is not He thy father -- thy possessor? He made thee, and doth establish thee. 7Remember days of old -- Understand the years of many generations -- Ask thy father, and he doth tell thee; Thine elders, and they say to thee: 8In the Most High causing nations to inherit, In His separating sons of Adam -- He setteth up the borders of the peoples By the number of the sons of Israel. 9For Jehovah's portion is His people, Jacob is the line of His inheritance. 10He findeth him in a land -- a desert, And in a void -- a howling wilderness, He turneth him round -- He causeth him to understand -- He keepeth him as the apple of His eye. 11As an eagle waketh up its nest, Over its young ones fluttereth, Spreadeth its wings -- taketh them, Beareth them on its pinions; -- 12Jehovah alone doth lead him, And there is no strange god with him. 13He maketh him ride on high places of earth, And he eateth increase of the fields, And He maketh him suck honey from a rock, And oil out of the flint of a rock; 14Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, and rams, sons of Bashan, And he-goats, with fat of kidneys of wheat; And of the blood of the grape thou dost drink wine! 15And Jeshurun waxeth fat, and doth kick: Thou hast been fat -- thou hast been thick, Thou hast been covered. And he leaveth God who made him, And dishonoureth the Rock of his salvation. 16They make Him zealous with strangers, With abominations they make Him angry. 17They sacrifice to demons -- no god! Gods they have not known -- New ones -- from the vicinity they came; Not feared them have your fathers! 18The Rock that begat thee thou forgettest, And neglectest God who formeth thee. 19And Jehovah seeth and despiseth -- For the provocation of His sons and His daughters. 20And He saith: I hide My face from them, I see what is their latter end; For a froward generation are they, Sons in whom is no stedfastness. 21They have made Me zealous by 'no-god,' They made Me angry by their vanities; And I make them zealous by 'no-people,' By a foolish nation I make them angry. 22For a fire hath been kindled in Mine anger, And it burneth unto Sheol -- the lowest, And consumeth earth and its increase, And setteth on fire foundations of mountains. 23I gather upon them evils, Mine arrows I consume upon them. 24Exhausted by famine, And consumed by heat, and bitter destruction. And the teeth of beasts I send upon them, With poison of fearful things of the dust. 25Without bereave doth the sword, And at the inner-chambers -- fear, Both youth and virgin, Suckling with man of grey hair. 26I have said: I blow them away, I cause their remembrance to cease from man; 27If not -- the anger of an enemy I fear, Lest their adversaries know -- Lest they say, Our hand is high, And Jehovah hath not wrought all this. 28For a nation lost to counsels are they, And there is no understanding in them. 29If they were wise -- They deal wisely with this; They attend to their latter end: 30How doth one pursue a thousand, And two cause a myriad to flee! If not -- that their rock hath sold them, And Jehovah hath shut them up? 31For not as our Rock is their rock, (And our enemies are judges!) 32For of the vine of Sodom their vine is, And of the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of gall -- They have bitter clusters; 33The poison of dragons is their wine And the fierce venom of asps. 34Is it not laid up with Me? Sealed among My treasures? 35Mine are vengeance and recompense, At the due time -- doth their foot slide; For near is a day of their calamity, And haste do things prepared for them. 36For Jehovah doth judge His people, And for His servants doth repent Himself. For He seeth -- the going away of power, And none is restrained and left. 37And He hath said, Where are their gods -- The rock in which they trusted; 38Which the fat of their sacrifices do eat, They drink the wine of their libation! Let them arise and help you, Let it be for you a hiding-place! 39See ye, now, that I -- I am He, And there is no god with Me: I put to death, and I keep alive; I have smitten, and I heal; And there is not from My hand a deliverer, 40For I lift up unto the heavens My hand, And have said, I live -- to the age! 41If I have sharpened the brightness of My sword, And My hand doth lay hold on judgment, I turn back vengeance to Mine adversaries, And to those hating Me -- I repay! 42I make drunk Mine arrows with blood, And My sword devoureth flesh, From the blood of the pierced and captive, From the head of the freemen of the enemy. 43Sing ye nations -- with his people, For the blood of His servants He avengeth, And vengeance He turneth back on His adversaries, And hath pardoned His land -- His people.' 44And Moses cometh and speaketh all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea son of Nun; 45and Moses finisheth to speak all these words unto all Israel, 46and saith unto them, 'Set your heart to all the words which I am testifying against you to-day, that ye command your sons to observe to do all the words of this law, 47for it is not a vain thing for you, for it is your life, and by this thing ye prolong days on the ground whither ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it.' Moses' Death Foretold 48And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in this self-same day, saying, 49Go up unto this mount Abarim, mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is on the front of Jericho, and see the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession; 50and die in the mount whither thou art going up, and be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother hath died in the mount Hor, and is gathered unto his people: 51'Because ye trespassed against me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribath-Kadesh, the wilderness of Zin -- because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the sons of Israel; 52but over-against thou seest the land, and thither thou dost not go in, unto the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel.' |
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