Chapter 32
1 Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth
hear the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil
as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the
herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of HaShem; ascribe ye
greatness unto our G-d.
4 The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are
justice; a G-d of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He.
5 Is corruption His? No; His children's is the blemish; a
generation crooked and perverse.
6 Do ye thus requite HaShem, O foolish people and unwise? is
not He thy father that hath gotten thee? hath He not made thee, and established
thee?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many
generations; ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee, thine elders, and
they will tell thee.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when He separated the children of men, He set the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the portion of HaShem is His people, Jacob the lot of
His inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste, a howling
wilderness; He compassed him about, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple
of His eye.
11 As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, hovereth over her
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her pinions--
12 HaShem alone did lead him, and there was no strange god
with Him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he
did eat the fruitage of the field; and He made him to suck honey out of the
crag, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Curd of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and
rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of
the blood of the grape thou drankest foaming wine.
15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked--thou didst wax fat,
thou didst grow thick, thou didst become gross--and he forsook G-d who made him,
and contemned the Rock of his salvation.
16 They roused Him to jealousy with strange gods, with
abominations did they provoke Him.
17 They sacrificed unto demons, no-gods, gods that they knew
not, new gods that came up of late, which your fathers dreaded not.
18 Of the Rock that begot thee thou wast unmindful, and didst
forget G-d that bore thee.
19 And HaShem saw, and spurned, because of the provoking of
His sons and His daughters.
20 And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see
what their end shall be; for they are a very froward generation, children in
whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god; they have
provoked Me with their vanities; and I will rouse them to jealousy with a
no-people; I will provoke them with a vile nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in My nostril, and burneth unto the
depths of the nether-world, and devoureth the earth with her produce, and
setteth ablaze the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap evils upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon
them;
24 The wasting of hunger, and the devouring of the fiery
bolt, and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts will I send upon them,
with the venom of crawling things of the dust.
25 Without shall the sword bereave, and in the chambers
terror; slaying both young man and virgin, the suckling with the man of gray
hairs.
26 I thought I would make an end of them, I would make their
memory cease from among men;
27 Were it not that I dreaded the enemy's provocation, lest
their adversaries should misdeem, lest they should say: Our hand is exalted, and
not HaShem hath wrought all this.'
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no
understanding in them.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this, they would
discern their latter end.
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand
to flight, except their Rock had given them over and HaShem had delivered them
up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields
of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter;
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the cruel poison
of asps.
34 'Is not this laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My
treasuries?
35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense, against the time when
their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things
that are to come upon them shall make haste.
36 For HaShem will judge His people, and repent Himself for
His servants; when He seeth that their stay is gone, and there is none
remaining, shut up or left at large.
37 And it is said: Where are their gods, the rock in whom
they trusted;
38 Who did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the
wine of their drink-offering? let him rise up and help you, let him be your
protection.
39 See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with
Me; I kill, and I make alive; I have wounded, and I heal; and there is none that
can deliver out of My hand.
40 For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say: As I live for
ever,
41 If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand take hold on
judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine adversaries, and will recompense them
that hate Me.
42 I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, and My sword
shall devour flesh; with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the
long-haired heads of the enemy.'
43 Sing aloud, O ye nations, of His people; for He doth
avenge the blood of His servants, and doth render vengeance to His adversaries,
and doth make expiation for the land of His people.
44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the
ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
45 And when Moses made an end of speaking all these words to
all Israel,
46 he said unto them: 'Set your heart unto all the words
wherewith I testify against you this day; that ye may charge your children
therewith to observe to do all the words of this law.
47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life,
and through this thing ye shall prolong your days upon the land, whither ye go
over the Jordan to possess it.'
48 And HaShem spoke unto Moses that selfsame day, saying:
49 'Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, unto mount
Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the
land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession;
50 and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be
gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was
gathered unto his people.
51 Because ye trespassed against Me in the midst of the
children of Israel at the waters of Meribath-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin;
because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
52 For thou shalt see the land afar off; but thou shalt not
go thither into the land which I give the children of Israel.'
Sources: Portions copyright © 1997 by Benyamin Pilant, All Rights Reserved
JPS Electronic Edition, based on the 1917 JPS translation, Copyright © 1998 by Larry Nelson, All Rights Reserved
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