Deuteronomy 31–34

¹And Moses goeth and speaketh these words unto all Israel, ²and he saith unto them, ‘A son of a hundred and twenty years am I to-day; I am not able any more to go out and to come in, and Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou dost not pass over this Jordan,

³‘Jehovah thy God He is passing over before thee, He doth destroy these nations from before thee, and thou hast possessed them; Joshua—he is passing over before thee as Jehovah hath spoken, ⁴and Jehovah hath done to them as he hath done to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorite, and to their land, whom He destroyed. ⁵And Jehovah hath given them before your face, and ye have done to them according to all the command which I have commanded you; ⁶be strong and courageous, fear not, nor be terrified because of them, for Jehovah thy God is He who is going with thee; He doth not fail thee nor forsake thee.’ ⁷And Moses calleth for Joshua, and saith unto him before the eyes of all Israel, ‘Be strong and courageous, for thou—thou dost go in with this people unto the land which Jehovah hath sworn to their fathers to give to them, and thou—thou dost cause them to inherit it; ⁸and Jehovah is He who is going before thee, He himself is with thee; He doth not fail thee nor forsake thee; fear not, nor be affrighted.’

⁹And Moses writeth this law, and giveth it unto the priests (sons of Levi, those bearing the ark of the covenant of Jehovah), and unto all the elders of Israel, ¹⁰and Moses commandeth them, saying, ‘At the end of seven years, in the appointed time, the year of release, in the feast of booths, ¹¹in the coming in of all Israel to see the face of Jehovah in the place which He chooseth, thou dost proclaim this law before all Israel, in their ears.

¹²‘Assemble the people, the men, and the women, and the infants, and thy sojourner who is within thy gates, so that they hear, and so that they learn, and have feared Jehovah your God, and observed to do all the words of this law; ¹³and their sons, who have not known, do hear, and have learned to fear Jehovah your God all the days which ye are living on the ground whither ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it.’

¹⁴And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Lo, thy days have drawn near to die; call Joshua, and station yourselves in the tent of meeting, and I charge him;’ and Moses goeth—Joshua also—and they station themselves in the tent of meeting, ¹⁵and Jehovah is seen in the tent, in a pillar of a cloud; and the pillar of the cloud standeth at the opening of the tent. ¹⁶And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Lo, thou art lying down with thy fathers, and this people hath risen, and gone a-whoring after the gods of the stranger of the land into the midst of which it hath entered, and forsaken Me, and broken My covenant which I made with it; ¹⁷and Mine anger hath burned against it in that day, and I have forsaken them, and hidden My face from them, and it hath been for consumption, and many evils and distresses have found it, and it hath said in that day, Is it not because that my God is not in my midst—these evils have found me? ¹⁸and I certainly hide My face in that day for all the evil which it hath done, for it hath turned unto other gods.

¹⁹‘And now, write for you this song, and teach it the sons of Israel; put it in their mouths, so that this song is to Me for a witness against the sons of Israel, ²⁰and I bring them in unto the ground which I have sworn to their fathers—flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, and been fat, and have turned unto other gods, and they have served them, and despised Me, and broken My covenant.

²¹‘And it hath been, when many evils and distresses do meet it, that this song hath testified to its face for a witness; for it is not forgotten out of the mouth of its seed, for I have known its imagining which it is doing to-day, before I bring them in unto the land of which I have sworn.’

²²And Moses writeth this song on that day, and doth teach it the sons of Israel, ²³and He commandeth Joshua son of Nun, and saith, ‘Be strong and courageous, for thou dost bring in the sons of Israel unto the land which I have sworn to them, and I—I am with thee.’ ²⁴And it cometh to pass, when Moses finisheth to write the words of this law on a book till their completion, ²⁵that Moses commandeth the Levites bearing the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, saying, ²⁶‘Take this Book of the Law, and thou hast set it on the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and it hath been there against thee for a witness; ²⁷for I—I have known thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck; lo, in my being yet alive with you to-day, rebellious ye have been with Jehovah, and also surely after my death.

²⁸‘Assemble unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your authorities, and I speak in their ears these words, and cause to testify against them the heavens and the earth, ²⁹for I have known that after my death ye do very corruptly, and have turned aside out of the way which I commanded you, and evil hath met you in the latter end of the days, because ye do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to make Him angry with the work of your hands.’ ³⁰And Moses speaketh in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, till their completion:—

Chapter 32

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…