Invocation of Witnesses

32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew,1

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

32:3 For I will proclaim the name2 of the Lord;

you must acknowledge the greatness of our God.

32:4 As for the Rock,3 his work is perfect,

for all his ways are just.

He is a reliable God who is never unjust,

he is fair4 and upright.

32:5 His people have been unfaithful5 to him;

they have not acted like his children6—this is their sin.7

They are a perverse8 and deceitful generation.

32:6 Is this how you repay9 the Lord,

you foolish, unwise people?

Is he not your father, your creator?

He has made you and established you.

32:7 Remember the ancient days;

bear in mind10 the years of past generations.11

Ask your father and he will inform you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

32:8 When the Most High12 gave the nations their inheritance,

when he divided up humankind,13

he set the boundaries of the peoples,

according to the number of the heavenly assembly.14

32:9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people,

Jacob is his special possession.15

32:10 The Lord16 found him17 in a desolate land,

in an empty wasteland where animals howl.18

He continually guarded him19 and taught him;20

he continually protected him21 like the pupil22 of his eye.

32:11 Like an eagle that stirs up23 its nest,

that hovers over its young,

so the Lord24 spread out his wings and took him,25

he lifted him up on his pinions.

32:12 The Lord alone was guiding him,26

no foreign god was with him.

32:13 He enabled him27 to travel over the high terrain of the land,

and he ate of the produce of the fields.

He provided honey for him from the cliffs,28

and olive oil29 from the hardest of30 rocks,31

32:14 butter from the herd

and milk from the flock,

along with the fat of lambs,

rams and goats of Bashan,

along with the best of the kernels of wheat;

and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.