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1 Listen, ye heavens, and I will speak; give ear, O earth, to the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine shall be soft as rain; let it be received as the dew, and my word be as the breath of the rain that breathes upon the grass, and as the showers of the latter rain upon the herbage. 3 For in the Name of the Lord do I invoke: Ascribe ye greatness unto our God; 4 The Mighty One whose works are perfect; for all His ways are justice; a faithful God from whom no iniquity proceedeth, just and true is He.
5 They have corrupted themselves, and not Him; children who worship idols, a generation that changeth its work, and maketh it another. 6 Behold, render you this before the Lord, ye people who have received the law, but have not become wise? Is He not thy Father, and thou art His who made thee and bought thee? 7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of generation and generation; ask thy fathers, and they will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He made the distribution of the children of men, He ordained the boundaries of the nations after the numbers of the son of Israel. 9 For the Lord’s portion is His people, Jakob is the lot of His inheritance. 10 He satisfied their wants in the land of the wilderness, in the dry place where there was no water; He placed them round about His Shekinah; He taught them the words of His law; He kept them as the apple of His eye. 11 As the eagle which hasteneth to his: nest, and spreadeth himself over his young ones, stretching out his wings, taketh them, upbeareth them with the strength of his pinions, 12 So did the Lord alone prepare them to dwell in the world which He will renew (set right), while the worship of idols shall not be established before Him. 13 He made them to dwell in the strong places of the earth, to eat the spoil of their enemies: He gave them the spoil of the rulers of cities, and the wealth of them who dwelt in strong defenses. 14 He gave them the spoil of their kings and sultans, with the riches of their princes, and the strength of the people of their lands, their possessions, the booty of their hosts and camps, and the blood of their heroes was poured out like water.
15 But Israel waxed fat and kicked, he prospered, grew strong and got rich, and forgot the worship of Eloha who made him, and provoked the Almighty who redeemed him. 16 They provoked Him by the worship of idols, by abominations they made Him angry. 17 They sacrificed to demons in whom there is no help, (nothing that is needed,) and fearful things that they had not known, new (gods) that were lately made, with which your fathers had no dealings; 18 Of the Awful One and the Omnipotent who created thee, thou art forgetful; thou hast forsaken the worship of Eloha who made thee. 19 And it was seen before the Lord, and His anger was kindled by the provocation of His sons and daughters before Him. 20 And He said: I will take away (take up) My Shekinah from among them; what will be their latter end is manifest to Me; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. 21 They have moved Me to jealousy by that which is not worshipful, they have angered Me by their idolatries; and I will make them jealous by what hath not been a people, by a foolish nation will I provoke them. 22 For a burning, strong as fire, shall go forth before Me in fury consuming unto the lowest hell, to make an end of the earth and its produce, and to destroy the mountains to the end; 23 And I will multiply calamities upon them, My plagues will I send forth among them; 24 They shall be swollen with hunger, and be eaten by the fowl, and be vexed with evil spirits; and the teeth of wild beasts will I appoint among them with the venom of serpents that crawl in the dust. 25 Without will the sword devour, and within the chambers be the slaughter-work of death, the youths and the maidens, the sucklings with the aged. 26 I said I would make My anger to remain upon them and consume them; I will abolish their memorial from (among) the children of men: 27 Only that the wrath of the enemy would be condensed, and the adversary make himself great, and would say: Our hand hath prevailed, and all this is not from the Lord. 28 For they are a people that letteth counsel go, and there is no understanding in them. 29 O that they were wise, that they had understanding in this, and would consider what will be in their end! 30 How would one Pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless the Mighty One had delivered them up, and the Lord had requited them! 31 For their strength is not as our Strength, and our enemies are the judges. 32 For as the punishment of the people of Sedom will their punishment be, and their stroke like (that) of the people of Amorah; their plagues will be evil as the heads of serpents, and the retribution of their works like their venom. 33 As the poison of dragons is the cup of their punishment, and as the heads of the cruel basilisks. 34 Are not all their works manifest before Me, laid up in My treasures against the day of judgment? 35 Their punishment is before Me, and I will repay; in the time of their dispersion from their land; for the day of their ruin draweth near, and that which is prepared for them maketh haste. 36 For the Lord shall decide the judgment of His people, and the avengement of His righteous servants shall be avenged; for it is seen before Him, that in the time when the stroke of their enemies would prevail against them, they will be wavering (as those who) are forsaken. 37 And He will say: Where are their idols, the mighty things in which they had trusted, 38 which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drink the wine of their libations? Let them now rise up and help you, let them be a shield over you. 39 See, now, that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside Me. I kill and make alive, I wound but also heal, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand. 40 For I have prepared in the heavens the abode of My Shekinah, and have said, I live forevermore. 41 When My sword is revealed like the sight of twofold lightning from one end of the heavens to another, and My hand taketh hold on judgment, I will render vengeance on My enemies, and My adversaries will I repay; 42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall slay the peoples, that by the blood of the slain, and the captives, I may take the crowns from the head of the foe and the enemy. 43 Give praise, ye Gentiles, with His people, because the avengement of His righteous servants will have been made; for He will bring retribution on them who hate Him, and will show mercy unto His land and His people.
44 And Mosheh came and spake all the words of this hymn before the people, he and Jehoshua bar Nun. 45 And Mosheh concluded to speak all these words with all Israel, 46 and said to them, Set your heart upon all the words that I have witnessed to you this day, that you may instruct your children to observe and perform all the words of this law. 47 For the word is not (given) in vain to you; it is your life, and by this word will you prolong your days upon the land which you pass over Jordan to inherit.
48 And the Lord spake with Mosheh the same day, saying: 49 Go up to this mountain of Abaraee, the mountain of Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, over against Jericho, and see the land of Kenaan which I have given to the sons of Israel for possession; 50 And, dying on the mountain to which thou goest up thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aharon thy brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; 51 Because thou wast perverse with My Word in the midst of the children of Israel, at the Waters of Contradiction, at Rekem, in the desert of Zin, and because thou didst not sanctify Me among the children of Israel. 52 For, though thou mayest see the land, yet from thence thou shalt not go in unto the land which I have given to the children of Israel.