Parashah 53: Ha'azinu ·Hear· 32:1-52
32
1 Sh'ma ·Hear obey·, oh heavens, and I will speak!
Let the earth hear the words of my mouth!
2 My doctrine will drop as the rain.
My speech will condense as the dew,
as the misty rain on the tender grass,
as the showers on the herb.
3 For I will proclaim Adonai’s name.
Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are mishpat ·just·.
A God of faithfulness who does no wrong,
just and right is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him.
They are not his children, because of their defect.
They are a perverse and crooked generation. *
6 Is this the way you repay Adonai,
foolish and unwise people?
Is not he your father who has bought you?
He has made you and established you.
(2) 7 Remember the days of old.
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When haElyon [the Most High] gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the children of men,
he set the bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel [God prevails].
9 For Adonai’s portion is his people.
Jacob [Supplanter] is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land,
in the waste howling wilderness.
He surrounded him.
He cared for him.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest,
that flutters over her young,
he spread abroad his wings,
he took them,
he bore them on his feathers.
12 Adonai alone led him.
There was no foreign deity with him.
(3) 13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth.
He ate the increase of the field.
He caused him to suck honey out of the rock,
oil out of the flinty rock;
14 butter from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
with the finest of the wheat.
From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
15 But Jeshurun [Upright one] grew fat, and kicked.
You have grown fat.
You have grown thick.
You have become sleek.
Then he abandoned God who made him,
and rejected the Rock of his yishu'ah ·salvation·.
16 They moved him to jealousy with strange deities.
They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, †
to deities that they didn’t know,
to new deities that came up recently,
which your fathers didn’t dread.
18 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful,
and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
(4) 19 Adonai saw and abhorred,
because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 He said, “I will hide my face from them.
I will see what their end will be;
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities.
I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people.
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. ‡
22 For a fire is kindled in my anger,
that burns to the lowest Sheol ·Place of the dead·,
devours the earth with its increase,
and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23 “I will heap evils on them.
I will spend my arrows on them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured with burning heat
and bitter destruction.
I will send the teeth of animals on them,
with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25 Outside the sword will bereave,
and in the rooms, terror;
on both young man and virgin,
the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26 I said that I would scatter them afar.
I would make their memory to cease from among men;
27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy,
lest their adversaries should judge wrongly,
lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted,
Adonai has not done all this.’ ”
28 For they are a nation void of counsel.
There is no understanding in them.
(5) 29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and Adonai had delivered them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock,
even our enemies themselves concede.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom [Burning],
of the fields of Gomorrah [Rebellious people, Tyrants].
Their grapes are poison grapes.
Their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the poison of serpents,
the cruel venom of asps.
34 “Is not this laid up in store with me,
sealed up among my treasures?
35 Vengeance and recompense is mine, §
at the time when their foot slides;
for the day of their calamity is at hand.
Their doom rushes at them.”
36 For Adonai will judge his people, *
and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone;
that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
37 He will say, “Where are their deities,
the rock in which they took refuge;
38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices,
† and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you!
Let them be your protection.
39 “See now that I myself am he.
There is no elohim ·deity· with me.
I kill and I make alive.
I wound and I heal.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
(6) 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare,
as I live forever, ‡
41 if I sharpen my glittering sword,
my hand grasps it in judgment;
I will take vengeance on my adversaries,
and will repay § those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood.
My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”
43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people, *
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
He will take vengeance on his adversaries,
and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
(7) 44 Moses [Drawn out] came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua [Yah Salvation] the son of Nun. 45 Moses [Drawn out] finished reciting all these words to all Israel [God prevails]. 46 He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall enjoin your children to observe to do, all the words of this Torah ·Teaching·. 47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan [Descender] to possess it.”
(Maftir) 48 Adonai spoke to Moses [Drawn out] that same day, saying, 49 “Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab [From father], that is across from Jericho [Fragrant, Moon]; and see the land of Canaan [Humbled], which I give to the children of Israel [God prevails] for a possession. 50 Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron [Light-bringer] your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; 51 because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel [God prevails] at the waters of Meribah [Quarreling] of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel [God prevails]. 52 For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel [God prevails].”
Haftarah Ha'azinu ·Taking leave· ·Hear·:
Sh'mu'el Bet / 2 Samuel 22:1-51
B'rit Hadashah ·New Covenant·: John 21:1-25
* 32:5 . Quoted in Phil 2:15 † 32:17 . Quoted in 1 Cor 10:20 ‡ 32:21 . Quoted in Rom 10:19, 11:11 § 32:35 . Quoted in Rom 12:19 * 32:36 . (35-36) Quoted in Heb 10:30 † 32:38 . Deut 32:38 (Deut 32:35-39) (#2b.187): Not to drink wine offered to idols ‡ 32:40 . Quoted in Rev 10:5-6 § 32:41 . Quoted in Rom 12:19 * 32:43 . Quoted in Rom 15:10