¹Give ear , you heavens , and I will speak .

Let the earth hear the words of my mouth .

²My 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 .

³For I will proclaim the LORD ’s name .

Ascribe greatness to our God !

⁴The Rock : his work is perfect ,

for all his ways are just .

A God of faithfulness who does no wrong ,

just and right is he .

⁵They have dealt corruptly with him .

They are not his children , because of their defect .

They are a perverse and crooked generation .

⁶Is this the way you repay the LORD ,

foolish and unwise people ?

Isn’t he your father who has bought you ?

He has made you and established you .

⁷Remember 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 .

⁸When 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 .

⁹For the LORD ’s portion is his people .

Jacob is the lot of his inheritance .

¹⁰He 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 .

¹¹As 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.

¹²The LORD alone led him .

There was no foreign god with him .

¹³He 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 ;

¹⁴butter 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 .

¹⁵But Jeshurun 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 salvation .

¹⁶They moved him to jealousy with strange gods.

They provoked him to anger with abominations .

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons , not God ,

to gods that they didn’t know ,

to new gods that came up recently,

which your fathers didn’t dread .

¹⁸Of the Rock who became your father , you are unmindful ,

and have forgotten God who gave you birth .

¹⁹The LORD saw and abhorred ,

because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters .

²⁰He 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.

²¹They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God .

They have provoked me to anger with their vanities .

I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people .

I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation .

²²For a fire is kindled in my anger,

that burns to the lowest Sheol ,

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 .

²⁴They 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 .

²⁵Outside the sword will bereave ,

and in the rooms ,

terror on both young man and virgin ,

the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.

²⁶I said that I would scatter them afar.

I would make their memory to cease from among men;

²⁷were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy ,

lest their adversaries should judge wrongly,

lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted ;

the LORD has not done all this .’”

²⁸For they are a nation void of counsel .

There is no understanding in them .

²⁹Oh that they were wise , that they understood this ,

that they would consider their latter end!

³⁰How could one chase a thousand ,

and two put ten thousand to flight ,

unless their Rock had sold them ,

and the LORD had delivered them up ?

³¹For their rock is not as our Rock ,

even our enemies themselves concede .

³²For their vine is of the vine of Sodom ,

of the fields of Gomorrah .

Their grapes are poison grapes .

Their clusters are bitter .

³³Their wine is the poison of serpents ,

the cruel venom of asps .

³⁴“Isn’t this laid up in store with me ,

sealed up among my treasures?

³⁵Vengeance is mine, and recompense,

at the time when their foot slides,

for the day of their calamity is at hand .

Their doom rushes at them .”

³⁶For the LORD 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.

³⁷He will say, “Where are their gods,

the rock in which they took refuge ,

³⁸which 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 god with me .

I kill and I make alive .

I wound and I heal .

There is no one who can deliver out of my hand .

⁴⁰For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare,

as I live forever ,

⁴¹if 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 .

⁴²I 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.”

⁴³Rejoice , 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 .

⁴⁴Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people , he and Joshua the son of Nun .

⁴⁵Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel .

⁴⁶He said to them , “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today , which you shall command your children to observe to do , all the words of this law .

⁴⁷For 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 to possess it .”

⁴⁸The LORD spoke to Moses that same day , saying ,

⁴⁹“Go up into this mountain of Abarim , to Mount Nebo , which is in the land of Moab , that is across from Jericho ; and see the land of Canaan , which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.

⁵⁰Die on the mountain where you go up , and be gathered to your people , as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor , and was gathered to his people ;

⁵¹because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh , in the wilderness of Zin ; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel .

⁵²For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel .”