The Song of Moses

(Judges 5:1-31)

1Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth!

2My doctrine shall drop as rain, My speech flow down as dew, As small rain upon the tender herb, And as showers on the grass.

3For the name of Jehovah will I proclaim: Ascribe greatness unto our God!

4[He is] the Rock, his work is perfect, For all his ways are righteousness; A God of faithfulness without deceit, Just and right is he.

5They have dealt corruptly with him; Not his children's is their spot: -- A crooked and perverted generation!

6Do ye thus requite Jehovah, Foolish and unwise people? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee?

7Remember the days of old, Consider the years of generation to generation; Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; Thine elders, and they will tell thee.

8When the Most High assigned to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.

9For Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob the lot of his inheritance.

10He found him in a desert land, And in the waste, howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he watched over him, He preserved him as the apple of his eye.

11As the eagle stirreth up its nest, Hovereth over its young, Spreadeth out its wings, Taketh them, beareth them on its feathers,

12So Jehovah alone did lead him, And no strange god [was] with him.

13He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And he made him suck honey out of the crag, And oil out of the flinty rock;

14Cream of kine, and milk of sheep, With the fat of lambs, And rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, With the fat of kidneys of wheat; And thou didst drink pure wine, the blood of the grape.

15Then Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked -- Thou art waxen fat, Thou art grown thick, And thou art covered with fatness; -- He gave up +God who made him, And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

16They moved him to jealousy with strange gods, With abominations did they provoke him to anger.

17They sacrificed unto demons who are not +God; To gods whom they knew not, To new ones, who came newly up, Whom your fathers revered not.

18Of the Rock that begot thee wast thou unmindful, And thou hast forgotten God who brought thee forth.

19And Jehovah saw it, and despised them, Because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.

20And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness.

21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is no God; They have exasperated me with their vanities; And I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a people; With a foolish nation will I provoke them to anger.

22For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And it shall burn into the lowest Sheol, And shall consume the earth and its produce, And set fire to the foundations of the mountains.

23I will heap mischiefs upon them; Mine arrows will I spend against them.

24They shall be consumed with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, And with poisonous pestilence; And the teeth of beasts will I send against them, With the poison of what crawleth in the dust.

25From without shall the sword bereave them, and in the chambers, terror -- Both the young man and the virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs.

26I would say, I will scatter, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men,

27If I did not fear provocation from the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand it, Lest they should say, Our hand is high, and Jehovah has not done all this.

28For they are a nation void of counsel, And understanding is not in them.

29Oh that they had been wise! they would have understood this, They would have considered their latter end!

30How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And Jehovah had delivered them up?

31For their rock is not as our Rock: Let our enemies themselves be judges.

32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of poison, Bitter are their clusters;

33Their wine is the poison of dragons, And the cruel venom of vipers.

34Is not this hidden with me, Sealed up among my treasures?

35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, For the time when their foot shall slip. For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste.

36For Jehovah will judge his people, And shall repent in favour of his servants; When he seeth that power is gone, And there is none shut up or left.

37And he shall say, Where are their gods, Their rock in whom they trusted,

38Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, [And] drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you, That there may be a protection over you.

39See now that I, I am HE, And there is no god with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal, And there is none that delivereth out of my hand,

40For I lift up my hand to the heavens, and say, I live for ever!

41If I have sharpened my gleaming sword, And my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, And will recompense them that hate me.

42Mine arrows will I make drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh; [I will make them drunk] with the blood of the slain and of the captives, With the head of the princes of the enemy.

43Shout for joy, ye nations, with his people, For he avengeth the blood of his servants, And rendereth vengeance to his enemies, And maketh atonement for his land, for his people.

44And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea the son of Nun. 45And when Moses had ended speaking all these words to all Israel, 46he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words that I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to take heed to do, all the words of this law. 47For it is no vain word for you, but it is your life, and through this word ye shall prolong your days on the land whereunto ye pass over the Jordan to possess it.

Moses' Death Foretold

48And Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day, saying, 49Go up into this mountain Abarim, mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is opposite Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession, 50and die on the mountain whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother died on mount Hor, and was gathered unto his peoples; 51because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye hallowed me not in the midst of the children of Israel. 52For thou shalt see the land before [thee]; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.