32:21. They have provoked me with that which was no G.o.d, and have angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation.
32:22. A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest h.e.l.l: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains.
32:23. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.
32:24. They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.
32:25. Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years.
32:26. I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
32:27. But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things.
32:28. They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
32:29. O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
32:30. How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their G.o.d had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
32:31. For our G.o.d is not as their G.o.ds: our enemies themselves are judges.
32:32. Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their cl.u.s.ters most bitter.
32:33. Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
32:34. Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
32:35. Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come.
32:36. The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed.
32:37. And he shall say: Where are their G.o.ds, in whom they trusted?
32:38. Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress.
32:39. See ye that I alone am, and there is no other G.o.d besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
32:40. I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.
32:41. If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me.
32:42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies.
32:43. Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people.
32:44. So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Josue the son of Nun.
32:45. And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel.
32:46. And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words, which I testify to you this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to fulfil all that is written in this law:
32:47. For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them, and that doing them you may continue a long time in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it.
32:48. And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying:
32:49. Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of pa.s.sages,) unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho: and see the land of Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die thou in the mountain.
32:50. When thou art gone up into it thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:
32:51. Because you trespa.s.sed against me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of contradiction, in Cades of the desert of Sin: and you did not sanctify me among the children of Israel.
32:52. Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
Deuteronomy Chapter 33
Moses before his death blesseth the tribes of Israel.
33:1. This is the blessing, wherewith the man of G.o.d, Moses, blessed the children of Israel, before his death.
33:2. And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, and from Seir he rose up to us: he hath appeared from mount Pharan, and with him thousands of saints. In his right hand a fiery law.
33:3. He hath loved the people, all the saints are in his hand: and they that approach to his feet, shall receive of his doctrine.
33:4. Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the mult.i.tude of Jacob.
33:5. He shall be king with the most right, the princes of the people, being a.s.sembled with the tribes of Israel.
33:6. Let Ruben live, and not die, and be he small in number.
33:7. This is the blessing of Juda. Hear, O Lord, the voice of Juda, and bring him in unto his people: his hands shall fight for him, and he shall be his helper against his enemies.
33:8. To Levi also he said: Thy perfection, and thy doctrine be to thy holy man, whom thou hast proved in the temptation, and judged at the waters of contradiction:
Holy man... Aaron and his successors in the priesthood.
33:9. Who hath said to his father, and to his mother: I do not know you; and to his bretheren: I know you not: and their own children they have not known. These have kept thy word, and observed thy covenant,
Who hath said, etc... It is the duty of the priestly tribe to prefer G.o.d"s honour and service before all considerations of flesh and blood: in such manner as to behave as strangers to their nearest akin, when these would withdraw them from the business of their calling.
33:10. Thy judgments, O Jacob, and thy law, O Israel: they shall put incense in thy wrath and holocaust upon thy altar.
33:11. Bless, O Lord, his strength, and receive the works of his hands.
Strike the backs of his enemies, and let not them that hate him rise.
33:12. And to Benjamin he said: The best beloved of the Lord shall dwell confidently in him: as in a bride chamber shall he abide all the day long, and between his shoulders shall be rest.
Shall dwell, etc... This seems to allude to the temple being built in the confines of the tribe of Benjamin.
33:13. To Joseph also he said: Of the blessing of the Lord be his land, of the fruits of heaven, and of the dew, and of the deep that lieth beneath.