Hearken, O heaven as I declare, let the earth hear my mouth’s sayings.

Let my instruction flow [be fragrant] like rainfall, let my saying drip [be accepted] like dew; like storm winds [blowing] on verdure, and like raindrops [the traces of the last rainfall] on grass.

When I pronounce [pray in] the name of [before] Adonoy, give greatness to our God,

The Almighty’s works are flawless [perfect], for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness without [from before Him] injustice [does not eminate from before Him]; righteous and upright is He.

Destructiveness does not affect Him, it is the defect of His children [who prayed to idols]; a generation [that changed its activities and became changed] warped and twisted.

Is it with [before] Adonoy that you deal this way? base people [who received the Torah and are] lacking wisdom. Is He not your Father, who made you His? He made you and gave you a base.

Remember world history, study the generational epochs. Ask your father and he will relate to you, your elders and they will tell you.

When the Exalted One bequeathed nations, when He set apart the sons of man; He established the boundaries of peoples according to the number of Bnei Yisroel.

Because [of] Adonoy’s portion, His people, Yaakov the cable of His heritage.

He found them [satisfied their needs] in a wilderness country, in arid, shrieking desolation [a place where there was no water]. He encircled [placed them] them around [His Shechinah], He granted them understanding [He taught them Torah], He sheltered them like the pupil of His eye [their eyes].

Like an eagle who rouses [protects] his nest, fluttering over his young, He extends His wings, grasps them, He bears them on His [strong] wing.

Adonoy conducted them alone, without [opposition by] alien gods. [Hashem alone will, in the future, place them in the world that He will renew and no idol worship will exist before Him.]

He shall transport them over the summit of the earth where they will consume the produce of the fields; and He shall nurture them with honey of bedrock and oil of staunchest rock mass. [He placed them in the strong places of the land, and He fed them the spoils of their enemies, He gave them the spoils of the lords of cities, and the wealth of dwellers of fortified cities.]

Butter-fat of cattle and milk of sheep with the fat of lambs, and rams native to Bashan and goats, with the fat of wheat kidneys, and the wine-flavored blood of the grapes will you drink. [He gave them the spoils of their kings and rulers with the wealth of their great and powerful, the people of their lands and their estates with the spoils of their armies and camps. The blood of their heroes was spilled like water.]

Yeshurun grew fat and rebelled, you grew fat, you have become thick, and are covered with fat; he forsook the God who made him, he insulted the Rock of his salvation. [Yisroel grew fat and rebelled. He was very successful and wealthy and forsook the service of the God Who made him, and provoked the Almighty Who redeemed him.]

They incited His [before Him] vengeance with strangers [with idol worship], with loathsomeness did they spite Him [before Him].

They slaughtered to ineffectual demons, gods [that are worthless, fearful things that] they did not know; novelties, lately arrived—your forefathers were not awed by them [had no dealings with them].

[The fear of] the Rock Who bore you, you disregarded; you forsook [the service of] the Almighty Who delivered [made] you.

Adonoy saw and was angered, by the spite of His sons and His daughters. [It was apparent before Hashem, and His anger was kindled by the provocations of sons and daughters before Him.]

He said, ‘‘I will hide [remove] My face [Shechinah] from them, I will see [it is revealed before Me] what their end will be; for they are an upsetting [deviated] generation, sons who are devoid of breeding [have no faith].

They have incited [before] Me [without fear] to vengeance with a non-god—have spited [before] Me with their [serving] idols; and I will incite them with a non-people, I shall anger them with a faithless [foolish] nation.

For a fire shall blaze in My anger, that will burn till the lowest grave; it shall consume the land and its produce, and enflame the bases of mountains. [For a wind as strong as fire has gone out from before Me in anger, which will destroy to the depths of the earth. It will annihilate the land and its produce, and destroy up to the edges of the mountains.]

I shall amass iniquity against them, I shall deplete my arrows [unleash My plagues] against them.

Bloated with hunger, and embattled with demons and slashed by Meriri [plagues caused by evil winds]; and the teeth of animals will I send against them along with the venom of [serpents that are] dust-crawlers.

From without, the sword shall decimate, and from within chambers, terror [the fear of death]; both lad and lass, suckling and aged man.

I thought, ‘I shall abandon them,’ [My anger will fall upon them and I will destroy them], I would eliminate from mankind mention of them.

Were it not for the enemy’s amassed rage, lest their oppressors estrange [plot]; lest they say, ‘Our armed might has prevailed, and not [from before] Adonoy has performed all this.’

For those nations squander counsel, they lack intelligence.

Were they wise they would grasp this, they would contemplate [what will be] their ending.

How can one pursue a thousand, and two make ten thousand flee? Unless their Almighty [lit. rock] has dealt them away [handed them over], and Adonoy has delivered them?

For their mighty one is not like our Almighty, yet our enemies sit in judgement [became our judges].

For their grapevine is of the grapevine [as the calamity of the nation] of Sedom and from the fields [the calamity and deficiency as the nation] of Amorah; their grapes are grapes of bitter herbs. clusters galling to them. [You hit them as bad as the heads of serpentss, and the retribution for their deeds will be as bitter.]

Like caustic [poison of] serpents’ venom is their wine [the cup of their calamity], and [like] the gall [heads] of adders, cruel.

Is this not sequestered with Me, sealed in My treasuries. [Are not all of their deeds revealed before Me, secreted away in my treasuries for the judgment day?]

Vengeance is [before] with Me, and I shall administer retribution at the time that they shall stumble [will be exiled from their land] for the day of their calamity [ruin] is close by, and destiny speeds towards them [and that which is prepared for them makes haste].

When Adonoy administers justice against His people and He will reconsider about His servants; when He sees the power surging, and none are structured or fortified. [When Hashem will decide the judgment of His people, and the cruelty to His just servants will be revenged; then it will be apparent before Him that when the clout of their enemies will grow stronger, they will be carried away and lost.]

He shall say, ‘‘Where is their god [idol] the rock [mighty] on which they relied for shelter?

They ate the fat of their sacrifices, they drank the wine of their libation? Let them arise and help you, let them serve as your shield.

Now observe! For it is I! I am the One! and no god matches Me; I put to death and make live, I smite and I heal and no one can rescue from My grasp.

For I shall lift My hand heavenward [I have prepared the heavens a place for My Shechinah], and I shall say, ‘I live forever.’

If I whet My saber to a gleam, and hold judgement in My grasp. I shall wreak vengeance on My foes and My spiters will I pay. [When My sword shall be revealed as a twofold lightning from one end of the heavens to the other, My hand will hold fast to judgment and I will visit calamity upon My enemies, and I will repay my adversaries.]

I shall make My arrows drunk with blood and My saber shall consume flesh [kill among the nations]; for the blood of the slaughtered and the captives, for the original savagery of the enemy [to remove the crowns from the heads of enemies and adversaries].’’

Let the nations extol His people for He shall avenge the blood [calamities] of His [just] servants and wreak vengeance [calamity] on His enemies and reconcile His land, His people.

Moshe came and he spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of [before] the people; he and Hoshe’a, the son of Nun.

When Moshe finished speaking all these words to all of Yisroel,

He said to them, ‘‘Focus your thoughts on all the statements that I am bringing to witness against you today; which you are to command to your sons to guard and to fulfill all the statements of this Torah.

For it is not a futile thing for you, for it is your life; and by this matter will you live long on the land that you are crossing the Yardein there to inherit.’’

Adonoy spoke to Moshe at the very height of that day, saying,

‘‘Go up to this Mount Ho’avorim, Mount Nevo, which is in the land of Moav, that faces Yereicho; and see the land of Canaan that I am giving to Bnei Yisroel as inheritance.

And die on the mountain upon which you are going up and be gathered unto your people, just as your brother Aharon died in Hor Hohor and was gathered unto his people.

Because you were unfaithful [untrue] to Me [My word] amid Bnei Yisroel at the waters of argument at Kodeish [Rekom] in the Tzin wilderness; because of [the fact] that you did not sanctify Me amid Bnei Yisroel.

For from afar will you see the land but you will not come there to the land that I am giving to Bnei Yisroel.’’