1  ^d“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,

and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

2  May my teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distill as the dew,

like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and like showers upon the herb.

3  For I will ^eproclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe greatness to our God!

4  “The ^fRock, ^ghis work is perfect,

for ^hall his ways are justice.

A God of ⁱfaithfulness and without iniquity,

just and upright is he.

5  They have dealt corruptly with him;

^jthey are no longer his children because they are blemished;

they are a crooked and twisted generation.

6  Do you thus repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he your ^kfather, who created you,

who made you and established you?

7  Remember the ^ldays 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 the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

when he divided mankind,

^mhe fixed the borders¹ of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.²

9  But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted ⁿheritage.

10  “He found him in a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he encircled him, he cared for him,

he kept him as the ^oapple of his eye.

11  Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

^pbearing them on its pinions,

12  the Lord alone ^qguided him,

no foreign god was with him.

13  He ^rmade him ride on the high places of the land,

and he ate the produce of the field,

and he suckled him with ^shoney out of the rock,

and ^toil out of the flinty rock.

14  Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,

with fat³ of lambs,

rams of Bashan and goats,

with the very finest⁴ of the wheat—

and you drank foaming wine made from the ^ublood of the grape.

15  “But ^vJeshurun ^wgrew fat, and kicked;

you grew fat, stout, and sleek;

then he forsook God who made him

and scoffed at the ^xRock of his salvation.

16  ^yThey stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominations they provoked him to anger.

17  They ^zsacrificed to demons that were not God,

to gods they had never known,

to ^anew gods that had come recently,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

18  You were unmindful of the Rock that bore⁵ you,

and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19  “The Lord saw it and spurned them,

because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

20  And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;

I will see what their end will be,

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

21  They have made me jealous with what is no god;

they have provoked me to anger with their idols.

So ^bI will make them jealous with those who are no people;

I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

22  For ^ca fire is kindled by my anger,

and it burns to the depths of Sheol,

devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23  “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;

I will spend my arrows on them;

24  they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured by plague

and poisonous pestilence;

I will send the teeth of ^dbeasts against them,

with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.

25  ^eOutdoors the sword shall bereave,

and indoors terror,

for young man and woman alike,

the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

26  I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;

I will wipe them from human memory,”

27  had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,

it was not the Lord who did all this.”’

28  “For they are a nation void of counsel,

and there is ^fno understanding in them.

29  If they were wise, they would understand this;

they would discern their latter end!

30  How could ^gone have chased a thousand,

and two have put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock had ^hsold them,

and the Lord had given them up?

31  For their rock is not as our Rock;

our enemies are by themselves.

32  For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of poison;

their clusters are bitter;

33  their wine is the poison of serpents

and the cruel venom of asps.

34  “‘Is not this laid up in store with me,

sealed up in my treasuries?

35  ⁱVengeance is mine, and recompense,⁶

for the time when their foot shall slip;

for the day of their calamity is at hand,

and their doom comes swiftly.’

36  For ^jthe Lord will vindicate⁷ his people

and have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone

and there is none remaining, ^kbond or free.

37  Then he will say, ^l‘Where are their gods,

the rock in which they took refuge,

38  who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offering?

^mLet them rise up and help you;

let them be your protection!

39  “‘See now that ⁿI, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me;

^oI kill and I make alive;

^pI wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

40  For I lift up my hand to heaven

and swear, As I live forever,

41  if I sharpen my flashing sword⁸

and my hand takes hold on judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and will repay those who hate me.

42  I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and my sword shall devour flesh—

with the blood of the slain and the captives,

from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’

43  “Rejoice with him, O heavens;⁹

bow down to him, all gods,¹⁰

for he avenges the blood of his children¹¹

and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him¹²

and cleanses¹³ his people’s land.”¹⁴

“The Lord ^wcame from Sinai

and dawned ^xfrom Seir upon us;¹⁶

he shone forth from Mount Paran;

he came from the ^yten thousands of holy ones,

with flaming fire¹⁷ at his right hand.

3  Yes, he loved his people,¹⁸

all his holy ones were ^zin his¹⁹ hand;

so they followed²⁰ in your steps,

receiving direction from you,

4  when Moses commanded us a law,

as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.

5  Thus the Lord²¹ became ^aking in ^bJeshurun,

when the heads of the people were gathered,

all the tribes of Israel together.

6  “Let ^cReuben live, and not die,

but let his men be few.”

“Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah,

and bring him in to his people.

With your hands contend²² for him,

and be a help against his adversaries.”

“Give to Levi²³ your ^fThummim,

and your Urim to your godly one,

whom you tested at ^gMassah,

with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;

9  ^hwho said of his father and mother,

‘I regard them not’;

he disowned his brothers

and ignored his children.

For they observed your word

and kept your covenant.

10  They shall ⁱteach Jacob your rules

and Israel your law;

they shall ^jput incense before you

and whole burnt offerings on your altar.

11  Bless, O Lord, his substance,

and accept the work of his hands;

crush the loins of his adversaries,

of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”

“The beloved of the Lord dwells in safety.

The High God²⁴ surrounds him all day long,

and dwells between his shoulders.”

“Blessed by the Lord be his land,

with the choicest gifts of heaven above,²⁵

and of the deep that crouches beneath,

14  with the choicest fruits of the sun

and the rich yield of the months,

15  with the finest produce of the ancient mountains

and the abundance of the ^meverlasting hills,

16  with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness

and the favor of ⁿhim who dwells in the bush.

May these rest on the head of Joseph,

on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.

17  A firstborn bull²⁶—he has majesty,

and his horns are the horns of a wild ox;

with them he shall gore the peoples,

all of them, to the ends of the earth;

they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,

and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,

and Issachar, in your tents.

19  They shall call peoples to their mountain;

there they offer right sacrifices;

for they draw from the abundance of the seas

and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

“Blessed be he who enlarges Gad!

Gad crouches like a lion;

he tears off arm and scalp.

21  ^qHe chose the best of the land for himself,

for there a commander’s portion was reserved;

and he came with the heads of the people,

with Israel he executed the justice of the Lord,

and his judgments for Israel.”

“Dan is a lion’s cub

that leaps from Bashan.”

“O Naphtali, sated with favor,

and full of the blessing of the Lord,

possess the lake²⁷ and the south.”

“Most blessed of sons be Asher;

let him be the favorite of his brothers,

and let him dip his foot in oil.

25  Your bars shall be iron and bronze,

and as your days, so shall your strength be.

26  “There is none like God, O Jeshurun,

who rides through the heavens to your help,

through the skies in his majesty.

27  The eternal God is ^uyour dwelling place,²⁸

and underneath are the everlasting arms.²⁹

And he thrust out the enemy before you

and said, ‘Destroy.’

28  So Israel lived in safety,

Jacob lived ^valone,³⁰

in a land of grain and wine,

whose heavens drop down dew.

29  Happy are you, O Israel! ^wWho is like you,

a people saved by the Lord,

the shield of your help,

and the sword of your triumph!

Your enemies shall come fawning to you,

and you shall tread upon their backs.”