(Canticle of Moses * Deut 32:1-65)
32:1 Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, * let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
32:2 Let my doctrine gather as the rain, * let my speech distill as the dew,
32:3 As a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass. * Because I will invoke the name of the Lord:
32:4 Give ye magnificence to our God. * The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments:
32:5 God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right. * They have sinned against him, and are none of his children in their filth:
32:6 They are a wicked and perverse generation. * Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people?
32:7 Is not he thy father, * that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?
32:8 Remember the days of old, * think upon every generation:
32:9 Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: * thy elders and they will tell thee.
32:10 When the Most High divided the nations: * when he separated the sons of Adam,
32:11 He appointed the bounds of people * according to the number of the children of Israel.
32:12 But the Lord’s portion is his people: * Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
32:13 He found him in a desert land, * in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness:
32:14 He led him about, and taught him: * and he kept him as the apple of his eye.
32:15 As the eagle enticing her young to fly, * and hovering over them,
32:16 He spread his wings, and hath taken him * and carried him on his shoulders.
32:17 The Lord alone was his leader: * and there was no strange god with him.
32:18 He set him upon high land: * that he might eat the fruits of the fields,
32:19 That he might suck honey out of the rock, * and oil out of the hardest stone,
32:20 Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep * with the fat of lambs, and of the rams of the breed of Basan:
32:21 And goats with the marrow of wheat, * and might drink the purest blood of the grape.
32:22 The beloved grew fat, and kicked: * he grew fat, and thick and gross,
32:23 He forsook God who made him, * and departed from God his saviour.
32:24 They provoked him by strange gods, * and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.
32:25 They sacrificed to devils and not to God: * to gods whom they knew not:
32:26 That were newly come up, * whom their fathers worshipped not.
32:27 Thou hast forsaken the God that beget * and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
32:28 The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: * because his own sons and daughters provoked him.
32:29 And he said: I will hide my face from them, * and will consider what their last end shall be:
32:30 for it is a perverse generation, * and unfaithful children.
32:31 They have provoked me with that which was no god, * and have angered me with their vanities:
32:32 and I will provoke them with that which is no people, * and will vex them with a foolish nation.
32:33 A fire is kindled in my wrath, * and shall burn even to the lowest hell:
32:34 and shall devour the earth with her increase, * and shall burn the foundations of the mountains.
32:35 I will heap evils upon them, * and will spend my arrows among them.
32:36 They shall be consumed with famine, * and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite:
32:37 I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, * with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.
32:38 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.
32:39 I said: Where are they? * I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
32:40 But for the wrath of the enemies * I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud,
32:41 and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, * hath done all these things.
32:42 They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom * O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
32:43 How should one pursue after a thousand, * and two chase ten thousand?
32:44 Was it not, because their God had sold them, * and the Lord had shut them up?
32:45 For our God is not as their gods: * our enemies themselves are judges.
32:46 Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, * and of the suburbs of Gomorrha:
32:47 their grapes are grapes of gall, * and their clusters most bitter.
32:48 Their wine is the gall of dragons, * and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
32:49 Are not these things stored up with me, * and sealed up in my treasures?
32:50 Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, * that their foot may slide:
32:51 the day of destruction is at hand, * and the time makes haste to come.
32:52 The Lord will judge his people, * and will have mercy on his servants:
32:53 he shall see that their hand is weakened, * and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed.
32:54 And he shall say: Where are their gods, * in whom they trusted?
32:55 Of whose victims they ate the fat, * and drank the wine of their drink offerings:
32:56 let them arise and help you, * and protect you in your distress.
32:57 See ye that I alone am, * and there is no other God besides me:
32:58 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.
32:59 I will lift up my hand to heaven, * and I will say: I live for ever.
32:60 If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, * and my hand take hold on judgment:
32:61 I will render vengeance to my enemies, * and repay them that hate me.
32:62 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, * and my sword shall devour flesh,
32:63 of the blood of the slain * and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies.
32:64 Praise his people, ye nations, * for he will revenge the blood of his servants:
32:65 and will render vengeance to their enemies, * and he will be merciful to the land of his people.