Siddur Part 9 Ha'azinu

Ha'azinu (The Song of Moshe) - Devarim 32
Heavens give ear, and I will speak;
Earth, listen to the words of my mouth.
My teaching will drop as the rain,
my speech will distill as the dew;
as the small rain upon the tender herb,
and as the showers upon the grass;
For I will proclaim the idea of the Sacred One;
ascribe greatness to our God.
The Rock, Whose work is perfect;
for all the ways of the One are just;
God of truth and without iniquity,
Righteous and upright is the One.
Not corrupted, but the children are blemished;
a perverse and crooked generation.
Is this what you do to the Sacred One,
you foolish and unwise people?
Is the One not your Parent your Master?
Has the One not made you, and established you?

Remember the days of old,
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
and set apart the sons of Adam,
and set the borders of the people
according to the number of the people of Yisra'el.
For the portion of the Sacred One is the people;
Ya`aqov is the lot of inheritance.
Who found him in a desert land,
and in the waste howling wilderness;
led him about, instructed him,
and kept him as the pupil of the eye.
As an eagle stirs up its nest,
flutters over its young,
spreads out its wings, takes them,
bears them on its pinions;
So the Sacred One alone did lead him,
and there was no strange god with him.

Causing him to ride on the high places of the earth,
and he ate the produce of the fields;
and made him suck honey out of the rock,
and oil out of the flinty rock;
Butter of cows, and milk of sheep,
with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
with the fat of kidneys of wheat;
and you did drink the wine of the pure blood of the grape.
But Jeshurun became fat, and kicked,
you have become fat, you have become thick,
you are covered with fatness,
then he forsook God who made him,
and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
They provoked jealousy with strange “gods”,
provoking anger with their abominations.
They sacrificed to powerless spirits, not to God;
to “gods” whom they did not know;
to new “gods” that came newly up,
whom your parents feared not.
Of the Rock that parented you you are unmindful,
and have forgotten God who formed you.

The Sacred One saw it, and loathed them,
because of the provocation of the sons, and the daughters.
And said, ‘I will hide My presence from them,
I will see what their end will be;
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom there is no faith.
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God;
they have angered me with their vanities;
and I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in My anger,
and will burn to the lowest part of Sheol,
and will consume the earth with her produce,
and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
I will heap evils upon them;
I will spend my arrows upon them.
They will be wasted with hunger,
and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction;
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them,
with the poison of crawling things of the dust.
The sword will destroy outside,
and terror inside,
both the young man and the virgin,
the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
I said, I would scatter them into corners,
I would make the remembrance of them
to cease from among mortals;
Were it not that I feared the anger of the enemy,
lest their adversaries should judge amiss,
and lest they should say, Our hand is high,
and the Sacred One has not done all this.
For they are a nation void of counsel,
nor is there any understanding in them.

Would it have been that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and the Sacred One had shut them up?
For their rock is not as our Rock,
even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,
and of the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of gall,
their clusters are bitter;
Their wine is the fierceness of crocodiles,
and the cruel venom of asps.
Is not this laid up in store with me,
and sealed up among my treasures?
To me belongs vengeance, and recompense
when their foot will slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and the things that will come upon them make haste.’
For the Sacred One will judge the people,
and repent for the servants,
when it is seen that their power is gone,
and there is none shut up, or left.
And the One will say, where are their “gods”,
their rock in whom they trusted,
Those who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you,
and be your protection.
See now that I, I am the One,
and there is no god with me;
I cause death, and I bring to life,
I wound, and I heal;
nor is there any who can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift up my hand to heaven,
and say, I live forever.
If I whet my glittering sword,
and my hand takes hold on judgment;
I will render vengeance to my enemies,
and will requite those who hate me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword will devour flesh;
with the blood of the slain and of the captives;
with the head of the wild bands of the enemy.
Rejoice, you nations, with the people,
for the blood of the servants will be avenged,
and will render vengeance to the adversaries,
and will make expiation for the land of the people.

And Moshe came
and spoke all the words of this poem in the ears of the people,
he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
And Moshe finished
speaking all these words to all Yisrael;
And he said to them, Set your hearts
to all the words
which I testify among you this day;
which you will instruct your children
to take care to do,
all the words of this Tora.
For it is not a vain thing for you,
because it is your life;
and through this thing
you will prolong your days in the land,
where you go over the Jordan to possess it.

And the Sacred One spoke to Moshe that same day, saying,
Go up to this Mountain Avarim, to Mount Nevo,
which is in the land of Moab,
that is opposite Yeriho;
and behold the land of Cana`an,
which I give to the people of Yisrael for a possession;
And die in the mount where you go up,
and be gathered to your people;
as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor,
and was gathered to his people;
Because you trespassed against me
among the people of Yisrael
at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin;
because you did not sanctify me
in the midst of the people of Yisrael.
Yet you will see the land before you;
but you will not go there
to the land which I give the people of Yisrael.