Southern Intro
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak.
And listen, O earth, and I will open my mouth.
2 My teaching will drop like rain,
my teaching shall distill like dew,
like a sprinkle upon the herb,
and like a shower upon the grass.
3 For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh,
ascribe greatness to our God.
4 The Rock, perfect are his works.
For all his ways are justice,
a God of truth, and without iniquity.
Just and upright is he.
5 They have corrupted themeselves,
they are not his children.
A blemished generation,
perverse and crooked.
6 Do you repay Yahweh like this,
O foolish people, and without wisdom?
Has not your father bought you,
he who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of old,
consider the years from generation to generation.
Ask your father and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you:
Old Northern Hymn
8 When Elyon divided the nations,
when he separated the sons of the gods, (DSS)
he set the boundaries of the people,
for the number of the sons of Israel.
9 For the portion of
Yahweh is his people,
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in the land of wilderness,
and in the howling waste of desert he led them.
He instructed him,
and kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle stirs up her nest
over her young,
flutters, spreads out her wings,
takes them, bears them on her wings.
12 Yahweh himself led
them,
and with him there was no strange god.
13 He made him ride upon
the high places of the earth,
he ate the produce of the fields.
He made him suck honey from a stone,
and oil from a flinty rock.
14 Butter of oxen, and milk of sheep,
with the fat of lambs and rams.
The offspring of Bashan and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of wheat.
And you drank the pure blood of the grape.
Southern Oracle
15 But Jeshurun got fat and kicked.
You are fat, you are thick, you are covered.
And he forsook Eloah who made him,
and disgraced the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made him jealous with strangers,
they provoked his to anger with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to shades that are not God,
gods they did not know,
new ones that recently came up,
that their fathers did not fear.
18 You deserted the Rock that bore you,
you forgot the God that gave you birth.
19 But Yahweh saw it and was abhored,
from the provocation of his sons
and daughters.
20 So he said,
"I will hide my face from them,
I will see what is their end,
for they are a perverse generation
children with no faithfulness in them."
21 "They have made me jealous with what is not God,
they have angered me with their vanities.
So I will make them jealous with what is not a people,
I will anger them with a foolish nation."
22 "For a fire is kindled in my anger,
and it shall burn unto the lowest part of Sheol,
and it shall devour the land and its produce,
and burn up the founation of the mountains."
23 "I will heap evils upon them,
my arrows will finish them.
24 Burning hunger and devouring,
coal and bitter destruction.
And I will send them the teeth of beasts,
and the poison of serpents of the dust."
25 "Outside the sword will destroy,
and inside terror,
both young man and maiden,
infant with man of grey hair."
26 "I said,
'I will scatter them,
I will end their memory from mankind.'
27 If not the wrath of the enemy I feared,
lest their toublers were to recognize.
Lest they would say,
'Our hand is raised up,
and Yahweh has not done all this.'"
28 For they are a nation void of counsel,
and there is no understanding in them.
29 If only they would be wise,
they would understand this,
they would consider their end.
30 How could one chase a thousand,
and two put then thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and Yahweh had shut them up.
31 For their rock is not as our Rock,
and our enemies judges.
32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom,
and the field of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are the grapes of gall,
and their clusters of bitterness.
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons,
and the venom of cruel asps.
34 Is this not stored up with me,
sealed up in my treasures?
35 Vengeange and recompense are mine.
In time their foot shall slip,
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and the reward upon them is soon.
36 For Yahweh will vindicate his people,
and will comfort upon his people.
For he will see that the hand is gone,
and it is not able to hold on.
37 And he will say,
"Where are their gods,
and the rock in whom they trusted?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you,
let them be your protection.
Poxt-Exile Vindication
39 See now that I am He!
And there is no god beside me.
I kill and I make alive,
I wound and I heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to the heavens and say,
"I live forever."
41 When I sharpen my shining sword,
and my hand takes hold in judgment,
I will render vengeance on my enemies,
and will repay my haters.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
my sword will devour flesh,
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
with the head of the avenging enemy.
43 Rejoice, O nations of his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
And he will render vengeance to his adversaries,
and his people will cover his land.