From this week's Torah portion:

Ha'azinu - The Song of Moshe

“Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And hear, O earth, The words of my mouth. Let my instruction fall as rain, My speech drop down as dew, As fine rain on the tender plants, And as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the Name of YHWH, Ascribe greatness to our Elohim. The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are judgment, An Ěl of truth and without unrighteousness, Righteous and straight is He. A twisted and crooked generation has corrupted itself, Their blemish, they are not His children. Do you do this to YHWH, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you, Who created you and established you? Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and let him show you, Your elders, and let them say to you: When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Yisra’el. For the portion of YHWH is His people, Ya’aqov His allotted inheritance. He found him in a wilderness, And in a wasted, howling desert. He encompassed him, He made him understand, He watched over him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, Flutters over its young, Spreading out its wings, taking them up, Bearing them on its wings. YHWH alone led him, And there was no strange mighty one with him. He made him ride in the heights of the earth, And he ate the fruit of the fields, And He made him to draw honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock, Curds from the cattle, And milk of the flock,With fat of lambs, And rams of the breed of Bashan, And goats, with the choicest wheat; And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes. But Yeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are covered with fat; So he forsook Eloah who made him, And scorned the Rock of his deliverance. They moved Him to jealousy with foreign matters, With abominations they provoked Him. They slaughtered to demons – not Eloah – Mighty ones they did not know, New ones who came lately, Which your fathers did not fear. You neglected the Rock who brought you forth, And forgot the Ěl who fathered you. And YHWH saw, and despised, Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said, Let Me hide My face from them, Let Me see what their end is, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom there is no trusting. They made Me jealous by what is not Ěl, They provoked Me with their worthless matters. But I make them jealous by those who are no people, I provoke them with a foolish nation. For a fire was kindled in My wrath And burns to the bottom of She’ol, And consumes the earth and its increase, And sets on fire the foundations of mountains. I gather evils upon them, I use up My arrows upon them – Wasted by scarcity of food, And consumed by heat and bitter destruction, And the teeth of beasts I send upon them, With the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword bereaves from the outside, And fear from within, Both young man and maiden, Nursing child with the man of grey hairs. I said, I should blow them away, I should make the remembrance of them To cease from among men, If I did not fear the enemy’s taunt, Lest their adversaries misunderstand, Lest they say, Our hand is high, And YHWH has not done all this. For they are a nation lost to counsel, And there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, They would understand this, They would consider their latter end! How would one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And YHWH had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock – Even our enemies are judges. Their vine is of the vine of Sedom And of the fields of Amorah; Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, And the fierce venom of cobras. Is it not stored up with Me, Sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and repayment, At the time their foot slips; For near is the day of their calamity, And the matters prepared are hastening to them. For YHWH rightly rules His people And has compassion on His servants, When He sees that their power is gone, And there is no one remaining, Shut up or at large. And He shall say, Where are their mighty ones, The rock in whom they sought refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them arise and help you, Let it be a hiding-place for you! See now that I, I am He, And there is no Elohim besides Me. I put to death and I make alive. I have wounded, and I heal. And from My hand no one delivers! For I lift My hand to the heavens, And shall say: As I live forever, If I have sharpened My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on judgment, I shall return vengeance to My enemies, And repay those who hate Me. I make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword devours flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long-haired enemy chiefs. O nations, acclaim His people! For He avenges the blood of His servants, And returns vengeance to His adversaries, And shall pardon His land, His people.”

“Then Moshe came, with Hoshea son of Nun, and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. And when Moshe ended speaking all these words to all Yisra’el, he said to them, ‘Set your heart on all the words with which I warn you today, so that you command your children to guard to do all the Words of this Torah. For it is not a worthless Word for you, because it is your life, and by this Word you prolong your days on the soil which you pass over the Yarden to possess.’ And YHWH spoke to Moshe that same day, saying, ‘Go up this mountain of the Avarim, Mount Nevo, which is in the land of Mo’av, which is opposite Yericho, and look at the land of Kena’an, which I give to the children of Yisra’el as a possession, and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aharon your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, because you trespassed against Me in the midst of the children of Yisra’el at the waters of Merivah Qadesh, in the Wilderness of Tsin, because you did not set Me apart in the midst of the children of Yisra’el. For you are to look at the land before you, but not enter there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Yisra’el.’”