Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran: The Pillars of Three Faiths. Various Authors

my death? ²⁸Assemble unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹For I know that after my death ye will in any wise deal corruptly, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the end of days; because ye will do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him through the work of your hands.' ³⁰And Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished:

      האזינו

      32Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak;And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.²My doctrine shall drop as the rain,My speech shall distil as the dew;As the small rain upon the tender grass,And as the showers upon the herb.³For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. ⁴The Rock, His work is perfect;For all His ways are justice;A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,Just and right is He.⁵Is corruption His? No; His children's is the blemish;A generation crooked and perverse.⁶Do ye thus requite the Lord,O foolish people and unwise?Is not He thy father that hath gotten thee?Hath He not made thee, and established thee? ⁷Remember the days of old,Consider the years of many generations;Ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee,Thine elders, and they will tell thee.⁸When the Most High gave to the nationsWhen He separated the children of men,He set the borders of the peoplesAccording to the number of the children of Israel.⁹For the portion of the Lord is His people,Jacob the lot of His inheritance. ¹⁰He found him in a desert land,And in the waste, a howling wilderness;He compassed him about, He cared for him,He kept him as the apple of His eye.¹¹As an eagle that stirreth up her nest,Hovereth over her young,Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,Beareth them on her pinions—¹²The Lord alone did lead him,And there was no strange god with Him. ¹³He made him ride on the high places of the earth,And he did eat the fruitage of the field;And He made him to suck honey out of the crag,And oil out of the flinty rock;¹⁴Curd of kine, and milk of sheep,With fat of lambs,And rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats,With the kidney-fat of wheat;And of the blood of the grape thou drankest foaming wine. ¹⁵But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked—Thou didst wax fat, thou didst grow thick, thou didst become gross—And he forsook God who made him,And contemned the Rock of his salvation.¹⁶They roused Him to jealousy with strange gods,With abominations did they provoke Him.¹⁷They sacrificed unto demons, no-gods,Gods that they knew not,New gods that came up of late,Which your fathers dreaded not.¹⁸Of the Rock that begot thee thou wast unmindful,And didst forget God that bore thee. ¹⁹And the Lord saw, and spurned,Because of the provoking of His sons and His daughters.²⁰And He said: 'I will hide My face from them,I will see what their end shall be;For they are a very froward generation,Children in whom is no faithfulness.²¹They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god;They have provoked Me with their vanities;And I will rouse them to jealousy with a no-people;I will provoke them with a vile nation.²²For a fire is kindled in My nostril,And burneth unto the depths of the nether-world,And devoureth the earth with her produce,And setteth ablaze the foundations of the mountains. ²³I will heap evils upon them;I will spend Mine arrows upon them;²⁴The wasting of hunger, and the devouring of the fiery bolt,And bitter destruction;And the teeth of beasts will I send upon them,With the venom of crawling things of the dust.²⁵Without shall the sword bereave,And in the chambers terror;Slaying both young man and virgin,The suckling with the man of gray hairs. ²⁶I thought I would make an end of them,I would make their memory cease from among men;²⁷Were it not that I dreaded the enemy's provocation,Lest their adversaries should misdeem,Lest they should say: Our hand is exalted,And not the Lord hath wrought all this.' ²⁸For they are a nation void of counsel,And there is no understanding in them.²⁹If they were wise, they would understand this,They would discern their latter end.³⁰How should one chase a thousand,And two put ten thousand to flight,Except their Rock had given them overAnd the Lord had delivered them up?³¹For their rock is not as our Rock,Even our enemies themselves being judges.³²For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,And of the fields of Gomorrah;Their grapes are grapes of gall,Their clusters are bitter;³³Their wine is the venom of serpents,And the cruel poison of asps. ³⁴'Is not this laid up in store with Me,Sealed up in My treasuries?³⁵Vengeance is Mine, and recompense,Against the time when their foot shall slip;For the day of their calamity is at hand,And the things that are to come upon them shall make haste. ³⁶For the Lord will judge His people,And repent Himself for His servants;When He seeth that their stay is gone,And there is none remaining, shut up or left at large.³⁷And it is said: Where are their gods,The rock in whom they trusted;³⁸Who did eat the fat of their sacrifices,And drank the wine of their drink-offering?Let him rise up and help you,Let him be your protection. ³⁹See now that I, even I, am He,And there is no god with Me;I kill, and I make alive;I have wounded, and I heal;And there is none that can deliver out of My hand.⁴⁰For I lift up My hand to heaven,And say: As I live for ever,⁴¹If I whet My glittering sword,And My hand take hold on judgment;I will render vengeance to Mine adversaries,And will recompense them that hate Me.⁴²I will make Mine 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.' ⁴³Sing aloud, O ye nations, of His people;For He doth avenge the blood of His servants,And doth render vengeance to His adversaries,And doth make expiation for the land of His people.

      ⁴⁴And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun. ⁴⁵And when Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶he said unto them: 'Set your heart unto all the words wherewith I testify against you this day; that ye may charge your children therewith to observe to do all the words of this law. ⁴⁷For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing ye shall prolong your days upon the land, whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.'

      ⁴⁸And the Lord spoke unto Moses that selfsame day, saying: ⁴⁹'Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession; ⁵⁰and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people. ⁵¹Because ye trespassed against Me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified Me not in the midst of the children of Israel. ⁵²For thou shalt see the land afar off; but thou shalt not go thither into the land which I give the children of Israel.'

      וזאת הברכה

      33And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. ²And he said:

      The Lord came from Sinai,And rose from Seir unto them;He shined forth from mount Paran,And He came from the myriads holy,At His right hand was a fiery law unto them.³Yea, He loveth the peoples,All His holy ones—they are in Thy hand;And they sit down at Thy feet,Receiving of Thy words.⁴Moses commanded us a law,An inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.⁵And there was a king in Jeshurun,When the heads of the people were gathered,All the tribes of Israel together. ⁶Let Reuben live, and not dieIn that his men become few. ⁷And this for Judah, and he said:Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah,And bring him in unto his people;His hands shall contend for him,And Thou shalt be a help against his adversaries. ⁸And of Levi he said:Thy Thummim and Thy Urim be with Thy holy one,Whom Thou didst prove at Massah,With whom Thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;⁹Who said of his father, and of his mother: 'I have not seen him';Neither did he acknowledge his brethren,Nor knew he his own children;For they have observed Thy word,And keep Thy covenant.¹⁰They shall teach Jacob Thine ordinances,And Israel Thy law;They shall put incense before Thee,And whole burnt-offering upon Thine altar.¹¹Bless, Lord, his substance,And accept the work of his hands;Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him,And of them that hate him, that they rise not again. ¹²Of Benjamin he said:The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him;He covereth him all the day,And He dwelleth between his shoulders. ¹³And