(1)Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;Let the earth hear the words I utter!(2)May my discourse come down as the rain,My speech distill as the dew,Like showers on young growth,Like droplets on the grass. (3)For the name of the ETERNAL I proclaim;Give glory to our God!(4)The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect,Yea, all of whose ways are just;A faithful God, never false,True and upright indeed.(5) Unworthy children—That crooked, perverse generation—Their baseness has played God false.(6)Do you thus requite GOD,O dull and witless people?Is not this the Father who created you—Fashioned you and made you endure!

(7)Remember the days of old,Consider the years of ages past;Ask your parent, who will inform you,Your elders, who will tell you:(8)When the Most High gave nations their homesAnd set the divisions of humankind,The boundaries of peoples were fixedIn relation to Israel’s numbers.(9)For the ETERNAL’s portion is this people;Jacob, God’s own allotment.(10)[God] found them in a desert region,In an empty howling waste—Then engirded them, watched over them,Guarded them as the pupil of one’s eye.(11)Like an eagle who rouses its nestlings,Gliding down to its young,So did [God] spread wings and take them,Bear them along on pinions;(12)The ETERNAL alone did guide them,No alien deity alongside.

(13)[God] set them atop the highlands,To feast on the yield of the earth;Nursing them with honey from the crag,And oil from the flinty rock,(14)Curd of kine and milk of flocks;With the best of lambs,And rams of Bashan, and he-goats;With the very finest wheat—And foaming grape-blood was your drink.(15)So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—You grew fat and gross and coarse—They forsook the God who made themAnd spurned the Rock of their support.(16)They kindled wrath with alien things,Provoked anger with abominations.(17)They sacrificed to demons, no-gods,Gods they had never known,New ones, who came but lately,Who stirred not your forebears’ fears. (18)You neglected the Rock who begot you,Forgot the God who labored to bring you forth.

(19) GOD saw and was vexedAnd spurned these sons and daughters.(20)[God] said:I will hide My countenance from them,And see how they fare in the end.For they are a treacherous breed,Children with no loyalty in them.(21)They incensed Me with no-gods,Vexed Me with their futilities; I’ll incense them with a no-folk,Vex them with a nation of fools.(22)For a fire has flared in My wrathAnd burned to the bottom of Sheol,Has consumed the earth and its increase,Eaten down to the base of the hills.(23)I will sweep misfortunes on them,Use up My arrows on them:(24)Wasting famine, ravaging plague,Deadly pestilence, and fanged beastsWill I let loose against them,With venomous creepers in dust.(25)The sword shall deal death without,As shall the terror within,To youth and maiden alike,The suckling as well as the aged.(26)I might have reduced them to naught, Made their memory cease among humankind,(27)But for fear of the taunts of the foe,Their enemies who might misjudgeAnd say, “Our own hand has prevailed;None of this was wrought by GOD!”(28) For they are a folk void of sense,Lacking in all discernment.

(29)Were they wise, they would think upon this,Gain insight into their future:(30)“How could one have routed a thousand,Or two put ten thousand to flight,Unless their Rock had sold them, GOD had given them up?”(31)For their rock is not like our Rock,In our enemies’ own estimation. (32)Ah! The vine for them is from Sodom,From the vineyards of Gomorrah;The grapes for them are poison,A bitter growth their clusters.(33)Their wine is the venom of asps,The pitiless poison of vipers.(34)Lo, I have it all put away,Sealed up in My storehouses,(35)To be My vengeance and recompense,At the time that their foot falters.Yea, their day of disaster is near,And destiny rushes upon them.(36)For GOD will vindicate this peopleAnd take revenge for these servants,Upon seeing that their might is gone,And neither bond nor free is left.(37)[God] will say: Where are their gods,The rock in whom they sought refuge,(38)Who ate the fat of their offeringsAnd drank their libation wine?Let them rise up to your help,And let them be a shield unto you!(39)See, then, that I, I am the One;There is no god beside Me.I deal death and give life;I wounded and I will heal:None can deliver from My hand.

(40)Lo, I raise My hand to heavenAnd say: As I live forever,(41)When I whet My flashing bladeAnd My hand lays hold on judgment,Vengeance will I wreak on My foes,Will I deal to those who reject Me.(42)I will make My arrows drunk with blood—As My sword devours flesh—Blood of the slain and the captiveFrom the long-haired enemy chiefs.(43)O nations, acclaim this people!For [God] will avenge the blood of these servants,Wreak vengeance on opponents,And cleanse this people’s land.

(44) Moses came, together with Hosea son of Nun, and recited all the words of this poem in the hearing of the people. (45) And when Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, (46) he said to them: Take to heart all the words with which I have warned you this day. Enjoin them upon your children, that they may observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching. (47) For this is not a trifling thing for you: it is your very life; through it you shall long endure on the land that you are to possess upon crossing the Jordan. (48) That very day GOD spoke to Moses: (49) Ascend these heights of Abarim to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. (50) You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; (51) for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people, at the Waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to uphold My sanctity among the Israelite people. (52) You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people.

(48) That very day GOD spoke to Moses: (49) Ascend these heights of Abarim to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. (50) You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; (51) for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people, at the Waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to uphold My sanctity among the Israelite people. (52) You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people.

(2)Return, O Israel, to the ETERNAL your God,
For you have fallen because of your sin.(3)Take words with youAnd return to GOD.
Say:“Forgive all guiltAnd accept what is good;Instead of bulls we will pay[The offering of] our lips.(4)Assyria shall not save us,No more will we ride on steeds;Nor ever again will we callOur handiwork our god,Since in You alone orphans find pity!”(5)I will heal their affliction,Generously will I take them back in love;For My anger has turned away from them.(6)I will be to Israel like dew;He shall blossom like the lily,He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree.(7)His boughs shall spread out far,His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,His fragrance like that of Lebanon.(8)They who sit in his shade shall be revived:They shall bring to life new grain,They shall blossom like the vine;His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.(9)Ephraim [shall say]:“What more have I to do with idols?When I respond and look to [God],I become like a verdant cypress.”Your fruit is provided by Me.(10)The wise will consider these words,The prudent will take note of them.For the paths of GOD are smooth;
The righteous can walk on them,While sinners stumble on them.

(15)Blow a horn in Zion,Solemnize a fast,Proclaim an assembly!(16)Gather the people,Bid the congregation purify themselves.Bring together the old,Gather the babesAnd the sucklings at the breast;Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber,The bride from her canopied couch.(17)Between the portico and the altar,Let the priests, GOD’s ministers, weep
And say:“Oh, spare Your people, ETERNAL One!
Let not Your possession become a mockery,To be taunted by nations!Let not the peoples say,‘Where is their God?’”(18)Then GOD was roused
In behalf of this landAnd had compassionUpon this people.(19)In response to this covenanted people GOD declared:
“I will grant you the new grain,The new wine, and the new oil,And you shall have them in abundance.Nevermore will I let you beA mockery among the nations.(20)I will drive the northerner far from you,
I will thrust it into a parched and desolate land—Its van to the Eastern SeaAnd its rear to the Western Sea;And the stench of it shall go up,And the foul smell rise.”For [GOD] shall work great deeds.(21)Fear not, O soil, rejoice and be glad;For GOD has wrought great deeds. (22)Fear not, O beasts of the field,For the pastures in the wildernessAre clothed with grass.The trees have borne their fruit;Fig tree and vineHave yielded their strength.(23)O children of Zion, be glad,Rejoice in the ETERNAL your God.
For you have been given the early rain out of kindness,Now the rain is made to fall [as] formerly—The early rain and the late—(24)And threshing floors shall be piled with grain,And vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.(25)“I will repay you for the yearsConsumed by swarms and hoppers,By grubs and locusts,The great army I let loose against you.(26)And you shall eat your fillAnd praise the name of the ETERNAL your God
Who dealt so wondrously with you—My people shall be shamed no more.(27)And you shall knowThat I am in the midst of Israel:That I the ETERNAL One am your God
And there is no other.And My people shall be shamed no more.”

(2)Return, O Israel, to the ETERNAL your God,
For you have fallen because of your sin.(3)Take words with youAnd return to GOD.
Say:“Forgive all guiltAnd accept what is good;Instead of bulls we will pay[The offering of] our lips.(4)Assyria shall not save us,No more will we ride on steeds;Nor ever again will we callOur handiwork our god,Since in You alone orphans find pity!”(5)I will heal their affliction,Generously will I take them back in love;For My anger has turned away from them.(6)I will be to Israel like dew;He shall blossom like the lily,He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree.(7)His boughs shall spread out far,His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,His fragrance like that of Lebanon.(8)They who sit in his shade shall be revived:They shall bring to life new grain,They shall blossom like the vine;His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.(9)Ephraim [shall say]:“What more have I to do with idols?When I respond and look to [God],I become like a verdant cypress.”Your fruit is provided by Me.(10)The wise will consider these words,The prudent will take note of them.For the paths of GOD are smooth;
The righteous can walk on them,While sinners stumble on them.

(18)Who is a God like You,Forgiving iniquityAnd remitting transgression—Not staying angry foreverToward the remnant of Your own people,Because You love graciousness! (19)[God] will take us back in love,Quashing our iniquities.
You will hurl all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.(20)You will keep faith with Jacob,Loyalty to Abraham,As You promised on oath to our fathersIn days gone by.