Listen, O heavens, and I will speak!
Hear, O earth, the words that I say!
2 Let my teaching fall on you like rain;
let my speech settle like dew.
Let my words fall like rain on tender grass,
like gentle showers on young plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
how glorious is our God!
4 He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright he is!
5 “But they have acted corruptly toward him;
when they act so perversely,
are they really his children?[a]
They are a deceitful and twisted generation.
6 Is this the way you repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Isn’t he your Father who created you?
Has he not made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of long ago;
think about the generations past.
Ask your father, and he will inform you.
Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High assigned lands to the nations,
when he divided up the human race,
he established the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number in his heavenly court.
9 “For the people of Israel belong to the Lord;
Jacob is his special possession.
10 He found them in a desert land,
in an empty, howling wasteland.
He surrounded them and watched over them;
he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes.[c]
11 Like an eagle that rouses her chicks
and hovers over her young,
so he spread his wings to take them up
and carried them safely on his pinions.
12 The Lord alone guided them;
they followed no foreign gods.
13 He let them ride over the highlands
and feast on the crops of the fields.
He nourished them with honey from the rock
and olive oil from the stony ground.
14 He fed them yogurt from the herd
and milk from the flock,
together with the fat of lambs.
He gave them choice rams from Bashan, and goats,
together with the choicest wheat.
You drank the finest wine,
made from the juice of grapes.
15 “But Israel[d] soon became fat and unruly;
the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed!
Then they abandoned the God who had made them;
they made light of the Rock of their salvation.
16 They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods;
they provoked his fury with detestable deeds.
17 They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God,
to gods they had not known before,
to new gods only recently arrived,
to gods their ancestors had never feared.
18 You neglected the Rock who had fathered you;
you forgot the God who had given you birth.
19 “The Lord saw this and drew back,
provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters.
20 He said, ‘I will abandon them;
then see what becomes of them.
For they are a twisted generation,
children without integrity.
21 They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not God;
they have provoked my anger with their useless idols.
Now I will rouse their jealousy through people who are not even a people;
I will provoke their anger through the foolish Gentiles.
22 For my anger blazes forth like fire
and burns to the depths of the grave.[e]
It devours the earth and all its crops
and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap disasters upon them
and shoot them down with my arrows.
24 I will weaken them with famine,
burning fever, and deadly disease.
I will send the fangs of wild beasts
and poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.
25 Outside, the sword will bring death,
and inside, terror will strike
both young men and young women,
both infants and the aged.
26 I would have annihilated them,
wiping out even the memory of them.
27 But I feared the taunt of Israel’s enemy,
who might misunderstand and say,
“Our own power has triumphed!
The Lord had nothing to do with this!”’
28 “But Israel is a senseless nation;
the people are foolish, without understanding.
29 Oh, that they were wise and could understand this!
Oh, that they might know their fate!
30 How could one person chase a thousand of them,
and two people put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the Lord had given them up?
31 But the rock of our enemies is not like our Rock,
as even they recognize.
32 Their vine grows from the vine of Sodom,
from the vineyards of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison,
and their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.
34 “The Lord says, ‘Am I not storing up these things,
sealing them away in my treasury?
35 I will take revenge; I will pay them back.
In due time their feet will slip.
Their day of disaster will arrive,
and their destiny will overtake them.’
36 “Indeed, the Lord will give justice to his people,
and he will change his mind about[g] his servants,
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.
37 Then he will ask, ‘Where are their gods,
the rocks they fled to for refuge?
38 Where now are those gods,
who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their offerings?
Let those gods arise and help you!
Let them provide you with shelter!
39 Look now; I myself am he!
There is no other god but me!
I am the one who kills and gives life;
I am the one who wounds and heals;
no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!
40 Now I raise my hand to heaven
and declare, “As surely as I live,
41 when I sharpen my flashing sword
and begin to carry out justice,
I will take revenge on my enemies
and repay those who reject me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword will devour flesh—
the blood of the slaughtered and the captives,
and the heads of the enemy leaders.”’
43 “Rejoice with him, you heavens,
and let all of God’s angels worship him.[h]
Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles,
and let all the angels be strengthened in him.[i]
For he will avenge the blood of his children[j];
he will take revenge against his enemies.
He will repay those who hate him[k]
and cleanse his people’s land.”
44 So Moses came with Joshua[l] son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people. 45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to the people of Israel, 46 he added: “Take to heart all the words of warning I have given you today. Pass them on as a command to your children so they will obey every word of these instructions. 47 These instructions are not empty words—they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you will occupy when you cross the Jordan River.”
Moses’ Death Foretold
48 That same day the Lord said to Moses, 49 “Go to Moab, to the mountains east of the river,[m] and climb Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho. Look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel as their own special possession. 50 Then you will die there on the mountain. You will join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors. 51 For both of you betrayed me with the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh[n] in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there. 52 So you will see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
モーセの歌
32 天よ、地よ、じっと耳をすませ、私のことばに。
2 こぬか雨や露のように静かに、
若草をぬらす雨のように心地よく、
山腹を駆ける夕立のように激しく、
私のことばは下る。
3 さあ、主の偉大さを告げよう。
主は、この上なくすばらしい方。
4 岩のように堅く、なさることはみな完全で正しく、
何事にも公平で忠実な方。
主はいつも潔白な方。
5 しかし、イスラエルは堕落し、罪に汚れてしまった。
強情で曲がったことばかりする。
もはや神の民ではない。
6 これが主への恩返しか。
愚かな民よ。
神は父親ではなかったか。
あなたの造り主ではなかったか。
あなたを強く育て上げた方ではなかったか。
7 昔を思い出せ。
父や老人に聞けば、すべてがはっきりするだろう。
8 世界を造られた時、
神は天使を遣わし、国々を監督させた。
9 だが、イスラエルは特別だ。
神ご自身のものだからだ。
10 獣の遠ぼえの聞こえる寂しい荒野を行く時、
神はまるで自分の目のようにイスラエルを守られた。
11 わしが翼を広げ、ひなを乗せて飛ぶように、
神はその国民を、翼に乗せて運ばれる。
12 主だけがイスラエルを指導し、
国民が外国の神々を知らずにいた時、
13 丘は豊かな実りを約束し、
ゆるやかに起伏する畑は肥えていた。
岩からはちみつが、石地からオリーブ油が採れた。
14 ほかにも、乳と肉、バシャンの極上の雄羊と雄やぎ、
最良の小麦、あわ立つぶどう酒と、
何でも欲しいだけあった。
15 イスラエルはじきに満腹し、丸々と太った。
ぜいたくに慣れて高慢になり、
自分を造った神を捨て、
救いの岩を軽んじた。
16 イスラエルは外国の神々のあとを追い、
神の激しい怒りを燃えさせた。
17 あろうことか、外国の神々、
それまで拝んだこともない神々に
いけにえをささげた。
18 生みの親である岩をけとばし、
いのちを与えてくれた神を忘れるとは。
19 神は憎しみに燃えた。
自分の息子、娘たちに侮辱されたのだ。
20 ついに神は言われた。
「強情で不信仰な者ども、
もうわたしは知らない。
どんなことになるか見ているがいい。
21 恨みを買ってでも、まやかし物の偶像を拝みたいのか。
ならば報いを与えよう。
あなたを捨て、
無知な異教の諸国民に救いを与えるから、
さんざん恨みごとを言うがいい。
22 わたしの怒りの炎は燃え上がり、
地とその産物を焼き尽くし、
山々をなめ尽くす。
23 息つくまもなく災いを下し、
次々と矢を放ち、射倒そう。
24 飢えと熱病と不治の病で痛めつけてもかまわない。
滅ぼしてしまおう。
野獣が彼らを八つ裂きにし、
毒蛇は獲物を求めて地をはい回る。
25 外には敵の剣、内には恐れ。
老人も若者も、乳飲み子さえも逃れられない。
26 あげくは、遠い国へ散り散りに追いやる。
そこに彼らがいたことさえ忘れさせるために。
27 だが、それでは敵の思うつぼだ。
『われわれがイスラエルを滅ぼした。
主なんかじゃない』と大言壮語させることになる。」
28 イスラエルは愚かな国、知恵のない、わからず屋。
29 ああ、少しでも知恵があり、ものわかりがよかったら、自分の末路を見きわめることもできたろうに。
30 彼らの岩である主が見捨てず、
滅ぼそうとされなかったら、
一人の敵が千人を追い散らし、
二人が万人を敗走させることもなかったろうに。
31 この岩にまさる岩はどこにもない。
敵も、神々への祈りがむなしいことを知っている。
32 彼らの行いは、ソドム、ゴモラの人たちと同じで、
苦々しい毒がある。
33 彼らの飲むぶどう酒はまむしの毒液だ。
34 「だがイスラエルは、わたしの取っておきの国民、
倉に納めた宝だ。
35 復讐はわたしの務め、
イスラエルの敵には罰を下す。
判決はすでに下った。」
36 神はイスラエルをさばき、
彼らの失敗を優しくかばわれる。
奴隷も自由人も力が衰えていくのを見て、
37 こう言われる。
「ほかの神々はどこへ行った。
頼みの岩はどうしたのだ。
38 あぶら身やぶどう酒をささげた神々はどうなったのか。
さあ、神々を奮い立たせて助けてもらうがいい。
39 どうだ、よくわかったか。
ほんとうの神はわたしだけなのだ。
殺すも生かすも、
傷つけるのも癒やすのも、思いのまま。
わたしの手から救い出せる者はいない。
40-41 手を天に差し伸べ、わたしの存在をかけて誓おう。
きらめく剣をとぎすまし、敵に刑罰を下す。
42 矢は血に酔いしれ、剣は肉と血をむさぼる。
刺し殺され、捕らわれた者の肉と血を。
敵の頭は血にまみれる。」
43 異教の国民よ、神の国民をたたえよ。
神は彼らのかたきを討ち、
御国と民をきよめられたから。
44-45 モーセはヨシュアとともにこの歌を歌い終えると、 46 人々に命じました。「今日与えた律法をすべて心に留め、子どもたちに教えなさい。 47 この律法は、ただ意味もなくことばを並べてあるのではありません。あなたがたのいのちそのものです。この律法を守れば、ヨルダン川の向こうの、これから占領する地で、長く生きることができる。」48 同じ日、主はモーセに告げて語りました。 49 「エリコに向かい合った、モアブのアバリム高地にあるネボ山に登りなさい。頂上から、わたしがイスラエル人に与えるカナンの国を見渡すのだ。 50 兄のアロンがホル山で死に、先祖の仲間入りをしたように、あなたもその国を見たら、先祖の仲間入りをしなければならない。 51 ツィンの荒野のメリバテ・カデシュの泉でしたことの報いだ。あの時あなたは、わたしの神聖さを人々に示さなかった。 52 だから、約束の地を目の前にしながら、入って行くことはできない。」