Historical
Parashat Haazinu
The Song of Moses
32 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak!
Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching trickle like rain,
my speech distill like dew—
like gentle rain on new grass,
like showers on tender plants.
3 For I will proclaim Adonai’s Name,
ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock—blameless is His work.
Indeed, all His ways are just.
God of faithfulness without iniquity,
righteous and upright is He.
5 Did it corrupt Him? No!
The blemish is His children’s—
a generation crooked and twisted.
6 Is this how you pay back Adonai,
O foolish, unwise people?
Isn’t He your Father who ransomed you?[a]
He made you and established you.
7 “Remember the days of antiquity,
understand the years across generations.[b]
Ask your father and he will tell you,
your elders and they will say to you.
8 When Elyon gave nations their heritage,
when He separated the sons of man,
He set boundaries for the people
by the number of Bnei-Yisrael.
9 But Adonai’s portion is His people—
Jacob is the share of His inheritance.
10 He found him in the wilderness land,
in the void of a howling waste.
He surrounded him, cared for him,
guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
hovers over its young,
He spreads His wings, catches him,
lifts him up on His pinions.
12 Adonai alone guided him—
there was no foreign god with him.
13 He made him mount the heights of the land.
so he ate the produce of the field.
He suckled him with honey from a rock,
with oil from a flinty boulder.
14 Butter of cattle and milk of a flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of the Bashan and he-goats,
with fat of the kidneys of wheat,
and blood of grapes you drank.
15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
you got fat, you grew thick, you gorged!
He forsook God who made him.
He mocked the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made him jealous with strangers,
with abominations they angered Him.
17 They sacrificed to demons, a non-god,
gods they had not known—
to new ones who came in lately,
ones your fathers had not dreaded.
18 The Rock who birthed you, you ignored.
You forgot God who brought you forth.
19 “Adonai saw, and He spurned His sons
and His daughters out of vexation.
20 He said, “I will hide My face from them,
I want to see their hereafter.
For they are an upside down generation,
children with no faithfulness in them.
21 They made Me jealous with a non-god.
They vexed Me with airy idols.
So I will make them jealous with a non-people.
With a foolish nation I will vex them.[c]
22 For fire has ignited in My nostrils—
it will burn to Sheol beneath,
devour the earth and her produce,
and scorch the foundations of mountains.
23 I will heap calamities upon them.
With My arrows I will finish them.
24 Wasted by famine, ravaged by plague
and pestilence so bitter,
fangs of beasts I’ll let loose on them,
with venom of creepers in the dust.
25 Outside the sword deals death,
and inside terror—
to both young men and young women,
infants, with men of gray hair.
26 I would have said,
‘I will hack them to pieces,
make the memory of them cease from mankind,’
27 except I dread the taunt of the enemy,
lest their foes might misconstrue—
lest they say, ‘Our hand is held high,
and Adonai has not done all this.’
28 For they are a nation lacking counsel,
among them there is no understanding.
29 “If they were wise,
they would discern this,
they would understand their hereafter.
30 How can one chase a thousand
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them
and Adonai had handed them over?
31 Surely their rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies judge.
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the terraces of Gomorrah.
Its grapes are grapes of poison—
bitter clusters on it.
33 Venom of serpents is their wine—
poison of vipers so cruel.
34 Is it not stored up with Me,
sealed up in My treasuries?
35 Vengeance is Mine, and payback,[d]
for the time when their foot staggers.
Surely their day of disaster is near—
what is prepared rushes on them.
36 For Adonai will judge His people—
for His servants, He will relent
when He sees that strength[e] is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.
37 He will say, ‘Where are their gods,
the “rock” they took refuge in?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their libation?
Let them rise up and help you
and be a shelter over you!
39 See now that I, I am He!
There are no other gods beside Me.
I bring death and give life,
I have wounded but I will heal,[f]
and none can rescue from My hand.’
40 “Yes, I lift My hand up to heaven
and say, ‘As I Myself live forever,
41 when I sharpen My lightning sword
and My hand seizes it in judgment,
I will return vengeance on My foes,
and those who hate Me I will pay back.
42 I will make My arrows drunk from blood,
and My sword will devour flesh—
the blood of the slain and the captive,
the head of the leaders of the enemy.’
43 Make His people rejoice, O nations,[g]
for He will avenge the blood of His servants.[h]
He will return vengeance on His foes,
and atone for the land of His people.”
44 Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people—he and Joshua son of Nun. 45 When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Put in your hearts all the words that I call as witness against you today—that you may command your children to keep and do all the words of this Torah. 47 For it is not an empty thing for you, because it is your life! By this word you will prolong your days on the land, which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”
48 On that very day, Adonai spoke to Moses saying, 49 “Go up this mountain of the Avarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to Bnei-Yisrael as a possession. 50 On the mountain that you are ascending, there be gathered to your people—as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people— 51 because you both broke faith with Me among Bnei-Yisrael at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of Bnei-Yisrael. 52 For you will see the land from afar, but you will not enter there, into the land that I am giving to Bnei-Yisrael.”
Parashat V’Zot HaBrachah
The Blessing of Moses
33 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed Bnei-Yisrael before his death. 2 He said,
“Adonai came from Sinai
and dawned on Bnei-Yisrael from Seir.
He shone forth from Mount Paran,
and He came from the holy myriads—
blazing fire[i] for them from His right hand.
3 Indeed, a lover of peoples is He—
all His kedoshim are in His hand.
They followed in Your steps,
each receiving Your words.
4 Torah Moses commanded us—
a heritage for the community of Jacob.
5 He became king in Jeshurun
when the heads of the people gathered,
all the tribes of Israel together.
6 ‘Let Reuben live and not die,
though his people become few.’
7 Now this is for Judah. He said,
‘Hear, Adonai, the voice of Judah!
Bring him to his people.
His hands contended for him,
so You will be a help against his foes.’
8 For Levi he said,
‘Let Your Thummim and Urim be with Your pious man.
You tested him at Massah,
You strived with him at the waters of Meribah.’
9 He said of his father and mother,
“I have not seen them,”
nor did he acknowledge his brothers
or recognize his children.
For they observed Your word
and kept Your covenant.
10 They will teach Jacob Your judgments
and Israel Your Torah.
They will put incense in your nose
and whole burnt offerings on Your altar.
11 Adonai, bless his resources,
find favor in the work of his hands.
Crush the loins of those
who rise against him and hate him,
so they do not rise again.’
12 For Benjamin he said,
‘The beloved of Adonai
rests securely beside Him.
He shields him all day long.
Between His shoulders he rests.’
13 For Joseph he said,
‘May his land be blessed by Adonai
with heavenly bounty from the dew
and from the deep lying beneath,
14 and with the bounty
of the sun’s produce
and the months’ yield,
15 and with the best
from the ancient mountains
and the bounty of the everlasting hills,
16 with earth’s bounty and its fullness
and the favor of the One
dwelling in the bush.
May it come on Joseph’s head,
on the crown of the prince
among his brothers.
17 The firstborn ox—majesty is his.
His horns are the horns of the wild ox.
With them he gores peoples,
all at once, to the ends of the earth.
They are the myriads of Ephraim,
they are the thousands of Manasseh.’
18 For Zebulun he said,
‘Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
and Issachar, in your tents.
19 Peoples they call to the mountain—
there they offer righteous sacrifices.
For they suckle the abundance of the seas
and the hidden treasures of the sand.’
20 For Gad he said,
‘Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad.
Like a lion he crouches,
and tears off an arm
or even the crown of a head.
21 He chose the best for himself,
for there a marked portion was reserved.
He came with the heads of the people.
He carried out Adonai’s justice
and His judgments for Israel.’
22 For Dan he said,
‘Dan is a lion’s cub
leaping out of the Bashan.’
23 For Naphtali he said,
‘O Naphtali, satisfied with favor
and full of the blessing of Adonai,
possess the sea and the south.’
24 For Asher he said,
‘Most blessed of sons is Asher—
may he be the favorite of his brothers,
and may he dip his foot in oil.
25 The bolts of your gates
will be iron and bronze.
As your days, so will your strength be.’
26 “There is none like God, Jeshurun,
riding through the heavens to your aid
and through the skies in His majesty.
27 A refuge is the ancient God,
and underneath are everlasting arms.
He drove out the enemy before you
and said, ‘Destroy!’
28 So Israel rests in safety,
untroubled is Jacob’s fountain
in a land of grain and new wine.
Yes, his heavens drip dew.
29 Happy are you, O Israel!
Who is like you, a people saved by Adonai,
the Shield of your help
and the Sword of your triumph?
Your enemies will cower before you,
and you will trample on their backs.”
34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. Adonai showed him all the land—Gilead to Dan, 2 and all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negev and the plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 Then Adonai said to him, “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saying, ‘I will give it to your seed.’ I let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over there.”
5 So Moses the servant of Adonai died there in the land of Moab, as was from the mouth of Adonai. 6 Then He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor—but no one knows of his burial place to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim nor his vigor gone. 8 Bnei-Yisrael wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping, mourning for Moses, were ended.
9 Now Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So Bnei-Yisrael listened to him and did just as Adonai had commanded Moses.
10 There has not risen again a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Adonai knew face to face, 11 with all the signs and wonders Adonai sent him to do in the land of Egypt—to Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land— 12 by the strong hand and great awe that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.