² Let my teachings come down like raindrops.
Let my words drip like dew,
    like gentle rain on grass,
    like showers on green plants.
³ I will proclaim the name of Yahweh.
Give our Elohim the greatness he deserves!
⁴ He is a rock.
    What he does is perfect.
        All his ways are fair.
    He is a faithful El, who does no wrong.
        He is honorable and reliable.

⁵ He recognizes that his people are corrupt.
To their shame they are no longer his children.
They are devious and scheming.
⁶ Is this how you repay Yahweh,
    you foolish and silly people?
Isn’t he your Ab and Owner,
    who made you and formed you?

⁷ Remember a time long ago.
    Think about all the past generations.
        Ask your fathers to remind you,
            and your leaders to tell you.
⁸ When Elyon gave nations their land,
    when he divided the descendants of Adam,
        he set up borders for the tribes
            corresponding to the number of the sons of Israel.

⁹ But Yahweh’s people were his property.
    Jacob was his own possession.
¹⁰ He found his people in a desert land,
    in a barren place where animals howl.
        He guarded them, took care of them,
            and protected them because they were helpless.
¹¹ Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    hovers over its young,
        spreads its wings to catch them,
            and carries them on its feathers,
¹² so Yahweh alone led his people.
    No foreign god was with him.
¹³ He made them ride on the heights of the earth
    and fed them with the produce of the fields.
        He gave them honey from rocks
            and olive oil from solid rock.
¹⁴ They ate cheese from cows
    and drank milk from sheep and goats.
        He gave them fat from lambs,
            rams from the stock of Bashan,
                male goats, and the best wheat.
        They drank the blood-red wine of grapes.

¹⁵ Jeshurun^[a] got fat and disrespectful.
    (You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!)
        They abandoned the Elohim who made them
            and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool.
¹⁶ They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods
    and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols.
¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons that are not Elohim,
    to gods they never heard of.
        These were new gods, who came from nearby,
            gods your ancestors never worshiped.
¹⁸ (You ignored the rock who fathered you
    and forgot the El who gave you life.)

¹⁹ Yahweh saw this and rejected them,
    because his own sons and daughters had made him angry.
²⁰ He said, “I will turn away from them
    and find out what will happen to them.
        They are devious people,
            children who can’t be trusted.
²¹ They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods
    and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols.
So I will use those who are not my people to make them jealous
    and a nation of godless fools to make them angry.
²² My anger has started a fire
    that will burn to the depths of hell.
        It will consume the earth and its crops
            and set the foundations of the mountains on fire.
²³ I will bring one disaster after another on them.
I will use up all my arrows on them.
²⁴ They will be starved by famines
    and ravaged by pestilence and deadly epidemics.
I will send vicious animals against them
    along with poisonous animals that crawl on the ground.
²⁵ Foreign wars will kill off their children,
    and even at home there will be horrors.
        Young men and young women alike will die
            as well as nursing babies and gray-haired men.
²⁶ I said that I would cut them in pieces^[b]
    and erase everyone’s memory of them.
²⁷ But I didn’t want their enemies to make me angry.
    I didn’t want their opponents to misunderstand and say,
        ‘We won this victory!
            It wasn’t Yahweh who did all this!’”

²⁸ My people have lost their good sense.
    They are not able to understand.
²⁹ If only they were wise enough to understand this
    and realize what will happen to them!
³⁰ How could one person chase a thousand
    or two people make ten thousand flee?
Their rock used these people to defeat them
    and Yahweh gave them no help.
³¹ Their rock isn’t like our rock.
    Even our enemies will agree with this.
³² Their grapevines come from the vineyards of Sodom
    and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous,
    and their clusters are bitter.
³³ Their wine is snake venom,
    the deadly poison of cobras.

³⁴ Isn’t this what I’ve stored
    under lock and key in my storehouses?
³⁵ I will take revenge and be satisfied.
    In due time their foot will slip,
        because their day of disaster is near.
            Their doom is coming quickly.
³⁶ Yahweh will judge his people
    and have compassion on his servants
        when he sees that their strength is gone
            and that no one is left, neither slaves nor free people.
³⁷ Then he will ask, “Where are their gods?
    Where is the rock they took refuge in?
³⁸ Where are the gods who ate the fat from their sacrifices
    and drank the wine from their wine offerings?
        Let them come to help you!
            Let them be your refuge!”

³⁹ See, I am the only Elohim.
    There are no others.
I kill, and I make alive.
    I wound, and I heal,
        and no one can rescue you from my power.
⁴⁰ I raise my hand toward heaven and solemnly swear:
    As surely as I live forever,
⁴¹ I will sharpen my flashing sword
    and take justice into my own hands.
        Then I will take revenge on my enemies
            and pay back those who hate me.
⁴² My arrows will drip with blood
    from those who were killed and taken captive.
        My sword will cut off the heads
            of the enemy who vowed to fight.

⁴³ Joyfully sing with Yahweh’s people, you nations,
    because he will take revenge for the death of his servants.
He will get even with his enemies
    and make peace for his people’s land.^[c]