¹ Or c'est ici la bénédiction dont Moïse, homme de Dieu, bénit les enfants d'Israël avant sa mort.

² Il dit donc : L'Eternel est venu de Sinaï, et s'est levé à eux en Séhir; il leur a resplendi de la montagne de Paran, et il est sorti d'entre les dix milliers des Saints, et de sa dextre le feu de la Loi est sorti vers eux.

³ Et même il aime les peuples, tous ses Saints [sont] en ta main; et ils se sont tenus à tes pieds pour recevoir tes paroles.

⁴ Moïse nous a donné la Loi, qui est l'héritage de l'assemblée de Jacob;

⁵ Et il a été Roi entre les hommes droits, quand les chefs du peuple se sont assemblés, avec les Tribus d'Israël.

⁶ Que RUBEN vive, et qu'il ne meure point, encore que ses hommes soient en petit nombre.

⁷ Et c'est ici ce que [Moïse] dit pour JUDA; Ô Eternel! écoute la voix de JUDA, et le ramène vers son peuple; que ses mains lui suffisent, et que tu lui sois en aide contre ses ennemis.

⁸ Il dit aussi touchant LEVI : Tes Thummims et tes Urims sont à l'homme qui est ton bien-aimé, que tu as éprouvé en Massa, [et] contre lequel tu t'es querellé aux eaux de Mériba.

⁹ C'est lui qui dit de son père et de sa mère : Je ne l'ai point vu; et qui n'a point connu ses frères, et n'a point aussi connu ses enfants; car ils ont gardé tes paroles, et ils garderont ton alliance.

¹⁰ Ils enseigneront tes ordonnances à Jacob, et ta Loi à Israël, ils mettront le parfum en tes narines, et tout Sacrifice qui se consume entièrement par le feu sur ton autel.

¹¹ Ô Eternel! bénis ses troupes, et que l'œuvre de ses mains te soit agréable. Transperce les reins de ceux qui s'élèvent contre lui, et de ceux qui le haïssent, aussitôt qu'ils se seront élevés.

¹² Il dit touchant BENJAMIN : Le bien-aimé de l'Eternel habitera sûrement avec lui; il le couvrira tout le jour, et se tiendra entre ses épaules.

¹³ Et il dit touchant JOSEPH : Son pays est béni par l'Eternel, de ce qui est le plus exquis aux cieux, de la rosée, et de l'abîme qui est en bas;

¹⁴ Et de ce qu'il y a de plus exquis entre les choses que le soleil fait produire, et de ce qui est le plus excellent entre les choses que la lune fait produire;

¹⁵ Et du coupeau des montagnes anciennes, et de ce qu'il y a de plus exquis sur les coteaux d'éternité;

¹⁶ Et de ce qu'il y a de plus exquis sur la terre, et de son abondance; et que la bienveillance de celui qui se tenait au buisson vienne sur la tête de Joseph, sur le sommet, [dis-je], de la tête du Nazarien d'entre ses frères.

¹⁷ Sa beauté est comme d'un premier-né de ses taureaux, et ses cornes comme les cornes d'une licorne; il heurtera avec elles tous les peuples jusqu'aux bouts de la terre. Ce sont les dix milliers d'Ephraïm, et ce sont les milliers de Manassé.

¹⁸ Il dit aussi touchant ZABULON : Réjouis-toi, Zabulon, en ta sortie; et toi ISSACAR dans tes tentes.

¹⁹ Ils appelleront les peuples en la montagne, ils offriront là des sacrifices de justice; car ils suceront l'abondance de la mer, et les choses les plus cachées dans le sable.

²⁰ Il dit aussi, touchant GAD : Béni soit celui qui fait élargir GAD; il habite comme un vieux lion, et il déchire bras et tête.

²¹ Il a regardé le commencement [du pays pour l'avoir] pour soi, parce que c'était là qu'était cachée la portion du Législateur, et il est venu avec les principaux du peuple; il a fait la justice de l'Eternel, et ses jugements avec Israël.

²² Et il dit touchant DAN : DAN est un jeune lion, il sautera de Basan.

²³ Il dit aussi touchant NEPHTHALI : NEPHTHALI rassasié de bienveillance, et rempli de la bénédiction de l'Eternel, possède l'Occident et le Midi.

²⁴ Il dit aussi touchant ASER : Aser sera béni en enfants; il sera agréable à ses frères; [et] même il trempera son pied dans l'huile.

²⁵ Tes verrous seront de fer et d'airain, et ta force durera autant que tes jours.

²⁶ Ô Droiturier, il n'y a point de [Dieu] semblable au [Dieu] Fort, qui [vient] à ton aide, porté sur les cieux et sur les nuées en sa Majesté.

²⁷ C'est une retraite que le Dieu qui est de tout temps, et [d'être] sous les bras éternels; car il a chassé de devant toi tes ennemis, et il a dit : Extermine.

²⁸ Israël donc habitera seul sûrement, l'œil de Jacob sera vers un pays de froment et de vin, et ses cieux distilleront la rosée.

²⁹ Ô que tu es heureux, Israël! Qui est le peuple semblable à toi, lequel ait été gardé par l'Eternel, le bouclier de ton secours, et l'épée par laquelle tu as été hautement élevé? tes ennemis seront humiliés, et tu fouleras de tes pieds leurs lieux les plus hauts.

¹ Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.

² You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.

³ Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from the midst of you.

⁴ But you who did cling to Yahweh your God are all alive this day.

⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it.

⁶ Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."

⁷ For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our god is whenever we call on him?

⁸ What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

⁹ Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children;

¹⁰ the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, "Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."

¹¹ You came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

¹² Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; only [you heard] a voice.

¹³ He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone.

¹⁴ Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

¹⁵ Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.

¹⁶ Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;

¹⁹ and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

²⁰ But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.

²¹ Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance:

²² but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land.

²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make you an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.

²⁴ For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

²⁵ When you shall father children, and children's children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger;

²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

²⁷ Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh shall lead you away.

²⁸ There you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

²⁹ But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰ When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice:

³¹ for Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

³² For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been [any such thing] as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?

³³ Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

³⁴ Or has God tried to go and take him a nation from the midst of [another] nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵ It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him.

³⁶ Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

³⁷ Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;

³⁸ to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.

³⁹ Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.

⁴⁰ You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

⁴² that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

⁴³ [namely], Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

⁴⁴ This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:

⁴⁵ these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt,

⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came forth out of Egypt.

⁴⁷ They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (the same is Hermon),

⁴⁹ and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.