Moses' Prophetic Song

1. Let heaven's wide arch, while I shall speak,
Give an attentive ear:
And hear, O earth! the important truths
My mouth shall now declare.
2. As rain from heaven, my doctrine drops,
My speech, as dew, distills;
As gentle rains on tender herbs,
And showers on grassy hills.

3. While I, Jehovah's glorious name,
Shall publish all abroad;
With awful reverence, ascribe
Ye greatness to our God.
4. A rock, whose work perfection claims,
His ways all judgment are;
A God of truth, unspotted pure,
And just beyond compare.

5. But they themselves corrupted have.,
Their spot's, they're not his sons;
They're a perverse, and crooked race,
A race of wicked ones.
6. Oh! foolish people, and unwise!
Do ye thus the Lord requite?
Thy Father is he not, who bought.
Thee made, and girt with might?

7. Remember ancient times, review
The ages past and gone;
Thy father ask, and elders, they
Will tell what God hath done.
8. When God the nation's lots assigned,
To Adam's sons their place;
He set their bounds with special eye
To Israel's numerous race.

9. Jehovah, for his portion, doth
His people high advance;
Jacob he chose the special lot
Of his inheritance.
10. In Sinai's desert howling waste,
There found him the Most High;
He led, and taught, and kept him safe.
As the apple of his eye.

11. As the eagle flutters o'er her young,
And cheers the feeble things;
Her pinions spreads, and takes them up,
And bears them on her wings.
12. So did the Lord alone sustain,
And lead them in his care;
And to assist him there was none,
No foreign god was there.

13. On earth's high places made him ride
Rich, fields supply his want;
To suck sweet honey from the rock,
And oil from the adamant:
14. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep,
Fat lambs of Bashan's brood,
With goats, and finest wheat, to eat;
And drink the grapes pure blood.

15. But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked;
High pampered, and adorned.
His Maker he forsook; the rock
Of his salvation scorned.
16. His jealousy provoked they with
Strange gods, their fond delights;
And kindled up his burning wrath,
With their detested rites.

17. To idols,devils, not to God,
They altars madly reared;
To unknown, new and upstart gods,
Their fathers never feared.
18. The Rock of Ages thee begat,
Sure thou remember'st not;
The God that formed, and nourished thee,
Thou vilely hast forgot.

19. When this Jehovah saw, their deeds
His just abhorrence moved;
Because a provocation great
His sons, and daughters, proved.
20. Therefore he said, I'll mark their end,
From them I'll hide my face;
For they are froward children grown,
A very faithless race.

21. Since they, with that which is not God,
Have moved my jealousy;
My anger greatly have provoked
With lying vanity;
Their rage I'll with a people move,
Who're only so in name;
And with a foolish nation I
Their anger will inflame.

22. A fire is kindled in my wrath,
Which down to hell shall burn;
The earth's increase, and mountains base,
Shall into ashes turn.
23. I'll loads of mischief on them heap;
My pointed arrows spend.
24. Hunger to burn, and heat devour,
With bitter deaths I'll send:

I'll order teeth of savage beasts
Their viral blood to spill;
The crawling serpent of the dust
Shall them with poison kill.
25. The sword without, terror within,
Shall seize young men, and maids,
And slay them, with the sucking child,
And men of hoary heads.

26. I said, that I would scatter them,
In every distant coast;
Make their remembrance among men
To be entirely lost.
27. But that I feared the pride of foes,
Lest insolently they
Behave; and our high hand, not God,
Hath done all this should say.

28. For they're a nation void of sense,
Nor wisdom's rules attend.
29. Oh! were they wise, this understood,
And thought on their last end.
30. How should one chase a thousand? two
Ten thousand put to flight?
Except their rock had sold them slaves,
The Lord restrained their might?

31. For their weak rock can ne'er with our
Almighty Rock compare;
Our enemies themselves must own,
If they the judges were.
32. Their vine's of Sodom's vicious stock,
And from Gomorrah's fields;
Which brings forth naught but grapes of gall,
And bitter clusters yields.

33. There wine's the dragon's poison, sell
Venom of asps congealed.
34. Is not this kept in store with me;
And with my treasures sealed.
35. Vengeance, and recompense, are mine,
They'll fall the time decreed;
Their woeful day is near at hand,
Their misery comes with speed.

36. Yet God his people's cause will plead,
For his servant sake repent;
When none shut up, and lest, he sees,
And all their strength is spent.
37. Then will he say, "Where are your gods,
You looked to for defense?
Where's now your rock of strength, in whom
Ye placed your confidence?

38. "Which on fat sacrifices fed,
And crowned with wine the board?
Now let them rise, protection give,
And needed help afford.
39. Know ye, that I, e'en I am he,
No God with me I have;
I kill, revive, I wound, and heal,
None from my hands can save.

40. "For I to heaven, my throne above,
Lift up my hand on high;
And solemnly I swear, as sure
As ever live do I.
41. If I shall whet my glittering sword,
And hold on judgment lay;
I'll render vengeance to my foes,
My haters I'll repay.

42. "I'll make my sword devour their flesh,
Mine arrows drunk with blood
Of slain, and captives; on their chiefs
Revenges I'll make good."
43. Ye nations join his people's joy;
For he will on their foe
Revenge their blood; but to his land
And people, mercy show.

A New Version of the Psalms of David, 1752