1 Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.
2 Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.
3 Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.
4 The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right.
5 They have sinned against him, and are none of his children in their filth: they are a wicked and perverse generation.
6 Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?
7 Remember the days of old, think upon every generation: ask thy father, and he will declare to thee: thy elders and they will tell thee.
8 When the Most High divided the nations: when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 But the Lord's portion is his people: Jacob the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders.
12 The Lord alone was his leader: and there was no strange god with him.
13 He set him upon high land: that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone,
14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the sheep with the fat of lambs, and of the rams of the breed of Basan: and goats with the marrow of wheat, and might drink the purest blood of the grape.
15 The beloved grew fat, and kicked: he grew fat, and thick and gross, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his saviour.
16 They provoked him by strange gods, and stirred him up to anger, with their abominations.
17 They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not: that were newly come up, whom their fathers worshipped not.
18 Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee.
19 The Lord saw, and was moved to wrath: because his own sons and daughters provoked him.
20 And he said: I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last end shall be: for it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful children.
21 They have provoked me with that which was no god, and have angered me with their vanities: and I will provoke them with that which is no people, and will vex them with a foolish nation.
22 A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell: and shall devour the earth with her increase, and shall burn the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them.
24 They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.
25 Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and terror within, both the young man and the virgin, the sucking child with the man in years.
26 I said: Where are they? I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.
27 But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things.
28 They are a nation without counsel, and without wisdom.
29 O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end.
30 How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
31 For our God is not as their gods: our enemies themselves are judges.
32 Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrha: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter.
33 Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable.
34 Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures?
35 Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide: the day of destruction is at hand, and the time makes haste to come.
36 The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants: he shall see that their hand is weakened, and that they who were shut up have also failed, and they that remained are consumed.
37 And he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they trusted?
38 Of whose victims they ate the fat, and drank the wine of their drink offerings: let them arise and help you, and protect you in your distress.
39 See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
40 I will lift up my hand to heaven, and I will say: I live for ever.
41 If I shall whet my sword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment: I will render vengeance to my enemies, and repay them that hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, of the blood of the slain and of the captivity, of the bare head of the enemies.
43 Praise his people, ye nations, for he will revenge the blood of his servants: and will render vengeance to their enemies, and he will be merciful to the land of his people.
44 So Moses came and spoke all the words of this canticle in the ears of the people, and Joshua the son of Nun. 45 And he ended all these words, speaking to all Israel. 46 And he said to them: Set your hearts on all the words, which I testify to you this day: which you shall command your children to observe and to do, and to fulfil all that is written in this law: 47 For they are not commanded you in vain, but that every one should live in them, and that doing them you may continue a long time in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it. 48 And the Lord spoke to Moses the same day, saying: 49 Go up into this mountain Abarim, (that is to say, of passages), unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab over against Jericho: and see the land of Chanaan, which I will deliver to the children of Israel to possess, and die thou in the mountain. 50 When thou art gone up into it thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered to his people: 51 Because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of contradiction, in Cades of the desert of Sin: and you did not sanctify me among the children of Israel. 52 Thou shalt see the land before thee, which I will give to the children of Israel, but thou shalt not enter into it.
Old Testament first published 1609 by the English College at Douay
New Testament first published 1582 by the English College at Rheims
Revised and Annotated 1749 by Bishop Richard Challoner
Imprimatur. +James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899
1 Audite, cæli, quæ loquor:
audiat terra verba oris mei.
2 Concrescat ut pluvia doctrina mea,
fluat ut ros eloquium meum,
quasi imber super herbam,
et quasi stillæ super gramina.
3 Quia nomen Domini invocabo:
date magnificentiam Deo nostro.
4 Dei perfecta sunt opera,
et omnes viæ ejus judicia:
Deus fidelis, et absque ulla iniquitate,
justus et rectus.
5 Peccaverunt ei, et non filii ejus in sordibus:
generatio prava atque perversa.
6 Hæccine reddis Domino,
popule stulte et insipiens?
numquid non ipse est pater tuus,
qui possedit te, et fecit, et creavit te?
7 Memento dierum antiquorum, cogita generationes singulas:
interroga patrem tuum,
et annuntiabit tibi:
majores tuos, et dicent tibi.
8 Quando dividebat Altissimus gentes,
quando separabat filios Adam,
constituit terminos populorum
juxta numerum filiorum Israël.
9 Pars autem Domini, populus ejus:
Jacob funiculus hæreditatis ejus.
10 Invenit eum in terra deserta,
in loco horroris, et vastæ solitudinis:
circumduxit eum, et docuit:
et custodivit quasi pupillam oculi sui.
11 Sicut aquila provocans ad volandum pullos suos,
et super eos volitans,
expandit alas suas, et assumpsit eum,
atque portavit in humeris suis.
12 Dominus solus dux ejus fuit,
et non erat cum eo deus alienus:
13 constituit eum super excelsam terram,
ut comederet fructus agrorum:
ut sugeret mel de petra,
oleumque de saxo durissimo;
14 butyrum de armento, et lac de ovibus
cum adipe agnorum,
et arietum filiorum Basan: et hircos
cum medulla tritici,
et sanguinem uvæ biberet meracissimum.
15 Incrassatus est dilectus, et recalcitravit:
incrassatus, impinguatus, dilatatus,
dereliquit Deum factorem suum,
et recessit a Deo salutari suo.
16 Provocaverunt eum in diis alienis,
et in abominationibus ad iracundiam concitaverunt.
17 Immolaverunt dæmoniis et non Deo,
diis quos ignorabant:
novi recentesque venerunt,
quos non coluerunt patres eorum:
18 Deum qui te genuit dereliquisti,
et oblitus es Domini creatoris tui.
19 Vidit Dominus, et ad iracundiam concitatus est:
quia provocaverunt eum filii sui et filiæ.
20 Et ait: Abscondam faciem meam ab eis,
et considerabo novissima eorum:
generatio enim perversa est,
et infideles filii.
21 Ipsi me provocaverunt in eo qui non erat Deus,
et irritaverunt in vanitatibus suis:
et ego provocabo eos in eo qui non est populus,
et in gente stulta irritabo illos.
22 Ignis succensus est in furore meo,
et ardebit usque ad inferni novissima:
devorabitque terram cum germine suo,
et montium fundamenta comburet.
23 Congregabo super eos mala,
et sagittas meas complebo in eis.
24 Consumentur fame,
et devorabunt eos aves morsu amarissimo:
dentes bestiarum immittam in eos,
cum furore trahentium super terram, atque serpentium.
25 Foris vastabit eos gladius,
et intus pavor,
juvenem simul ac virginem,
lactentem cum homine sene.
26 Dixi: Ubinam sunt?
cessare faciam ex hominibus memoriam eorum.
27 Sed propter iram inimicorum distuli:
ne forte superbirent hostes eorum,
et dicerent: Manus nostra excelsa,
et non Dominus, fecit hæc omnia.
28 Gens absque consilio est,
et sine prudentia.
29 Utinam saperent, et intelligerent,
ac novissima providerent.
30 Quomodo persequatur unus mille,
et duo fugent decem millia?
nonne ideo, quia Deus suus vendidit eos,
et Dominus conclusit illos?
31 Non enim est Deus noster ut dii eorum:
et inimici nostri sunt judices.
32 De vinea Sodomorum, vinea eorum,
et de suburbanis Gomorrhæ:
uva eorum, uva fellis,
et botri amarissimi.
33 Fel draconum vinum eorum,
et venenum aspidum insanabile.
34 Nonne hæc condita sunt apud me,
et signata in thesauris meis?
35 Mea est ultio, et ego retribuam in tempore,
ut labatur pes eorum:
juxta est dies perditionis,
et adesse festinant tempora.
36 Judicabit Dominus populum suum,
et in servis suis miserebitur:
videbit quod infirmata sit manus,
et clausi quoque defecerunt,
residuique consumpti sunt.
37 Et dicet: Ubi sunt dii eorum,
in quibus habebant fiduciam?
38 de quorum victimis comedebant adipes,
et bibebant vinum libaminum:
surgant, et opitulentur vobis,
et in necessitate vos protegant.
39 Videte quod ego sim solus,
et non sit alius deus præter me:
ego occidam, et ego vivere faciam:
percutiam, et ego sanabo,
et non est qui de manu mea possit eruere.
40 Levabo ad cælum manum meam,
et dicam: Vivo ego in æternum.
41 Si acuero ut fulgur gladium meum,
et arripuerit judicium manus mea:
reddam ultionem hostibus meis,
et his qui oderunt me retribuam.
42 Inebriabo sagittas meas sanguine,
et gladius meus devorabit carnes;
de cruore occisorum, et de captivitate,
nudati inimicorum capitis.
43 Laudate, gentes, populum ejus,
quia sanguinem servorum suorum ulciscetur:
et vindictam retribuet in hostes eorum,
et propitius erit terræ populi sui.
44 Venit ergo Moyses, et locutus est omnia verba cantici hujus in auribus populi, ipse et Josue filius Nun. 45 Complevitque omnes sermones istos, loquens ad universum Israël, 46 et dixit ad eos: Ponite corda vestra in omnia verba, quæ ego testificor vobis hodie: ut mandetis ea filiis vestris custodire et facere, et implere universa quæ scripta sunt legis hujus: 47 quia non incassum præcepta sunt vobis, sed ut singuli in eis viverent: quæ facientes longo perseveretis tempore in terra, ad quam, Jordane transmisso, ingredimini possidendam. 48 Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen in eadem die, dicens: 49 Ascende in montem istum Abarim, id est, transitum, in montem Nebo, qui est in terra Moab contra Jericho: et vide terram Chanaan, quam ego tradam filiis Israël obtinendam, et morere in monte. 50 Quem conscendens jungeris populis tuis, sicut mortuus est Aaron frater tuus in monte Hor, et appositus populis suis: 51 quia prævaricati estis contra me in medio filiorum Israël ad aquas contradictionis in Cades deserti Sin: et non sanctificastis me inter filios Israël. 52 E contra videbis terram, et non ingredieris in eam, quam ego dabo filiis Israël.
Transcribed as part of the Clementine Vulgate Project
Please notify the original transcriber (little.mouth@soon.com) of any errors in this Latin edition