10-14 He found him out in the wilderness,
    in an empty, windswept wasteland.
He threw his arms around him, lavished attention on him,
    guarding him as the apple of his eye.
He was like an eagle hovering over its nest,
    overshadowing its young,
Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air,
    teaching them to fly.
God alone led him;
    there was not a foreign god in sight.
God lifted him onto the hilltops,
    so he could feast on the crops in the fields.
He fed him honey from the rock,
    oil from granite crags,
Curds of cattle and the milk of sheep,
    the choice cuts of lambs and goats,
Fine Bashan rams, high-quality wheat,
    and the blood of grapes: you drank good wine!

15-18 Jeshurun put on weight and bucked;
    you got fat, became obese, a tub of lard.
He abandoned the God who made him,
    he mocked the Rock of his salvation.
They made him jealous with their foreign trendy gods,
    and with obscenities they vexed him no end.
They sacrificed to no-god demons,
    gods they knew nothing about,
The latest in gods, fresh from the market,
    gods your ancestors would never call “gods.”
You walked out on the Rock who gave you your life,
    forgot the birth-God who brought you into the world.

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14 with curds and milk from herd and flock
    and with fattened lambs and goats,
with choice rams of Bashan(A)
    and the finest kernels of wheat.(B)
You drank the foaming blood of the grape.(C)

15 Jeshurun[a](D) grew fat(E) and kicked;
    filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
They abandoned(F) the God who made them
    and rejected the Rock(G) their Savior.
16 They made him jealous(H) with their foreign gods
    and angered(I) him with their detestable idols.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 32:15 Jeshurun means the upright one, that is, Israel.