Give Ear O Heavens, Let The Earth Hear

(1) Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter! (2) May my discourse come down as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, Like showers on young growth, Like droplets on the grass. (3) For the name of יהוה I proclaim; Give glory to our God! (4) The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect, Yea, all God’s ways are just; A faithful God, never false, True and upright indeed.

(1) האזינו השמים HEAR YE HEAVENS that I warn Israel, and be ye witnesses to this matter; for so I have told them that ye will be witnesses (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:28). Similar is the meaning of ותשמע הארץ (i.e. the verb has the force of an imperative: AND LET THE EARTH HEAR). And why did He call heaven and earth as witnesses against them? Moses thought: “I am a being of flesh and blood (mortal); tomorrow I shall be dead. If the Israelites will once say, ‘We have never accepted the covenant’, who can come and refute them?” Therefore he called heaven and earth as witnesses against them — witnesses that endure forever (Sifrei Devarim 306:15). And a further reason was that if they should act worthily, the witnesses might come and give them their reward: the vine might yield its fruit, the ground give its increase, the heaven bestow its dew; while if they should act sinfully, the hand of the witnesses might first be against them (Rashi uses a phrase similar to that used of human witnesses; cf. e.g. Deuteronomy 13:10): “and He will restrain the heaven, that there be no rain, and the earth will not give its increase; and you shall perish quickly” (Deuteronomy 11:17) — through the attacks of other nations (Tanchuma 5:10:1).

(2) I have previously informed you that the Gaon says that the meaning of heavens is the angels and the meaning of the earth is the people of the earth. On the other hand, its meaning might be that the rain that comes down from heaven and the fruit which the earth produces are called to bear witness. I believe that the correct interpretation is that Moses called heaven and earth to witness because they last forever. Similarly Hear, O ye mountains (Micah 6:2) and also Joshua’s stone. Scripture there writes that the stone heard. I have hinted to you that man’s soul is intermediary between the upper and lower worlds. The soul compares all things to its body. It certainly does so when speaking to other human beings. It therefore elevates the low and lowers the high.

(1) האזינו השמים, “hearken o heaven, etc.;” the word האזינו is derived from אזן, “ear.” Moses asks the heavens and the earth to lend their ears to what he is about to say. This is a direct continuation of the last verse in the previous portion, Vayelech, in which he had announced this poem/song to the people. He now calls on the eternal heaven and earth to act as witnesses to what he had to say, seeing that he, as a mortal, cannot do so anymore.

(29) For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly and turn away from the path that I enjoined upon you, and that in time to come misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of יהוה, whom you vexed by your deeds. (30) Then Moses recited the words of this poem to the very end, in the hearing of the whole congregation of Israel: