Deuteronomy 31–34

JOSHUA TAKES MOSES’S PLACE

31Then Moses continued to speak these^A words to all Israel, ²saying, “I am now 120 years old;ⁱ I can no longer act as your leader.^B The Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’^{j 3}The Lord your God is the one who will cross ahead of you.^k He will destroy these nations before you, and you will drive them out. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, as the Lord has said.^{l 4}The Lord will deal with them as he did Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and their land when he destroyed them.^{m 5}The Lord will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. ⁶Be strong and courageous;ⁿ don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you;^o he will not leave you or abandon you.”^p

⁷Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with^C this people into the land the Lord swore to give to their ancestors.^q You will enable them to take possession of it. ⁸The Lord is the one who will go before you.^r He will be with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.^s Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

⁹Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of debt cancellation,^t during the Festival of Shelters,^{u 11}when all Israel assembles in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he chooses,^v you are to read this law aloud before all Israel.^{w 12}Gather the people—men, women, dependents, and the resident aliens within your city gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear^x the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law. ¹³Then their children^y who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

¹⁴The Lord said to Moses, “The time of your death is now approaching. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting so that I may commission him.” When Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting, ¹⁵the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud,^a and the cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.^b

¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to rest with your ancestors,^c and these people will soon prostitute themselves with the foreign gods^d of the land they are entering. They will abandon me^e and break the covenant^f I have made with them. ¹⁷My anger will burn against them on that day;^g I will abandon them and hide my face from them so that they will become easy prey.^h Many troubles and afflictions will come to them. On that day they will say, ‘Haven’t these troubles come to us because our God is no longer with us?’ ¹⁸I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. ¹⁹Therefore write down this songⁱ for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites; have them sing it,^A so that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites. ²⁰When I bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey,^j they will eat their fill^k and prosper.^B They will turn to other gods and worship them, despising me^l and breaking my covenant.^{m 21}And when many troubles and afflictions come to them, this song will testify against them, because^C their descendants will not have forgotten it. For I know what they are prone to do,^D even before I bring them into the land I swore to give them.” ²²So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.

²³The Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun, “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I swore to them, and I will be with you.”ⁿ

MOSES WARNS THE PEOPLE

²⁴When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word of this law, ²⁵he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, ²⁶“Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God so that it may remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after I am dead! ²⁸Assemble all your tribal elders and officers before me so that I may speak these words directly to them and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.^{o 29}For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him with what your hands have made.”^{p 30}Then Moses recited aloud every single word of this song to the entire assembly of Israel:

SONG OF MOSES

32Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;

listen, earth, to the words from my mouth.^q

²Let my teaching fall like rain

and my word settle like dew,

like gentle rain on new grass

and showers on tender plants.

³For I will proclaim the Lord’s name.^r

Declare the greatness of our God!

⁴The Rock^s—his work is perfect;

all his ways are just.^t

A faithful God,^u without bias,

he is righteous and true.

⁵His people have acted corruptly toward him;^v

this is their defect^E—they are not his children

but a devious and crooked generation.^w

⁶Is this how you repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?^x

Isn’t he your Father and Creator?^Ay

Didn’t he make you and sustain you?

⁷Remember the days of old;

consider the years of past generations.

Ask your father, and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will teach you.

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance^B

and divided the human race,^z

he set the boundaries of the peoples^aa

according to the number of the people of Israel.^C

⁹But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob, his own inheritance.^ab

¹⁰He found him in a desolate land,

in a barren, howling wilderness;

he surrounded him, cared for him,^a

and protected him as the pupil of his eye.^b

¹¹He watches over^D his nest like an eagle

and hovers over his young;

he spreads his wings, catches him,

and carries him on his feathers.^c

¹²The Lord alone led him,

with no help from a foreign god.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land^d

and eat the produce of the field.

He nourished him with honey from the rock

and oil from flinty rock,

¹⁴curds from the herd and milk from the flock,

with the fat of lambs,

rams from Bashan,^e and goats,

with the choicest grains of wheat;

you drank wine from the finest grapes.^E

¹⁵Then^F Jeshurun^Gf became fat and rebelled—

you became fat, bloated, and gorged.

He abandoned the God who made him

and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They provoked his jealousy with different gods;

they enraged him with detestable practices.^g

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known,

new gods that had just arrived,

which your ancestors did not fear.^h

¹⁸You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;

you forgot the God who gave birth to you.

¹⁹When the Lord saw this, he despised them,

angered by his sons and daughters.

²⁰He said, “I will hide my face from them;ⁱ

I will see what will become of them,

for they are a perverse generation—

unfaithful children.

²¹They have provoked my jealousy

with what is not a god;^A

they have enraged me with their worthless idols.^j

So I will provoke their jealousy

with what is not a people;^B

I will enrage them with a foolish nation.^k

²²For fire has been kindled because of my anger

and burns to the depths of Sheol;^l

it devours the land and its produce,

and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

²³“I will pile disasters on them;

I will use up my arrows against them.

²⁴They will be weak from hunger,

ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;

I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,

as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.

²⁵Outside, the sword will take their children,

and inside, there will be terror;

the young man and the young woman will be killed,

the infant and the gray-haired man.^m

²⁶“I would have said: I will cut them to pieces^C

and blot out the memory of them from mankind,ⁿ

²⁷if I had not feared provocation from the enemy,

or feared that these foes might misunderstand

and say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed;

it wasn’t the Lord who did all this.’ ”

²⁸Israel is a nation lacking sense

with no understanding at all.^o

²⁹If only they were wise, they would comprehend this;

they would understand their fate.

³⁰How could one pursue a thousand,

or two put ten thousand to flight,^p

unless their Rock had sold them,

unless the Lord had given them up?^q

³¹But their “rock” is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

³²For their vine is from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah.

Their grapes are poisonous;

their clusters are bitter.

³³Their wine is serpents’ venom,

the deadly poison of cobras.^a

³⁴“Is it not stored up with me,

sealed up in my vaults?

³⁵Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay.^Ab

In time their foot will slip,

for their day of disaster is near,

and their doom is coming quickly.”

³⁶The Lord will indeed vindicate his people

and have compassion on his servants^c

when he sees that their strength is gone

and no one is left—slave or free.^B

³⁷He will say, “Where are their gods,

the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?

³⁸Who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up and help you;

let it^C be a shelter for you.

³⁹See now that I alone am he;

there is no God but me.^d

I bring death and I give life;

I wound and I heal.

No one can rescue anyone from my power.^e

⁴⁰I raise my hand to heaven and declare:

As surely as I live forever,

⁴¹when I sharpen my flashing sword,

and my hand takes hold of judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and repay those who hate me.

⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood

while my sword devours flesh—

the blood of the slain and the captives,

the…