Deuteronomy 31–34

Joshua to Succeed Moses

31So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. ²And he said to them, “I am ^d120 years old today. I am no longer able to ^ego out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ^f‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ ³The Lord your God ^ghimself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, ^has the Lord has spoken. ⁴And the Lord will do to them ⁱas he did to Sihon ^jand Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. ⁵And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them ^kaccording to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. ^6lBe strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, ^mfor it is the Lord your God who goes with you. ⁿHe will not leave you or forsake you.”

⁷Then ^oMoses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, ^l“Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. ⁸It is the Lord ^pwho goes before you. He will be with you; ⁿhe will not leave you or forsake you. ^qDo not fear or be dismayed.”

The Reading of the Law

⁹Then Moses ^rwrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, ^swho carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰And Moses commanded them, ^t“At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at ^uthe Feast of Booths, ¹¹when all Israel comes ^vto appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, ^wyou shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ^12xAssemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, ¹³and that their children, ^ywho have not known it, ^zmay hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, ^aas long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Joshua Commissioned to Lead Israel

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses, ^b“Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that ^cI may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. ¹⁵And ^dthe Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, ^b“Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and ^ewhore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will ^fforsake me and ^gbreak my covenant that I have made with them. ¹⁷Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and ^hI will forsake them and ⁱhide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ^j‘Have not these evils come upon us because ^kour God is not among us?’ ¹⁸And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because ^lthey have turned to other gods.

¹⁹“Now therefore write ^mthis song and ⁿteach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be ^oa witness for me against the people of Israel. ²⁰For when I have brought them into the land ^pflowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and ^qgrown fat, ^rthey will turn to other gods and serve them, and ^sdespise me and ^gbreak my covenant. ²¹And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as ^ta witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For ^uI know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” ²²So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.

^23vAnd the Lord¹ commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, ^w“Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. ^xI will be with you.”

²⁴When Moses had finished ^ywriting the words of this law in a book to the very end, ²⁵Moses commanded ^zthe Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ²⁶“Take this Book of the Law ^aand put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for ^ba witness against you. ²⁷For I know how rebellious and ^cstubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, ^dyou have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! ²⁸Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak ^ethese words in their ears and ^fcall heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹For I know that after my death ^gyou will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And ^hin the days to come ⁱevil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, ^jprovoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”

The Song of Moses

³⁰Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:

32“Give ear, ^kO heavens, and I will speak,

and let ^lthe earth hear the words of my mouth.

²May ^mmy teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distill as the dew,

like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and ⁿlike showers upon the herb.

³For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe ^ogreatness to our God!

^4p“The Rock, ^qhis work is perfect,

for ^rall his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and ^swithout iniquity,

just and upright is he.

⁵They have dealt corruptly with him;

they are no longer his children ^tbecause they are blemished;

they are ^ua crooked and twisted generation.

⁶Do you thus repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he ^vyour father, who ^wcreated you,

who ^xmade you and established you?

^7yRemember the days of old;

consider the years of many generations;

^zask your father, and he will show you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸When the Most High ^agave to the nations their inheritance,

when he ^bdivided mankind,

he fixed the borders¹ of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.²

⁹But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

¹⁰“He found him ^cin a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he ^dencircled him, he cared for him,

he ^ekept him as the apple of his eye.

^11fLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

bearing them on its pinions,

^12gthe Lord alone guided him,

^hno foreign god was with him.

¹³ⁱHe made him ride on the high places of the land,

and he ate the produce of the field,

and he suckled him with ^jhoney out of the rock,

and ^koil out of ^lthe flinty rock.

¹⁴Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,

with fat³ of lambs,

rams of Bashan and goats,

with the very finest⁴ of the wheat—

and you drank foaming wine made from ^mthe blood of the grape.

¹⁵“But ⁿJeshurun grew fat, and ^okicked;

^pyou grew fat, stout, and sleek;

^qthen he forsook God ^rwho made him

and scoffed at ^sthe Rock of his salvation.

^16tThey stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominations they provoked him to anger.

^17uThey sacrificed to demons that were not God,

to gods they had never known,

to ^vnew gods that had come recently,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

¹⁸You were unmindful of ^wthe Rock that bore⁵ you,

and you ^xforgot the God who gave you birth.

^19y“The Lord saw it and spurned them,

because of the provocation of ^zhis sons and his daughters.

²⁰And he said, ^a‘I will hide my face from them;

I will see what their end will be,

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

^21bThey have made me jealous with what is no god;

they have provoked me to anger ^cwith their idols.

So ^dI will make them jealous with those who are no people;

I will provoke them to anger with ^ea foolish nation.

²²For ^fa fire is kindled by my anger,

and it burns to ^gthe depths of Sheol,

devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³“ ‘And I will heap disasters upon them;

^hI will spend my arrows on them;

²⁴they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured by plague

and poisonous pestilence;

I will send ⁱthe teeth of beasts against them,

with the venom of ^jthings that crawl in the dust.

^25kOutdoors the sword shall bereave,

and indoors terror,

for young man and woman alike,

the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

^26lI would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;

^mI will wipe them from human memory,”

²⁷had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

lest they should say, ⁿ“Our hand is triumphant,

it was not the Lord who did all this.” ’

²⁸“For they are a nation void of counsel,

and there is ^ono understanding in them.

^29pIf they were wise, they would understand this;

they would ^qdiscern their latter end!

³⁰How could ^rone have chased a thousand,

and two have put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock ^shad sold them,

and the Lord had given them up?

³¹For ^ttheir rock is not as our Rock;

^uour enemies are by themselves.

³²For their vine ^vcomes from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of ^wpoison;

their clusters are bitter;

³³their wine is the poison of ^xserpents

and the cruel venom of asps.

³⁴“ ‘Is not this laid up in store with me,

^ysealed up in my treasuries?

^35zVengeance is mine, and recompense,⁶

^afor the time when their foot shall slip;

for ^bthe day of their calamity is at hand,

and their doom comes swiftly.’

³⁶For ^cthe Lord will vindicate⁷ his people

^dand have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone

and there is none remaining, ^ebond or free.

³⁷Then he will say, ^f‘Where are their gods,

^gthe rock in which they took refuge,

³⁸who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offering?

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