Deuteronomy 31–34

Succession, Deposition, and Recitation of Text

31And Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ²And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old^a today;^b I am not able to go out and to come in any longer, and Yahweh said to me, ‘You may not cross this Jordan.’ ³Yahweh your God is about to cross before you;^c he will destroy these nations before you,^d and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will be crossing before you,^e just as Yahweh promised.^{f 4}And Yahweh will do to them just as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their land, which he destroyed with them. ⁵And Yahweh will deliver them to you before you,^g and you shall do to them according to every commandment that I have commanded you. ⁶Be strong and be courageous; you should not be afraid, and you should not be in dread from their presence,^h for Yahweh your God is the one going with you; he will not leave you alone and he will not forsake you.”

⁷Then Moses summoned Joshua, and he said to him in the presence of all Israel,ⁱ “Be strong and be courageous, for you will go with this people into the land that Yahweh swore to their ancestors^j to give to them, and you will give it to them as an inheritance. ⁸Yahweh is the one going before you;^k he will be with you, and he will not leave you alone, and he will not forsake you; you shall not be afraid, and you shall not be discouraged.” ⁹So Moses wrote this law, and he gave it to the priests, the descendants^l of Levi, the ones carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Then Moses commanded them, saying,^m “At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths, ¹¹when all Israel comes to appear beforeⁿ Yahweh their God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.^{o 12}Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your towns,^p so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and they shall diligently observe^q all the words of this law. ¹³And then their children,^r who have not known, they too may hear, and they may learn to revere Yahweh their God all the days that you live^s on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to get there^t to take possession of it.”

¹⁴Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Look, you are about to die;^u call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of assembly,^v so that I may instruct him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in^w the tent of assembly.^{x 15}And Yahweh appeared in the tent in a column of cloud, and the column of the cloud stood at the entrance of the tent. ¹⁶And Yahweh said to Moses, “Look, you are about to lie down with your ancestors,^y and this people will arise and they^z will play the prostitute after the foreign gods^a of the land to which they are going.^{b 17}And my anger shall flare up against them^c on that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they^d shall become as prey, and disasters and troubles shall find^e them,^f and they^g shall say on that day, ‘Is it not because our^h God is not in ourⁱ midst that these disasters have found^j us?’^{k 18}But I will certainly hide my face on that day, because of all of the evil that they^l did because they^m turned to other gods.

¹⁹“And so then write this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites;ⁿ put it in their mouth, so that this song may be for me as a witness against the Israelites.^{o 20}For when I bring them^p into the land that I swore to their^q ancestors,^r a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill,^s and they^t will become fat, and then they^u will turn to other gods, and they will serve them, and they will spurn me, and they^v will break my covenant. ²¹And then^w many disasters and troubles will come upon them,^x and this song will give evidence before them^y as a witness, because it will not be forgotten from out of the mouth of their descendants,^z for I know their^a inclination that they^b are having today^c before I have brought them^d into the land that I swore.” ²²And Moses wrote this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.^e

²³Then he^f told Joshua the son of Nun, and said to him, “Be strong and be courageous, for you shall bring the Israelites^g into the land that I swore to them, and I will be with you.”

²⁴And then when Moses finished writing^h the words of this law on the scroll until they were complete,^{i 25}then Moses commanded the Levites carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying,^{j 26}“Take the scroll of this law and put it at the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and it will be there as a witness against you. ²⁷For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck even now while I am still alive with you today,^k rebelling against Yahweh, and how much more^l after my death. ²⁸Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may speak in their ears these words, and that I may call as witness against them heaven and earth. ²⁹For I know that after my death you will certainly act corruptly, and you will turn aside from the way that I have commanded you, and the disaster in the future days will befall you, because you will do evil^m in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him with the work of your hands.”^{n 30}So Moses spoke into the ears of the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were complete.^o

The Song of Moses

32“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,

and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

²May my teaching trickle like the dew,

my words like rain showers on tender grass,

and like spring showers on new growth.

³For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh;

ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴The Rock, his work is perfect,

for all his ways are just;

he is a faithful God, and without injustice;^a

righteous and upright is he.

⁵They have behaved corruptly toward^b him;

they are not his children; this is their flaw,

a generation crooked and perverse.

⁶Like this do you treat Yahweh,

foolish and unwise^c people?

Has he not, your father, created you?

He made you, and he established you.

⁷Remember the old days, the years long past;^d

ask your father, and he will inform you,

your elders and they will tell you.^e

⁸When the Most High apportioned^f the nations,

at his dividing up of the sons of humankind,

he fixed the boundaries of the peoples,

according to the number of the sons of God.^g

⁹For Yahweh’s portion was his people,

Jacob the share of his inheritance.

¹⁰He found him in a desert land,

and in a howling, desert wasteland;

he encircled him,^h he cared for him,

he protected him like the appleⁱ of his eye.

¹¹As an eagle stirs up its nest,

hovers over its young,

spreads out its wings, takes them,^j

carries them^k on its pinions,^l

¹²so Yahweh alone guided him,^m

and there was no foreign god accompanying him.ⁿ

¹³And he set him on the high places of the land,

and he fed him the crops^o of the field,

and he nursed him with honey from crags,^p

and with oil from flinty rock,

¹⁴With curds^q from the herd,

and with milk from the flock,

with the fat of young rams,

and rams, the offspring of Bashan,

and with goats along with the finest kernels of wheat,

and from the blood of grapes^r you drank fermented wine.^s

¹⁵And Jeshurun grew fat, and he kicked;

you grew fat, you bloated, and you became obstinate;

and he abandoned God, his maker,

and he scoffed at the rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They made him jealous with strange gods;

with detestable things they provoked him.

¹⁷They sacrificed to the demons, not God,

to gods whom^t they had not known,

new gods who^u came from recent times;

their ancestors had not known them.^v

¹⁸The rock who^w bore you, you neglected,

and you forgot God, the one giving you birth.

¹⁹Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them,

because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

²⁰So he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;

I will see what will be their end,

for they are a generation of perversity,

children in whom there is no faithfulness.^x

²¹They annoyed me with what is not a god;

they provoked me with their idols.

So I will make them jealous with those not a people,

with a foolish nation I will provoke them.

²²For a fire was kindled^y by my anger,

and it burned up to the depths of Sheol,^z

and it devoured the earth and its produce,

and it set afire the foundation of the mountains.

²³I will heap disasters upon them;

my arrows I will spend on them.

²⁴They will become weakened by famine,

and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence;

and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them,

with the poison of the creeping things in the dust;

²⁵From outside her boundaries the sword will make her childless,

and from inside, terror;

both for the young man and also the young woman,

the infant along with the gray-headed man.

²⁶I thought, “I will wipe them out;

I will make people forget they ever existed.”^a

²⁷If I had not feared a provocation of the enemy,

lest their foes might misunderstand, ^b

lest they should say, ^c “Our hand is

triumphant,^d and Yahweh did not do all this.” ’

²⁸For they are a nation void of sense,^e

and there is not any understanding in them.

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

they would discern for themselves their end.^f

³⁰How could one chase a thousand

and two could cause a myriad to flee,

if their Rock had not sold them,

and Yahweh had not given them up?

³¹For the fact of the matter is,

their rock is not like our Rock,

and our enemies recognize^g this.

³²For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

and from the terraces of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of poison;

their clusters are bitter.^h

³³Their wine is the poison of snakes,

and the deadly poison of horned vipers.

³⁴‘Is not this stored up with me,

sealed in my treasuries?’ⁱ

³⁵Vengeance belongs to me^j and also recompense,

for at the time their foot slips,^k

because the day of their disaster is near,

and fate comes quickly for them.’^l

³⁶For Yahweh will judge on behalf of…