Deuteronomy 31–34

Joshua Becomes the New Leader

31Here are the words I spoke to all of the people of Israel. ²I said, “I am now 120 years old. I’m not able to lead you anymore. The Lord has said to me, ‘You will not go across the Jordan River.’

³“The Lord your God himself will go across ahead of you. He’ll destroy the nations that are there in order to make room for you. You will take over their land. Joshua will also go across ahead of you, just as the Lord said he would.

⁴“The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og. He destroyed those Amorite kings along with their land. ⁵The Lord will hand those nations over to you. Then you must do to them everything I’ve commanded you to do.

⁶“Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t be terrified because of them. The Lord your God will go with you. He will never leave you. He’ll never desert you.”

⁷Then I sent for Joshua. I spoke to him in front of all of the people of Israel. I said, “Be strong and brave. You must go with these people. They are going into the land the Lord promised with an oath to give to their fathers. You must divide it up among them. They will each receive their share. ⁸The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will never leave you. He’ll never desert you. So don’t be afraid. Don’t lose hope.”

The Law Must Be Read

⁹I wrote down that law. I gave it to the priests, who are sons of Levi. They carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. I also gave the law to all of the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Then I commanded them, “You must read this law at the end of every seven years. Do it in the year when you forgive people what they owe. Read it during the Feast of Booths. ¹¹That’s when all of the people of Israel come to appear in front of the Lord your God at the holy tent. It will be at the place he will choose. You must read this law to them.

¹²“Gather the people together. Gather the men, women and children. Also bring together the outsiders who are living in your towns. Then they can listen and learn to have respect for the Lord your God. And they’ll be careful to obey all of the words of this law. ¹³Their children must hear it read too. They don’t know this law yet. They too must learn to have respect for the Lord your God. They must respect him as long as you live in the land. You are about to go across the Jordan River and take that land as your very own.”

Israel Will Refuse to Obey the Lord

¹⁴The Lord spoke to me. He said, “The day when you will die is near. Have Joshua go to the Tent of Meeting. Join him there. That is where I will appoint him as the new leader.” So Joshua and I went to the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁵Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud. It stood over the entrance to the tent. ¹⁶The Lord spoke to me. He said, “You are going to join the members of your family who have already died. The people will not be faithful to me. They will soon join themselves to the strange gods that are worshiped in the land they are entering. The people will desert me. They will break the covenant I made with them.

¹⁷“On that day I will become angry with them. I will desert them. I will turn my face away from them. And they will be destroyed. Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. On that day they will say, ‘Trouble has come on us. Our God isn’t with us!’

¹⁸“I will certainly turn away from them on that day. I will do it because they did a very evil thing when they turned to other gods.

¹⁹“I want you to write down a song for yourselves. Teach it to the people of Israel. Have them sing it. It will be my witness against them.

²⁰“I will bring them into a land that has plenty of milk and honey. I promised the land to their fathers. I took an oath when I promised it. In that land they will eat until they have had enough. They will get fat. When they do, they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will turn their backs on me. They will break my covenant.

²¹“Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. Then the song I am giving you will be a witness against them. That is because the song will not be forgotten by their children and their children’s children. I know what they are likely to do. I know it even before I bring them into the land I promised them with an oath.”

²²So that day I wrote the song down. And I taught it to the people of Israel.

²³The Lord gave a command to Joshua, the son of Nun. He said, “Be strong and brave. You will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them with an oath. I myself will be with you.”

²⁴I finished writing the words of that law in a scroll. I wrote them down from beginning to end.

²⁵Then I gave a command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. I said, ²⁶“Take this Scroll of the Law. Place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. It will remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷I know how you refuse to obey the Lord. I know how stubborn you are. You have refused to obey him while I’ve been living among you. So you will certainly refuse to obey him after I’m dead!

²⁸Gather together all of the elders of your tribes and all of your officials. Bring them to me. Then I can speak these words to them. I can call for heaven and earth to give witness against them. ²⁹I know that after I’m dead you will certainly become very sinful. You will turn away from the path I’ve commanded you to take. In days to come, trouble will fall on you. That’s because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. You will make him very angry because of the statues of gods your hands have made.”

The Song of Moses

³⁰I spoke the words of this song from beginning to end. The whole community of Israel heard them. Here is what I said.

32Heavens, listen to me. Then I will speak.

Earth, hear the words of my mouth.

²Let my teaching fall like rain.

Let my words come down like dew.

Let them be like raindrops on new grass.

Let them be like rain on tender plants.

³I will make known the name of the Lord.

Praise God! How great he is!

⁴He is the Rock. His works are perfect.

All of his ways are right.

He is faithful. He doesn’t do anything wrong.

He is honest and fair.

⁵Israel, you have sinned against him very much.

It’s too bad for you that you aren’t his children anymore.

You have become a twisted and evil nation.

⁶Is that how you thank the Lord?

You aren’t wise. You are foolish.

Remember, he’s your Father. He’s your Creator.

He made you. He formed you.

⁷Remember the days of old.

Think about what the Lord did through those many years.

Ask your father. He will tell you.

Ask your elders. They’ll explain it to you.

⁸The Most High God gave the nations their lands.

He divided up the human race.

He set up borders for the nations.

He did it based on the number of the sons of Israel.

⁹The Lord’s people are his share.

Jacob is the nation he has received.

¹⁰The Lord found Israel in a desert land.

He found them in an empty and windy wasteland.

He took care of them and kept them safe.

He guarded them as he would guard his own eyes.

¹¹He was like an eagle that stirs up its nest.

It hovers over its little ones.

It spreads out its wings to catch them.

It carries them on its feathers.

¹²The Lord was the only one who led Israel.

No other god was with them.

¹³The Lord made them ride on the highest places in the land.

He fed them what grew in the fields.

He gave them the sweetest honey.

He fed them olive oil from a rocky hillside.

¹⁴He gave them butter and milk from the herds and flocks.

He fed them the fattest lambs and goats.

He gave them the best of Bashan’s rams.

He fed them the finest wheat.

They drank the bubbling red juice of grapes.

¹⁵When Israel grew fat, they became stubborn.

When they were filled with food, they became fat and heavy.

They left the God who made them.

They turned away from the Rock who saved them.

¹⁶They made him jealous by serving strange gods.

They made him angry by worshiping statues of gods.

He hated those gods.

¹⁷The people sacrificed to demons, not to God.

The demons were gods they hadn’t known anything about.

Those gods were new to them.

Their people long ago didn’t worship them.

¹⁸But then they deserted the Rock. He was their Father.

They forgot the God who created them.

¹⁹When the Lord saw that, he turned away from them.

His sons and daughters made him angry.

²⁰“I will turn my face away from them,” he said.

“I will see what will happen to them in the end.

They are sinful people.

They are unfaithful children.

²¹They made me jealous by serving what is not even a god.

They made me angry by worshiping worthless statues of gods.

I will use people who are not a nation to make them jealous.

I will use a nation that has no understanding to make them angry.

²²My anger has started a fire.

It burns down to the kingdom of the dead.

It will eat up the earth and its crops.

It will set the base of the mountains on fire.

²³“I will pile troubles on my people.

I will shoot all of my arrows at them.

²⁴I will send them hunger. It will make them weak.

I will send terrible sickness. I will send deadly plagues.

I will send wild animals that will tear them apart.

Snakes that glide through the dust will bite them.

²⁵In the streets their children will be killed with swords.

Their homes will be filled with terror.

Young men and women will die.

Babies and old people will die.

²⁶I said I would scatter them.

I said I would wipe them from human memory.

²⁷But I was afraid their enemies would make fun of that.

I was afraid their attackers would not understand.

I was sure they would say, ‘We’re the ones who’ve beaten them!

The Lord isn’t the one who did it.’ ”

²⁸Israel is a nation that doesn’t have any sense.

They can’t understand anything.

²⁹I wish they were wise. Then they would understand what’s coming.

They’d realize what would happen to them in the end.

³⁰How could one person chase a thousand?

How could two make ten thousand run away?

It couldn’t happen unless their Rock had deserted them.

It couldn’t take place unless the Lord had given them up.

³¹Their rock is not…