Deuteronomy 31–34

Joshua the New Leader of Israel

31Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ²And he said to them: “I ^aam one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer ^bgo out and come in. Also the Lord has said to me, ^c‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ ³The Lord your God ^dHimself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. ^eJoshua himself crosses over before you, just ^fas the Lord has said. ^4gAnd the Lord will do to them ^has He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them. ⁵ⁱThe Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you. ^6jBe strong and of good courage, ^kdo not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, ^lHe is the One who goes with you. ^mHe will not leave you nor forsake you.”

⁷Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, ⁿ“Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. ⁸And the Lord, ^oHe is the One who goes before you. ^pHe will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

The Law to Be Read Every Seven Years

⁹So Moses wrote this law ^qand delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, ^rwho bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the ^syear of release, ^tat the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹when all Israel comes to ^uappear before the Lord your God in the ^vplace which He chooses, ^wyou shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ^12xGather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe 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 as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

Prediction of Israel’s Rebellion

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, ^a“Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that ^bI may ¹inaugurate him.”

So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. ¹⁵Now ^cthe Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will ²rest with your fathers; and this people will ^drise and ^eplay the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will ^fforsake Me and ^gbreak My covenant which I have made with them. ¹⁷Then My anger shall be ^haroused against them in that day, and ⁱI will forsake them, and I will ^jhide My face from them, and they shall be ³devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ^k‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is ^lnot among us?’ ¹⁸And ^mI will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

¹⁹“Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be ⁿa witness for Me against the children of Israel. ²⁰When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves ^oand grown fat, ^pthen they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. ²¹Then it shall be, ^qwhen many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for ^rI know the inclination ^sof their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.”

²²Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. ^23tThen He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, ^u“Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”

²⁴So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, ²⁵that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: ²⁶“Take this Book of the Law, ^vand put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there ^was a witness against you; ^27xfor I know your rebellion and your ^ystiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? ²⁸Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing ^zand call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹For I know that after my death you will ^abecome utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And ^bevil will befall you ^cin the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”

The Song of Moses

³⁰Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:

32“Give ^aear, O heavens, and I will speak;

And hear, O ^bearth, the words of my mouth.

²Let ^cmy ¹teaching drop as the rain,

My speech distill as the dew,

^dAs raindrops on the tender herb,

And as showers on the grass.

³For I proclaim the ^ename of the Lord:

^fAscribe greatness to our God.

⁴He is ^gthe Rock, ^hHis work is perfect;

For all His ways are justice,

ⁱA God of truth and ^jwithout injustice;

Righteous and upright is He.

⁵“They ^khave corrupted themselves;

They are not His children,

Because of their blemish:

A ^lperverse and crooked generation.

⁶Do you thus ^mdeal ²with the Lord,

O foolish and unwise people?

Is He not ⁿyour Father, who ^obought you?

Has He not ^pmade you and established you?

⁷“Remember ^qthe days of old,

Consider the years of many generations.

^rAsk your father, and he will show you;

Your elders, and they will tell you:

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

When He ^tseparated the sons of Adam,

He set the boundaries of the peoples

According to the number of the ³children of Israel.

⁹For ^uthe Lord’s portion is His people;

Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

¹⁰“He found him ^vin a desert land

And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;

He encircled him, He instructed him,

He ^wkept him as the ⁴apple of His eye.

^11xAs an eagle stirs up its nest,

Hovers over its young,

Spreading out its wings, taking them up,

Carrying them on its wings,

¹²So the Lord alone led him,

And there was no foreign god with him.

¹³“He ^ymade him ride in the heights of the earth,

That he might eat the produce of the fields;

He made him draw honey from the rock,

And oil from the flinty rock;

¹⁴Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,

^zWith fat of lambs;

And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,

With the choicest wheat;

And you drank wine, the ^ablood of the grapes.

¹⁵“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;

^bYou grew fat, you grew thick,

You are obese!

Then he ^cforsook God who ^dmade him,

And scornfully esteemed the ^eRock of his salvation.

^16fThey provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;

With ⁵abominations they provoked Him to anger.

^17gThey sacrificed to demons, not to God,

To gods they did not know,

To new gods, new arrivals

That your fathers did not fear.

^18hOf the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,

And have ⁱforgotten the God who fathered you.

¹⁹“And ^jwhen the Lord saw it, He spurned them,

Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

²⁰And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,

I will see what their end will be,

For they are a perverse generation,

^kChildren in whom is no faith.

^21lThey have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;

They have moved Me to anger ^mby their ⁶foolish idols.

But ⁿI will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;

I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

²²For ^oa fire is kindled in My anger,

And shall burn to the ⁷lowest ⁸hell;

It shall consume the earth with her increase,

And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³‘I will ^pheap disasters on them;

^qI will spend My arrows on them.

²⁴They shall be wasted with hunger,

Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;

I will also send against them the ^rteeth of beasts,

With the poison of serpents of the dust.

²⁵The sword shall destroy outside;

There shall be terror within

For the young man and virgin,

The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

^26sI would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,

I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”

²⁷Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,

Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

Lest they should say, ^t“Our hand is high;

And it is not the Lord who has done all this.” ’

²⁸“For they are a nation void of counsel,

Nor is there any understanding in them.

^29uOh, that they were wise, that they understood this,

That they would consider their ^vlatter end!

³⁰How could one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Unless their Rock ^whad sold them,

And the Lord had surrendered them?

³¹For their rock is not like our Rock,

^xEven our enemies themselves being judges.

³²For ^ytheir vine is of the vine of Sodom

And of the fields of Gomorrah;

Their grapes are grapes of gall,

Their clusters are bitter.

³³Their wine is ^zthe poison of serpents,

And the cruel ^avenom of cobras.

³⁴‘Is this not ^blaid up in store with Me,

Sealed up among My treasures?

^35cVengeance is Mine, and recompense;

Their foot shall slip in due time;

^dFor the day of their calamity is at hand,

And the things to come hasten upon them.’

³⁶“For ^ethe Lord will judge His people

^fAnd have compassion on His servants,

When He sees that their power is gone,

And ^gthere is no one remaining, bond or free.

³⁷He will say: ^h‘Where are their gods,

The rock in which they sought…