Deuteronomy 31–34

Joshua Becomes Moses’s Successor

³¹When Moses had finished speaking all^o these words to all Israel, ²he said to them, “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the Lord has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’^{* 3}The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the Lord promised.^{* 4}The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. ⁵The Lord will give them over to you, and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.^{* 6}Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”^*

⁷Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their ancestors to give them, and you will put them in possession of it.^{* 8}It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”^*

The Law to Be Read Every Seventh Year

⁹Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.^{* 10}Moses commanded them, “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the Festival of Booths,^{p* 11}when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.^{* 12}Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law^{* 13}and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”^*

Moses and Joshua Receive God’s Charge

¹⁴The Lord said to Moses, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting,^{* 15}and the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.^*

¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.^{* 17}My anger will be kindled against them on that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’^{* 18}On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. ¹⁹Now, therefore, write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites. ²⁰For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.^{* 21}And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants. For I know what they are inclined to do even now, before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.”^{* 22}That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.^*

²³Then the Lord^q commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you.”^*

²⁴When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end, ²⁵Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,^{* 26}“Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.^{* 27}For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!^{* 28}Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.^{* 29}For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”^*

The Song of Moses

³⁰Then Moses recited the words of this song, to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

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

let the earth hear the words of my mouth.^*

²May my teaching drop like the rain,

my speech condense like the dew,

like gentle rain on grass,

like showers on new growth.^*

³For I will proclaim the name of the Lord,

ascribe greatness to our God!^*

⁴The Rock, his work is perfect,

and all his ways are just.

A faithful God, without deceit,

just and upright is he;^*

⁵yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,^r

a perverse and crooked generation.^*

⁶Do you thus repay the Lord,

O foolish and senseless people?

Is not he your father who created you,

who made you and established you?^*

⁷Remember the days of old;

consider the years long past;

ask your father, and he will inform you,

your elders, and they will tell you.^*

⁸When the Most High^s apportioned the nations,

when he divided humankind,

he fixed the boundaries of the peoples

according to the number of the gods;^t*

⁹the Lord’s own portion was his people,

Jacob his allotted share.^*

¹⁰He sustained^u him in a desert land,

in a howling wilderness waste;

he shielded him, cared for him,

guarded him as the apple of his eye.^*

¹¹As an eagle stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young,

as it spreads its wings, takes them up,

and bears them aloft on its pinions,^*

¹²the Lord alone guided him;

no foreign god was with him.^*

¹³He set him atop the heights of the land

and fed him with^v produce of the field;

he nursed him with honey from the crags,

with oil from flinty rock,^*

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

with fat of lambs and rams,

Bashan bulls and goats,

together with the choicest wheat—

you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.^*

¹⁵Jacob ate his fill;^w

Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.

You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!

He abandoned God who made him

and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.^*

¹⁶They made him jealous with strange gods;

with abhorrent things they provoked him.^*

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to deities they had never known,

to new ones recently arrived,

whom your ancestors had not feared.^*

¹⁸You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you;^x

you forgot the God who gave you birth.^*

¹⁹The Lord saw it and was jealous;^y

he spurned^z his sons and daughters.^*

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

I will see what their end will be,

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom there is no faithfulness.^*

²¹They made me jealous with what is no god,

provoked me with their idols.

So I will make them jealous with what is no people,

provoke them with a foolish nation.^*

²²For a fire is kindled by my anger

and burns to the depths of Sheol;

it devours the earth and its increase

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.^*

²³I will heap disasters upon them,

spend my arrows against them:^*

²⁴wasting hunger,

burning consumption,

bitter pestilence.

The teeth of beasts I will send against them,

with venom of things crawling in the dust.^*

²⁵In the street the sword shall bereave,

and in the chambers terror

for young man and woman alike,

nursing child and old gray head.^*

²⁶I said, “I will make an end of them^a

and blot out the memory of them from humankind,”^*

²⁷but I feared provocation by the enemy,

for their adversaries might misunderstand

and say, “Our hand is triumphant;

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

²⁸They are a nation void of sense;

there is no understanding in them.

²⁹If they were wise, they would understand this;

they would discern what their end would be.^*

³⁰How could one have routed a thousand

and two put a myriad to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

the Lord had given them up?^*

³¹Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock;

our enemies are fools.^b*

³²Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom,

from the vineyards of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of poison;

their clusters are bitter;

³³their wine is the poison of serpents,

the cruel venom of asps.^*

³⁴Is not this laid up in store with me,

sealed up in my treasuries,^*

³⁵for the day of vengeance^c and recompense,

for the time when their foot shall slip?

Because the day of their calamity is at hand;

their doom comes swiftly.^*

³⁶Indeed, the Lord will vindicate his people,

have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone,

neither bond nor free remaining.^*

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

the rock in which they took refuge,^*

³⁸who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their libations?

Let them rise up and help you;

let them be your protection!

³⁹See now that I, even I, am he;

there is no god besides me.

I kill, and I make alive;

I wound, and I heal;

and no one can deliver from my hand.^*

⁴⁰For I lift up my hand to heaven

and swear, As I live forever,

⁴¹when I whet my flashing sword

and my hand takes hold on judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and will repay those who hate me.^*

⁴²I will make my…