Deuteronomy 31–34

Chapter 31

¹So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. ²And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ ³The Lord your God himself 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, as the Lord has spoken. ⁴And 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. ⁵And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. ⁶Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for 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 of good courage; for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall put them in possession of it. ⁸It 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.”

⁹And Moses wrote 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. ¹⁰And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of booths, ¹¹when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ¹²Assemble 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, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. ¹⁵And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud; and the pillar of cloud stood by the door of the tent.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to sleep with your fathers; then this people will rise and play the harlot after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. ¹⁷Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide 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, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ ¹⁸And I will surely hide my face in that day on account of all the evil which they have done, because they have turned to other gods. ¹⁹Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. ²⁰For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. ²¹And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their descendants); for I know the purposes which they are already forming, 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.

²³And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to give them: I will be with you.”

²⁴When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, to the very end, ²⁵Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ²⁶“Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. ²⁷For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are; behold, while I am yet alive with you, today you 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 these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and in the days to come evil 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.”

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

Chapter 32

¹“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;

and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

²May my teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distil as the dew,

as the gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and as the showers upon the herb.

³For I will proclaim the name of the Lord.

Ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴“The Rock, his work is perfect;

for all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,

just and right is he.

⁵They have dealt corruptly with him,

they are no longer his children because of their blemish;

they are a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶Do you thus requite the Lord,

you 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 of many generations;

ask your father, and he will show you;

your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

when he separated the sons of men,

he fixed the bounds of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.

⁹For the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

¹⁰“He found him in a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he encircled him, he cared for him,

he kept him as the apple of his eye.

¹¹Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

bearing them on its pinions,

¹²the Lord alone did lead him,

and there was no foreign god with him.

¹³He made him ride on the high places of the earth,

and he ate the produce of the field;

and he made him suck honey out of the rock,

and oil out of the flinty rock.

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

with fat of lambs and rams,

herds of Bashan and goats,

with the finest of the wheat—

and of the blood of the grape you drank wine.

¹⁵“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked;

you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek;

then he forsook God who made him,

and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominable practices they provoked him to anger.

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons which were no gods,

to gods they had never known,

to new gods that had come in of late,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

¹⁸You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,

and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹“The Lord saw it, and 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,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

²¹They have stirred me to jealousy with what is no god;

they have provoked me with their idols.

So I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people;

I will provoke them with a foolish nation.

²²For a fire is kindled by my anger,

and it burns to the depths of Sheol,

devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³“ ‘And I will heap evils upon them;

I will spend my arrows upon them;

²⁴they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured with burning heat

and poisonous pestilence;

and I will send the teeth of beasts against them,

with venom of crawling things of the dust.

²⁵In the open the sword shall bereave,

and in the chambers shall be terror,

destroying both young man and virgin,

the sucking child with the man of gray hairs.

²⁶I would have said, “I will scatter them afar,

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

²⁷had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should judge amiss,

lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,

the Lord has not wrought all this.” ’

²⁸“For they are a nation void of counsel,

and there is no understanding in them.

²⁹If they were wise, they would understand this,

they would discern their latter end!

³⁰How should one chase a thousand,

and two put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock had sold them,

and the Lord had given them up?

³¹For their rock is not as our Rock,

even our enemies themselves being judges.

³²For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom,

and from the fields of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of poison,

their clusters are bitter;

³³their wine is the poison of serpents,

and the cruel venom of asps.

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

sealed up in my treasuries?

³⁵Vengeance is mine, and recompense,

for the time when their foot shall slip;

for the day of their calamity is at hand,

and their doom comes swiftly.

³⁶For the Lord will vindicate his people

and have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone,

and there is none remaining, bond or free.

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 drink offering?

Let them rise up and help you,

let them be your protection!

³⁹“ ‘See now that I, even I, am…