Deuteronomy 31

¹ Then Moses concluded by speaking these words to all Israel ² and saying to them: I am a hundred and twenty years old today. No longer am I able to go forth or to come in. And Yahweh has said to me: You shall not cross over this Jordan. ³ Yahweh your Elohim, He is crossing over before you; He Himself shall exterminate these nations from before you, and you will tenant in their place. Joshua, he is crossing over before you just as Yahweh has spoken, ⁴ and Yahweh will do to them just as He did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorite, and to their country, those whom He exterminated. ⁵ Yahweh will give them up before you, and you must deal with them according to all the instructions which I have enjoined on you. ⁶ Be steadfast, and be resolute! Do not fear, and do not be terrified because of their presence, for Yahweh your Elohim, He is the One going with you; He shall neither neglect you nor forsake you. ⁷ Moses called to Joshua and said to him before the eyes of all Israel: Be steadfast and be resolute, for you shall bring this people into the land about which Yahweh had sworn to their fathers to give to them, and you shall allot it to them. ⁸ As for Yahweh, He is the One going before you; He Himself shall come to be with you. He shall neither neglect you nor forsake you. You shall neither fear nor be dismayed. ⁹ Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, the carriers of the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ And Moses instructed them saying: At the end of seven years, at the appointment of the year of release, at the celebration of booths, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place that He shall choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their ears. ¹² Assemble the people, the men, the women, the little ones and your sojourner who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn: they must fear Yahweh your Elohim and must observe to keep all the words of this law. ¹³ And their sons, who have not known it, they shall hear; they too must learn to fear Yahweh your Elohim all the days that you are alive on the ground where you are crossing over the Jordan to tenant it. ¹⁴ Then Yahweh said to Moses: Behold, near are your days to die. Call Joshua and station yourselves in the tent of appointment, that I may instruct him. So Moses and Joshua went and stationed themselves in the tent of appointment. ¹⁵ Then Yahweh appeared at the tent in a column of cloud; and the column of cloud stood over the opening of the tent. ¹⁶ Yahweh said to Moses: Behold, you are about to lie with your fathers. Yet this people will rise and prostitute after the elohim of the foreigners of the land where they are entering to be among them; and they will forsake Me and annul My covenant that I contracted with them. ¹⁷ My anger will grow hot against them on that day, and I will forsake them and conceal My face from them; then they will come to be devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them. Then they will say on that day: Is it not because our Elohim is not among us that these evils have found us? ¹⁸ Yet I shall conceal, yea conceal My face from them on that day on account of all the evil which they will have done, for they will have turned around to other elohim. ¹⁹ And now, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it in their mouths so that this song may come to be for Me as a testimony against the sons of Israel. ²⁰ When I shall bring them to the ground gushing with milk and honey about which I had sworn to their fathers, when they eat and are satisfied and are sleek so that they turn around to other elohim and serve them, when they thus spurn Me and annul My covenant, ²¹ and it comes to be that many evils and distresses find them, then this song will answer as a testimony before them (for it shall not be forgotten from the mouths of their seed) that I know the bent of their heart which they are forming today ere I bring them to the land about which I had sworn. ²² (Moses wrote this song on that day and taught it to the sons of Israel.) ²³ Then He instructed Joshua son of Nun and said: Be steadfast and be resolute! For you shall bring the sons of Israel to the land about which I had sworn to them; and I Myself shall come to be with you. ²⁴ It came to be as Moses concluded writing all the words of this law on a scroll until they were finished, ²⁵ that Moses instructed the Levites, the carriers of the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh, saying. ²⁶ You are to take this scroll of the law, and you must place it by the side of the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh your Elohim, and it will come to be there as a testimony against you, ²⁷ for I know your rebellion and your scruff of obstinacy. Behold in my day, while I am still with you alive, you have been rebellious against Yahweh, indeed, how much more so after my death! ²⁸ Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your superintendents, and let me speak in their ears all these words, and let me summon the heavens and the earth to testify against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you shall bring ruin, yea ruin on yourselves; you will withdraw from the way that I enjoined on you, and the evil visitation will befall you in the latter days, for you shall do the thing that is evil in the eyes of Yahweh so as to provoke Him to vexation by the work of your hands. ³⁰ Then Moses spoke in the ears of the whole assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were finished.