Deuteronomy 31:1-18 ▼

1 And Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel,

2 and he said to them, “I am a son of a hundred and twenty years today; I cannot anymore go out and come in, and YHWH has said to me, ‘You shall not pass over this Jordan.’

3 YHWH your God—He will pass over before your faces. He will destroy these nations from before your faces, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua—he will pass over before your faces as YHWH has spoken.

4 And YHWH will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorite, and to their land, when He destroyed them.

5 And YHWH will give them over to you?, that you? may do to them according to every commandment that I have commanded you?.

6 Be strong and be of good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them, for YHWH your God is He who is going with you. He will not fail you and He will not forsake you.”

7 And Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the eyes of all Israel, “Be strong and be of good courage, for you—you must go with this people to the land that YHWH has sworn to their fathers to give to them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.

8 And YHWH is He who is going before you; He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Fear not, nor be dismayed.”

9 And Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of YHWH, and to all the elders of Israel.

10 And Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, in the Feast of the Booths,

11 when all Israel comes to appear before the face of YHWH your God in the place that He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their ears.

12 Gather together the people, the men, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and so that they may learn and fear YHWH your? God, and be careful to do all the words of this law,

13 and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear YHWH your? God all the days that you? are living in the land that you? are passing over the Jordan to possess.”

14 And YHWH said to Moses, “Behold, the day has drawn near when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.

15 And YHWH appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tent.

16 And YHWH said to Moses, “Behold, you are lying down with your fathers, and this people will rise up and play the prostitute with the gods of the foreigners of the land which he is entering, there in the midst; and he will forsake Me and break My covenant that I have made with him.

17 And My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they will be devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because that my God is not in my midst that these evils have found me?’

18 And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.