Parashat Vayelech

Chazak! Be Courageous!

31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ² He said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. Adonai has said to me, ‘You are not to cross over this Jordan.’ ³ Adonai your God—He will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross over before you, just as Adonai has promised.

⁴ “Adonai will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. ⁵ Adonai will give them over to you, and you are to do to them according to all the mitzvot that I commanded you. ⁶ Chazak! Be courageous! Do not be afraid or tremble before them. For Adonai your God—He is the One who goes with you. He will not fail you or abandon you.”

⁷ Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong! Be courageous! For you are to go with this people into the land Adonai has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you are to enable them to inherit it. ⁸ Adonai—He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you. Do not fear or be discouraged.”

Public Torah Readings

⁹ Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the kohanim, the sons of Levi who carry the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of cancelling debts, during the feast of Sukkot, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before Adonai your God in the place He chooses, you are to read this Torah before them in their hearing. ¹² Gather the people—the men and women and little ones, and the outsider within your town gates—so they may hear and so they may learn, and they will fear Adonai your God and take care to do all the words of this Torah. ¹³ So their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear Adonai your God—all the days you live on the land you are about to cross over the Jordan to possess.”

¹⁴ Then Adonai said to Moses, “Behold, your time to die is near. Call Joshua, and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, and I will commission him.” Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁵ Adonai appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the opening of the Tent. ¹⁶ Adonai said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break My covenant that I cut with them. ¹⁷ Then My anger will flare against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them. So they will be devoured, and many evils and troubles will come on them. They will say on that day, ‘Isn’t it because our God is not among us that these evils have come on us?’ ¹⁸ I will surely hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done, for they have turned to other gods.

Moses Introduces His Song

¹⁹ “Now, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to Bnei-Yisrael—put it in their mouth, so that this song may be a witness for Me against Bnei-Yisrael.

²⁰ “For when I bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey that I swore to their fathers, and they eat and are satisfied and grow fat—then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will spurn Me and break My covenant. ²¹ Now when many evils and troubles have come on them, this song will confront them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their descendants. For I know the intention they are devising this day, even before I bring them into the land that I swore.” ²² That day Moses wrote this song and taught it to Bnei-Yisrael.

²³ Then he commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Chazak! Be courageous! For you will bring Bnei-Yisrael into the land I swore to them—and I will be with you.”

²⁴ Now when Moses had finished writing the words of this Torah on a scroll, right to the end . . . ²⁵ Moses commanded the Levites, carriers of the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai saying, ²⁶ “Take this scroll of the Torah, and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai your God. It will remain there as a witness against you, ²⁷ for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Indeed, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Adonai—how much more then after my death? ²⁸ Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will certainly act corruptly and turn aside from the way I have commanded you. So evil will fall upon you in the latter days, because you will do what is evil in the sight of Adonai, provoking Him to anger by the work of your hands.”

³⁰ Moses spoke in the hearing of the whole community of Israel the words of this song, right to the end:

Blow the Shofar

Rain and Restoration

He Will Again Have Compassion

Misdirected Zeal

10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation. ² For I testify about them that they have zeal for God—but not based on knowledge. ³ For being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Messiah is the goal^[a] of the Torah as a means to righteousness for everyone who keeps trusting.

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on Torah, “The man who does these things shall live by them.” ^{[b] 6} But the righteousness based on faith speaks in this way:

⁸ But what does it say?

¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Whoever trusts in Him will not be put to shame.” ^{[g] 12} For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all—richly generous to all who call on Him. ¹³ For “Everyone who calls upon the name of Adonai shall be saved.”^[h]

¹⁴ How then shall they call on the One in whom they have not trusted? And how shall they trust in the One they have not heard of? And how shall they hear without someone proclaiming? ¹⁵ And how shall they proclaim unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!” ^{[i] 16} But not all heeded the Good News. For Isaiah says, “Adonai, who has believed our report?” ^{[j] 17} So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Messiah.