Add parallel Print Page Options

Moses and Joshua Present Themselves to the Lord

14 Then the Lord told Moses: “Look! Because your time to die is approaching, call Joshua, present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, and then I will commission him.” Moses and Joshua complied[a] and presented[b] themselves at the Tent of Meeting. 15 So the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud that stood above the entrance.[c]

16 Then the Lord told Moses, “Look! You are about to join your ancestors.[d] Afterwards, this people will rebel[e] and commit prostitution with the foreign gods of the land that they are about to enter to possess. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I made with them.[f] 17 When that happens,[g] my anger will burn against them,[h] because they will have abandoned me. I’ll hide my face from them, they will be consumed, and many evils and distresses will find them. When this happens,[i] they[j] will say, ‘These troubles have happened to us because God isn’t among us.’ 18 I’ll surely hide my face in that day on account of the evil that they[k] will have done, because they[l] will have turned to other gods.”

Moses Instructed to Teach a Song

19 “Now write this song and teach it to the Israelis. Put this song in their very mouths, so that it will be a witness for me against the Israelis, 20 because after I’ve brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised to their ancestors by an oath, they’ll eat, grow fat, and then they’ll turn to other gods and serve them, while despising me and breaking my covenant. 21 Then, when many evils and troubles will have come upon them, this song will serve as a witness against them, since their descendants won’t fail to sing it. I know the plan that they are devising even before I bring them into the land that I promised them[m] by an oath.”

22 So Moses wrote the song that very day and taught it to the Israelis. 23 Then the Lord charged Nun’s son Joshua, “Be strong and courageous, because you’ll bring the Israelis to the land that I promised to them by an oath. I’ll be with you.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 31:14 Lit. walked
  2. Deuteronomy 31:14 Or stood
  3. Deuteronomy 31:15 Lit. above the Tent of Meeting
  4. Deuteronomy 31:16 Lit. to lie down with
  5. Deuteronomy 31:16 Heb. rise up
  6. Deuteronomy 31:16 Lit. him
  7. Deuteronomy 31:17 Lit. On that day
  8. Deuteronomy 31:17 Lit. him
  9. Deuteronomy 31:17 On that day
  10. Deuteronomy 31:17 Lit. he
  11. Deuteronomy 31:18 Lit. he
  12. Deuteronomy 31:18 Lit. he
  13. Deuteronomy 31:21 The Heb. lacks them