Deuteronomy 31:14-23

Evangelical Heritage Version

The Transition to Joshua

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “The time is approaching for you to die. Summon Joshua and stand at the Tent of Meeting, and I will commission him.”

So Moses and Joshua went and stood at the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁵ Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. ¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses:

“You are about to lie down with your fathers, but this people will rise up and prostitute themselves to the foreign gods among them in the land they are about to enter. They will forsake me and break my covenant that I made with them. ¹⁷ My anger will burn against them on that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. They will be on the verge of being devoured, and many evils and distresses will find them. They will say on that day, ‘Haven’t these evil things found us because our God is not among us?’ ¹⁸ Yet I will hide my face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

¹⁹ “So now, write down this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths so this song will be my witness against the people of Israel. ²⁰ When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised by oath to their fathers, and they eat and are satisfied and grow fat, and they then turn to other gods and serve them, when they despise me and break my covenant, ²¹ and many evils and distresses find them, then this song will testify against them as a witness, because it will not be forgotten or gone from the mouths of their descendants. I certainly know the inclination that they are developing today before I bring them to the land that I have promised on oath.”

²² So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the people of Israel.

²³ Then the Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said to him:

“Be strong and courageous, because you will bring the people of Israel into the land that I have promised to them with an oath, and I will be with you.”