Deuteronomy 31
Contemporary English Version
Final Speeches and the Death of Moses
Joshua Is Appointed the Leader of Israel
31 Moses again spoke to the whole nation of Israel:
2 (A) I am 120 years old, and I am no longer able to be your leader. And besides that, the Lord your God has told me that he won't let me cross the Jordan River. 3-5 (B) But he has promised that he and Joshua will lead you across the Jordan to attack the nations that live on the other side. The Lord will destroy those nations just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, those two Amorite kings. Just remember—whenever you capture a place, kill everyone who lives there.
6 Be brave and strong! Don't be afraid of the nations on the other side of the Jordan. The Lord your God will always be at your side, and he will never abandon you.
7 Then Moses called Joshua up in front of the crowd and said:
Joshua, be brave and strong as you lead these people into their land. The Lord made a promise long ago to Israel's ancestors that this land would someday belong to Israel. That time has now come, and you must divide up the land among the people. 8 (C) The Lord will lead you into the land. He will always be with you and help you, so don't ever be afraid of your enemies.
Read These Laws
9 Moses wrote down all of these laws and teachings and gave them to the priests and the leaders of Israel. The priests were from the Levi tribe, and they carried the sacred chest that belonged to the Lord. 10-11 (D) Moses told these priests and leaders:
Each year the Israelites must come together to celebrate the Festival of Shelters at the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. You must read these laws and teachings to the people at the festival every seventh year, the year when loans do not need to be repaid.[a] 12-13 Everyone must come—men, women, children, and even the foreigners who live in your towns. And each new generation will listen and learn to worship the Lord their God with fear and trembling and to do exactly what is said in God's Law.
Israel Will Reject the Lord
14 The Lord told Moses, “You will soon die, so bring Joshua to the sacred tent, and I will appoint him the leader of Israel.”
Moses and Joshua went to the sacred tent, 15 and the Lord appeared in a thick cloud right over the entrance to the tent. 16 The Lord said:
Moses, you will soon die. But Israel is going into a land where other gods are worshiped, and Israel will reject me and start worshiping these gods. The people will break the agreement I made with them, 17 and I will be so furious that I will abandon them and ignore their prayers. I will send disasters and suffering that will nearly wipe them out. Finally, they will realize that the disasters happened because I abandoned them. 18 They will pray to me, but I will ignore them because they were evil and started worshiping other gods.
19 Moses and Joshua, I am going to give you the words to a new song. Write them down and teach the song to the Israelites. If they learn it, they will know what I want them to do, and so they will have no excuse for not obeying me. 20 I am bringing them into the land that I promised their ancestors. It is a land rich with milk and honey, and the Israelites will have more than enough food to eat. But they will get fat and turn their backs on me and start worshiping other gods. The Israelites will reject me and break the agreement that I made with them.
21 When I punish the Israelites and their descendants with suffering and disasters, I will remind them that they know the words to this song, so they have no excuse for not obeying me.
I will give them the land that I promised, but I know the way they are going to live later on.
22 Moses at once wrote down the words to the song,[b] and he taught it to the Israelites.
23 (E) The Lord told Joshua, “Be brave and strong! I will help you lead the people of Israel into the land that I have promised them.”
24 Moses wrote down all these laws and teachings in a book, 25 then he went to the Levites who carried the sacred chest and said:
26 This is The Book of God's Law. Keep it beside the sacred chest that holds the agreement the Lord your God made with Israel. This book is proof that you know what the Lord wants you to do. 27 I know how stubborn and rebellious you and the rest of the Israelites are. You have rebelled against the Lord while I have been alive, and it will only get worse after I am gone. 28 So call together the leaders and officials of the tribes of Israel. I will bring this book and read every word of it to you, and I will call the sky and the earth as witnesses that all of you know what you are supposed to do.
29 I am going to die soon, and I know that in the future you will stop caring about what is right and what is wrong, and so you will disobey the Lord and stop living the way I told you to live. The Lord will be angry, and terrible things will happen to you.
The Song of Moses
30 Moses called a meeting of all the people of Israel, so he could teach them the words to the song that the Lord had given him. And here are the words:
Deuteronomy 31
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Joshua Becomes Moses’s Successor
31 When Moses had finished speaking all[a] these words to all Israel, 2 he said to them, “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the Lord has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’(A) 3 The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the Lord promised.(B) 4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 The Lord will give them over to you, and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.(C) 6 Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”(D)
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their ancestors to give them, and you will put them in possession of it.(E) 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”(F)
The Law to Be Read Every Seventh Year
9 Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.(G) 10 Moses commanded them, “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the Festival of Booths,[b](H) 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.(I) 12 Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law(J) 13 and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”(K)
Moses and Joshua Receive God’s Charge
14 The Lord said to Moses, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting,(L) 15 and the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.(M)
16 The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.(N) 17 My anger will be kindled against them on that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’(O) 18 On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. 19 Now, therefore, write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites. 20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.(P) 21 And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants. For I know what they are inclined to do even now, before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.”(Q) 22 That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.(R)
23 Then the Lord[c] commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you.”(S)
24 When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end, 25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,(T) 26 “Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.(U) 27 For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!(V) 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.(W) 29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”(X)
The Song of Moses
30 Then Moses recited the words of this song, to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:
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New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.