The Lord Will Bring You Back

Moses said to Israel:

30 ^(A) I have told you everything the Lord your God will do for you, and I've also told you the curses he will put on you if you reject him. He will scatter you in faraway countries, but when you realize that he is punishing you, ² return to him with all your heart and soul and start obeying the commands I have given to you today. ^3-4 Then he will stop punishing you and treat you with kindness. He may have scattered you to the farthest countries on earth, but he will bring you back ⁵ to the land that had belonged to your ancestors and make you even more successful and powerful than they ever were.

⁶ You and your descendants are stubborn, but the Lord will make you willing to obey him and love him with all your heart and soul, and you will enjoy a long life.

⁷ Then the Lord your God will remove the curses from you and put them on those enemies who hate and attack you.

⁸ You will again obey the laws and teachings of the Lord, ⁹ and he will bless you with many children, large herds and flocks, and abundant crops. The Lord will be happy to do good things for you, just as he did for your ancestors. ¹⁰ But you must decide once and for all to worship him with all your heart and soul and to obey everything in The Book of God's Law.

Choose Life, Not Death

Moses said to Israel:

¹¹ You know God's laws, and it isn't impossible to obey them. ^12 (B) His commands aren't in heaven, so you can't excuse yourselves by saying, “How can we obey the Lord's commands? They are in heaven, and no one can go up to get them, then bring them down and explain them to us.” ¹³ And you can't say, “How can we obey the Lord's commands? They are across the sea, and someone must go across, then bring them back and explain them to us.” ¹⁴ No, these commands are nearby and you know them by heart. All you have to do is obey!

^15 (C) Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster. ^16-18 I am commanding you to be loyal to the Lord, to live the way he has told you, and to obey his laws and teachings. You are about to cross the Jordan River and take the land that he is giving you. If you obey him, you will live and become successful and powerful.

On the other hand, you might choose to disobey the Lord and reject him. So I'm warning you that if you bow down and worship other gods, you won't have long to live.

¹⁹ Now I call the sky and the earth to be witnesses that I am offering you this choice. Will you choose for the Lord to make you prosperous and give you a long life? Or will he put you under a curse and kill you? Choose life! ^20 (D) Be completely faithful to the Lord your God, love him, and do whatever he tells you. The Lord is the only one who can give life, and he will let you live a long time in the land that he promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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 (E) 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 (F) 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 (G) 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 (H) 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 (I) 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:

Pilate Questions Jesus

(Matthew 27.1,2,11-14; Luke 23.1-5; John 18.28-38)

15 Early the next morning the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses met together with the whole Jewish council. They tied up Jesus and led him off to Pilate.

² He asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Those are your words,” Jesus answered.

³ The chief priests brought many charges against Jesus. ⁴ Then Pilate questioned him again, “Don't you have anything to say? Don't you hear what crimes they say you have done?” ⁵ But Jesus did not answer, and Pilate was amazed.

The Death Sentence

(Matthew 27.15-26; Luke 23.13-25; John 18.39—19.16)

⁶ During Passover, Pilate always freed one prisoner chosen by the people. ⁷ And at that time there was a prisoner named Barabbas. He and some others had been arrested for murder during a riot. ⁸ The crowd now came and asked Pilate to set a prisoner free, just as he usually did.

⁹ Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to free the king of the Jews?” ¹⁰ Pilate knew that the chief priests had brought Jesus to him because they were jealous.

¹¹ But the chief priests told the crowd to ask Pilate to free Barabbas.

¹² Then Pilate asked the crowd, “What do you want me to do with this man you say is^[a] the king of the Jews?”

¹³ They yelled, “Nail him to a cross!”

¹⁴ Pilate asked, “But what crime has he done?”

“Nail him to a cross!” they yelled even louder.

¹⁵ Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free. Then he ordered his soldiers to beat Jesus with a whip and nail him to a cross.

Soldiers Make Fun of Jesus

(Matthew 27.27-30; John 19.2,3)

¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus inside the courtyard of the fortress^[b] and called together the rest of the troops. ¹⁷ They put a purple robe^[c] on him, and on his head they placed a crown they had made out of thorn branches. ¹⁸ They made fun of Jesus and shouted, “Hey, you king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ Then they beat him on the head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt down and pretended to worship him.

²⁰ When the soldiers had finished making fun of Jesus, they took off the purple robe. They put his own clothes back on him and led him off to be nailed to a cross. ^21 (A) Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross

(Matthew 27.31-44; Luke 23.27-43; John 19.17-27)

²² The soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.”^{[d] 23} There they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.

^24 (B) They nailed Jesus to a cross and gambled to see who would get his clothes. ²⁵ It was about nine o'clock in the morning when they nailed him to the cross.