Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Parashah 52: Vayelekh (He went) 31:1–30

[In regular years read with Parashah 51, in leap years read separately]

31 Moshe went and spoke the following words to all Isra’el: ² “I am 120 years old today. I can’t get around any longer; moreover, Adonai has said to me, ‘You will not cross this Yarden.’ ³ Adonai your God — he will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess them. Y’hoshua — he will cross over ahead of you, as Adonai has said. (LY: ii) ⁴ Adonai will do to them what he did to Sichon and ‘Og, the kings of the Emori, and to their land — he destroyed them. ⁵ Adonai will defeat them ahead of you, and you are to do to them just as I have ordered you to do. ⁶ Be strong, be bold, don’t be afraid or frightened of them, for Adonai your God is going with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

(RY: v, LY: iii) ⁷ Next Moshe summoned Y’hoshua and, in the sight of all Isra’el, said to him, “Be strong, be bold, for you are going with this people into the land Adonai swore to their ancestors he would give them. You will be the one causing them to inherit it. ⁸ But Adonai — it is he who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you, so don’t be afraid or downhearted.”

⁹ Then Moshe wrote down this Torah and gave it to the cohanim, the descendants of Levi who carried the ark with the covenant of Adonai, and to all the leaders of Isra’el. (LY: iv) ¹⁰ Moshe gave them these orders: “At the end of every seven years, during the festival of Sukkot in the year of sh’mittah, ¹¹ when all Isra’el have come to appear in the presence of Adonai at the place he will choose, you are to read this Torah before all Isra’el, so that they can hear it. ¹² Assemble the people — the men, the women, the little ones and the foreigners you have in your towns — so that they can hear, learn, fear Adonai your God and take care to obey all the words of this Torah; ¹³ and so that their children, who have not known, can hear and learn to fear Adonai your God, for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Yarden to possess.”

¹⁶ “In a little while, you will see me no more; then, a little while later, you will see me.” ¹⁷ At this, some of the talmidim said to one another, “What is this that he’s telling us, ‘In a little while, you won’t see me; then, a little while later, you will see me’? and, ‘I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They went on saying, “What is this ‘little while’? We don’t understand what he’s talking about.”

¹⁹ Yeshua knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you asking each other what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while, you won’t see me; and then, a little while later, you will see me’? ²⁰ Yes, it’s true. I tell you that you will sob and mourn, and the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ When a woman is giving birth, she is in pain; because her time has come. But when the baby is born, she forgets her suffering out of joy that a child has come into the world. ²² So you do indeed feel grief now, but I am going to see you again. Then your hearts will be full of joy, and no one will take your joy away from you.

²³ “When that day comes, you won’t ask anything of me! Yes, indeed! I tell you that whatever you ask from the Father, he will give you in my name. ²⁴ Till now you haven’t asked for anything in my name. Keep asking, and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.