Joshua Is the New Leader

31 Then Moses spoke these words to all Israel. ² He said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to come and go. And the Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross this Jordan.’ ³ The Lord your God Himself will cross before you. He will destroy these nations in front of you. And you will take their place. Joshua will cross before you also, as the Lord has said. ⁴ The Lord will do the same to them that 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 to you. Then you will do to them as I have told you. ⁶ Be strong and have strength of heart. Do not be afraid or shake with fear because of them. For the Lord your God is the One Who goes with you. He will be faithful to you. He will not leave you alone.”

⁷ Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in front of all Israel, “Be strong and have strength of heart. For you will go with this people into the land the Lord has promised to their fathers to give them. And you will bring them in to take it. ⁸ The Lord is the One Who goes before you. He will be with you. He will be faithful to you and will not leave you alone. Do not be afraid or troubled.”

Reading of the Law Every Seven Years

⁹ So Moses wrote this Law and gave it to the religious leaders, the sons of Levi who carried the special box of the Law of the Lord, and to all the leaders of Israel. ¹⁰ Then Moses told them, “At the end of every seven years, at the time when money owed is done away with at the Special Supper of Tents, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to stand before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you must read this Law so all Israel will hear it. ¹² Gather together the people in your town, the men and the women, the children, and the stranger. So they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God. Be careful to obey all the words of this Law. ¹³ Then their children, who have not known it, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to take.”

The Lord’s Last Words to Moses

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “See, the time for you to die is near. Call Joshua, and go to the meeting tent, so I may tell him what to do.” So Moses and Joshua went to the meeting tent. ¹⁵ The Lord showed Himself in a pillar of cloud which stayed at the door of the tent. ¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, “See, you will soon die and be with your fathers. Then these people will soon act like a woman who sells the use of her body. They will follow the strange gods of the land where they are going. They will turn away from Me and break My agreement which I have made with them. ¹⁷ Then My anger will burn against them. I will leave them alone and hide My face from them and they will be destroyed. Many hard things and big troubles will come upon them. So they will say in that day, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not with us?’ ¹⁸ But I will hide My face in that day because of all the sinful things they will do, for they will turn to other gods. ¹⁹ So write this song for yourselves. Teach it to the people of Israel. Put it on their lips, so this song may speak for Me against all the people of Israel. ²⁰ For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised to their fathers, and they eat and are filled and have become rich, they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will turn against Me and break My agreement. ²¹ When many hard things and big troubles come upon them, this song will speak for Me against them. It will not be forgotten from the lips of their children and their children’s children. I know the plans they are making today, before I have brought them into the land I promised them.” ²² So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the people of Israel.

²³ Then the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, “Be strong and have strength of heart. For you will bring the people of Israel into the land I promised them. And I will be with you.”

²⁴ Moses wrote the words of this Law in a book from beginning to the end. ²⁵ Then Moses said to the Levites who carried the special box of the Law of the Lord, ²⁶ “Take this book of the Law and put it beside the special box of the Law of the Lord your God. It will be there to speak against you. ²⁷ For I know how strong your will is and that you do not want to obey. See, while I am still alive with you today, you have gone against the Lord. How much worse it will be after my death! ²⁸ Gather together and bring to me all the leaders and heads of your families. I will speak these words to them and call heaven and earth to speak against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will sin and turn from the way I have told you. Much trouble will come to you in the days to come. For you will do what is sinful in the eyes of the Lord. You will make Him angry through the work of your hands.”

³⁰ Then Moses spoke all the words of this song to all the people of Israel.

The Song of Moses

32 “Listen, O heavens, and let me speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth. ² Let my teaching fall as the rain, and my voice like the water on the grass in the early morning, like rain upon the new grass, and rain upon the plant. ³ For I will make known the name of the Lord. I will tell of the greatness of God! ⁴ The Rock! His work is perfect. All His ways are right and fair. A God Who is faithful and without sin, right and good is He. ⁵ They have acted in sin toward Him, but they are not His children, because the mark of sin is on them. They are a bad and sinful people. ⁶ Is this how you pay the Lord, you foolish people who are not wise? Is He not your Father Who has bought you? He has made you and given you your place. ⁷ Remember the days long ago. Think of the years of all people. Ask your father and he will show you. Ask your leaders. They will tell you. ⁸ When the Most High divided up the world among the nations, he divided the children of men. He set the place where each nation was to live by the number of the sons of Israel. ⁹ For the Lord’s share is His people. He chose the people of Jacob for Himself. ¹⁰ He found him in a desert land, in the empty waste of a desert. He came around him and cared for him. He kept him as He would His own eye. ¹¹ Like an eagle that shakes its nest, that flies over its young, He spread His wings and caught them. He carried them on His wings. ¹² The Lord alone led him. There was no strange god with him. ¹³ He made him sit on the high places of the earth. And he ate the food of the field. He made him eat honey from the rock, oil out of hard rock, ¹⁴ milk from cows and milk from the flock, the fat of lambs, rams of Bashan, goats, and the best of the grain. And you drank wine of the blood of grapes.

¹⁵ “But Jeshurun grew fat and would not obey. You became fat and full of food. Then he turned away from God Who made him. He hated the Rock of His saving power. ¹⁶ They made Him jealous with strange gods. They made Him angry with hated things. ¹⁷ They gave gifts to demons who were not God, to gods they have not known, new gods who came later, whom your fathers did not fear. ¹⁸ You did not think of the Rock Who gave you birth. You forgot the God Who gave you birth.

¹⁹ “The Lord saw this, and hated them. His sons and daughters made Him angry. ²⁰ Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them. I will see what their end will be. For they are a sinful people, children who are not faithful. ²¹ They have made Me jealous with what is not God. They have made Me angry with their false gods. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people. I will make them angry with a foolish nation. ²² For a fire is started by My anger. It burns to the very bottom of the place of the dead. It burns up the earth and all that grows on the earth. It burns the base of the mountains.

²³ ‘I will send much trouble upon them. I will use My arrows against them. ²⁴ They will be wasted with hunger. They will be destroyed by burning heat and disease. I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, with the poison of things moving in the dust. ²⁵ The sword will bring death in the street, and bring fear in the homes. It will destroy both young man and young woman, the baby and the man with white hair. ²⁶ I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces. I will make all people forget about them.” ²⁷ But I was afraid that those who hate them would fight in anger against them and would not understand. They would say, “We have won with our own strength. The Lord has not done this.”’

²⁸ “For they are a nation without wise teaching. There is no understanding in them. ²⁹ If they were wise, they would understand this. They would know their future! ³⁰ How could one run after a thousand? How could two make ten thousand run away, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up? ³¹ For their rock is not like our Rock. Even those who hate us judge this. ³² Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison. Their fruit tastes bitter. ³³ Their wine is the poison of snakes that kill.

³⁴ ‘Are they not kept in store with Me, shut in with My stores of riches? ³⁵ It is Mine to punish when their foot makes a false step. The day of their trouble is near. Their fall is coming fast upon them.’ ³⁶ For the Lord will judge His people. He will have loving-pity on His servants when He sees their strength is gone, and none are left of those who are free or of those who are not free. ³⁷ Then He will say, ‘Where are their gods? Where is the rock where they went to be safe? ³⁸ Who ate the fat of their burnt gifts and drank the wine of their drink gifts? Let them come and help you. Let them be your hiding place! ³⁹ See now that it is I. I am He. There is no god except Me. It is I Who kills and gives life. I hurt, and I heal. And there is no one who can take from My hand. ⁴⁰ For I lift up My hand to heaven, and promise that, as I live forever, ⁴¹ I will make My shining sword sharp. My hand takes hold of what is right and fair. I will punish those who are against Me. And I will punish those who hate Me. ⁴² I will make My arrows drunk with blood. My sword will eat flesh with the blood of those who are killed and those who are in prison, from the long-haired leaders of those who hate Me.’ ⁴³ Be glad, O nations, with His people! For He will punish because of the blood of His servants. He will punish those who fight against Him. And He will take away the sin of His land and His people.”

⁴⁴ Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people. ⁴⁵ When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take into your heart all the words I tell you today. Tell them to your children, so they may be careful to do all the words of this Law. ⁴⁷ This word is of great worth to you. It is your very life. By this word you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to take.”

Moses to Die on Mount Nebo

⁴⁸ The Lord said to Moses that same day, ⁴⁹ “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab beside Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for their own. ⁵⁰ Then die on the mountain you go up, and join your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and joined his people. ⁵¹ This is because you were not faithful to Me among the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin and you did not honor Me as holy among the people of Israel. ⁵² You will see the land from far away, but you will not go into the land I am giving the people of Israel.”