Joshua Appointed to Succeed Moses
Deuteronomy 31Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. YHWH has said to me, ‘You must not go over this Jordan.’ YHWH your God is the one who will cross over ahead you. Hᴇ will destroy these nations from before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross over ahead you, as YHWH has spoken. YHWH will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. YHWH will deliver them up before y’all, and y’all are to do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded y’all. Y’all are to be strong and courageous. Y’all must not be afraid or scared of them, for YHWH your God is the one who goes with you. Hᴇ will not fail you nor forsake you.”
Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land which YHWH has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you will enable them to inherit it. YHWH himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.”
Public Reading of the Law
Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of YHWH’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of booths, when all Israel has come to appear before YHWH your God in the place which he will choose, you are to read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, learn, fear YHWH y’all’s God, and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear YHWH y’all’s God, as long as y’all live in the land y’all are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”
YHWH said to Moses, “Look, the day of your death is approaching. Call Joshua and y’all present yourselves* in the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.”
Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
Foretelling of Israel’s Rebellion
YHWH appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the Tent’s door. YHWH said to Moses, “Look, you are about sleep with your fathers. This people will rise up and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they go to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. Many evils and troubles will come on them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’ I will hide-hide my face in that day because all the evil which they have done in turning to other gods.
“Now y’all are to write this song for yourselves*, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant. It will happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants; for I know their ways and what they are doing today, before I have brought them into the land which I promised them.”
So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “You are to be strong and courageous, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them. I will be with you.”
When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a scroll, until it was complete, Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of YHWH’s covenant, saying, “Y’all are to take this book of the law and put it by the side of the ark of YHWH y’all’s God’s covenant, so that it may be there as a witness against you. For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Look, while I am yet alive with y’all today, y’all have been rebellious against YHWH. How much more after my death? Y’all gather all the elders of y’all’s tribes and y’all’s officers to me, so that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death y’all will become corrupt-corrupt, and turn away from the way which I have commanded y’all. In the latter days, disaster will fall on y’all because y’all will do that which is evil in YHWH’s sight, to provoke him to anger through the work of y’all’s hands.”
Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.