Deuteronomy 31

¹And Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

²And he said to them, 'I am one hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to go out and come in. And the Lord has said to me, You shall not cross this Jordan.'

³The LORD your God, he is the one crossing over before you; he will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua, he is the one crossing over before you, just as the LORD has spoken.

⁴And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, which he destroyed.

⁵And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment that I have commanded you.

⁶Be strong and courageous; do not fear and do not tremble before them, for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you; he will not fail you and he will not forsake you.

⁷And Moses called Joshua and said to him before the eyes of all Israel, 'Be strong and courageous! For you are the one who will go with this people to the land that the Lord swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.'

⁸And the Lord himself is the one going before you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed.

⁹And Moses wrote this instruction and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Then Moses commanded them, saying, 'At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the year of remission, at the Feast of Booths,'

¹¹When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this Torah before all Israel in their hearing.

¹²Assemble the people -- the men and the women and the children and the sojourner who is within your gates -- so that they may hear and so that they may learn, and revere the Lord your God of you all, and observe to do all the words of this Torah.

¹³And their children, who have not known, shall hear and shall learn to fear the LORD the God of you all, all the days that you are living upon the land to which you are crossing over the Jordan there, to possess it.

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, your days have drawn near to die; call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him.' And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁵And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.

¹⁶And the LORD said to Moses, 'Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers, and this people will arise and play the harlot after the foreign gods of the land into the midst of which it is going there, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have cut with it.'

¹⁷And my anger will burn against him on that day, and I will forsake him and will hide my face from him, and he will be devoured, and many evils and distresses will find him, and he will say on that day, 'Is it not because my God is not in my midst that these evils have found me?'

¹⁸And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all the evil that they did, for they turned to other gods.

¹⁹And now, write this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

²⁰For when they come to the land that I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they eat and are satisfied and grow fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will spurn me and break my covenant.

²¹And it will come to pass, when many evils and distresses find him, that this song will testify against him as a witness, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of his offspring, for I know his inclination, which he is forming today, before I bring him into the land that I swore.

²²And Moses wrote this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.

²³And the Lord commanded Joshua son of Nun and said: Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land that I swore to them, and I will be with you.

²⁴And it came to pass, when Moses had finished writing the words of this instruction on a scroll, to their completion,

²⁵And Moses commanded the Levites, the bearers of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,

²⁶Take this scroll of the Torah and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord God of you all, that it may be there as a witness against you.

²⁷For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Look! While I am still alive with you today you have been rebelling against the Lord, and how much more after my death!

²⁸'Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, that I may speak these words in their ears and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them.'

²⁹For I know that after my death you will certainly act corruptly and turn from the way that I commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him by the work of your hands.

³⁰And Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.