Deuteronomy 31–33

1Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

2He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’

3Yahweh your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

4Yahweh 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.

5Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.

6Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them, for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

7Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.

8Yahweh 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.”

9Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.

10Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of booths,

11when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12Assemble 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 Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law,

13and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

14Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, your days approach that you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him.” Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.

15Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the Tent’s door.

16Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall 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.

17Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall 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?’

18I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

19“Now therefore 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.

20For 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.

21It 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.”

22So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.

23He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them. I will be with you.”

24When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

25Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, saying,

26“Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of Yahweh your God’s covenant, that it may be there for a witness against you.

27For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. How much more after my death?

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

29For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn away from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”

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

1Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

2My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.

3For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God!

4The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

5They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.

6Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.

7Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.

8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

9For Yahweh’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

10He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

11As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.

12Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.

13He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;

14butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.

15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.

16They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.

17They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.

18Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

19Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

20He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

22For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.

23“I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.

24They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

25Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.

26I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;

27were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted; Yahweh has not done all this.’”

28For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.

29Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

30How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?

31For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede.

32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.

33Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.

34“Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?

35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides, for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”

36For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.

37He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,

38which ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.

39“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

40For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,

41if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.

42I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”

43Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.

44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

45Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel.

46He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

47For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

48Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,

49“Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.

50Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people;

51because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel.

52For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”

1This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

2He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.

3Yes, he loves the people. All his saints are in your hand. They sat down at your feet. Each receives your words.

4Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.

5He was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

6“Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few.”

7This is for Judah. He said, “Hear, Yahweh, the voice of Judah. Bring him in to his people. With his hands he contended for himself. You shall be a help against his adversaries.”

8About Levi he said, “Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one, whom you proved at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah.

9He said of his father, and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’ He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant.

10They shall teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you, and whole burnt offering on your altar.

11Yahweh, bless his skills. Accept the work of his hands. Strike through the hips of those who rise up against him, of those who hate him, that they not rise again.”

12About Benjamin he said, “The beloved of Yahweh will dwell in safety by him. He covers him all day long. He dwells between his shoulders.”

13About Joseph he said, “His land is blessed by Yahweh, for the precious things of the heavens, for the dew, for the deep that couches beneath,

14for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, for the precious things that the moon can yield,

15for the best things of the ancient mountains, for the precious things of the everlasting hills,

16for the precious things of the earth and its fullness, the good will of him who lived in the bush. Let this come on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers.

17Majesty belongs to the firstborn of his herd. His horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them he will push all the peoples to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh.”

18About Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents.

19They will call the peoples to the mountain. There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they will draw out the abundance of the seas, the hidden treasures of the sand.”

20About Gad he said, “He who enlarges Gad is blessed. He dwells as a lioness, and tears the arm and the crown of the head.

21He provided the first part for himself, for the lawgiver’s portion was reserved for him. He came with the heads of the people. He executed the righteousness of Yahweh, His ordinances with Israel.”

22About Dan he said, “Dan is a lion’s cub that leaps out of Bashan.”

23About Naphtali he said, “Naphtali, satisfied with favor, full of Yahweh’s blessing, Possess the west and the south.”

24About Asher he said, “Asher is blessed with children. Let him be acceptable to his brothers. Let him dip his foot in oil.

25Your bars will be iron and bronze. As your days, so your strength will be.

26“There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies.

27The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’

28Israel dwells in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, In a land of grain and new wine. Yes, his heavens drop down dew.

29You are happy, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellency? Your enemies will submit themselves to you. You will tread on their high places.”