Deuteronomy 31

Then Moses also told the Israelites,

“I am 120 years old. I am no longer able to go everywhere that you need to go{, so I cannot be your leader any longer}. Furthermore, God has told me that I will not cross the Jordan River.

Instead of me, God our God will lead you across {the Jordan River}. He will destroy the people groups that are living there for you, in order that you can occupy their land. God has appointed Joshua to lead you across {the Jordan River} in my place. \*

God will do to those people groups what he did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites when, he destroyed them and their people.

God will enable you to conquer those people groups, but you must kill all of those people, which is what I have commanded you to do.

Be brave and confident. Do not be afraid of those people. Do not forget that it is God our God who will go with you. He will always help you and never abandon you.” \*

Then Moses summoned Joshua, and while all the Israelites were listening, he said to him, “Be brave and confident. You are the one who will lead these people into the land that God promised to our ancestors that he would give to them, and you will enable them to occupy it.

It is God who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will always help you. He will never abandon you. So do not be afraid or dismayed.” \*

Moses wrote down all these laws and gave the scroll to the priests, the descendants of Levi, who carried God’s sacred chest. He gave another copy of the laws to all the Israelite elders.

Moses told them, “At the end of every seven years, at the time that you must cancel all debts, that is, during the Festival of Shelters,

when all the Israelites gather at the place that God our God chooses for them to worship him, read this law to them all. \*

Gather together everyone—men, women, children, even the foreigners who are living in your towns—in order that they may hear these laws and learn to fear and respect God our God, and to faithfully obey everything that I have written in these laws.

This is so that your descendants, who will not yet know these laws, will hear them and learn to fear and respect God our God, during all the years that they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to occupy.” \*

Then God said to Moses, “Listen carefully. You will soon die. Summon Joshua, and you will go to the sacred tent with him, in order that I may appoint him to be the new leader.” So Joshua and Moses went to the sacred tent.

There God appeared to them in a pillar of cloud, and that cloud was over the entrance to the tent. \*

God said to Moses, “Listen, you will soon die. Then these people will become unfaithful to me. They will stop obeying the covenant that I made with them. They will begin to worship the foreign gods the people of the land that they will enter are worshiping.

When that happens, I will become very angry with them. I will abandon them and refuse to help them any longer. I will cause many bad things to happen to them, and I will destroy them. Then they will realize that I stopped protecting them.

Because of all the evil things that they will have done, and especially because they will have started to worship other gods, I will refuse to help them. \*

So I am going to give you, Moses, a song. Write it on a scroll, teach it to the Israelites, and make them memorize it. It will be like a witness that accuses them.

I am about to take them into a very fertile land, a land that I solemnly promised their ancestors that I would give to them. There they will have plenty to eat, with the result that their stomachs will always be full and they will become complacent. But then they will turn to other gods and start to worship them, and they will despise me and break the covenant that I have made with them.

When many terrible disasters are happening to them, their descendants will remember this song. It will be like a witness that saw them commit to worship me and accuses them of breaking their promises. I will soon take them into the land that I solemnly promised that I would give to them, but even now, before I do that, I know what they are thinking that they will do when they are living there.” \*

So on the day {that God gave Moses this song,} he wrote it down and taught it to the Israelites.

Then God commanded Joshua, whose father was Nun, “Be brave and confident, because you will lead the Israelites into the land that I solemnly promised that I would give to them. I will be with you.” \*

Moses finished writing all the law onto a scroll.

Then he told the descendants of Levi, whose job was carrying the sacred chest that contained the agreement with God,

“Take this law scroll and place it beside the sacred chest that contains the agreement with God our God, in order that it may remain there to testify about what God will do to the people if they disobey him.

I say this because I know that these people are very stubborn. They have rebelled against God all during the time that I have been with them, and they will rebel much more after I die! \*

So gather all the elders of the tribes and your officials, in order that I can teach them the words of this song, and so that I can request all those who are in heaven and on the earth to be witnesses to testify against these people.

I say this because I know that after I die, the people will become very wicked. They will stop doing everything that I have commanded them to do. In the future, because of all the evil things that they will do, they will cause God to become angry with them. Then he will cause them to experience disasters.”

Then, while all the Israelites listened, Moses sang the entire song to them {(people will sing this in the future)}: \*