Deuteronomy 30

The Israelites Will Return

1 When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you, and the Lord your God has sent you away to other nations, think about these things.2 Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today.3 Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom. He will feel sorry for you, and he will bring you back again from the nations where he scattered you.4 He may send you to the ends of the earth, but he will gather you and bring you back from there,5 back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will be yours. He will give you success, and there will be more of you than there were of your ancestors.6 The Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love him with your whole being so that you will live.7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you.8 And you will again obey the Lord, keeping all his commands that I give you today.9 The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do. You will have many children, your cattle will have many calves, and your fields will produce good crops, because the Lord will again be happy with you, just as he was with your ancestors.

10 But you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands and rules that are written in this Book of the Teachings. You must return to the Lord your God with your whole being.

Choose Life or Death

11 This command I give you today is not too hard for you; it is not beyond what you can do.12 It is not up in heaven. You do not have to ask, “Who will go up to heaven and get it for us so we can obey it and keep it?”13 It is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask, “Who will go across the sea and get it? Who will tell it to us so we can keep it?”

14 No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
15 Look, today I offer you life and success, death and destruction.

16 I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what he wants you to do, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws. Then you will live and grow in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.
17 But if you turn away from the Lord and do not obey him, if you are led to bow and serve other gods,

18 I tell you today that you will surely be destroyed. And you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and take as your own.
19 Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live.20 To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him. He is your life, and he will let you live many years in the land, the land he promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 31

Joshua Takes Moses’ Place

1 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all the Israelites:2 “I am now one hundred twenty years old, and I cannot lead you anymore. The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River;3 the Lord your God will lead you across himself. He will destroy those nations for you, and you will take over their land. Joshua will also lead you across, as the Lord has said.4 The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when he destroyed them and their land.5 The Lord will give those nations to you; do to them everything I told you.

6 Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them and don’t be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.”
7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in front of the people, “Be strong and brave, because you will lead these people into the land the Lord promised to give their ancestors, and help them take it as their own.

8 The Lord himself will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forget you. Don’t be afraid and don’t worry.”

Moses Writes the Teachings

9 So Moses wrote down these teachings and gave them to the priests and all the elders of Israel. (The priests are the sons of Levi, who carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord.)10-11 Then Moses commanded them: “Read these teachings for all Israel to hear at the end of every seven years, which is the year to cancel what people owe. Do it during the Feast of Shelters, when all the Israelites will come to appear before the Lord your God and stand at the place he will choose.12 Gather all the people: the men, women, children, and foreigners living in your towns so that they can listen and learn to respect the Lord your God and carefully obey everything in this law.

13 Since their children do not know this law, they must hear it. They must learn to respect the Lord your God for as long as they live in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take for your own.”

The Lord Calls Moses and Joshua

14 The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will die. Get Joshua and come to the Meeting Tent so that I may command him.” So Moses and Joshua went to the Meeting Tent.
15 The Lord appeared at the Meeting Tent in a cloud; the cloud stood over the entrance of the Tent.16 And the Lord said to Moses, “You will soon die. Then these people will not be loyal to me but will worship the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will leave me, breaking the Agreement I made with them.17 Then I will become very angry at them, and I will leave them. I will turn away from them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible things will happen to them. Then they will say, ‘It is because God is not with us that these terrible things are happening.’

18 I will surely turn away from them then, because they have done wrong and have turned to other gods.
19 “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites. Then have them sing it, because it will be my witness against them.20 When I bring them into the land I promised to their ancestors, a fertile land, they will eat as much as they want and get fat. Then they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will reject me and break my Agreement.21 Then when many troubles and terrible things happen to them, this song will testify against them, because the song will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they plan to do, even before I take them into the land I promised them.”

22 So Moses wrote down the song that day, and he taught it to the Israelites.

23 Then the Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and brave, because you will lead the people of Israel to the land I promised them, and I will be with you.”
24 After Moses finished writing all the words of the teachings in a book,25 he gave a command to the Levites, who carried the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord.26 He said, “Take this Book of the Teachings and put it beside the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord your God. It must stay there as a witness against you.27 I know how stubborn and disobedient you are. You have disobeyed the Lord while I am alive and with you, and you will disobey even more after I die!28 Gather all the older leaders of your tribes and all your officers to me so that I may say these things for them to hear, and so that I may ask heaven and earth to testify against them.

29 I know that after I die you will become completely evil. You will turn away from the commands I have given you. Terrible things will happen to you in the future when you do what the Lord says is evil, and you will make him angry with the idols you have made.”

Moses’ Song

30 And Moses spoke this whole song for all the people of Israel to hear:

Deuteronomy 32

1 Hear, heavens, and I will speak.
Listen, earth, to what I say.

2 My teaching will drop like rain; my words will fall like dew.
They will be like showers on the grass; they will pour down like rain on young plants.

3 I will announce the name of the Lord. Praise God because he is great!

4 He is like a rock; what he does is perfect, and he is always fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong, who is right and fair.

5 They have done evil against him. To their shame they are no longer his children; they are an evil and lying people.

6 This is not the way to repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people.
He is your Father and Maker, who made you and formed you.

7 Remember the old days. Think of the years already passed.
Ask your father and he will tell you; ask your elders and they will inform you.

8 God Most High gave the nations their lands, dividing up the human race.
He set up borders for the people and even numbered the Israelites.

9 The Lord took his people as his share, the people of Jacob as his very own.

10 He found them in a desert, a windy, empty land.
He surrounded them and brought them up, guarding them as those he loved very much.

11 He was like an eagle building its nest that flutters over its young.
It spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its feathers.

12 The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god helping him.

13 The Lord brought them to the heights of the land and fed them the fruit of the fields.
He gave them honey from the rocks, bringing oil from the solid rock.

14 There were milk curds from the cows and milk from the flock; there were fat sheep and goats.
There were sheep and goats from Bashan and the best of the wheat.
You drank the juice of grapes.

15 Israel grew fat and kicked; they were fat and full and firm.
They left the God who made them and rejected the Rock who saved them.

16 They made God jealous with foreign gods and angry with hateful idols.

17 They made sacrifices to demons, not God, to gods they had never known, new gods from nearby, gods your ancestors did not fear.

18 You left God who is the Rock, your Father, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 The Lord saw this and rejected them; his sons and daughters had made him angry.

20 He said, “I will turn away from them and see what will happen to them.
They are evil people, unfaithful children.

21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous and worthless idols to make me angry.
So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous; I will use a nation that does not understand to make them angry.

22 My anger has started a fire that burns down to the place of the dead.
It will burn up the ground and its crops, and it will set fire to the base of the mountains.

23 “I will pile troubles upon them and shoot my arrows at them.

24 They will be starved and sick, destroyed by terrible diseases.
I will send them vicious animals and gliding, poisonous snakes.

25 In the streets the sword will kill; in their homes there will be terror.
Young men and women will die, and so will babies and gray-haired men.

26 I will scatter them as I said, and no one will remember them.

27 But I didn’t want their enemy to brag; their enemy might misunderstand
and say, ‘We have won! The Lord has done none of this.’ ”

28 Israel has no sense; they do not understand.

29 I wish they were wise and understood this; I wish they could see what will happen to them.

30 One person cannot chase a thousand people, and two people cannot fight ten thousand
unless their Rock has sold them, unless the Lord has given them up.

31 The rock of these people is not like our Rock; our enemies agree to that.

32 Their vine comes from Sodom, and their fields are like Gomorrah.
Their grapes are full of poison; their bunches of grapes are bitter.

33 Their wine is like snake poison, like the deadly poison of cobras.

34 “I have been saving this, and I have it locked in my storehouses.

35 I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them. Soon their foot will slip,
because their day of trouble is near, and their punishment will come quickly.”

36 The Lord will defend his people and have mercy on his servants.
He will see that their strength is gone, that nobody is left, slaves or free.

37 Then he will say, “Where are their gods? Where is the rock they trusted?

38 Who ate the fat from their sacrifices, and who drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let those gods come to help you! Let them protect you!

39 “Now you will see that I am the one God! There is no god but me.
I send life and death; I can hurt, and I can heal. No one can escape from me.

40 I raise my hand toward heaven and make this promise: As surely as I live forever,

41 I will sharpen my flashing sword, and I will take it in my hand to judge.
I will punish my enemies and pay back those who hate me.

42 My arrows will be covered with their blood; my sword will eat their flesh.
The blood will flow from those who are killed and the captives. The heads of the enemy leaders will be cut off.”

43 Be happy, nations, with his people, because he will repay you for the blood of his servants.
He will punish his enemies, and he will remove the sin of his land and people.
44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun, and they spoke all the words of this song for the people to hear.45 When Moses finished speaking these words to all Israel,46 he said to them: “Pay careful attention to all the words I have said to you today, and command your children to obey carefully everything in these teachings.

47 These should not be unimportant words for you, but rather they mean life for you! By these words you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take as your own.”

Moses Goes Up to Mount Nebo

48 The Lord spoke to Moses again that same day and said,49 “Go up the Abarim Mountains, to Mount Nebo in the country of Moab, across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as their own.50 On that mountain that you climb, you will die and join your ancestors, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors.51 You both sinned against me at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin, and you did not honor me as holy there among the Israelites.52 So now you will only look at the land from far away. You will not enter the land I am giving the people of Israel.”