Deuteronomy Capítulo 31

Moses delivered three farewell speeches just before he died. In them he recapitulated, with the people, all the laws of God for the Israelites. The name of the book expresses this "recap" or "second law".

A Conservative Version

31 : 1 And Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

31 : 2 And he said to them, I am a hundred and twenty years old this day. I can no more go out and come in. And Jehovah has said to me, Thou shall not go over this Jordan.

31 : 3 Jehovah thy God, he will go over before thee. He will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shall dispossess them. Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as Jehovah has spoken.

31 : 4 And Jehovah will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he destroyed.

31 : 5 And Jehovah will deliver them up before you, and ye shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.

31 : 6 Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be frightened at them, for Jehovah thy God, he it is who goes with thee. He will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.

31 : 7 And Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage. For thou shall go with this people into the land which Jehovah has sworn to their fathers to give them, and thou shall cause them to inherit it.

31 : 8 And Jehovah, he it is who goes before thee. He will be with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed.

31 : 9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and to all the elders of Israel.

31 : 10 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,

31 : 11 when all Israel has come to appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

31 : 12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and thy sojourner who is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Jehovah your God, and observe to do all the words of this law,

31 : 13 and that their sons who have not known may hear, and learn to fear Jehovah your God as long as ye live in the land where ye go over the Jordan to possess it.

31 : 14 And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may give him a command. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tent of meeting.

31 : 15 And Jehovah appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the tent.

31 : 16 And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, thou shall sleep with thy fathers. And this people will rise up, and play the harlot 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.

31 : 17 Then 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 upon them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?

31 : 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have wrought, in that they have turned to other gods.

31 : 19 Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach thou it the sons of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel.

31 : 20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall 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.

31 : 21 And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.

31 : 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the sons of Israel.

31 : 23 And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a command, and said, Be strong and of good courage, for thou shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with thee.

31 : 24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

31 : 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, saying,

31 : 26 Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

31 : 27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah, and how much more after my death?

31 : 28 Assemble 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.

31 : 29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

31 : 30 And Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished: