31a-Moses went and spoke-a these things to all Israel. 2He said to them:
I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer b-be active.-b Moreover, the LORD has said to me, “You shall not go across yonder Jordan.” 3The LORD your God Himself will cross over before you; and He Himself will wipe out those nations from your path and you shall dispossess them.— Joshua is the one who shall cross before you, as the LORD has spoken.— 4The LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their countries, when He wiped them out. 5The LORD will deliver them up to you, and you shall deal with them in full accordance with the Instruction that I have enjoined upon you. 6Be strong and resolute, be not in fear or in dread of them; for the LORD your God Himself marches with you: He will not fail you or forsake you.
7Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel: “Be strong and resolute, for it is you who shall go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and it is you who shall apportion it to them. 8And the LORD Himself will go before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you or forsake you. Fear not and be not dismayed!”
9Moses wrote down this Teaching and gave it to the priests, sons of Levi, who carried the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.
10And Moses instructed them as follows: Every seventh year,c the year set for remission, at the Feast of Booths, 11when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel. 12Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere the LORD your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching. 13Their children, too, who have not had the experience, shall hear and learn to revere the LORD your God as long as they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.
14The LORD said to Moses: The time is drawing near for you to die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may instruct him. Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. 15The LORD appeared in the Tent, in a pillar of cloud, the pillar of cloud having come to rest at the entrance of the tent.
16The LORD said to Moses: You are soon to lie with your fathers. This people will thereupon go astray after the alien gods in their midst, in the land that they are about to enter; they will forsake Me and break My covenant that I made with them. 17Then My anger will flare up against them, and I will abandon them and hide My countenance from them. They shall be ready prey; and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they shall say on that day, “Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.” 18Yet I will keep My countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods. 19Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel. 20When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised on oath to their fathers, and they eat their fill and grow fat and turn to other gods and serve them, spurning Me and breaking My covenant, 21and the many evils and troubles befall them—then this poem shall confront them as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring. For I know what plans they are devising even now, before I bring them into the land that I promised on oath.
22That day, Moses wrote down this poem and taught it to the Israelites.
23And He charged Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and resolute: for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them on oath, and I will be with you.”
24When Moses had put down in writing the words of this Teaching to the very end, 25Moses charged the Levites who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, saying: 26Take this book of Teaching and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you. 27Well I know how defiant and stiffnecked you are: even now, while I am still alive in your midst, you have been defiant toward the LORD; how much more, then, when I am dead! 28Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, that I may speak all these words to them and that I may call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly and turn away from the path that I enjoined upon you, and that in time to come misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of the LORD and vexed Him by your deeds.
30Then Moses recited the words of this poem to the very end, in the hearing of the whole congregation of Israel:
32
Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
2May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.a
3For the name of the LORD I proclaim;
Give glory to our God!
4The Rock!— His deeds are perfect,
Yea, all His ways are just;
A faithful God, never false,
True and upright is He.
5 bChildren unworthy of Him—
That crooked, perverse generation—
Their baseness has played Him false.
6Do you thus requite the LORD,
O dull and witless people?
Is not He the Father who created you,
Fashioned you and made you endure!
7Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of ages past;
Ask your father, he will inform you,
Your elders, they will tell you:
8When the Most High gave nations their homes
And set the divisions of man,
He fixed the boundaries of peoples
In relation to Israel’s numbers.
9For the LORD’s portion is His people,
Jacob His own allotment.
10He found him in a desert region,
In an empty howling waste.
He engirded him, watched over him,
Guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
11Like an eagle who rouses his nestlings,
Gliding down to his young,
So did He spread His wings and take him,
Bear him along on His pinions;
12The LORD alone did guide him,
No alien god at His side.
13He set him atop the highlands,
To feast on the yield of the earth;
He fed him honey from the crag,
And oil from the flinty rock,
14Curd of kine and milk of flocks;
With the bestc of lambs,
And rams of Bashan, and he-goats;
With the d-very finest-d wheat—
And foaming grape-blood was your drink.
15So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
You grew fat and gross and coarsee—
He forsook the God who made him
And spurned the Rock of his support.
16They incensed Him with alien things,
Vexed Him with abominations.
17They sacrificed to demons, no-gods,
Gods they had never known,
New ones, who came but lately,
f-Who stirred not your fathers’ fears.-f
18You neglected the Rock that begot you,
Forgot the God who brought you forth.
19The LORD saw and was vexed
And spurned His sons and His daughters.
20He said:
I will hide My countenance from them,
And see how they fare in the end.
For they are a treacherous breed,
Children with no loyalty in them.
21They incensed Me with no-gods,
Vexed Me with their futilities;g
I’ll incense them with a no-folk,
Vex them with a nation of fools.
22For a fire has flared in My wrath
And burned to the bottom of Sheol,
Has consumed the earth and its increase,
Eaten down to the base of the hills.
23I will sweepe misfortunes on them,
Use up My arrows on them:
24Wasting famine, ravaging plague,
Deadly pestilence, and fanged beasts
Will I let loose against them,
With venomous creepers in dust.
25The sword shall deal death without,
As shall the terror within,
To youth and maiden alike,
The suckling as well as the aged.
26 h-I might have reduced them to naught,-h
Made their memory cease among men,
27But for fear of the taunts of the foe,
Their enemies who might misjudge
And say, “Our own hand has prevailed;
None of this was wrought by the LORD!”
28 iFor they are a folk void of sense,
Lacking in all discernment.
29Were they wise, they would think upon this,
Gain insight into their future:
30“How could one have routed a thousand,
Or two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
The LORD had given them up?”
31For their rock is not like our Rock,
j-In our enemies’ ownk estimation.-j
32 Ah! The vine for them is from Sodom,
From the vineyards of Gomorrah;
The grapes for them are poison,
A bitter growth their clusters.
33Their wine is the venom of asps,
The pitiless poison of vipers.
34Lo, I have it all put away,
Sealed up in My storehouses,
35To be My vengeance and recompense,
At the time that their foot falters.
Yea, their day of disaster is near,
And destiny rushes upon them.
36For the LORD will vindicate His people
l-And take revenge for-l His servants,
When He sees that their might is gone,
And neither bond nor free is left.
37He will say: Where are their gods,
The rock in whom they sought refuge,
38Who ate the fat of their offerings
And
