CHAPTER 31
1 And so Moses went, and spake all these words to all Israel,
2 and said to them, I am today of an hundred and twenty years, I may no further go out and go in, mostly since also the Lord said to me, Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan.
3 Therefore thy Lord God shall pass over before thee; he shall do away these folks in thy sight, and thou shalt wield them; and this Joshua shall go before thee, as the Lord spake.
4 And the Lord shall do to them as he did to Sihon, and to Og, the kings of Amorites, and to their land; and he shall do them away.
5 Therefore when the Lord hath betaken to you also them, ye shall do in like manner to them, as I have commanded to you.
6 Do ye manly, and be ye comforted; do not ye dread in heart, neither dread ye at the sight of them, for thy Lord God himself is thy leader, and he shall not leave thee, neither forsake thee.
7 And Moses called Joshua, and said to him before all the multitude of the sons of Israel, Be thou comforted, and be thou strong; for thou shalt lead this people into the land that the Lord swore that he shall give to their fathers; and thou shalt part it by lot.
8 And the Lord himself, which is your leader, shall be with thee, he shall not leave [thee], neither forsake thee; do not thou dread outwardly, neither dread thou in heart.
9 Therefore Moses wrote this law, and betook it to the priests, the sons of Levi, that bare the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord, and to all the elder men of Israel.
10 And Moses commanded to them, and said, After seven years, in the year of remission, in the solemnity of tabernacles,
11 when all men of Israel shall come together, that they appear in the sight of their Lord God, in the place which the Lord choose, thou shalt read the words of this law before all Israel, while they hear,
12 and while all the people is gathered together, as well to men, as to women, to little children, and to comelings that be within thy gates; that they hear, and learn, and dread your Lord God, and keep and [ful] fill all the words of this law;
13 also that the sons of them, that now know not, may hear, and that they dread their Lord God in all days in which they live in the land to which ye shall go to get, when Jordan is passed over.
14 And the Lord said to Moses, Lo! the days of thy death be nigh; call thou Joshua, and stand ye in the tabernacle of witnessing, that I command to him. Therefore Moses and Joshua went, and they stood in the tabernacle of witnessing;
15 and the Lord appeared there in a pillar of cloud, that stood in the entering of the tabernacle.
16 And the Lord said to Moses, Lo! thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people shall rise up, and it shall do fornication, or idolatry, going after alien gods in the land, into which it shall enter, that it dwell therein; there it shall forsake me, and shall make void the bond of peace, which I covenanted with it.
17 And my strong vengeance shall be wroth against that people in that day, and I shall forsake it, and I shall hide my face from it, and it shall be into devouring; all evils and tormentings shall find it, so that it say in that day, Verily for the Lord is not with me, these evils have found me.
18 Soothly I shall hide my face, and cover it in that day, for all the evils which this people hath done, for it hath pursued [or followed] alien gods.
19 Now therefore write ye to you this song, and teach ye the sons of Israel, that they hold it in mind, and sing it in mouth; and that this song be to me for a witnessing among the sons of Israel.
20 For I shall lead him into the land, for which I swore to his fathers, flowing with milk and honey; and when they have eaten, and be full-filled, and be made fat, they shall turn to alien gods, and they shall serve them; and they shall backbite me, and shall make void my covenant.
21 After that many evils and tormentings have found them, this song shall answer to him for witness-ing, which song no forgetting shall do away from the mouth of thy seed. For I know the thoughts thereof today, what things it shall do, before that I bring it into the land which I promised to it.
22 Therefore Moses wrote the song, and he taught it to the sons of Israel.
23 And the Lord commanded to Joshua, the son of Nun, and said, Be thou comforted, and be thou strong; for thou shalt lead the sons of Israel into the land which I promised, and I shall be with thee.
24 Therefore after that Moses had written the words of this law in a book, and fulfilled them,
25 he commanded to the Levites that bare the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord, and said,
26 Take ye this book, and put ye it in the side of the ark of the bond of peace of your Lord God, that it be there against thee into witnessing.
27 For I know thy striving, and thy most hard noll; yet while I lived and entered with you, ye did ever[more] strivingly against the Lord; how much more when I shall be dead.
28 Gather ye to me all the greater men in birth, and teachers [or doctors], by your lineages, and I shall speak to them, hearing these words, and I shall call against them heaven and earth.
29 For I know, that after my death, ye shall do wickedly, and shall bow away soon from the way which I commanded to you; and evils shall come to you in the last times, when ye have done evil in the sight of the Lord, that ye stir him to wrath by the works of your hands.
30 Therefore while all the company of the sons of Israel heard, Moses spake the words of this song, and he fulfilled it unto the end.