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Moses Encourages the People

¹ Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel:² “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’³ The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said.⁴ And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land.⁵ The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you.⁶ Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Joshua to Succeed Moses

(Numbers 27:18-23)

The Reading of the Law

(Nehemiah 8:1-8)

⁹ So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles^(a),¹¹ when all Israel comes before of the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.¹² Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.¹³ Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

God Commissions Joshua

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.¹⁵ Then the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent.¹⁶ And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.¹⁷ On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’¹⁸ And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.¹⁹ Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that it may be a witness for Me against them.²⁰ When I have brought them into the land I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.²¹ And when many troubles and afflictions have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their inclination, even before I bring them into the land I swore to give them.”

²² So that very day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites.²³ Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I swore to give them, and I will be with you.”

The Law Placed in the Ark

Moses Begins His Song