Standing Firm, Moving Forward

¹⁰Ye stand this day all of you before Yehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Isra’el, ¹¹your little ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; ¹²that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Yehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Yehovah thy God maketh with thee this day; ¹³that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he sware unto thy fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzjak, and to Ya’akov.

¹⁴Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, ¹⁵but with him that standeth here with us this day before Yehovah our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day ¹⁶(for ye know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which ye passed; ¹⁷and ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them); ¹⁸lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from Yehovah our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; ¹⁹and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry. ²⁰Yehovah will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yehovah and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie upon him, and Yehovah will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹And Yehovah will set him apart unto evil out of all the tribes of Isra’el, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the Torah.

²²And the generation to come, your children that shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses wherewith Jehovah hath made it sick; ²³and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of S’dom and ‘Amora, Admah and Tzevoyim, which Yehovah overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: ²⁴even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath Yehovah done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? ²⁵Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yehovah, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, ²⁶and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that he had not given unto them: ²⁷therefore the anger of Yehovah was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book; ²⁸and Yehovah rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day. ²⁹The secret things belong unto Yehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this Torah.

30 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither Yehovah thy God hath driven thee, ²and shalt return unto Yehovah thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; ³that then Yehovah thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the peoples, whither Yehovah thy God hath scattered thee. ⁴If any of thine outcasts be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will Yehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: ⁵and Yehovah thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. ⁶And Yehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Yehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. ⁷And Yehovah thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, that persecuted thee. ⁸And thou shalt return and obey the voice of Yehovah, and do all his mitzvot which I command thee this day. ⁹And Yehovah thy God will make thee plenteous in all the work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, for good: for Yehovah will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers; ¹⁰if thou shalt obey the voice of Yehovah thy God, to keep his mitzvot and his statutes which are written in this book of the Torah; if thou turn unto Yehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

¹¹For this mitzvah which I am giving thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. ¹²It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? ¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? ¹⁴But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

¹⁵See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; ¹⁶in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his mitzvot and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Yehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest in to possess it. ¹⁷But if thy heart turn away, and thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; ¹⁸I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days in the land, whither thou passest over the Yarden to go in to possess it. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; ²⁰to love Yehovah thy God, to obey his voice, and to cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which Yehovah sware unto thy fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzjak, and to Ya’akov, to give them.

31 And Moshe went and spake these words unto all Isra’el. ²And he said unto them, I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: and Yehovah hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Yarden. ³Yehovah thy God, he will go over before thee; he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt dispossess them: and Yehoshua, he shall go over before thee, as Yehovah hath spoken. ⁴And Yehovah will do unto them as he did to Sichon and to ‘Og, the kings of the Emori, and unto their land; whom he destroyed. ⁵And Yehovah will deliver them up before you, and ye shall do unto them according unto all the commandment which I have commanded you. ⁶Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be affrighted at them: for Yehovah thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. ⁷And Moshe called unto Yehoshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Isra’el, Be strong and of good courage: for thou shalt go with this people into the land which Yehovah hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. ⁸And Yehovah, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

⁹And Moshe wrote this law, and delivered it unto the cohanim the sons of Levi, that bare the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah, and unto all the elders of Isra’el. ¹⁰And Moshe commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹when all Isra’el is come to appear before Yehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Isra’el in their hearing. ¹²Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and thy sojourner that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yehovah your God, and observe to do all the words of this law; ¹³and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yehovah your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over the Yarden to possess it.

¹⁴And Yehovah said unto Moshe, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Yehoshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I can commission him. And Moshe and Yehoshua went, and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. ¹⁵And Yehovah appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent. ¹⁶And Yehovah said unto Moshe, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the harlot after the strange gods of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. ¹⁷Then 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, Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? ¹⁸And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. ¹⁹Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach thou it the children of Isra’el: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Isra’el. ²⁰For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore unto their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxed fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant. ²¹And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are 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. ²²So Moshe wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Isra’el. ²³And he commissioned Yehoshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt bring the children of Isra’el into the land which I swore unto them: and I will be with thee.

²⁴And it came to pass, when Moshe had made an end of writing the words of this Torah in a book, until they were finished, ²⁵that Moshe commanded the Levites, that bare the ark of the covenant of Yehovah, saying, ²⁶Take this book of the Torah, and put it by the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. ²⁷For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against Yehovah; and how much more after my death? ²⁸Assemble unto 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. ²⁹For 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 Yehovah, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

³⁰And Moshe spake in the ears of all the assembly of Isra’el the words of this song, until they were finished.

Scripture Note: Biblical quotations in these sections are taken from the American Standard Version (ASV, 1901), a translation in the public domain. Where appropriate, names and selected Hebrew terms may be presented according to ARAI’s editorial conventions, without altering the meaning of the biblical text.