Deuteronomy 31

¹Moyses Therefore went, and spake all these words to all Israel,

²and said to them: I am this day an hundred and twenty years old, I cannot go out & come in any longer, especially whereas our Lord also hath said to me: Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan:

³Our Lord therefore thy God will pass over before thee: he will destroy all these nations in thy sight, and thou shalt possess them: and this Josue shall pass over before thee, as our Lord hath spoken.

⁴And our Lord shall do to them as he did to Sehon and Og the kings of the Ammorrheites, and to their land, and shall destroy them.

⁵Therefore when our Lord shall have delivered these also to you, you shall do in like manner to them as I have commanded you.

⁶Do manfully, & be strengthened: fear not, neither tremble ye at their sight: because our Lord thy God himself is thy conductor, & will not leave nor forsake thee.

⁷And Moyses called Josue, & said to him before all Israel: Take courage, & be strong: for thou shalt bring in this people into the Land, which our Lord sware that he would give to their fathers, and thou shalt divide it by lot.

⁸And our Lord that is your conductor, himself will be with thee: he will not leave, nor forsake thee: fear not, neither dread thou.

⁹Moyses therefore wrote this law, & delivered it to the Priests the sons of Levi, which carried the ark of the covenant of our Lord, & to all the ancients of Israel.

¹⁰And he commanded them saying: After seven years, in the year of remission, in the solemnity of tabernacles,

¹¹when all come together out of Israel, to appear in the sight of our Lord thy God, in the place which our Lord shall choose, thou shalt read the words of this law before all Israel, they hearing,

¹²and the people being assembled together, as well men as women, children, & strangers, that are within thy gates: that hearing they may learn, and fear our Lord your God, and keep, and fulfill all the words of this law.

¹³Their children also who now are ignorant; that they may hear, and fear our Lord their God, all the days that they live in the Land, which passing over Jordan you go to obtain.

¹⁴And our Lord said to Moyses: Behold the days of thy death are nigh: call Josue, and stand ye in the tabernacle of testimony, that I may command him. Moyses therefore and Josue went, & stood in the tabernacle of testimony,

¹⁵and our Lord appeared there in the pillar of a cloud, which stood in the entering of the tabernacle.

¹⁶And our Lord said to Moyses: Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people rising up will fornicate after strange gods in the Land, to the which it entereth to dwell therein: there will they forsake me, and will make the covenant, which I have made with them, of none effect.

¹⁷And my fury shall be wrath against them in that day, & I will forsake them, and will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured: all evils and afflictions shall find them, so that they shall say in that day: In truth because God is not with me, these evils have found me.

¹⁸But I will hide, and keep close my face in that day, for all the evils which they have done, because they have followed strange gods.

¹⁹Now therefore write unto you this canticle, & teach the children of Israel: that they know it by heart, and sing it by mouth, & this song be unto me for a testimony among the children of Israel.

²⁰For I will bring them into the Land, for the which I sware to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey: And when they have eaten, and are full, and fat, they will turn away to strange gods, and serve them: and will detract from me, and make my covenant of none effect.

²¹After that many evils and afflictions shall have found them, this canticle shall answer them for a testimony, which no oblivion shall take away out of the mouth of their seed. For I know their cogitations, what things they are about to do this day, before that I bring them into the Land which I have promised them.

²²Moyses therefore wrote the canticle and taught it the children of Israel:

²³And our Lord commanded Josue the son of Nun, and said: Take courage, and be strong: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the Land which I have promised, and I will be with thee.

²⁴Therefore after that Moyses wrote the words of this law in a volume, and finished it,

²⁵he commanded the Levites, that carried the ark of the covenant of our Lord, saying:

²⁶Take this book, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of our Lord your God: that it may be for a testimony against thee.

²⁷For I know thy contention, and thy most stiff neck. Whiles I yet live and go in with you, you have done always contentiously against our Lord: how much more when I shall be dead?

²⁸Gather to me all the ancients by your tribes, and your doctors, and I will speak these words in their hearing, and will invocate against them heaven and earth.

²⁹For I know that after my death you will do wickedly, and will decline quickly from the way, that I have commanded you: and evils shall come upon you in the later times, when you shall do evil in the sight of our Lord, to provoke him by the works of your hands.

³⁰Moyses therefore spake in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel the words of this song, and finished it even to the end.