March 6

Deuteronomy 30:1 — 32:28

30 “And it must occur that when all these words will come upon you, the blessing and the malediction, which I have put before you, and you have brought them back to your heart among all the nations where Jehovah your God has dispersed you, 2 and you have returned to Jehovah your God and listened to his voice according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your sons, with all your heart and all your soul, 3 Jehovah your God must also bring back your captives and show you mercy and collect you again from all the peoples where Jehovah your God has scattered you. 4 If your dispersed people should be at the end of the heavens, from there Jehovah your God will collect you and from there he will take you. 5 Jehovah your God will indeed bring you into the land of which your fathers took possession, and you will certainly take possession of it; and he will indeed do you good and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And Jehovah your God will have to circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, that you may love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul for the sake of your life. 7 And Jehovah your God will certainly put all these oaths upon your enemies and those who hate you, who have persecuted you.

8 “As for you, you will turn and certainly listen to the voice of Jehovah and do all his commandments that I am commanding you today. 9 And Jehovah your God will indeed make you have more than enough in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your belly and the fruit of your domestic animals and the fruitage of your soil, resulting in prosperity; because Jehovah will again exult over you for good, just as he exulted over your forefathers; 10 for you will listen to the voice of Jehovah your God so as to keep his commandments and his statutes written in this book of the law, because you will return to Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul.

11 “For this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far away. 12 It is not in the heavens, so as to result in saying, ‘Who will ascend for us into the heavens and get it for us, that he may let us hear it that we may do it?’ 13 Neither is it on the other side of the sea, so as to result in saying, ‘Who will pass over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, that he may let us hear it that we may do it?’ 14 For the word is very near you, in your own mouth and in your own heart, that you may do it.

15 “See, I do put before you today life and good, and death and bad. 16 [If you will listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God,] which I am commanding you today, so as to love Jehovah your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judicial decisions, then you will be bound to keep alive and to multiply, and Jehovah your God must bless you in the land to which you are going to take possession of it.

17 “But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and you are actually seduced and bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I do tell YOU today that YOU will positively perish. YOU will not lengthen YOUR days on the ground to which you are crossing the Jordan to go to take possession of it. 19 I do take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against YOU today, that I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction; and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring, 20 by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him; for he is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell upon the ground that Jehovah swore to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give to them.”

31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel 2 and said to them: “A hundred and twenty years old I am today. I shall no more be allowed to go out and come in, as Jehovah has said to me, ‘You will not cross this Jordan.’ 3 Jehovah your God is the one crossing before you. He himself will annihilate these nations from before you, and you must drive them away. Joshua is the one crossing before you, just as Jehovah has spoken. 4 And Jehovah will certainly do to them just as he has done to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he annihilated them. 5 And Jehovah has abandoned them to YOU, and YOU must do to them according to all the commandment that I have commanded YOU. 6 BE courageous and strong. Do not be afraid or suffer a shock before them, because Jehovah your God is the one marching with you. He will neither desert you nor leave you entirely.”

7 And Moses proceeded to call Joshua and say to him before the eyes of all Israel: “Be courageous and strong, because you—you will bring this people into the land that Jehovah swore to their forefathers to give to them, and you yourself will give it to them as an inheritance. 8 And Jehovah is the one marching before you. He himself will continue with you. He will neither desert you nor leave you entirely. Do not be afraid or be terrified.”

9 Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests the sons of Levi, the carriers of the ark of Jehovah’s covenant, and to all the older men of Israel. 10 And Moses went on to command them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, in the appointed time of the year of the release, in the festival of booths, 11 when all Israel comes to see the face of Jehovah your God in the place that he will choose, you will read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing. 12 Congregate the people, the men and the women and the little ones and your alien resident who is within your gates, in order that they may listen and in order that they may learn, as they must fear Jehovah YOUR God and take care to carry out all the words of this law. 13 And their sons who have not known should listen, and they must learn to fear Jehovah YOUR God all the days that YOU are living upon the soil to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it.”

14 After that Jehovah said to Moses: “Look! The days have drawn near for you to die. Call Joshua, and station yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and stationed themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 Then Jehovah appeared at the tent in the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud began to stand by the entrance of the tent.

16 Jehovah now said to Moses: “Look! You are lying down with your forefathers; and this people will certainly get up and have immoral intercourse with foreign gods of the land to which they are going, in their very midst, and they will certainly forsake me and break my covenant that I have concluded with them. 17 At that my anger will indeed blaze against them in that day, and I shall certainly forsake them and conceal my face from them, and they must become something to be consumed; and many calamities and distresses must come upon them, and they will be bound to say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not in our midst that these calamities have come upon us?’ 18 As for me, I shall absolutely conceal my face in that day because of all the badness that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

19 “And now WRITE for yourselves this song and teach it to the sons of Israel. Place it in their mouths in order that this song may serve as my witness against the sons of Israel. 20 For I shall bring them to the ground that I have sworn about to their forefathers, which flows with milk and honey, and they will certainly eat and be satisfied and grow fat and turn to other gods, and they will indeed serve them and treat me with disrespect and break my covenant. 21 And it must occur that when many calamities and distresses will come upon them, this song must also answer before them as a witness, because it should not be forgotten out of the mouth of their offspring, for I well know their inclination that they are developing today before I bring them into the land about which I have sworn.”

22 So Moses wrote this song in that day, that he might teach it to the sons of Israel.

23 And he proceeded to commission Joshua the son of Nun and to say: “Be courageous and strong, because you—you will bring the sons of Israel into the land about which I have sworn to them, and I myself shall continue with you.”

24 And it came about that as soon as Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book until their completion, 25 Moses began to command the Levites, the carriers of the ark of Jehovah’s covenant, saying: 26 “Taking this book of the law, YOU must place it at the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah YOUR God, and it must serve as a witness there against you. 27 For I—I well know your rebelliousness and your stiff neck. If while I am yet alive with YOU today, YOU have proved rebellious in behavior toward Jehovah, then how much more so after my death! 28 Congregate to me all the older men of YOUR tribes and YOUR officers, and let me speak in their hearing these words, and let me take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against them. 29 For I well know that after my death YOU will without fail act ruinously, and YOU will certainly turn aside from the way about which I have commanded YOU; and calamity will be bound to befall YOU at the close of the days, because YOU will do what is bad in the eyes of Jehovah so as to offend him by the works of YOUR hands.”

30 And Moses proceeded to speak in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until their completion:

32 “Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak;

   And let the earth hear the sayings of my mouth.

2 My instruction will drip as the rain,

      My saying will trickle as the dew,

   As gentle rains upon grass

      And as copious showers upon vegetation.

3 For I shall declare the name of Jehovah.

      Do YOU attribute greatness to our God!

4 The Rock, perfect is his activity,

      For all his ways are justice.

   A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice;

      Righteous and upright is he.

5 They have acted ruinously on their own part;

      They are not his children, the defect is their own.

      A generation crooked and twisted!

6 Is it to Jehovah that YOU keep doing this way,

      O people stupid and not wise?

   Is he not your Father who has produced you,

      He who made you and proceeded to give you stability?

7 Remember the days of old,

   CONSIDER the years back from generation to generation;

      Ask your father, and he can tell you;

   Your old men, and they can say it to you.

8 When the Most High gave the nations an inheritance,

      When he parted the sons of Adam from one another,

   He proceeded to fix the boundary of the peoples

      With regard for the number of the sons of Israel.

9 For Jehovah’s share is his people;

   Jacob is the allotment that he inherits.

10 He came to find him in a wilderness land,

       And in an empty, howling desert.

    He began to encircle him, to take care of him,

       To safeguard him as the pupil of his eye.

11 Just as an eagle stirs up its nest,

       Hovers over its fledglings,

    Spreads out its wings, takes them,

       Carries them on its pinions,

12 Jehovah alone kept leading him,

       And there was no foreign god along with him.

13 He kept making him ride upon earth’s high places,

       So that he ate the produce of the field.

    And he kept making him suck honey out of a crag,

       And oil out of a flinty rock;

14 Butter of the herd and milk of the flock

       Together with the fat of rams,

    And male sheep, the breed of Bashan, and he-goats

       Together with the kidney fat of wheat;

    And the blood of the grape you kept drinking as wine.

15 When Jeshurun began to grow fat, then he kicked.

    You have grown fat, you have become thick, you have become gorged.

       So he forsook God, who made him,

    And despised the Rock of his salvation.

16 They began inciting him to jealousy with strange gods;

       With detestable things they kept offending him.

17 They went sacrificing to demons, not to God,

       Gods whom they had not known,

    New ones who recently came in,

       With whom YOUR forefathers were not acquainted.

18 The Rock who fathered you, you proceeded to forget,

    And you began to leave God out of memory,

       the One bringing you forth with childbirth pains.

19 When Jehovah saw it, then he came to disrespect them,

       Because of the vexation his sons and his daughters gave.

20 So he said, ‘Let me conceal my face from them,

       Let me see what their end will be afterward.

    For they are a generation of perverseness,

       Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.

21 They, for their part, have incited me to jealousy with what is no god;

       They have vexed me with their vain idols;

    And I, for my part, shall incite them to jealousy with what is no people;

       With a stupid nation I shall offend them.

22 For a fire has been ignited in my anger

       And it will burn down to Sheol, the lowest place,

    And it will consume the earth and its produce

       And will set ablaze the foundations of mountains.

23 I shall increase calamities upon them;

       My arrows I shall spend upon them.

24 Exhausted from hunger they will be and eaten up by burning fever

       And bitter destruction.

    And the teeth of beasts I shall send upon them,

       With the venom of reptiles of the dust.

25 Outdoors a sword will bereave them,

       And indoors fright,

    Of both young man and virgin,

       Suckling together with gray-haired man.

26 I should have said: “I shall disperse them,

       I will make the mention of them cease from mortal men,”

27 Were it not that I was afraid of vexation from the enemy,

    That their adversaries might misconstrue it,

       That they might say: “Our hand has proved superior,

       And it was not Jehovah who worked all this out.”

28 For they are a nation on whom counsel perishes,

       And among them there is no understanding.