Deuteronomy 31

• 1. When Moses had finished saying these things to all the people of Israel,
• 2. he said, "I am now 120 years old and am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has told me that I will not cross the Jordan River.
• 3. But the LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua is your new leader, and he will go with you, just as the LORD promised.
• 4. The LORD will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites.
• 5. The LORD will hand over to you the people who live there, and you will deal with them as I have commanded you.
• 6. Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid of them! The LORD your God will go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you."
• 7. Then Moses called for Joshua, and as all Israel watched he said to him, "Be strong and courageous! For you will lead these people into the land that the LORD swore to give their ancestors. You are the one who will deliver it to them as their inheritance.
• 8. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD is the one who goes before you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor forsake you."
• 9. So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, who carried the Ark of the LORD's covenant, and to the leaders of Israel.
• 10. Then Moses gave them this command: "At the end of every seventh year, the Year of Release, during the Festival of Shelters,
• 11. you must read this law to all the people of Israel when they assemble before the LORD your God at the place he chooses.
• 12. Call them all together--men, women, children, and the foreigners living in your towns--so they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully obey all the terms of this law.
• 13. Do this so that your children who have not known these laws will hear them and will learn to fear the LORD your God. Do this as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy."
• 14. Then the LORD said to Moses, "The time has come for you to die. Call Joshua and take him with you to the Tabernacle, and I will commission him there." So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tabernacle.
• 15. And the LORD appeared to them in a pillar of cloud at the entrance to the sacred tent.
• 16. The LORD said to Moses, "You are about to die and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin worshiping foreign gods, the gods of the land where they are going. They will abandon me and break the covenant I have made with them.
• 17. Then my anger will blaze forth against them. I will abandon them, hiding my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Terrible trouble will come down on them, so that they will say, `These disasters have come because God is no longer among us!'
• 18. At that time I will hide my face from them on account of all the sins they have committed by worshiping other gods.
• 19. "Now write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel. Teach them to sing it, so it may serve as a witness against them.
• 20. For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors--a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous; they will eat all the food they want and become well nourished. Then they will begin to worship other gods; they will despise me and break my covenant.
• 21. Then great disasters will come down on them, and this song will stand as evidence against them, for it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know what these people are like, even before they have entered the land I swore to give them."
• 22. So that very day Moses wrote down the words of the song and taught it to the Israelites.
• 23. Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun with these words: "Be strong and courageous! You must bring the people of Israel into the land I swore to give them. I will be with you."
• 24. When Moses had finished writing down this entire body of law in a book,
• 25. he gave these instructions to the Levites who carried the Ark of the LORD's covenant:
• 26. "Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, so it may serve as a witness against the people of Israel.
• 27. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even now, while I am still with you, you have rebelled against the LORD. How much more rebellious will you be after my death!
• 28. Now summon all the leaders and officials of your tribes so that I can speak to them and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
• 29. I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the path I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will make the LORD very angry by doing what is evil in his sight."
• 30. So Moses recited this entire song to the assembly of Israel:

Deuteronomy 32

• 1. 1 "Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say!
• 2. My teaching will fall on you like rain; my speech will settle like dew. My words will fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants.
• 3. I will proclaim the name of the LORD; how glorious is our God!
• 4. He is the Rock; his work is perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!
• 5. "But they have acted corruptly toward him; when they act like that, are they really his children? They are a deceitful and twisted generation.
• 6. Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Isn't he your Father who created you? Has he not made you and established you?
• 7. Remember the days of long ago; think about the generations past. Ask your father and he will inform you. Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.
• 8. When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of angelic beings.
• 9. For the people of Israel belong to the LORD; Jacob is his special possession.
• 10. "He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as his most precious possession.
• 11. Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them in and carried them aloft on his pinions.
• 12. The LORD alone guided them; they lived without any foreign gods.
• 13. He made them ride over the highlands; he let them feast on the crops of the fields. He nourished them with honey from the cliffs, with olive oil from the hard rock.
• 14. He fed them curds from the herd and milk from the flock, together with the fat of lambs and goats. He gave them choice rams and goats from Bashan, together with the choicest wheat. You drank the finest wine, made from the juice of grapes.
• 15. But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation.
• 16. They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods; they provoked his fury with detestable acts.
• 17. They offered sacrifices to demons, non-gods, to gods they had not known before, to gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared.
• 18. You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth.
• 19. "The LORD saw this and was filled with loathing. He was provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters.
• 20. He said, `I will abandon them; I will see to their end! For they are a twisted generation, children without integrity.
• 21. They have roused my jealousy by worshiping non-gods; they have provoked my fury with useless idols. Now I will rouse their jealousy by blessing other nations; I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.
• 22. For my anger blazes forth like fire and burns to the depths of the grave. It devours the earth and all its crops and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
• 23. I will heap disasters upon them and shoot them down with my arrows.
• 24. I will send against them wasting famine, burning fever, and deadly disease. They will be troubled by the fangs of wild beasts, by poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.
• 25. Outside, the sword will bring death, and inside, terror will strike both young men and young women, both infants and the aged.
• 26. I decided to scatter them, so even the memory of them would disappear.
• 27. But I feared the taunt of the enemy, that their adversaries might misunderstand and say, "Our power has triumphed! It was not the LORD who did this!"'
• 28. "Israel is a nation that lacks sense; the people are foolish, without understanding.
• 29. Oh, that they were wise and could understand this! Oh, that they might know their fate!
• 30. How could one person chase a thousand of them, and two people put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
• 31. But the rock of our enemies is not like our Rock, as even they recognize.
• 32. Their vine grows from the vine of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison, and their clusters are bitter.
• 33. Their wine is the venom of snakes, the deadly poison of vipers.
• 34. "`I am storing up these things, sealing them away within my treasury.
• 35. I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them.'
• 36. "Indeed, the LORD will judge his people, and he will change his mind about his servants, when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.
• 37. Then he will ask, `Where are their gods, the rocks they fled to for refuge?
• 38. Where now are those gods, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their offerings? Let those gods arise and help you! Let them provide you with shelter!
• 39. Look now; I myself am he! There is no god other than me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one delivers from my power!
• 40. Now I raise my hand to heaven and declare, "As surely as I live,
• 41. when I sharpen my flashing sword and begin to carry out justice, I will bring vengeance on my enemies and repay those who hate me.
• 42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh--the blood of the slaughtered and the captives, and the heads of the enemy leaders."'
• 43. "Rejoice with him, O heavens, and let all the angels of God worship him, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his enemies and cleanse his land and his people."
• 44. So Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people.
• 45. When Moses had finished reciting these words to Israel,
• 46. he added: "Take to heart all the words I have given you today. Pass them on as a command to your children so they will obey every word of this law.
• 47. These instructions are not mere words--they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to occupy."
• 48. That same day the LORD said to Moses,
• 49. "Go to Moab, to the mountains east of the river, and climb Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho. Look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel as their own possession.
• 50. Then you must die there on the mountain and join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors.
• 51. For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there.
• 52. So you will see the land from a distance, but you may not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel."

New Living Translation: 63 of 324 days.