Bible in 90 Days

¹² Choose a place outside the camp where people may go to relieve themselves. ¹³ Carry a tent peg with you, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your dung. ¹⁴ The Lord your God moves around through your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies for you, so the camp must be holy. He must not see anything unclean among you so that he will not leave you.

Other Laws

¹⁵ If an escaped slave comes to you, do not hand over the slave to his master. ¹⁶ Let the slave live with you anywhere he likes, in any town he chooses. Do not mistreat him.

¹⁷ No Israelite man or woman must ever become a temple prostitute. ¹⁸ Do not bring a male or female prostitute’s pay to the Temple of the Lord your God to pay what you have promised to the Lord, because the Lord your God hates prostitution.

¹⁹ If you loan your fellow Israelites money or food or anything else, don’t make them pay back more than you loaned them. ²⁰ You may charge foreigners, but not fellow Israelites. Then the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land you are entering to take as your own.

²¹ If you make a promise to give something to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, because the Lord your God demands it from you. Do not be guilty of sin. ²² But if you do not make the promise, you will not be guilty. ²³ You must do whatever you say you will do, because you chose to make the promise to the Lord your God.

²⁴ If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, but do not put any grapes into your basket. ²⁵ If you go into your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick grain with your hands, but you must not cut down your neighbor’s grain with your sickle.

24 A man might marry a woman but later decide she doesn’t please him because he has found something bad about her. He writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house. ² After she leaves his house, she goes and marries another man, ³ but her second husband does not like her either. So he writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house. Or the second husband might die. ⁴ In either case, her first husband who divorced her must not marry her again, because she has become unclean. The Lord would hate this. Don’t bring this sin into the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

⁵ A man who has just married must not be sent to war or be given any other duty. He should be free to stay home for a year to make his new wife happy.

⁶ If someone owes you something, do not take his two stones for grinding grain—not even the upper one—in place of what he owes, because this is how the person makes a living.

⁷ If someone kidnaps a fellow Israelite, either to make him a slave or sell him, the kidnapper must be killed. You must get rid of the evil among you.

⁸ Be careful when someone has a skin disease. Do exactly what the priests, the Levites, teach you, being careful to do what I have commanded them. ⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.

¹⁰ When you make a loan to your neighbors, don’t go into their homes to get something in place of it. ¹¹ Stay outside and let them go in and get what they promised you. ¹² If a poor person gives you a coat to show he will pay the loan back, don’t keep it overnight. ¹³ Give the coat back at sunset, because your neighbor needs that coat to sleep in, and he will be grateful to you. And the Lord your God will see that you have done a good thing.

¹⁴ Don’t cheat hired servants who are poor and needy, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in one of your towns. ¹⁵ Pay them each day before sunset, because they are poor and need the money. Otherwise, they may complain to the Lord about you, and you will be guilty of sin.

¹⁶ Parents must not be put to death if their children do wrong, and children must not be put to death if their parents do wrong. Each person must die for his own sin.

¹⁷ Do not be unfair to a foreigner or an orphan. Don’t take a widow’s coat to make sure she pays you back. ¹⁸ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God saved you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do this.

¹⁹ When you are gathering your harvest in the field and leave behind a bundle of grain, don’t go back and get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows so that the Lord your God can bless everything you do. ²⁰ When you beat your olive trees to knock the olives off, don’t beat the trees a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows. ²¹ When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don’t pick the vines a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows. ²² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this.

25 If two people have an argument and go to court, the judges will decide the case. They will declare one person right and the other guilty. ² If the guilty person has to be punished with a beating, the judge will make that person lie down and be beaten in front of him. The number of lashes should match the crime. ³ But don’t hit a person more than forty times, because more than that would disgrace him before others.

⁴ When an ox is working in the grain, do not cover its mouth to keep it from eating.

⁵ If two brothers are living together, and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry someone outside her husband’s family. Her husband’s brother must marry her, which is his duty to her as a brother-in-law. ⁶ The first son she has counts as the son of the dead brother so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.

⁷ But if a man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she should go to the elders at the town gate. She should say, “My brother-in-law will not carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He refuses to do his duty for me.”

⁸ Then the elders of the town must call for the man and talk to him. But if he is stubborn and says, “I don’t want to marry her,” ⁹ the woman must go up to him in front of the leaders. She must take off one of his sandals and spit in his face and say, “This is for the man who won’t continue his brother’s family!” ¹⁰ Then that man’s family shall be known in Israel as the Family of the Unsandaled.

¹¹ If two men are fighting and one man’s wife comes to save her husband from his attacker, grabbing the attacker by his sex organs, ¹² you must cut off her hand. Show her no mercy.

¹³ Don’t carry two sets of weights with you, one heavy and one light. ¹⁴ Don’t have two different sets of measures in your house, one large and one small. ¹⁵ You must have true and honest weights and measures so that you will live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶ The Lord your God hates anyone who is dishonest and uses dishonest measures.

¹⁷ Remember what the Amalekites did to you when you came out of Egypt. ¹⁸ When you were tired and worn out, they met you on the road and attacked all those lagging behind. They were not afraid of God. ¹⁹ When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you as your own, you shall destroy any memory of the Amalekites on the earth. Do not forget!

The First Harvest

26 When you go into the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, to take it over and live in it, ² you must take some of the first harvest of crops that grow from the land the Lord your God is giving you. Put the food in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to be worshiped. ³ Say to the priest on duty at that time, “Today I declare before the Lord your God that I have come into the land the Lord promised our ancestors that he would give us.” ⁴ The priest will take your basket and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ Then you shall announce before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with only a few people, but they became a great, powerful, and large nation there. ⁶ But the Egyptians were cruel to us, making us suffer and work very hard. ⁷ So we prayed to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he heard us. When he saw our trouble, hard work, and suffering, ⁸ the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his great power and strength, using great terrors, signs, and miracles. ⁹ Then he brought us to this place and gave us this fertile land. ¹⁰ Now I bring part of the first harvest from this land that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. ¹¹ Then you and the Levites and foreigners among you should rejoice, because the Lord your God has given good things to you and your family.

¹² Bring a tenth of all your harvest the third year (the year to give a tenth of your harvest). Give it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows so that they may eat in your towns and be full. ¹³ Then say to the Lord your God, “I have taken out of my house the part of my harvest that belongs to God, and I have given it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows. I have done everything you commanded me; I have not broken your commands, and I have not forgotten any of them. ¹⁴ I have not eaten any of the holy part while I was in sorrow. I have not removed any of it while I was unclean, and I have not offered it for dead people. I have obeyed you, the Lord my God, and have done everything you commanded me. ¹⁵ So look down from heaven, your holy home. Bless your people Israel and bless the land you have given us, which you promised to our ancestors—a fertile land.”

Obey the Lord’s Commands

¹⁶ Today the Lord your God commands you to obey all these rules and laws; be careful to obey them with your whole being. ¹⁷ Today you have said that the Lord is your God, and you have promised to do what he wants you to do—to keep his rules, commands, and laws. You have said you will obey him. ¹⁸ And today the Lord has said that you are his very own people, as he has promised you. But you must obey his commands. ¹⁹ He will make you greater than all the other nations he made. He will give you praise, fame, and honor, and you will be a holy people to the Lord your God, as he has said.

The Law Written on Stones

27 Then Moses, along with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commands I have given you today. ² Soon you will cross the Jordan River to go into the land the Lord your God is giving you. On that day set up some large stones and cover them with plaster. ³ When you cross over, write all the words of these teachings on them. Then you may enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a fertile land, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised. ⁴ After you have crossed the Jordan River, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and cover them with plaster. ⁵ Build an altar of stones there to the Lord your God, but don’t use any iron tool to cut the stones; ⁶ build the altar of the Lord your God with stones from the field. Offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, ⁷ and offer fellowship offerings there, and eat them and rejoice before the Lord your God. ⁸ Then write clearly all the words of these teachings on the stones.”

Curses of the Law

⁹ Then Moses and the Levites who were priests spoke to all Israel and said, “Be quiet, Israel. Listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Obey the Lord your God, and keep his commands and laws that I give you today.”

¹¹ That day Moses also gave the people this command:

¹² When you cross the Jordan River, these tribes must stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. ¹³ And these tribes must stand on Mount Ebal to announce the curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

¹⁴ The Levites will say to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:

¹⁵ “Anyone will be cursed who makes an idol or statue and secretly sets it up, because the Lord hates the idols people make.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁶ “Anyone will be cursed who dishonors his father or mother.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁷ “Anyone will be cursed who moves the stone that marks a neighbor’s border.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁸ “Anyone will be cursed who sends a blind person down the wrong road.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁹ “Anyone will be cursed who is unfair to foreigners, orphans, or widows.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁰ “A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his father’s wife, because it is a dishonor to his father.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²¹ “Anyone will be cursed who has sexual relations with an animal.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²² “A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his sister, whether she is his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²³ “A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁴ “Anyone will be cursed who kills a neighbor secretly.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁵ “Anyone will be cursed who takes money to murder an innocent person.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁶ “Anyone will be cursed who does not agree with the words of these teachings and does not obey them.”

Then all the people will say, “Amen!”

Blessings for Obeying

28 You must completely obey the Lord your God, and you must carefully follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you greater than any other nation on earth. ² Obey the Lord your God so that all these blessings will come and stay with you:

³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

⁴ Your children will be blessed, as well as your crops; your herds will be blessed with calves and your flocks with lambs.

⁵ Your basket and your kitchen will be blessed.

⁶ You will be blessed when you come in and when you go out.

⁷ The Lord will help you defeat the enemies that come to fight you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will run from you in seven directions.

⁸ The Lord your God will bless you with full barns, and he will bless everything you do. He will bless the land he is giving you.

⁹ The Lord will make you his holy people, as he promised. But you must obey his commands and do what he wants you to do. ¹⁰ Then everyone on earth will see that you are the Lord’s people, and they will be afraid of you. ¹¹ The Lord will make you rich: You will have many children, your animals will have many young, and your land will give good crops. It is the land that the Lord promised your ancestors he would give to you.

¹² The Lord will open up his heavenly storehouse so that the skies send rain on your land at the right time, and he will bless everything you do. You will lend to other nations, but you will not need to borrow from them. ¹³ The Lord will make you like the head and not like the tail; you will be on top and not on bottom. But you must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, being careful to keep them. ¹⁴ Do not disobey anything I command you today. Do exactly as I command, and do not follow other gods or serve them.

Curses for Disobeying

¹⁵ But if you do not obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and stay:

¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

¹⁷ Your basket and your kitchen will be cursed.

¹⁸ Your children will be cursed, as well as your crops; the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks will be cursed.

¹⁹ You will be cursed when you go in and when you go out.

²⁰ The Lord will send you curses, confusion, and punishment in everything you do. You will be destroyed and suddenly ruined because you did wrong when you left him. ²¹ The Lord will give you terrible diseases and destroy you from the land you are going to take. ²² The Lord will punish you with disease, fever, swelling, heat, lack of rain, plant diseases, and mildew until you die. ²³ The sky above will be like bronze, and the ground below will be like iron.^{[a] 24} The Lord will turn the rain into dust and sand, which will fall from the skies until you are destroyed.

²⁵ The Lord will help your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in seven directions. And you will become a thing of horror among all the kingdoms on earth. ²⁶ Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away. ²⁷ The Lord will punish you with boils like those the Egyptians had. You will have bad growths, sores, and itches that can’t be cured. ²⁸ The Lord will give you madness, blindness, and a confused mind. ²⁹ You will have to feel around in the daylight like a blind person. You will fail in everything you do. People will hurt you and steal from you every day, and no one will save you.

³⁰ You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will force her to have sexual relations with him. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not get its grapes. ³¹ Your ox will be killed before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you, and it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will grow tired looking for them every day, but there will be nothing you can do. ³³ People you don’t know will eat the crops your land and hard work have produced. You will be mistreated and abused all your life. ³⁴ The things you see will cause you to go mad. ³⁵ The Lord will give you sore boils on your knees and legs that cannot be cured, and they will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads.

³⁶ The Lord will send you and your king away to a nation neither you nor your ancestors know, where you will serve other gods made of wood and stone. ³⁷ You will become a hated thing to the nations where the Lord sends you; they will laugh at you and make fun of you.

³⁸ You will plant much seed in your field, but your harvest will be small, because locusts will eat the crop. ³⁹ You will plant vineyards and work hard in them, but you will not pick the grapes or drink the wine, because the worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees in all your land, but you will not get any olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. ⁴¹ You will have sons and daughters, but you will not be able to keep them, because they will be taken captive. ⁴² Locusts will destroy all your trees and crops.

⁴³ The foreigners who live among you will get stronger and stronger, and you will get weaker and weaker. ⁴⁴ Foreigners will lend money to you, but you will not be able to lend to them. They will be like the head, and you will be like the tail.

⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and catch you and destroy you, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and laws he gave you. ⁴⁶ The curses will be signs and miracles to you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ You had plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart, ⁴⁸ so you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor, and the Lord will put a load on you until he has destroyed you.

The Curse of an Enemy Nation

⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the world, and it will swoop down like an eagle. You won’t understand their language, ⁵⁰ and they will look mean. They will not respect old people or feel sorry for the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the calves from your herds and the harvest of your field, and you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil, or any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will be ruined. ⁵² That nation will surround and attack all your cities. You trust in your high, strong walls, but they will fall down. That nation will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

⁵³ Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve so that you will eat your own babies, the bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you. ⁵⁴ Even the most gentle and kind man among you will become cruel to his brother, his wife whom he loves, and his children who are still alive. ⁵⁵ He will not even give them any of the flesh of his children he is eating, because it will be all he has left. Your enemy will surround you and make you starve in all your cities. ⁵⁶ The most gentle and kind woman among you, so gentle and kind she would hardly even walk on the ground, will be cruel to her husband whom she loves and to her son and daughter. ⁵⁷ She will give birth to a baby, but she will plan to eat the baby and what comes after the birth itself. She will eat them secretly while the enemy surrounds the city. Those people will make you starve in all your cities.

⁵⁸ Be careful to obey everything in these teachings that are written in this book. You must respect the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ or the Lord will give terrible diseases to you and your descendants. You will have long and serious diseases, and long and miserable sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will give you all the diseases of Egypt that you dread, and the diseases will stay with you. ⁶¹ The Lord will also give you every disease and sickness not written in this Book of the Teachings, until you are destroyed. ⁶² You people may have outnumbered the stars, but only a few of you will be left, because you did not obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ Just as the Lord was once happy with you and gave you good things and made you grow in number, so then the Lord will be happy to ruin and destroy you, and you will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.

⁶⁴ Then the Lord will scatter you among the nations—from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵ You will have no rest among those nations and no place that is yours. The Lord will make your mind worried, your sight weak, and your soul sad. ⁶⁶ You will live with danger and be afraid night and day. You will not be sure that you will live. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening,” and in the evening you will say, “I wish it were morning.” Terror will be in your heart, and the things you have seen will scare you. ⁶⁸ The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though I, Moses, said you would never go back to Egypt. And there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.

The Agreement in Moab

29 The Lord commanded Moses to make an agreement with the Israelites in Moab in addition to the agreement he had made with them at Mount Sinai. These are the words of that agreement.

² Moses called all the Israelites together and said to them:

You have seen everything the Lord did before your own eyes to the king of Egypt and to the king’s leaders and to the whole country. ³ With your own eyes you saw the great troubles, signs, and miracles. ⁴ But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands; you don’t really understand what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears. ⁵ I led you through the desert for forty years, and during that time neither your clothes nor sandals wore out. ⁶ You ate no bread and drank no wine or beer. This was so you would understand that I am the Lord your God.

⁷ When you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight us, but we defeated them. ⁸ We captured their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh to be their own.

⁹ You must carefully obey everything in this agreement so that you will succeed in everything you do. ¹⁰ Today you are all standing here before the Lord your God—your leaders and important men, your elders, officers, and all the other men of Israel, ¹¹ your wives and children and the foreigners who live among you, who chop your wood and carry your water. ¹² You are all here to enter into an agreement and a promise with the Lord your God, an agreement the Lord your God is making with you today. ¹³ This will make you today his own people. He will be your God, as he told you and as he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ¹⁴ But I am not just making this agreement and its promises with you ¹⁵ who are standing here before the Lord your God today, but also with those who are not here today.

¹⁶ You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries when we came here. ¹⁷ You saw their hateful idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold. ¹⁸ Make sure no man, woman, family group, or tribe among you leaves the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. They would be to you like a plant that grows bitter, poisonous fruit.

¹⁹ These are the kind of people who hear these curses but bless themselves, thinking, “We will be safe even though we continue doing what we want to do.” Those people may destroy all of your land, both wet and dry. ²⁰ The Lord will not forgive them. His anger will be like a burning fire against those people, and all the curses written in this book will come on them. The Lord will destroy any memory of them on the earth. ²¹ He will separate them from all the tribes of Israel for punishment. All the curses of the Agreement that are written in this Book of the Teachings will happen to them.

²² Your children who will come after you, as well as foreigners from faraway lands, will see the disasters that come to this land and the diseases the Lord will send on it. They will say, ²³ “The land is nothing but burning cinders and salt. Nothing is planted, nothing grows, and nothing blooms. It is like Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed because he was very angry.” ²⁴ All the other nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to the land? Why is he so angry?”

²⁵ And the answer will be, “It is because the people broke the Agreement of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶ They went and served other gods and bowed down to gods they did not even know. The Lord did not allow that, ²⁷ so he became very angry at the land and brought all the curses on it that are written in this book. ²⁸ Since the Lord became angry and furious with them, he took them out of their land and put them in another land where they are today.”

²⁹ There are some things the Lord our God has kept secret, but there are some things he has let us know. These things belong to us and our children forever so that we will do everything in these teachings.

The Israelites Will Return

30 When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you, and the Lord your God has sent you away to other nations, think about these things. ² Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today. ³ Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom. He will feel sorry for you, and he will bring you back again from the nations where he scattered you. ⁴ He may send you to the ends of the earth, but he will gather you and bring you back from there, ⁵ back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will be yours. He will give you success, and there will be more of you than there were of your ancestors. ⁶ The Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love him with your whole being so that you will live. ⁷ The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you. ⁸ And you will again obey the Lord, keeping all his commands that I give you today. ⁹ The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do. You will have many children, your cattle will have many calves, and your fields will produce good crops, because the Lord will again be happy with you, just as he was with your ancestors. ¹⁰ But you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands and rules that are written in this Book of the Teachings. You must return to the Lord your God with your whole being.

Choose Life or Death

¹¹ This command I give you today is not too hard for you; it is not beyond what you can do. ¹² It is not up in heaven. You do not have to ask, “Who will go up to heaven and get it for us so we can obey it and keep it?” ¹³ It is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask, “Who will go across the sea and get it? Who will tell it to us so we can keep it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

¹⁵ Look, today I offer you life and success, death and destruction. ¹⁶ I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what he wants you to do, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws. Then you will live and grow in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.

¹⁷ But if you turn away from the Lord and do not obey him, if you are led to bow and serve other gods, ¹⁸ I tell you today that you will surely be destroyed. And you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and take as your own.

¹⁹ Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live. ²⁰ To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him. He is your life, and he will let you live many years in the land, the land he promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Joshua Takes Moses’ Place

31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all the Israelites: ² “I am now one hundred twenty years old, and I cannot lead you anymore. The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River; ³ the Lord your God will lead you across himself. He will destroy those nations for you, and you will take over their land. Joshua will also lead you across, as the Lord has said. ⁴ The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when he destroyed them and their land. ⁵ The Lord will give those nations to you; do to them everything I told you. ⁶ Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them and don’t be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.”

⁷ Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in front of the people, “Be strong and brave, because you will lead these people into the land the Lord promised to give their ancestors, and help them take it as their own. ⁸ The Lord himself will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forget you. Don’t be afraid and don’t worry.”

Moses Writes the Teachings

⁹ So Moses wrote down these teachings and gave them to the priests and all the elders of Israel. (The priests are the sons of Levi, who carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord.) ^10-11 Then Moses commanded them: “Read these teachings for all Israel to hear at the end of every seven years, which is the year to cancel what people owe. Do it during the Feast of Shelters, when all the Israelites will come to appear before the Lord your God and stand at the place he will choose. ¹² Gather all the people: the men, women, children, and foreigners living in your towns so that they can listen and learn to respect the Lord your God and carefully obey everything in this law. ¹³ Since their children do not know this law, they must hear it. They must learn to respect the Lord your God for as long as they live in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take for your own.”

The Lord Calls Moses and Joshua

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will die. Get Joshua and come to the Meeting Tent so that I may command him.” So Moses and Joshua went to the Meeting Tent.

¹⁵ The Lord appeared at the Meeting Tent in a cloud; the cloud stood over the entrance of the Tent. ¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, “You will soon die. Then these people will not be loyal to me but will worship the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will leave me, breaking the Agreement I made with them. ¹⁷ Then I will become very angry at them, and I will leave them. I will turn away from them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible things will happen to them. Then they will say, ‘It is because God is not with us that these terrible things are happening.’ ¹⁸ I will surely turn away from them then, because they have done wrong and have turned to other gods.

¹⁹ “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites. Then have them sing it, because it will be my witness against them. ²⁰ When I bring them into the land I promised to their ancestors, a fertile land, they will eat as much as they want and get fat. Then they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will reject me and break my Agreement. ²¹ Then when many troubles and terrible things happen to them, this song will testify against them, because the song will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they plan to do, even before I take them into the land I promised them.” ²² So Moses wrote down the song that day, and he taught it to the Israelites.

²³ Then the Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and brave, because you will lead the people of Israel to the land I promised them, and I will be with you.”

²⁴ After Moses finished writing all the words of the teachings in a book, ²⁵ he gave a command to the Levites, who carried the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. ²⁶ He said, “Take this Book of the Teachings and put it beside the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord your God. It must stay there as a witness against you. ²⁷ I know how stubborn and disobedient you are. You have disobeyed the Lord while I am alive and with you, and you will disobey even more after I die! ²⁸ Gather all the elders of your tribes and all your officers to me so that I may say these things for them to hear, and so that I may ask heaven and earth to testify against them. ²⁹ I know that after I die you will become completely evil. You will turn away from the commands I have given you. Terrible things will happen to you in the future when you do what the Lord says is evil, and you will make him angry with the idols you have made.”

Moses’ Song

³⁰ And Moses spoke this whole song for all the people of Israel to hear:

⁴⁴ Moses came with Joshua son of Nun, and they spoke all the words of this song for the people to hear. ⁴⁵ When Moses finished speaking these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them: “Pay careful attention to all the words I have said to you today, and command your children to obey carefully everything in these teachings. ⁴⁷ These should not be unimportant words for you, but rather they mean life for you! By these words you will live a long time in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take as your own.”

Moses Goes Up to Mount Nebo

⁴⁸ The Lord spoke to Moses again that same day and said, ⁴⁹ “Go up the Abarim Mountains, to Mount Nebo in the country of Moab, across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as their own. ⁵⁰ On that mountain that you climb, you will die and join your ancestors, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors. ⁵¹ You both sinned against me at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin, and you did not honor me as holy there among the Israelites. ⁵² So now you will only look at the land from far away. You will not enter the land I am giving the people of Israel.”

Moses Blesses the People

33 Moses, the man of God, gave this blessing to the Israelites before he died. ² He said:

⁷ Moses said this about the people of Judah:

⁸ Moses said this about the people of Levi:

¹² Moses said this about the people of Benjamin:

¹³ Moses said this about the people of Joseph:

¹⁸ Moses said this about the people of Zebulun:

²⁰ Moses said this about the people of Gad:

²² Moses said this about the people of Dan:

²³ Moses said this about the people of Naphtali:

²⁴ Moses said this about the people of Asher:

Moses Dies

34 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Mount Pisgah, across from Jericho. From there the Lord showed him all the land from Gilead to Dan, ² all of Naphtali and the lands of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, ³ as well as the southern desert and the whole Valley of Jericho up to Zoar. (Jericho is called the city of palm trees.) ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said to them, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ I have let you look at it, Moses, but you will not cross over there.”

⁵ Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. ⁶ He buried Moses in Moab in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but even today no one knows where his grave is. ⁷ Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not weak, and he was still strong. ⁸ The Israelites cried for Moses for thirty days, staying in the plains of Moab until the time of sadness was over.

⁹ Joshua son of Nun was then filled with wisdom, because Moses had put his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to Joshua, and they did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹⁰ There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The Lord knew Moses face to face ¹¹ and sent him to do signs and miracles in Egypt—to the king, to all his officers, and to the whole land of Egypt. ¹² Moses had great power, and he did great and wonderful things for all the Israelites to see.