Chapter 31

1; And Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel.

 

2; And he said to them, I am a hundred and twenty years old today. I am not able any more to go out and to come in. And YAHWEH has said to me, You shall not cross over this Jordan.

 

3; YAHWEH your Elohim will cross over before you; He shall destroy these nations from before you, and you shall possess them. Joshua is the one who shall cross over before you, as YAHWEH has spoken.

 

4; And YAHWEH shall do to them as He has done to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their land, which He destroyed before them.

 

5; And YAHWEH shall give them up before your face, and you shall do to them according to all the mitzvot which I have instructed you.

 

6; Be strong and brave. Do not fear them, or be afraid of them. For YAHWEH your Elohim is He who is going with you; He shall not fail you nor forsake you.

 

7; And Moses called for Joshua, and said to him before the eyes of all Israel, Be strong and brave, for you shall go in with this people to the land which YAHWEH has sworn to their fathers, to give it to them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.

 

8; And YAHWEH is He who is going before you; He Himself shall be with you; He shall not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be afraid.

 

9; And Moses wrote this Torah, and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, those bearing the ark of the covenant of YAHWEH, and to all the elders of Israel.

 

10; And Moses instructed them, saying, At the end of seven years in the appointed time, in the year of release, in the Feast of Sukkot,

 

11; when all Israel comes in to see the face of YAHWEH in the place which He chooses, you shall proclaim this Torah before all Israel, in their ears.

 

12; Assemble the people, men and women, and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, so that they may hear, and so that they may learn, and may rever YAHWEH your Elohim, and take heed to do all the Words of this Torah;

 

13; and their sons who have not known shall hear, and shall learn to rever YAHWEH your Elohim all the days which you live on the land where you are crossing over the Jordan to possess it.

 

14; And YAHWEH said to Moses, Behold, your days are coming near to die. Call Joshua, and present your- selves at the tent of meeting, and I shall charge him. And Moses and Joshua went, and they presented themselves at the tent of meeting.

 

15; And YAHWEH appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud; and the pillar of cloud stood at the door of the tabernacle.

 

16; And YAHWEH said to Moses, Behold, you shall lie with your fathers, and this people shall rise up and go lusting after the gods of the strangers of the land into which they are going, and shall forsake Me, and shall break My covenant which I cut with them.

 

17; And My anger shall burn against them in that day, and I shall forsake them and hide My face from them. And it shall be consumed, and many evils and distresses shall find this people. And it shall say in that day, Is it not because my Elohim is not in my midst, that these evils have found me?

 

18; And hiding I will hide My face in that day, because of all the evil which this people has done, for it shall turn to other gods.

 

19; Now, then, write this song for you, and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it in their mouths, so that this song shall be for a witness to Me against the sons of Israel.

 

20; And I shall bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I have sworn to their fathers. And you shall eat and be satisfied, and become fat, and shall turn to other gods; and they shall serve them, and despise Me, and break My covenant.

 

21; And it shall be, when many evils and distresses have found them, this song shall testify against them as a witness. For it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their scheme, which they are making today, before I bring them into the land which I have sworn.

 

22; And Moses wrote this song on that day, and taught it to the sons of Israel.

 

23; And He instructed Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and brave; for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I have sworn to them, and I shall be with you.

 

24; And it happened, when Moses finished writing, until their completion, all the Words of this Torah in a book,

 

25; that Moses instructed the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of YAHWEH, saying,

 

26; Take this book of the Torah, and you shall put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of YAHWEH your Elohim, so that it may be there for a witness against you.

 

27; For I have known your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against YAHWEH. And how much more after my death!

 

28; Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, and I shall speak in their ears these words, and cause the heavens and the earth to testify against them.

 

29; For I know that after my death you shall utterly corrupt yourselves, and will turn aside from the way which I have instructed you. And evil shall happen to you in the latter end of the days because you shall do evil in the eyes of YAHWEH, to make Him angry with the work of your hands.

 

30; And Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until their conclusion:

 

Chapter 32

1; Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

 

2; My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall drop down as the dew, as the small rain on the tender plant, and as the showers on the grass;

 

3; because I will proclaim the name of YAHWEH and ascribe greatness to our Elohim.

 

4; He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, an El of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He.

 

5; He has not corrupted Himself; His sons; it is their blemish; they are a crooked and perverse generation.

 

6; Do you thus give back to YAHWEH, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father who bought you? Has not He made you and established you?

 

7; Remember the ancient days, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will declare to you, your elders, and they shall say to you;

 

8; when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance; when He separated the sons of man, He set up the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the cherubs of Elohim.

 

9; For the portion of YAHWEH is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.

 

10; He found him in a desert land, and in the waste, a howling wilderness. He encircled him and cared for him; He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.

 

11; As the eagle stirs up its nest; it hovers over its young; it spreads out its wings and takes it, and bears it on its wing.

 

12; YAHWEH alone led him, and there was no strange god with him.

 

13; He made him ride on the high places of the earth, so that he might eat the increase of the fields. And He made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

 

14; butter from cows, and milk from the flock, with fat from lambs, and rams of the sons of Bashan, and he- goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat, and of the blood of the grape you shall drink wine.

 

15; But Yeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, thick and sated. And he abandoned Elohim who made him, and fell away from the Rock of his YAHSHUA.

 

16; With strange gods they moved Him to jealousy; and with idols they provoked Him to anger.

 

17; They sacrificed to demons who were not Elohim, to Elohim whom they did not know, new ones who came lately. Your fathers had not dreaded them.

 

18; The Rock that begat you, you neglected, and forgot the El who formed you.

 

19; And YAHWEH looked and despised them because of the provoking of His sons and of His daughters.

 

20; And He said, I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness.

 

21; They made Me jealous with a not- El; they made Me angry by their vanities; and I shall make them jealous by a not-a-people; by a foolish nation I shall make them angry.

 

22; For a fire has been kindled in My anger, and it burns to the lowest part of Sheol, and consumes the earth and its produce; and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

 

23; I will heap evils on them; I will use up My arrows on them.

 

24; I will send on them exhaustion by famine, and depletion by burning heat, and bitter destruction, and the teeth of beasts, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.

 

25; The sword shall bereave from without, and terror from within, both the young man and the virgin, the suckling with the man of gray hairs.

 

26; I said, I will dash them to pieces; I will make their memory cease from among men;

 

27; saying, Were it not the provocation of an enemy I feared, that their foes should judge amiss, that they might not say, Our hand is high, and YAHWEH has not done all this.

 

28; For they are a nation void of counsel, and no understanding is in them.

 

29; If they were wise, they would understand this; they would comprehend their latter end.

 

30; How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, if it were not their Rock that sold them, and YAHWEH had shut them up?

 

31; For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies being judges.

 

32; For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their grapes of the fields of Gomorrah, grapes of gall; they have bitter clusters.

 

33; Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.

 

34; Is it not stored up with Me, sealed in My treasuries?

 

35; Vengeance and retribution belong to Me; in due time their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and the things prepared are hurrying for them.

 

36; For YAHWEH will bring His people justice; and He shall have compassion on His servants, for He sees that their power is gone, and only the imprisoned and abandoned remain.

 

37; And He will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

 

38; Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let it be a hiding place for you.

 

39; See now that I, I am He, and other elohim are nothing against Me. I kill, and I preserve alive. I wound and I heal, and there is no deliverer from My hand.

 

40; For I lift up My hand to the heavens and say, I live forever!

 

41; If I have sharpened My lightning sword, and My hand lays hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My foes, and I will repay those who hate Me.

 

42; I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the hairy head of the enemy.

 

43; Rejoice, O nations with Him, and let the Cherubs of Elohim worship Him. Rejoice you nations with His people; for He shall avenge the blood of His servants, and shall render vengeance to His foes, and will atone for His land and His people.

 

44; And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

 

45; And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

 

46; and said to them, Set your heart on all the words which I have testified against you today, that you instruct your sons to take heed to do all the Words of this Torah.

47; For it is not a useless Word for you, for it is your life, and by this Word you shall prolong your days in the land where you are crossing over the Jordan, there to possess it.

 

48; And YAHWEH spoke to Moses in that same day, saying,

 

49; Go up into this Mount Abarim, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, which is opposite Jericho; and see the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession;

 

50; and die in the mountain where you are going, and be gathered to your people, even as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people;

 

51; because you transgressed toward Me among the sons of Israel at the Waters of Strife (Meribah) in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not sanctify Me in the midst of the sons of Israel.

 

52; Yet you shall see the land across from you, but you shall not go in there to the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel.

 

Chapter 33

1; And this is the blessing with which Moses the man of Elohim blessed the sons of Israel before his death.

 

2; And he said: YAHWEH came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir for them; He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the myriads of set-apart ones. At His right hand a law of fire went forth to them.

 

3; Yes, He loves the people; all His set-apart ones are in Your hand; and they sit down at Your feet; He lifts up each at Your Words.

 

4; Moses has instructed to us Torah, an inheritance for the congregation of Jacob.

 

5; And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people assembled, the tribes of Israel.

 

6; Let Reuben live, and not die, and let his men be numbered.

 

7; And this for Judah: And he said, Hear the voice of Judah, O YAHWEH, and bring him in to his people; his hands were much for him, and You shall be a help against his foes.

 

8; And of Levi he said, Your Thummim and Your Urim are for Your devout man whom You tested at Massah; You contended with him at the Waters of Strife;

 

9; who said of his father and his mother, I have not seen him. And he has not acknowledged his brothers, and did not know his own son, for they have kept Your Word, and observed Your covenant.

 

10; They shall teach Your judgments to Jacob, and Your Torah to Israel. They shall put incense at Your nostrils, and whole burnt offering on Your altar.

 

11; O YAHWEH, bless his strength, and accept the work of his hands. Dash the loins of those rising against him, those who hate him, that they may not rise!

 

12; Of Benjamin he said, The beloved of YAHWEH shall dwell securely beside Him, covering him all the day long; yea he shall dwell between His shoulders.

 

13; And of Joseph he said, Blessed of YAHWEH be his land, with the best of the heavens, for the dew, for the deep crouching beneath;

 

14; and with the best of the produce of the sun, and with the best yield of the months;

 

15; and with the first of the ancient mountains, and with the best of the everlasting hills;

 

16; and with the best of the earth, and its fullness; and the good will of Him who dwelt in the Bush; let it come on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the separated one (nazir) of his brothers.

 

17; His glory is as the first-born of his ox, and the horns of the wild ox are his horns; with them he shall butt the peoples together to the ends of the earth. And they are the myriads of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

 

18; And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, O Zebulun, in your going out, and O Issachar, in your tents;

 

19; to the mountains they call the peoples; there they shall offer righteous sacrifices for they shall suck the bounty of the seas, and treasures hidden in the sand.

 

20; And of Gad he said, Blessed is he who enlarges Gad; he shall live like a lioness, and shall tear the arm, also the top of the head.

 

21; And he eyes the first part for himself, for there was the portion of the lawgiver hidden; and he came with the rulers of the people; he executed the justice of YAHWEH, and His judgments with Israel.

 

22; And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp; he shall leap from Bashan.

 

23; And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with good will and full of the blessing of YAHWEH; possess the west and the south.

 

24; And of Asher he said, Asher shall be blessed with sons; let him be accepted by his brothers, and dip his foot in oil.

 

25; May your shoe latches be iron and bronze, and your days as your strength.

 

26; None is like the El of Jeshurun, riding the heavens for your help, and the clouds in His majesty.

 

27; The Elohim of old is a refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And He shall cast the enemy out from before you, and shall say, Destroy!

 

28; And Israel shall live alone in safety; the fountain of Jacob in a land of grain and wine; and His heavens drop down dew.

 

29; Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you? A people saved by YAHWEH, the Shield of your help, and He who is the Sword of your Excellency! And your enemies shall be found liars before you, and you shall tread on their high places.

 

Chapter 34

1; And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And YAHWEH caused him to see all the land; Gilead to Dan;

 

2; and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah to the sea beyond;

 

3; and the Negev, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, to Zoar.

 

4; And YAHWEH said to him, This is the land which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to your seed. I have caused you to see with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.

 

5; And Moses the servant of YAHWEH died there in the land of Moab, according to the command of YAHWEH.

 

6; And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor; and no man knows his grave to this day.

 

7; And Moses was a son of a hundred and twenty years at his death; his eye had not become dim, and his vigor did not flee him.

 

8; And the sons of Israel mourned Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. And the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

 

9; And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. And the sons of Israel listened to him and did as YAHWEH instructed Moses.

 

10; And never since has a prophet like Moses arisen in Israel, whom YAHWEH knew face to face,

 

11; in regard to all the signs and wonders which YAHWEH sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants and to all his land;

 

12; and in regard to all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.