Deuteronomy 31:1-13

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Joshua Becomes Moses’s Successor

31 When Moses had finished speaking all^[a] these words to all Israel, ² he said to them, “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the Lord has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’^{(A) 3} The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the Lord promised.^{(B) 4} The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. ⁵ The Lord will give them over to you, and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.^{(C) 6} Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”^(D)

⁷ Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their ancestors to give them, and you will put them in possession of it.^{(E) 8} It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”^(F)

The Law to Be Read Every Seventh Year

⁹ Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.^{(G) 10} Moses commanded them, “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the Festival of Booths,^{[b](H) 11} when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.^{(I) 12} Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law^{(J) 13} and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”^(K)