Joshua to be Israel’s new leader
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And Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 📚And he said to them, Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, “You will not cross this Jordan. 3 📚The LORD your God will go over before you, and he will destroy these nations from before you, and you will possess their territories. And Joshua will go over before you, just as the LORD has said. 4 📚And the LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed, and to their land. 5 📚And the LORD will deliver them up in your sight so that you may treat them in accordance with all the commandments which I have commanded you. 6 📚Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified of them, because the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.7 📚And Moses summoned Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD swore to their fathers to give them. And you will enable them to inherit it. 8 📚And the LORD is the one who goes before you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or be dismayed”.
Reading the law of God
9 📚And Moses wrote down this law and delivered 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.
10 📚And Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the fixed time of the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 📚when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses, you must read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 📚Gather the people together, men, women and children, and your foreigner who is inside your gates, so that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and observe to obey all the words of this law, 13 📚and that their children, who have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess”.
14 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Look, the day of your death is approaching. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, so that I may give him a commission”. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.
15 📚And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. 16 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Look, you will lie down with your fathers, and this people will rise up and act the prostitute with the gods of the foreigners of the land where they are going to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17 📚In that day my anger will burn against them, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them. And they will be consumed, and many calamities and troubles will come on them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these calamities come on us because our God is not among us?’ 18 📚And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all the evils which they will have done in turning to other gods.
19 📚“Now therefore write down for yourselves this song, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. 20 📚For after I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, a land that flows with milk and honey, and they have eaten and satisfied themselves and become fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and provoke me and break my covenant. 21 📚And it will come about, after many calamities and troubles have come on them, that this song will be a witness to testify against them; for it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their frame of mind which they are forming even now before I have brought them into the land which I promised on oath”.
22 📚So Moses wrote down this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
23 📚And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a commission, and said, Be strong and courageous, for you will take the children of Israel into the land which I promised to them on oath; and I will be with you.
24 📚And this took place when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were completed: 25 📚Moses commanded the Levites, who were the carriers of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, 26 📚Take this book of the law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may be there as a witness against you. 27 📚For I know your rebelliousness and your stubbornness. Look, today while I am still alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD; so how much more so after my death! 28 📚Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, so that I may speak these words in their hearing, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 📚For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and disaster will come on you in later days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, and provoke him to anger through the works of your hands.
30 📚And Moses spoke in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.