2  He said to them: I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer be active. Moreover, Hashem has said to me, “You shall not go across yonder Yarden.”

3  Hashem your God Himself will cross over before you; and He Himself will wipe out those nations from your path and you shall dispossess them.—Yehoshua is the one who shall cross before you, as Hashem has spoken.

4  Hashem will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and to their countries, when He wiped them out.

5  Hashem will deliver them up to you, and you shall deal with them in full accordance with the Instruction that I have enjoined upon you.

6  Be strong and resolute, be not in fear or in dread of them; for Hashem your God Himself marches with you: He will not fail you or forsake you.

8  And Hashem Himself will go before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you or forsake you. Fear not and be not dismayed!”

9  Moshe wrote down this Teaching and gave it to the Kohanim, sons of Levi, who carried the Aron Brit Hashem, and to all the elders of Yisrael.

10  And Moshe instructed them as follows: Every seventh year, the year set for remission, at the festival of Sukkot,

11  when all Yisrael comes to appear before Hashem your God in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Yisrael.

12  Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere Hashem your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching.

13  Their children, too, who have not had the experience, shall hear and learn to revere Hashem your God as long as they live in the land that you are about to cross the Yarden to possess.

14  Hashem said to Moshe: The time is drawing near for you to die. Call Yehoshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may instruct him. Moshe and Yehoshua went and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.

15  Hashem appeared in the Tent, in a pillar of cloud, the pillar of cloud having come to rest at the entrance of the tent.

16  Hashem said to Moshe: You are soon to lie with your fathers. This people will thereupon go astray after the alien gods in their midst, in the land that they are about to enter; they will forsake Me and break My covenant that I made with them.

17  Then My anger will flare up against them, and I will abandon them and hide My countenance from them. They shall be ready prey; and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they shall say on that day, “Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.”

18  Yet I will keep My countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods.

19  Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Yisrael; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Yisrael.

20  When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised on oath to their fathers, and they eat their fill and grow fat and turn to other gods and serve them, spurning Me and breaking My covenant,

21  and the many evils and troubles befall them—then this poem shall confront them as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring. For I know what plans they are devising even now, before I bring them into the land that I promised on oath.

22  That day, Moshe wrote down this poem and taught it to the Israelites.

23  And He charged Yehoshua son of Nun: “Be strong and resolute: for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them on oath, and I will be with you.”

24  When Moshe had put down in writing the words of this Teaching to the very end,

25  Moshe charged the Leviim who carried the Aron Brit Hashem, saying:

26  Take this book of Teaching and place it beside the Aron Brit Hashem your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you.

27  Well I know how defiant and stiffnecked you are: even now, while I am still alive in your midst, you have been defiant toward Hashem; how much more, then, when I am dead!

28  Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, that I may speak all these words to them and that I may call heaven and earth to witness against them.

29  For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly and turn away from the path that I enjoined upon you, and that in time to come misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of Hashem and vexed Him by your deeds.

30  Then Moshe recited the words of this poem to the very end, in the hearing of the whole congregation of Yisrael: