Deuteronomy 31:14

14 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may give him a charge. Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tent of meeting.

Deuteronomy 31:14 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 31:14

And the Lord said unto Moses
Either at the same time, or quickly after; rather, perhaps, the same day:

behold, thy days approach that thou must die;
which does not necessarily imply that he had some days to live, though but few; but that the time of his death drew nigh, his last moments were approaching; the time of his death being, as every man's is, fixed by the Lord, with whom is the number of his years, months, days, and moments, beyond which he cannot pass, ( Job 14:5 ) ;

call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the
congregation, that I may give him a charge;
this looks as if the people had been dismissed after the above exhortations given; and now Joshua was called, and Moses with him, to have a charge given him:

and Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle
of the congregation;
before the Lord. Aben Ezra says, Moses went from the camp of Israel where he was, to the camp of the Shechinah; the Jews pretend to know in what form they walked thither. Moses, they say F1, went on the left hand of Joshua; and they went to the tabernacle, and the pillar of cloud descended and separated between them.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Debarim Rabba, sect. 9. fol. 244. 2.

Deuteronomy 31:14 In-Context

12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your sojourner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;
13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
14 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may give him a charge. Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tent of meeting.
15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.
16 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
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