Deuteronomy 31:18

18 But I'll stay out of their lives, keep looking the other way because of all their evil: they took up with other gods!

Deuteronomy 31:18 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 31:18

I will surely hide my face in that day
Which is repeated for the certainty of it, and that it might be taken notice of; that he was the spring and source of all their good things, their sun and their shield, who being withdrawn from them, they would be deprived of every thing that was good, and be liable to all evil; and this he would do,

for all the evils which they shall have wrought;
for all the immoralities they should be guilty of, every transgression of his law, whether of the first or second table, and especially idolatry:

in that they are turned unto other gods;
to the worship and service of them, which of all evils would be the most provoking to God; and the way of speaking suggests as if all evils were included in idolatry, and sprang from it, or were committed with it.

Deuteronomy 31:18 In-Context

16 God spoke to Moses: "You're about to die and be buried with your ancestors. You'll no sooner be in the grave than this people will be up and whoring after the foreign gods of this country that they are entering. They will abandon me and violate my Covenant that I've made with them.
17 I'll get angry, oh so angry! I'll walk off and leave them on their own, won't so much as look back at them. Then many calamities and disasters will devastate them because they are defenseless. They'll say, 'Isn't it because our God wasn't here that all this evil has come upon us?'
18 But I'll stay out of their lives, keep looking the other way because of all their evil: they took up with other gods!
19 "But for right now, copy down this song and teach the People of Israel to sing it by heart. They'll have it then as my witness against them.
20 When I bring them into the land that I promised to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they eat and become full and get fat and then begin fooling around with other gods and worshiping them,
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.