Deuteronomy 31:10-20

10 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the beginning of the seventh year, in the appointed time of the year of release, in the feast of the tabernacles,

11 when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy strangers that are within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this law,

13 and that their children, who have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God all the days that ye live in the land unto which ye are to pass the Jordan to inherit it.

14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days are fulfilled that thou must die; call Joshua and wait in the tabernacle of the testimony that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and waited in the tabernacle of the testimony.

15 And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.

16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people shall rise up and fornicate after the gods of the strangers of the land where they go when they shall be among them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them.

17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that same day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?

18 But I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

19 Now therefore write ye this song for you and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel.

20 For I shall bring them into the land which I swore unto their fathers, that flows with milk and honey, and they shall eat and fill themselves and wax fat; then they will turn unto other gods and serve them and provoke me and break my covenant.

Deuteronomy 31:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 31

Moses being old, and knowing he should quickly die, and must not go over Jordan with the people of Israel, acquaints them with it, and encourages them and Joshua to go over notwithstanding, and not be afraid of their enemies, since the Lord would go with them, and deliver them into their hands, De 31:1-8; and having written the law, he delivered it to the priests, and ordered that it should be read at the end of every seven years before all the people, that they and theirs might learn it, and fear the Lord, De 31:9-13; and whereas the death of Moses was very near, and the Lord foreseeing the people would quickly fall into idolatry, which would bring great calamities upon them, he directed Moses to write a song, which should be a witness for him, and against them, in ages to come; which Moses accordingly did, De 31:14-22; and Moses having given a charge to Joshua, and finished the writing of the law in a book, gave it to the Levites to put it in the side of the ark, De 31:23-27; and then ordered the chief of the tribes to be gathered together, that he might deliver the song, which by the direction and under the inspiration of God he had written, De 31:28-30; which song is recorded in De 32:1-43.