(Numbers 27:18–23)
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And Moses goes and speaks these words to all Israel,
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and he says to them, “I [am] a son of one hundred and twenty years today; I am not able to go out and to come in anymore, and YHWH has said to me, You do not pass over this Jordan.
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Your God YHWH—He is passing over before you; He destroys these nations from before you, and you have possessed them; Joshua—he is passing over before you, as YHWH has spoken.
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And YHWH has done to them as he has done to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorite, and to their land, whom He destroyed.
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And YHWH has given them before your face, and you have done to them according to all the command which I have commanded you;
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be strong and courageous, do not fear, nor be terrified because of them, for your God YHWH [is] He who is going with you; He does not fail you nor forsake you.”
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And Moses calls for Joshua and says to him before the eyes of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you go in with this people to the land which YHWH has sworn to their fathers to give to them, and you cause them to inherit it;
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and YHWH [is] He who is going before you, He Himself is with you; He does not fail you nor forsake you; do not fear, nor be frightened.”
The Reading of the Law
(Nehemiah 8:1–8)
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And Moses writes this law and gives it to the priests (sons of Levi, those carrying the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH), and to all [the] elderly of Israel,
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and Moses commands them, saying, “At the end of seven years, in the appointed time, the year of release, in the Celebration of Shelters,
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in the coming in of all Israel to see the face of YHWH in the place which He chooses, you proclaim this law before all Israel in their ears.
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Assemble the people, the men, and the women, and the infants, and your sojourner who [is] within your gates, so that they hear, and so that they learn, and have feared your God YHWH, and observed to do all the words of this law;
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and their sons, who have not known, hear and have learned to fear your God YHWH [for] all the days which you are living on the ground to where you are passing over the Jordan to possess it.”
God Commissions Joshua
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And YHWH says to Moses, “Behold, your days have drawn near to die; call Joshua, and station yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, and I charge him”; and Moses goes—Joshua also—and they station themselves in the Tent of Meeting,
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and YHWH is seen in the tent in a pillar of a cloud; and the pillar of the cloud stands at the opening of the tent.
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And YHWH says to Moses, “Behold, you are lying down with your fathers, and this people has risen and gone whoring after the gods of the stranger of the land, into the midst of which it has entered, and it has forsaken Me and broken My covenant which I made with it;
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and My anger has burned against it in that day, and I have forsaken them, and hidden My face from them, and it has been for consumption, and many evils and distresses have found it, and it has said in that day, [Is] it not because my God is not in my midst that these evils have found me?
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And I certainly hide My face in that day for all the evil which it has done, for it has turned to other gods.
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And now, write this song for yourselves, and teach it [to] the sons of Israel; put it in their mouths, so that this song is to Me for a witness against the sons of Israel.
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When I bring them to the ground flowing with milk and honey, which I have sworn to their fathers, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, and been fat, and have turned to other gods, and they have served them, and despised Me, and broken My covenant,
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then it has been, when many evils and distresses meet it, that this song has testified to its face for a witness; for it is not forgotten out of the mouth of its seed, for I have known its imagining which it is doing today, before I bring them into the land of which I have sworn.”
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And Moses writes this song on that day, and teaches it [to] the sons of Israel.
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Then He commands Joshua son of Nun, and says, “Be strong and courageous, for you bring in the sons of Israel to the land which I have sworn to them, and I am with you.”
The Law Placed in the Ark
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And it comes to pass, when Moses finishes to write the words of this law on a scroll, until their completion,
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that Moses commands the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, saying,
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“Take this Scroll of the Law, and you have set it on the side of the Ark of the Covenant of your God YHWH, and it has been against you for a witness there;
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for I have known your rebellion and your stiff neck; behold, in my being yet alive with you today, you have been rebelling against YHWH, and surely also after my death.
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Assemble to me all the elderly of your tribes, and your authorities, and I speak these words in their ears, and cause the heavens and the earth to testify against them,
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for I have known that you act very corruptly after my death, and have turned aside from the way which I commanded you, and evil has met you in the latter end of the days, because you do evil in the eyes of YHWH, to make Him angry with the work of your hands.”
Moses Begins His Song
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And Moses speaks the words of this song in the ears of all the assembly of Israel, until their completion:
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