Deuteronomy 31:1–30

Original Meaning

The Installation of Joshua as Moses’ Successor: Part I (31:1–8)

THESE EIGHT VERSES CONSIST of two speeches united by subject and by genre. Both are classified as “encouragement speeches”—a designation suggested by the repeated charge (vv. 6, 7), and reinforced by negative imperatives (vv. 6, 8), as well as by reminders of Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness. The first speech (vv. 2–6), referring to Joshua in the third person, is addressed to the people. The second is addressed to Joshua (v. 7b).

Moses’ challenge for the people (31:1–6). The narrative opens awkwardly, but verse 1 shifts attention from the nature of covenantal relationship to steps taken to “put the house in order.”6 Though some classify this as a “war oration,”7 like the preceding addresses, this speech has a profoundly pastoral tone. It divides into three parts: (1) Moses’ announcement of his impending demise (v. 2); (2) Moses’ promise of Yahweh’s continued presence (vv. 3–5); (3) Moses’ appeal for courage and confidence (v. 6). The middle section is the center of gravity.

Whereas other death stories tend to begin with the narrator’s announcement of the character’s old age and impending death, here Moses announces his own demise (v. 2). But he does so indirectly, simply announcing his old age and his inability to “lead”8 the people any longer. Moses’ 120 years were perfectly proportioned: his early years in Egypt, forty years (Acts 7:23, 30); his years as sojourner in Midian, forty years (Ex. 7:7); as leader of Israel, forty years (Deut. 1:3). Moses’ quotation of the words of Yahweh betray deep disappointment if not bitterness.9 He gives neither the reason for this refusal nor the circumstances in which it had been declared.

After reminding the people of his imminent demise, Moses directs their attention to Yahweh’s continued presence (vv. 3–5). His promise of future divine favor consists of seven clauses by which he makes three points. (1) The people will not embark on the campaign of conquest leaderless; they will be led by Yahweh and his designated agent (v. 3a, d). While the first statement recalls 9:3, its echo in verse 3d highlights Joshua’s role as the representative of Yahweh (cf. Josh. 5:13–15). “As the LORD has said” at the end of verse 3 alludes to 3:28, where Yahweh had said Joshua would go before the people and secure possession of the land.

(2) Yahweh will deal with the Canaanite nations himself. Moses promises that Yahweh will destroy them (v. 3b), and then he reminds Israel of recent victories over the Amorite kings as concrete illustrations of Yahweh’s anticipated actions against the Canaanites (vv. 4–5a). He strengthens the promise by adding that Yahweh will indeed deliver them into the hands of the Israelites.

(3) Moses charges the Israelites to engage the enemy and claim the victory that Yahweh wins. Whereas in verse 3c he does so with one word, in verse 5 he commands the Israelites to deal with the Canaanites according to his earlier charges (cf. chaps. 7, 20).

Moses concludes this brief speech with an impassioned appeal to his people to take courage and put full confidence in Yahweh (v. 6). He expresses the former with two pairs of admonishments. The first pair is cast positively, “Be strong and courageous” (cf. vv. 7, 23),10 and the second is cast negatively, “Do not be afraid or terrified” (cf. 20:3). The object of fear is identified vaguely as “them,” that is, the nations referred to in verse 3. Moses then declares the grounds for courage: Yahweh is marching with them as the divine Warrior.

Echoing reassurances heard earlier in 20:1 and 4, he declares that Yahweh will not fail the Israelites or abandon them (cf. v. 8; 1 Chron. 28:20). The first expression involves the metaphor of slackening or relaxing (the hands) (cf. 4:31). The second (“forsake, abandon”) occurs here for the first time with Yahweh as the subject.11 Intimating that the Israelites had come to rely on Moses’ personal presence for their security, this speech reminds them that their future success does not depend on human leaders but on God’s presence, who will not relax as their divine patron or abandon them altogether.

Moses’ challenge for Joshua (31:7–8). In verse 7a Moses’ attention shifts from the people to Joshua (cf. vv. 14, 23).12 Unlike Yahweh’s speech to Joshua in verse 23 (cf. v. 14), here Moses has two audiences: Joshua and all Israel. Whereas Yahweh had spoken to Moses at Sinai in the hearing of the people that they “might believe in [Moses] forever” (Ex. 19:9, pers. trans.), now Moses publicly passes the mantle to his trusted lieutenant (cf. Num. 27:18–19), so they will see Joshua as the divinely chosen successor.

The hortatory framework, “Be strong and courageous” (v. 7, echoing v. 6), and “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (v. 8), sets the tone of this speech. Between these appeals Moses describes Joshua’s task and assures him of Yahweh’s aid.13 His summary commission focuses on two phases of the events that await him and the Israelites: Joshua will bring this people into the land Yahweh had sworn to give to the ancestors,14 and Joshua will distribute among the Israelites the land Yahweh had reserved for them as their special grant.

Unless the hortatory verb “to be strong” implies a military context,15 neither here nor in the earlier charges (1:38; 3:28) does Moses refer explicitly to Joshua’s role as military leader. Verse 8 offers Joshua the grounds for courage: Yahweh goes before him and guarantees his presence. “He will never leave you nor forsake you” repeats verbatim the conclusion to Moses’ speech for the people in verse 6.

Bridging Contexts

THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. Although chapter 31 is a complex literary piece, it offers remarkable insight into ancient Israel’s view of the nature and importance of their written Scriptures, particularly the Torah.58 (1) The Deuteronomic Torah in its entirety was divinely inspired, authoritative, canonical, and sacred. Announced by the narrator in the introduction (1:3) and reiterated throughout, Moses has been instructing the people just as Yahweh had commanded him. Having presented his profoundly theological interpretation of Yahweh’s revelation in the great events of the exodus from Egypt, covenant-making at Sinai, provision and guidance in the desert, victory over the Amorite kings, and the imminent conquest of the Promised Land, on the one hand, and the specific revelation associated with the covenant at Sinai, on the other hand, Moses has transcribed his speeches, handed them to the priests for safekeeping next to the ark of the covenant, and then charged them to read them to all the people regularly when they gather for worship.

More than any other text in the Old Testament, chapter 31 binds Moses to a written document more tightly than any of the prophets who follow in his train. Critical scholars generally dismiss this chapter as fictional and view Deuteronomy as a pseudepigraph created centuries later to lend authority to Josiah’s reforms,59 but herein we find the roots of the Jewish and Christian tradition that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. This chapter provides the basis for a variety of expressions found in Old Testament: “the book of the Law of Moses,”60 “the book of Moses” (2 Chron. 25:4; 35:12; Neh. 13:1), “the Law of Moses,”61 “the book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses” (2 Chron. 34:14), and “the words of Yahweh by the hand of Moses” (2 Chron. 35:6, pers. trans.). This tradition carries over into the New Testament in references to “the Law of Moses,”62 “the book of Moses” (Mark 12:26), “Moses” as a substitute for “the Law,”63 “what [Moses] wrote” (John 5:47), vague references to laws that Moses commanded,64 “the customs Moses handed down to us” (Acts 6:14), statements like “Moses wrote” (Luke 20:28; cf. Deut. 25:5), and “Moses says” (Rom. 10:19). In the Gospels Jesus himself frequently refers to Moses as a recognized authority in Jewish tradition and as an authority behind his own teachings.

While it is probably an exaggeration to insist that Moses’ own hand put together the entire Pentateuch as we have it, or even the book of Deuteronomy, the speeches in this book represent the Torah of Moses par excellence. Although readers of the Old Testament often assume that expressions translated as “the law of the LORD” refer to the Pentateuch as a whole, the default view should rather be that “the Torah of Yahweh” and “the Torah of Moses” refer particularly to the book of Deuteronomy. This book is the heart of the Torah that the priests were to teach and model,65 in which psalmists delighted,66 to which the prophets appealed,67 by which faithful kings ruled,68 and by which righteous citizens lived (Ps. 1).

This was the book—long neglected—that Josiah’s officials found in the temple and which provided the theological impetus for his wide-ranging reforms (2 Kings 22–23); this was the book that Ezra read to the community of returned exiles on the occasion of the Festival of Booths (Neh. 8). And as the light of Old Testament prophecy was going out, this was the book to which Malachi called his people to return (Mal. 4:4). The book of Deuteronomy provides the theological base for virtually the entire Old (and New) Testament and is the paradigm for much of its literary style. Luke 16:19–31 and John 5:19–47 illustrate the enormous stature of Moses in the tradition of Judaism at the turn of the ages. In the Torah the Jews heard Moses’ prophetic voice, and in the Torah they read what he wrote.

Even though Deuteronomy 31 underlies the tradition of Moses as the man behind the Torah, the picture it paints of him is remarkably modest, standing in sharpest contrast to ancient rulers associated with law. In the law code of Hammurabi, the eighteenth-century BC Babylonian king claims to have been chosen by the gods “to make justice prevail in the land, to abolish the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak,”69 and commissioned by Marduk “to provide just ways for the people of the land (in order to attain) appropriate behavior.”70 Even so, his egotistical self-portrait in the prologue is the opposite of the Mosaic portrait painted here and in the rest of the book. Characterized by the narrator elsewhere as the humblest man on earth (Num. 12:3), Moses erected no monuments in his own honor, and he never referred to the Torah as “my Torah,” or “the Torah of Moses.” It is simply “this document of the Torah,” whose authority rests entirely on Yahweh who charged him to speak these words.

Inclusive. Deuteronomy 31 also emphasizes that the covenant principles spelled out in the Torah apply to all. In the picture of worship painted by 31:9–13 we recognize a remarkably democratic and egalitarian tone. The image of women and aliens at worship here and throughout the Old Testament presents a sharp contrast to the misogynistic attitudes that developed in the intertestamental period. Like 12:12, this text invites entire households—parents, sons and daughters, male and female servants, resident Levites—to appear before Yahweh to hear the Torah. Unlike the temple that Herod built to appease the Jews, which had separate courts for the women and for Gentiles,71 none of the Old Testament designs of structures for worship (tabernacle, Davidic temple, Ezekiel’s temple) excluded women or even segregated them from men. And nowhere in the Old Testament do we hear misogynistic venom like that spewed by Ben Sirach,72 or recited in prayer every day by many orthodox Jews around the world:

Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the world, for not making me a Gentile,

Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the world, for not making me a woman.

Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the world, for not making me a boor.73

The privilege of covenant relationship is open to all who identify with Yahweh by faith; all may delight in the knowledge that they are Yahweh’s children, his special treasure, his sanctified people. While the Torah provides concrete testimony to Israel’s privileged standing before Yahweh, it also holds the entire community accountable to its demands. To be sure, Deuteronomy 17:14–20 singles out the king as under its authority, but by reading the Torah every seven years before all the people, the Levites were to call every member to ṣedeq ṣedeq (“righteousness, only righteousness,” 16:20)—that is, devotion to Yahweh demonstrated in the pursuit of his glory and the well-being of one’s neighbor.

The reading of the Torah. The lack of Old Testament evidence for carrying out the instructions given here has led some to interpret chapter 31 as “a purely utopian provision.”74 However, analogous testimonial function of prior texts has been identified in ancient Hittite treaty documents.75 In the face of an outbreak of plagues, the fourteenth-century Hittite king Mursilis was directed by an oracle to two tablets on which were recorded the oaths that the Hittites had made to the gods. From these tablets Mursilis learned that the plagues had been caused by the Hittites’ violation of these oaths, which led him to plead for mercy from the gods.76 Josiah reacted similarly when, in the course of refurbishing the temple, his workers discovered the Torah document there (2 Kings 22–23). He accepted its testimonial function and earnestly sought for divine grace, for which the narrator characterized him as one who sought Yahweh with all his heart/mind, his being, and his resources.77 But the narrator made no attempt to link the reading of the Torah with Sukkoth.

The issues are different, however, in Nehemiah 8, which reports Ezra’s reading the Torah to the returnees from exile. The narrator emphasizes that this gathering involved all the people—men, women, children—and explicitly associates it with Sukkoth (vv. 14–18).78 While it is unclear whether the reading occurred as a part of the festival or the reading of the Torah precipitated the observance, the link is explicitly recognized. Whereas the Old Testament never prescribes the reading of the Decalogue, the Book of the Covenant, or the Instructions on Holiness in cultic observances, from the beginning Moses envisioned the written Torah would play a significant role in Israel’s worship.

In Joshua 1 we hear the clearest echoes of this chapter, which is not surprising, since the events described there appear to have happened within weeks, if not days of the speeches delivered here. This chapter is remarkable for its picking up on both the charges to Joshua (Josh. 1:6–7, 9; cf. Deut. 31:7–8, 23) and the importance of the written Torah (Josh. 1:7–8; cf. Deut. 31:9–13, 26–27). Admittedly the latter involved only Joshua rather than the assembly of all the people, as if the new leader assumes the role of a king (cf. Deut. 17:14–20). Yahweh’s appeal for fidelity to the Torah as the prerequisite to success in the military campaigns that lay ahead perceived Joshua as the embodiment of the nation.

The great commission given by Jesus to his apostles in Matthew 28:18–20 provides a striking New Testament equivalent to this chapter:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

We hear echoes of Deuteronomy 31 in the reference to “heaven and earth,” the appeal to teach God’s people everything Jesus has commanded them, and the promise of his presence.

Contemporary Significance

FORMULA FOR SUCCESS. THE significance of this chapter for the contemporary church is profound. The formula for success in the kingdom of God remains the same. As was the case with the divine and Mosaic commissioning of Joshua, on the one hand, and the great commissioning of the apostles by Jesus, on the other, Yahweh always provides the leadership needed to fulfill his calling. While every generation of leaders must hand the baton to successors, thankfully, neither new leaders nor the people in their charge are left to their own resources. The keys to the fulfillment of God’s mission remain acceptance of the commission received from him and trust in his promised presence.

Times of transition represent tests of faith: Will we and our leaders put our confidence in God, or will we turn to false gods, on the one hand, or to despair, on the other? The history of Israel demonstrates that despite every privilege and every needed provision, those who claim to be God’s people have the propensity to be distracted by other objects of devotion, to falter in their faith, and to lose sight of their mission as the agents of divine blessing. But the Israelites did not have a monopoly on infidelity. The course of church history is littered with leaders and entire groups of people abandoning the Lord, paying no heed to his will as revealed in the Torah and the rest of the Scriptures, and succumbing to the gods of this world. These remain ever-present dangers.

Reading and hearing God’s Word. This passage highlights the importance of reading and hearing the Word of God in worship. If the call to formal communal worship is fundamentally an invitation to appear before the divine King for an audience with him (cf. 31:11), surely what he has to say to his people is more important than what they have to say to him. The psalmist wrote, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah” (Ps. 95:7–8). Since in hearing the Scriptures read we are hearing the voice of God, evangelicals in particular must rediscover that through reading the written Word of God, worshipers hear the voice of God.

Despite what creedal statements testify, the relative absence of the Scriptures is one of the marks of contemporary evangelical worship. At best the Scriptures are read piecemeal and impatiently that we might get on with the sermon—as if the preacher stands in the place of Moses and his interpretation is as authoritative as the very words that proceed from the mouth of God. At worst, we do not open the Scriptures at all. In our drive to be contemporary and relevant, sometimes advertently and often inadvertently we dismiss the reading of the Scriptures as a fossil whose vitality and usefulness has died long ago. In the process we displace the life-giving and life-declaring voice of God with the foolish and seductive babbling of mortals, and the possibility of true worship is foreclosed. With Moses, Malachi 4:4[3:22] assumes that when people hear the Word of God, they will learn to fear God. And when they fear God, they will commit themselves to unconditional and total obedience to his will. The mark of a true encounter with God and true worship is the transformed life.

The hardness of the human heart. This chapter testifies to the hardness of the human heart. Despite the freshness of the memory of Yahweh’s redeeming acts, the covenant renewal ceremony on the Plains of Moab, and Yahweh’s imminent deliverance of the land into the people’s hands, both Yahweh and Moses recognize the inevitable—the people will abandon him and the covenant in favor of the lusty gods of the land. In advance he provides the people with two witnesses to his own faithfulness to his promises—the Torah and the Song. When the people have apostasized and have experience the threatened disasters written in the Torah, the written copies of the Torah and the Song of Yahweh (chap. 32) will declare his fidelity and their own infidelity. A fuller treatment of the implications of the role of this song awaits an examination of the Song itself, but this chapter testifies to the power of a song. Modern readers may be amazed that when the restraining influence of Moses is removed, God replaces him, not with a second Moses figure, but with a song. People are what they sing.

Original Meaning

The Deposition of the Torah (31:9–13)

THIS PARAGRAPH INTERRUPTS THE flow of thought, separating Moses’ commissioning speech for Joshua from Yahweh’s direct address to him (vv. 14–15, 23). The paragraph is carefully constructed, consisting of a narrative introduction (vv. 9–10a) and an address to the Levitical priests and all the elders of Israel (vv. 10b–13). While the editor’s intent is evident in the verbal echoes of 10:1–9,16 the focus of attention here is the Torah that Moses had been proclaiming since the beginning of the book (vv. 9, 11, 12).

The narrative preamble (v. 9) highlights three specific actions by Moses in relation to the Torah. (1) Moses wrote down this Torah. Although Deuteronomy presents Moses primarily as a self-conscious oral communicator of the Torah,17 for the first time he appears as a scribe. The contents of this “written” document are specified as “all the words of this Torah that are written in this document” (cf. 28:58), “his commands and his statutes that are written in this document of the Torah” (30:10), “the curses [of the covenant] written in this document” (29:20, 21, 27[19, 20, 26]; all pers. trans.).18

(2) Moses hands the Torah to the Levitical priests and to all the elders of Israel. Whereas Yahweh had previously entrusted the Decalogue to Moses (5:22; 10:4), now Moses entrusts the written copy of his exposition of the covenant to community leaders for safekeeping. Moses’ action strengthens the link between the Torah document he produced and the original covenant document produced by Yahweh,19 and he seeks to ensure that no one will tamper with this sacred text (cf. 4:2; 12:32).

But the narrator also notes the involvement of all the elders of Israel. While priests represented Yahweh to the people and the people to Yahweh, these civil authorities represent the people in covenant relationship with each other. The involvement of priestly and civil authorities anticipates the bifurcation of roles after Moses’ death.20 Moses’ handling of the Torah accords with the ancient Near Eastern practice of preparing written copies of covenants for use in ratification and renewal ceremonies.21 But the precedent goes back to Sinai. Just as Yahweh had prepared written documents for the vassal after orally declaring the basic terms of the covenant, so Moses follows up his oral exposition of the covenant and the renewal ceremonies with a written copy of the agreement.

(3) Moses charges the Levitical priests and elders to read the Torah regularly before the people. This charge, which takes up the bulk of this paragraph, consists of three principal declarations: read this Torah (v. 11); assemble the people (v. 12); let their children hear and learn to fear Yahweh (v. 13). The links between this speech and Moses’ account of what happened at Sinai in 4:10 are striking. Apparently future readings of the Torah will provide succeeding generations with regular opportunities for renewal and actualization of their covenant relationship with him.22

Verses 10b–11 set the context for the reading of the Torah by providing four vital details: (a) at the end of the seventh year,23 (b) at the time appointed for cancelling debts and releasing indentured Israelite servants (cf. 15:1–18), (c) on the festival of Sukkoth,24 (d) when all Israel is gathered at the central sanctuary to seek the face of Yahweh their God. Linking the reading with the canceling of debts will remind all Israelites of their common status as benefactors of Yahweh’s gracious redemption.

The festival of Sukkoth commemorated the Israelites’ dwelling in portable booths when they came out of Egypt (Lev. 23:43) and Yahweh’s gracious provision in the desert.25 The alternative name, Festival of Ingathering (Ex. 23:16; 34:22), highlights its location after the harvest had been processed and stored. The celebrative nature of this festival made it a most attractive event and ensured that the Torah would be read publicly at a time when the largest number of pilgrims were at the central sanctuary. The reference to gathering at the central sanctuary to see the face of God highlights the direct and personal nature of the encounter with him at the sanctuary.26 Moses’ command to read “this Torah” assumes that by hearing the text of the Torah, the people will have an encounter with Yahweh as direct as had the Israelites on Mount Horeb (4:10).

Echoing Yahweh’s order at the original Horeb event (4:10), in verse 12 Moses charges the Levitical priests and elders to assemble the people that they might participate in this covenant renewal ritual. He highlights the comprehensiveness of the gathering by listing four specific classes of people: men, women, children, aliens.27 While legal requirements obligated only males to appear before Yahweh at the three great festivals (16:16), the spirit of the law called for heads of households to bring with them their entire community to hear the Torah. Moses expresses the purpose of the reading with a series of verbs (cf. 17:19–20): reading yields hearing, which yields learning, which yields fearing, which yields obedience, which yields life.

In verse 13 Moses expresses concern for future generations. Responding to human propensity to forget one’s commitments (cf. 29:14–15), reading the Torah every seventh year ensures that no child will be left behind or reach adulthood without having heard the Torah at least twice.28