Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
Be Strong and Courageous
Deuteronomy 31:1-13
1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. · WEB
Moses hands over at a hundred and twenty, and arranges for the law to be read aloud to everyone every seventh year.
I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in Deuteronomy 31:2.
The phrase means leading in the field, and he states his retirement as a plain fact. He also states the other reason without softening it: Yahweh has said to me, 'You shall not go over this Jordan.'
Then the encouragement, and its order is careful. God goes first — Yahweh your God himself will go over before you — and Joshua is named second Deuteronomy 31:3. The people are not being handed from one leader to another; they are being reminded who has been leading, and told who will now walk in front of them.
The charge is given twice, to two audiences, in almost the same words. To the nation: be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or scared of them, for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you Deuteronomy 31:6. Then to Joshua, in the sight of all Israel Deuteronomy 31:7, so that the man they must follow is commissioned in public.
The promise attached — he will not fail you nor forsake you — is quoted centuries later to Christians facing poverty, as the reason to be content Hebrews 13:5.
And Joshua receives one thing the people do not: don't be discouraged Deuteronomy 31:8. Fear is what a nation facing armies feels. Discouragement is what a successor feels, and it is addressed separately.
The rest of the passage is about the document. Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests and to the elders Deuteronomy 31:9 — two custodians rather than one, clergy and lay leadership together.
Then the reading, and its provisions are remarkable. Every seven years, at the feast of booths, in the chosen place, the whole law is to be read aloud Deuteronomy 31:10–11.
The audience is specified so that no one can be left out: the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates Deuteronomy 31:12. Children are named, and the reason is given in the next verse — that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn Deuteronomy 31:13.
A generation that was not present is the reason the reading exists. It is the same conviction that runs through the whole book: nothing survives by being inherited, and every generation has to hear it for itself.
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