Be Strong and Courageous
1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 Yahweh your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken. 4 Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. 6 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.” 7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8 Yahweh himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.” 9 Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of booths, 11 when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, learn, fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
Moses hands over at a hundred and twenty, and arranges for the law to be read aloud to everyone every seventh year.
He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’
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.
settled What this mark means