Deuteronomychapter 31
30 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter opens the last section of Deuteronomy, after the three long addresses are finished. Moses is at the end of his life on the plains of Moab, and Israel is about to cross the Jordan without him. The question in every listener's mind is what holds a people together when the man who led them is gone. The chapter answers with a successor, a written book and a song. Listen for how often the word witness returns, and for the hard forecast God gives in private at the tent. Read it as the handover of a covenant from one generation to the next.
Context
- Who
- The whole assembly, Joshua by name, and the priests and elders who would carry the written law
- What
- A narrative of succession in which Moses hands the leadership to Joshua, writes the law in a book and receives a song to teach Israel.
- Where
- The plains of Moab east of the Jordan, and the entrance of the tent of meeting.
- When
- The last days of Moses in the fortieth year after the exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date for the exodus.
- Why
- To show how the covenant would be carried forward once Moses was dead: by a leader, a public reading and a song that would testify.
Historical context
The chapter is Moses at the end of his life, handing the leadership to Joshua and putting the law into writing. It falls in the fortieth year on the plains of Moab, and part of it happens at the door of the tabernacle, where the pillar of cloud stands still while the succession is settled. The occasion is his own death, which verse 2 states as the reason he hands over, and verse 14 announces directly. A first hearer knew the idiom of verse 2, since to go out and come in is the phrase for leading men in war, the same pair of verbs Moses used at Numbers 27:17. He knew the calendar the public reading is fixed to, the feast of tabernacles in the year of release, which makes it every seventh year. He also knew how documents were kept. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the written law of verse 9 and the copy laid beside the ark at verse 26 against the ordinary practice of a contract. Two copies were drawn, one lodged for safekeeping and one left with the parties. Adam Clarke notes that matter meant to last was commonly cast into verse in societies where few could write, and that even history was sung. That is why the witness commissioned at verse 19 is a song.
Significance
The arrangements told them the covenant would outlive the man who had mediated it. A written text, a fixed reading every seven years and a song in the mouths of the children were three ways of carrying it forward without him. The gathering ordered at verse 12 named the women, the children and the stranger, so the hearing reached past the men who went up to the feast. The succession was done in public at verse 7, so the nation watched the handover rather than hearing about it afterward.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter orders the one assembly the Torah commands by name. The classical sources describe how it was held. Rashi fixes its date in the eighth year, the first of a new seven year cycle (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:10:1, citing Sotah 41a and Rosh Hashanah 12b). The text still calls it by the name of the seventh year, because the harvest of the seventh year's produce falls into the eighth. The king did the reading, from a wooden platform put up in the forecourt, beginning at the opening words of the book (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:11:1, citing Sotah 41a). The three groups named in the command were there for different reasons. Rashi marks the men as present in order to learn (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:12:1). Sforno accounts for the children by saying that they are too young to put a question of their own (Sforno on Deuteronomy 31:13:1, Munk translation, CC-BY).
The chapter also records two acts of writing. Moses finished the law and handed it to the men of his own tribe (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:9:1). The song he is told to write down is named exactly, as the text running from the opening of chapter 32 to its forty third verse (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:19:1).
How it is read
The commissioning of Joshua is read as a change in the kind of leadership Israel has. Rashi sets Moses' words beside God's and finds them different. Moses tells Joshua that he will go in with this people, which Rashi takes as an instruction to act with the elders and by their advice. God tells Joshua that he will bring the people in, which Rashi takes to mean even against their will (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:7:1, citing Sanhedrin 8a). There can be one leader for a generation and never two. Rashi also reads the command of 31:23 as spoken by God rather than by Moses, on the evidence of the first person in the verse (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:23:1).
The hard verses about the future are read plainly. Rashi glosses the hiding of God's face as God acting as though he does not see Israel's distress (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:17:1). He reads the promise that the song will testify as meaning the warning it contains will be found there afterwards, when the things it names have happened (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:21:1). On the promise that God will not fail Joshua, he reads the verb as giving no slackness that would leave him abandoned (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:6:1). The corpus holds Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 31:1:1, 31:5:1, 31:15:1, 31:18:1, 31:22:1 and 31:24:1 without a text that may be kept here. It holds Malbim on Deuteronomy 31:4:1 and 31:8:1, and Sforno on Deuteronomy 31:3:1, the same way. All are cited without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis read the first words of the chapter as Moses counting his own life to the day. Rashi carries their teaching that Moses means his days and years are full to the hour (Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:2:1, citing Sotah 13b). He was born on that date and died on it. The date they name is the seventh of Adar.
The corpus carries more locators on this chapter, given for a reader to follow. Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 31:14:11 stands at 31:1. Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 1:25 and Makkot 3:8 stand at 31:2. Midrash Tanchuma, Ha'Azinu 3:1 stands at 31:3, Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 17:1 at 31:6. Jerusalem Talmud Maaser Sheni 5:3:3 stands at 31:7, Devarim Rabbah 3:12 at 31:9. Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:38 stands at 31:10. Chagigah 3a:2 and Chagigah 3a:8 stand at 31:11. Avot DeRabbi Natan 18:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:4 stand at 31:12. Bereshit Rabbah 96:4 and Devarim Rabbah 11:10 stand at 31:14. Chagigah 5a:17 stands at 31:17, Bereshit Rabbah 42:3 at 31:18, Berakhot 32a:12 at 31:20. Aggadat Bereshit 60:1 stands at 31:21. Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 1:4 stands at 31:22. Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20 stands at 31:26, Bamidbar Rabbah 15:15 at 31:28.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:2 to 31:23, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929-1934; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 31:13:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY, with Sforno on Deuteronomy 31:3:1 cited without text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 31:1:1, 31:5:1, 31:15:1, 31:18:1, 31:22:1 and 31:24:1, cited without text; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 31:4:1 and 31:8:1, cited without text; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/31.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Be strong; he goes over before you
Deuteronomy 31:1-2
Moses gives two reasons for handing over. Being “no longer able to come and go” is the idiom for leading in war, as at Numbers 27:17, and since 34:7 says his strength had not failed, older readers take it of the office. The second reason is God's word barring him from the Jordan, laid on the people's account at 3:26 and 4:21 and on his own unbelief at Numbers 20:12.
Deuteronomy 31:1
“And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. The following words, even to the whole body of the people summoned together on this occasion.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 31:1
“Moses went and spake--It is probable that this rehearsal of the law extended over several successive days; and it might be the last and most important day on which the return of Moses to the place of assembly is specially noticed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Moses is now a hundred and twenty years old, and his life falls into three spans of forty years. Stephen counts them at Acts 7:23, 7:30 and 7:36: Egypt, Midian, and the wilderness. The last span closes at the Jordan he will not cross.
Deuteronomy 31:2
“I am an hundred and twenty years old - The 40 years of the wandering had passed since Moses, then 80 years old, “spake unto Pharaoh” (Exo 7:7; Compare Deu 34:7). I can, no more go out and come in - Render I shall not longer be able to go out and come in: i. e., discharge my duties among you. There is no inconsistency with Deu 34:7.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:2
“But he cannot any longer discharge his office; for, 1. He is 120 years old, and it is time for him to think of resigning his honour and returning to his rest. He that had arrived at so great an age then, when seventy or eighty was the ordinary stint, as appears by the prayer of Moses ( Ps. xc.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 31:2
“I am a hundred and twenty years old - The life of Moses, the great prophet of God and lawgiver of the Jews, was exactly the same in length as the time Noah employed in preaching righteousness to the antediluvian world.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 31:3-5
The sentence puts God over the Jordan first and Joshua second, and Joshua's commission rests on what “the LORD has said”. The proof offered is Sihon and Og, defeated at Numbers 21:21-35, and the argument runs from what this generation watched to what it has not yet seen. Verse 5 ties the conquest to the commandments already given, keeping the war under the law.
Deuteronomy 31:3
“Joshua, he shall go over before thee - See on Num 27:17 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:3
“Note, It is a great encouragement to a people when, instead of some useful instruments that are removed, God raises up others to carry on his work. He ensures their success.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Their land was already in Israel's hands. Moses had given the kingdoms of Sihon and Og to Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, as Numbers 32:33 and Deuteronomy 3:12-17 record. The men listening stood on conquered ground, and it served as a pledge of the country across the river.
Deuteronomy 31:4
“And the Lord shall do unto them as he did unto Sihon, and to Og, kings of the Amorites,.... Deliver them up into their hands; see the history of this in Num 21:10, and unto the land of them whom he destroyed; put them into the possession of the land of Canaan, as they were now in possession of the land of those two kings he destroyed by them. This instance is given to encourage their faith, assuring them that what had been done to them would be done to the Canaanitish kings, and their subjects, and their lands.”
John Gill reads the command as the charge of 7:1-5. The nations the LORD would deliver over were to be devoted to destruction, with no treaty and no marriage, and their altars broken down. Gill notes that the Targum of Jonathan has the Word of the LORD deliver them.
Deuteronomy 31:5
“And the Lord shall give them up before your face,.... To ruin and destruction; the Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord shall deliver them up:" that ye may do unto them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you; that is, utterly destroy them, make no covenant with them, enter into no alliances nor contract any marriages with them; but demolish their altars, cut down their groves, and break their images in pieces; of which last Aben Ezra interprets the words; but they are not to be restrained to that single instance; see Deu 7:1.”
Deuteronomy 31:6-8
“Be strong and courageous” falls three times in this chapter, to the people at verse 6 and to Joshua at verses 7 and 23, and Joshua 1:6-9 repeats them. Hebrews 13:5 quotes the promise of verse 6 against the love of money. Moses charges Joshua before all Israel, so the nation watches the succession happen.
Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong - חזקו chizku, the same word that is used Exo 4:21 (note), Exo 9:15 (note), for hardening Pharaoh’s heart. See the notes there. The Septuagint, in this and the following verse, have, Ανδριζου και ισχυε, Play the man, and be strong; and from this St. Paul seems to have borrowed his ideas, 1Co 16:13: Στηκετε εν τῃ πιστει· ανδριζεσθε, κρατιουσθε: Stand firm in the faith; play the man - act like heroes; be vigorous.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
Deuteronomy 31:6
- Quoted inHebrews 13:5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee' ('he hath said')
Joshua receives two tasks in this charge. He will lead the people into the land and then divide it among the tribes, the work Joshua 13 to 19 records by lot at Gilgal and Shiloh. Albert Barnes notes that 1:38 had already named him for this office, and this public charge marks the handover.
Deuteronomy 31:7
“Moses hands over to Joshua that office as leader of the people, to which he had already been designated Deu 1:38; Num 27:23. He assigns also to the Levitical priests and the elders, as the ecclesiastical and civil heads of the nation, the responsibility of teaching the law and enforcing its observance Deu 31:10-13. Both these were symbolic acts, designed to mark the responsibility of the parties concerned after the death of Moses.”
Verse 6 told the people that the Lord goes with them, and here Joshua hears that the Lord goes before him. The leader of Israel is himself led. The same encouragement comes back to Joshua at Joshua 8:1, after the defeat at Ai.
Deuteronomy 31:8
“The Lord - doth go before thee - To prepare thy way, and to direct thee. He will be with thee - Accompany thee in all thy journeys, and assist thee in all thy enterprises. He will not fail thee - Thy expectation, however strong and extensive, shall never be disappointed: thou canst not expect too much from him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Read this law aloud in the year of release
Deuteronomy 31:9-11
The law goes into writing and into two sets of hands, the priests who carry the ark and the elders. The public reading comes every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare the two copies of a contract, one lodged for safekeeping and one left with the parties. Nehemiah 8:1-8 and 8:14-18 record such a reading at this feast centuries later.
Deuteronomy 31:9
“Moses wrote this law - Not the whole Pentateuch, but either the discourses and precepts mentioned in the preceding chapters, or the book of Deuteronomy, which is most likely. Some of the rabbins have pretended that Moses wrote thirteen copies of the whole Pentateuch; that he gave one to each of the twelve tribes, and the thirteenth was laid up by the ark. This opinion deserves little credit.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:9
“It was usual in cases of public or private contract for two copies of the engagement to be made--one to be deposited in the national archives or some secure place for reference, should occasion require. The other was to remain in the hands of the contracting parties (Jer 32:12-14). The same course was followed on this renewal of the covenant between God and Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The year of remission is the seventh year of 15:1-2, when a creditor cancelled what a fellow Israelite owed him. Adam Clarke holds that the solemn mood of that year left the people better disposed to hear the law. The feast itself followed the harvest.
Deuteronomy 31:10
“At the end of every seven years - thou shalt read this law - Every seventh year was a year of release, Deu 15:1, at which time the people’s minds, being under a peculiar degree of solemnity, were better disposed to hear and profit by the words of God. I suppose on this ground also that the whole book of Deuteronomy is meant, as it alone contains an epitome of the whole Pentateuch. And in this way some of the chief Jewish rabbins understand this place.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Commentators differ on how much was read. Adam Clarke takes this law to mean the book of Deuteronomy, as some Jewish teachers did, while Albert Barnes holds that a selection from the Pentateuch was read. The Mishnah at Sotah 7:8 assigns the reading to the king.
Deuteronomy 31:11
“Compare the marginal references. It is not to be supposed that the whole of the Pentateuch was read, nor does the letter of the command require that it should be so. This reading could not be primarily designed for the information and instruction of the people, since it only took place once in seven years; but was evidently a symbolic transaction, intended, as were so many others, to impress on the people the conditions on which they held possession of their privileges and blessings.”
Deuteronomy 31:12-13
The gathering names men, women, children and “the foreigners within your gates”, so the hearing reaches past the men at the feast. Verse 13 gives the reason for the interval, that “their children who do not know the law” hear it before they are grown. Wesley has it read by priests and Levites in several assemblies at once, since one voice could not reach a nation.
Deuteronomy 31:12
“But into divers assemblies or synagogues. Women who hereby are required to go to Jerusalem at this solemnity, as they were permitted to do in other solemnities. Children - Such of them as could understand, as appears from Neh. viii, 2, 3, the pious Jews doubtless read it daily in their houses, and Moses of old time was read in the synagogues every sabbath day.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The public reading adds to the teaching at home that 6:7 and 11:19 lay on every parent, and John Wesley notes that devout families read the law daily in their houses. The reading was to last as long as Israel lived in the land. Hearing the law and holding the land go together.
Deuteronomy 31:13
“17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that 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?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
This people will rise up and go astray
Deuteronomy 31:14-15
Joshua was designated at Numbers 27:18-23 with the laying on of hands, and here God calls him into the tabernacle to take the charge in person. Matthew Henry observes that this is the only appearance of the glory of God recorded in Deuteronomy, where the three books before it report such appearances often. The pillar of cloud that led the march out of Egypt at Exodus 13:21 now stands still at the door while the succession is settled.
Deuteronomy 31:14
“The transaction recorded in these verses may be regarded as the solemn inauguration of Joshua to the office to which he had some time before Num 27:22 been called, and his recognition in it by God, which were manifested by his being summoned into the tabernacle with Moses while the Lord appeared in the pillar of cloud (compare Num 11:25; Num 12:5). Deu 31:16 The future apostasy of the people is announced in the presence of Joshua that the latter might be fully aware of the danger and strive in his day to avert it.”
The cloud had come down at the tent twice before, both times over a question of leadership. At Numbers 11:25 the Spirit rested on the seventy elders, and at Numbers 12:5 God answered the challenge Aaron and Miriam made to Moses. Albert Barnes sets this scene beside those two.
Deuteronomy 31:15
“This is the only time in all this book that we read of the glory of God appearing, whereas we often read of it in the three foregoing books, which perhaps signifies that in the latter days, under the evangelical law, such visible appearances as these of the divine glory are not to be expected, but we must take heed to the more sure word of prophecy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 31:16-18
God tells Moses what the nation will do before it enters the land. The words are those of a broken marriage, “prostitute themselves with the foreign gods”, the figure Hosea builds a book on, and the judgment is withdrawal, “hide My face from them”. The people are quoted in advance naming the cause, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tie the hidden face to the second temple's lack of the Shekinah.
Deuteronomy 31:16
“Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers - שכב shocheb, thou shalt lie down; it signifies to rest, take rest in sleep, and, metaphorically, to die. Much stress cannot be safely laid on this expression to prove the immortality of the soul, or that the people in the time of Moses had a distinct notion of its separate existence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:16
“Worshipping the gods of the Canaanites (who had been the natives, but henceforward were to be looked upon as the strangers of that land) would undoubtedly be counted a deserting of God, and, like adultery, a violation of the covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
hide my face from them: One Hebrew verb, azab, runs through this chapter. It stands behind He will never leave you nor forsake you at verses 6 and 8, behind the people forsaking the LORD at verse 16, and behind I will abandon them here. The God who promised to stay answers a people who left first.
Deuteronomy 31:17
Then my anger shall be kindled, . . . and I will hide my face from them--an announcement of the withdrawal of the divine favor and protection of which the Shekinah was the symbol and pledge. It never appeared in the second temple; and its non-appearance was a prelude of "all the evils that came upon them, because their God was not among them."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I will surely hide my face: Surely renders a doubled Hebrew verb, haster astir, in which the verb hide stands twice. The doubling marks certainty. The Talmud at Chullin 139b hears the name Esther in these words, the book in which God is never named and Israel is still preserved.
Deuteronomy 31:18
“I will surely hide my face - Withdraw my approbation and my protection. This is a general meaning of the word in Scripture.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 31:19-21
The song is commissioned as evidence for a trial that has not opened, and verse 21 says why it will hold: “it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants”. Verse 20 names plenty as the occasion of the turning, when “they will eat their fill and prosper”, the warning of 6:11-12 and 8:11-14 now given as a forecast. The song itself is chapter 32.
Deuteronomy 31:19
“Write ye this song - The song which follows in the next chapter. Things which were of great importance and of common concern were, among the ancients, put into verse, as this was found the best method of keeping them in remembrance, especially in those times when writing was little practiced. Even prose was sometimes sung. The history of Herodotus was divided into Nine books, and each inscribed with the name of one of the Nine Muses, because these books were anciently sung. Homer is reported to have sung his poems through different Greek cities.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Prosper translates a Hebrew word for growing fat. The song that follows takes up the same picture at 32:15, where Jeshurun grows fat and kicks and then abandons the God who made him. The prosperity promised with the land becomes the occasion of the turning this verse forecasts.
Inclination translates yetser, the Hebrew word for what a mind forms or plans. The same word describes the evil bent of the human heart before and after the flood at Genesis 6:5 and 8:21. God reads Israel's bent before they cross.
Deuteronomy 31:21
“This song shall testify against them - Because in it their general defection is predicted, but in such a way as to show them how to avoid the evil; and if they did not avoid the evil, and the threatened punishment should come upon them, then the song should testify against them, by showing that they had been sufficiently warned, and might have lived to God, and so escaped those disasters.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:21
“When their troubles come upon them, this song shall not be forgotten, but may serve as a glass to show them their own faces, that they may humble themselves, and return to him from whom they have revolted. Note, Those for whom God has mercy in store he may leave to fall, yet he will provide means for their recovery. Medicines are prepared before-hand for their cure.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 31:22-23
Moses writes and teaches the song that same day, so the witness is in place long before the failure. Verse 23 names no speaker, and Keil and Delitzsch read the LORD because verse 14 promised his commission, while others carry Moses over from verse 22. The words are those of verse 7 with “I will be with you” added, a promise Joshua 1:5 repeats to him.
The LORD commissions Joshua son of Nun, whom Moses had renamed from Hoshea at Numbers 13:16. The new name means the LORD saves. Its Greek form is Iesous, the name of Jesus, and Hebrews 4:8 uses that Greek name for the Joshua who brought the Israelites into the land.
The book laid beside the ark as a witness
Deuteronomy 31:24-26
The book is placed “beside the ark”, since 1 Kings 8:9 says nothing lay inside it but the two stone tablets. The song at verse 19 and the book at verse 26 are each a witness, and verse 28 adds heaven and earth, answering the two or three witnesses of 19:15. Hilkiah finds the book in Josiah's reign at 2 Kings 22:8, and its reading turns a kingdom.
Deuteronomy 31:24
“And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book,.... In this book of Deuteronomy, and which concluded the Pentateuch: until they were finished; all the words of the law, and the whole five books of Moses, excepting some few verses, Deu 34:1, which were added by another hand, Joshua or Ezra.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:24
“Moses completes the writing out of the book of the Law, and directs it to be placed by the ark of the covenant. Deu 31:24 The “book” here spoken of would contain the whole Pentateuch up to this verse, and be “the Book of Moses,” called generally by the Jews “the Law” (compare Mat 22:40; Gal 4:21). Deu 31:25 The Levites, which bare the ark - i. e., as in Deu 31:9, “the priests the sons of Levi.” The non-priestly Levites could not so much as enter the sanctuary or touch the ark (compare Num 4:15).”
Albert Barnes takes these Levites to be the priests of verse 9, the sons of Levi. The Kohathites carried the ark on the march, yet Numbers 4:15 forbade them to touch the holy things. Placing a book beside the ark was priestly work.
Adam Clarke calls this Book of the Law the standard to which every later copy had to answer. John Gill cites the Targum of Jonathan, which places the book in a chest at the right of the ark. A master copy beside the ark guarded the law against drift.
Deuteronomy 31:26
“Take this book of the law,.... Not Deuteronomy only, but the whole Pentateuch: and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; not in the ark, for there were nothing there but the two tables of stone with the ten commands on them, 1Ki 8:9; but on one side of it; the Targum of Jonathan says, it was"put in a chest (or box) on the right side of the ark of the covenant;''which is very probable.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 31:26
“Take this book of the law - The standard copy to which all transcripts must ultimately refer: another copy was put into the bands of the priests. See the note on Deu 31:9.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 31:26
“Take this book - Probably the very same book, which (after having been some way misplaced) was found in the house of the Lord, in the days of Josiah, and publickly read by the king himself, for a witness against a people, who were then almost ripe for ruin.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 31:27-29
Moses grounds the forecast in forty years of watching, rebellion “while I am still alive”. The charge of a stiff neck goes back to Exodus 32:9 at the golden calf, and 10:16 had told them to stiffen their necks no longer. Verse 29 repeats to the elders what verses 16 to 21 told Moses at the tent, and “in the days to come” carries it past the generation before him.
Deuteronomy 31:27
“While I am yet alive - ye have been rebellious - Such was the disposition of this people to act contrary to moral goodness that Moses felt himself justified in inferring what would take place from what had already happened. 1. Never was a people more fully and faithfully warned, and from this very circumstance we may see that they were under no fatal constraining necessity to commit sin against God; they might have avoided it, but they would not.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Moses has called heaven and earth as witnesses twice already, at 4:26 and 30:19. The song opens by addressing them at 32:1, and Isaiah begins his book with the same summons at Isaiah 1:2. They outlast every generation that hears the charge.
Deuteronomy 31:28
“8 And the L ORD , he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. Loth to part (we say) bids oft farewell. Moses does so to the children of Israel: not because he was loth to go to God, but because he was loth to leave them, fearing that when he had left them they would leave God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The work of your hands names the idols. At 4:28 Moses warned that in exile Israel would serve gods of wood and stone made by human hands. The prophetess Huldah uses the same charge against Judah at 2 Kings 22:17, after the book of the law is found, and Jeremiah repeats it at 25:6 and 44:8.
Deuteronomy 31:29
“Thus our Lord Jesus, a little before his death, foretold the rise of false Christs and false prophets ( Matt. xxiv. 24 ), notwithstanding which, and all the apostasies of the latter times, we may be confident that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church, for the foundation of God stands sure.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
One text is handled four ways in this chapter: put in their mouths at verse 19, written and taught at verse 22, and here recited to the whole assembly. The words “from beginning to end” mark the seam, and chapter 32 sets the text down whole. Clarke notes that where few could write, matter meant to last was commonly cast into verse, and even history was sung.
Deuteronomy 31:30
“Moses again, when about to depart from this life, sang a fear-inspiring canticle in Deuteronomy. He left the song as a sort of testament to the people of Israel, to teach them the kind of funeral they should expect, if ever they abandoned God.”
Nicetas of Remesiana · written before 414 · LITURGICAL SINGING 3patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: A succession narrative carrying the deposit of the covenant document and the commission of the Song, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Be strong and of a good courage | The charge falls three times in this chapter, to the people at verse 6, to Joshua at verse 7, and again at verse 23. Joshua 1:6, 1:7 and 1:9 put the same words to the same man on the far bank of the Jordan. Hebrews 13:5 quotes the promise of verse 6 in the form I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, and turns it against covetousness and the fear of want.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 31:6. | Deuteronomy 31:6, Deuteronomy 31:7, Deuteronomy 31:23 |
| One text, four handlings | The Song is dealt with four times in this chapter before a word of it is sung. It is put in their mouths at verse 19, written at verse 22, taught to the children of Israel in the same verse, and spoken aloud to the whole assembly at verse 30. Until they were ended marks the seam, and what follows in chapter 32 is that text set down whole.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 31:30. | Deuteronomy 31:19, Deuteronomy 31:22, Deuteronomy 31:30 |
| A witness against thee | Both the Song at verse 19 and the book at verse 26 are called a witness, and verse 28 adds heaven and earth to the record. Three witnesses answer the two or three this same law requires at 19:15. The Song is commissioned as evidence for a trial that has not opened, and verse 21 says why it will hold, that it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 31:26. | Deuteronomy 31:19, Deuteronomy 31:21, Deuteronomy 31:26, Deuteronomy 31:28 |
| Gather the people together | Verse 12 names who must be gathered for the seventh-year reading, the men, the women, the children and the stranger within thy gates. The hearing therefore reaches past the men who go up to the feast. Verse 13 gives the reason for the seven-year interval, that their children, which have not known any thing, get their hearing before they are grown.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 31:12. | Deuteronomy 31:12, Deuteronomy 31:13 |
The reading fixed to a date
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The public reading of verses 10 and 11 is fixed to one point in the calendar, the feast of tabernacles in the year of release, which makes it every seventh year. It happens in the place which the LORD shall choose, the phrase that falls fifteen times in chapters 12 to 26 and never once names the place. Nehemiah 8:1-8 and 8:14-18 record such a reading at this same feast centuries later. John Wesley reads verse 11 to mean the priests and Levites did the reading in several assemblies at once, since one voice could not carry to a nation.
Where the book was kept
The finished book is set in the side of the ark rather than inside it, where 1 Kings 8:9 says nothing lay but the two tables of stone. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set this beside the ordinary practice of drawing two copies of a contract, one lodged for safekeeping and one left with the parties. They read verse 9 and verse 26 that way. Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the house of the LORD in Josiah's reign at 2 Kings 22:8, and the reading of it turns the policy of a kingdom inside a day.
The forecast given before the failure
God tells Moses what the nation will do before Moses is dead and before the nation is in the land. The words at verse 16 are the words of a broken marriage, go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land and break my covenant. Hosea builds a whole book on that figure. The judgment named is withdrawal, I will hide my face from them. The people are then quoted in advance getting the diagnosis right, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tie the hidden face to the absence of the Shekinah from the second temple.
Why plenty is named as the occasion
Verse 20 names the turning point as abundance, when they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat. That is the warning of 6:11-12 and 8:11-14 arriving now as a forecast rather than a caution.
The one appearance of the glory
Matthew Henry observes that verse 15 is the only appearance of the glory of God recorded in Deuteronomy, where the three books before it report such appearances often. The pillar of cloud that led the march out of Egypt at Exodus 13:21 now stands still at the door while the succession is settled.
Who speaks at verse 23
The speaker at verse 23 is left unnamed. Keil and Delitzsch read the LORD as the speaker, because verse 14 said that I may give him a charge. Others carry Moses over as the subject from verse 22. The words are the ones Moses used at verse 7 with one addition, I will be with thee, which Joshua 1:5 repeats to him again.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Deuteronomy 31:9; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 31 and Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Babylonian Talmud, Chullin 139b; Berean Standard Bible; Hebrew text; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and The Mishnah, Sotah 7:8.