Catholic Public Domain Version

Deuteronomy 31:12-22 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

12. And when the people have gathered together, men as well as women and little children, and the new arrivals who are within your gates, they shall listen so that they may learn, and may fear the Lord your God, and may keep and fulfill all the words of this law,

13. and also so that their sons, who are now ignorant, may be able to listen, and may fear the Lord their God all the days that they live in the land to which you will travel, crossing the Jordan in order to obtain it."

14. And the Lord said to Moses: "Behold, the days of your death draw near. Call Joshua, and stand in the tabernacle of the testimony, so that I may instruct him." Therefore, Moses and Joshua went and stood in the tabernacle of the testimony.

15. And the Lord appeared there, in a pillar of cloud, which stood at the entrance of the tabernacle.

16. And the Lord said to Moses: "Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers, and this people will rise up and will fornicate after foreign gods, in the land which they will enter so that they may live in it. In that place, they will forsake me, and they will make void the covenant that I have formed with them.

17. And my fury will be enraged against them in that day. And I will abandon them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. Every evil and affliction will find them, so much so that they will say in that day: 'Truly, it is because God is not with me that these evils have found me.'

18. But I will hide myself, and I will conceal my face in that day, because of all the evils that they have done, because they have followed strange gods.

19. And so, write this canticle now, and teach it to the sons of Israel, so that they may retain it in memory, and may chant it by mouth, and so that this verse may be a testimony to me among the sons of Israel.

20. For I will lead them into the land, about which I swore to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. And when they have eaten, and have been satiated and fattened, they will turn aside to foreign gods, and they will serve them. And they will disparage me, and they will nullify my covenant.

21. And after many evils and afflictions have overwhelmed them, this canticle will answer them as a testimony; it shall never pass into oblivion, away from the mouths of their offspring. For I know their thoughts and what they are about to do today, even before I lead them into the land which I have promised to them."

22. Therefore, Moses wrote the canticle, and he taught it to the sons of Israel.