Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy

Section 52

Chapters 31:1-31:30

Chapter 31

AND Mosheh went into the tabernacle of the house of instruction, and spake these words unto all Israel,

and said to them: I am the son of a hundred and twenty years this day. I am no more able to go out and come in, and the Word of Yahuah hath said to me: Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

Yahuah your Elohim, and His Shekinah, will go over before you. He will destroy those nations, and you shall possess them. Jehoshua also will go before you, as Yahuah hath said.

And Yahuah will execute judgment on them, as He did on Sihon and Og kings of the Amoraee, and the people of their land, whom He destroyed.

And the Word of Yahuah will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment that I have commanded you.

Be strong, then, and of good courage, fear not, nor be dismayed before them; for the Shekinah of Yahuah your Elohim will be the Leader of you, He will not forsake nor be far from you.

And Mosheh called Jehoshua from among the people, and said to him: Be thou strong, and of good courage; for thou art appointed to go with this people to the land which the Word of Yahuah sware to your fathers to give them, and thou art to divide it among them.

And the Shekinah of the Word of Yahuah will go before thee, and His Word will be thy helper; He will not forsake nor be far from thee; fear not, nor be dismayed.

And Mosheh wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bare the ark of Yahuah’s covenant, and to all the sages of Israel.

And Mosheh commanded them, saying: At the end of seven years in the time of the year of remission at the feast of Tabernacles,

when all Israel cometh to appear before Yahuah your Elohim, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel while they listen.

Assemble the people, the men, that they may learn, the women, that they may hear instruction, the children, that they may partake the benefit (reward) of those who bring them, and your sojourners who are in your cities, that they may behold the majesty of the law, and be reverent all of them before the Word of Yahuah your Elohim, and observe to do all the words of this law.

Let their children also, who know not, hear, and learn to fear Yahuah your Elohim all the days that you live in the land to inherit which you pass over Jordan.

Unto three of the just was it told that the time of their death was drawing nigh, and that they should not attain to the days of their fathers; and each of them had been appointed a prince in his days; Jakob our father, David the king, and Mosheh the prophet; for thus it is written: And Yahuah said unto Mosheh, Behold, thy day approacheth when thou must die. Call Jehoshua, and stand both of you in the tabernacle of ordinance, that I may give him charge. And Mosheh and Jehoshua went, and stood in the tabernacle of ordinance.

And the glorious Shekinah of Yahuah revealed itself at the tabernacle in the pillar of the Cloud, and the pillar of the Cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle, and Mosheh and Jehoshua stood without.

And Yahuah said to Mosheh, Behold, thou wilt lie down in the dust with thy fathers, and thy soul shall be treasured in the treasury of eternal life with thy fathers: but this wicked people will rise up and go astray after the idols of the nations among whom they come, and will forsake My worship, and change My covenant which I have made with them.

Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I shall abhor them, and remove My Shekinah from them, and they will become a prey, and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they will say at that time, with adjuration, Is it not because the Shekinah of my Elohim dwelleth not among me, that all these evils have befallen me?

But I will indeed remove My Shekinah from them at that time, until they have dwindled away, to receive the punishment of their sins for all the evil they have wrought, because they turned themselves after the idols of the nations.

And now, write you this hymn, and teach the children of Israel; put it upon their lips, that this hymn may be before them, for a witness against the children of Israel.

For I will bring them into the land which I promised to their fathers, (a land) producing milk and honey, and they will eat and be satisfied: but (after that they have) waxen fat they will turn away to the idols of the Gentiles and worship them; so will they provoke Me to anger, and abolish My covenant.

And when these many evils and troubles shall come upon them, then will this hymn bear witness to them for a testimony; for it is revealed before Me that it will not be forgotten on the lips of their children: for their evil disposition to which they are yielding today, even before I bring you into the promised land, is known to Me.

And Mosheh wrote this hymn, and taught the children of Israel.

And He commanded Jehoshua bar Nun, saying: Be strong and of good courage; for thou art to bring the sons of Israel into the land I have promised to them, and My Word shall be thy Helper.

And when Mosheh had finished to write the words of this law upon parchment to complete them,

he commanded the Levites who bare the ark of Yahuah’s covenant, saying:

Take the book of this law, and put it into a chest on the right side of the ark of the covenant of Yahuah your Elohim, that it may be for a testament to you.

For your rebellion is revealed before me, and the obduracy of your neck. Behold, while I am yet alive among you today ye are rebellious before Yahuah; but how much more when I am dead!

Gather together to me all the sages of your tribes and your officers, and I will speak all these words in their hearing, and will call heaven and earth to bear witness against them.

For I know that after my death corrupting you will corrupt your works, and go astray from the way I have commanded you, and that evil will befall you in the end, because you will do what is wrong before Yahuah in provoking Him to anger.

And Mosheh spake in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel the words of this hymn until they were ended.