Deuteronomy 31:5

31:1-8 Moses assures Israel of the constant presence of God with them. This is applied by the apostle to all God's spiritual Israel, to encourage their faith and hope; unto us is this gospel preached, as well as unto them; he will never fail thee, nor forsake thee, Heb 13:5. Moses commends Joshua to them for a leader; one whose wisdom, and courage, and affection they had long known; one whom God had appointed to be their leader; and therefore would own and bless. Joshua is well pleased to be admonished by Moses to be strong and of good courage. Those shall speed well, who have God with them; therefore they ought to be of good courage. Through God let us do valiantly, for through him we shall do victoriously; if we resist the devil, he will flee from us.

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 Deuteronomy 7:1.

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" ( Exodus 7:7 ; Compare Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 34:7. Moses here adverts to his own age as likely to render him in future unequal to the active discharge of his office as leader of the people: the writer of Deuteronomy 34:1-12, one of Moses' contemporaries, remarks of him that up to the close of life "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated" Deuteronomy 31:7; i. e. that he was to the last, in the judgment of others, in full possession of faculties and strength.

2-8. also the Lord hath said—should be "for the Lord hath said" thou shalt not go over this Jordan. While taking a solemn leave of the people, Moses exhorted them not to be intimidated by the menacing opposition of enemies; to take encouragement from the continued presence of their covenanted God; and to rest assured that the same divine power, which had enabled them to discomfit their first assailants on the east of Jordan, would aid them not less effectually in the adventurous enterprise which they were about to undertake, and by which they would obtain possession of "the land which He had sworn unto their fathers to give them."

But although Moses could not, and was not to lead his people into Canaan, the Lord would fulfil His promise, to go before Israel and destroy the Canaanites, like the two kings of the Amorites; only they (the Israelites) were to do to them as the Lord had commanded them, i.e., to root out the Canaanites (vid., Deuteronomy 7:2 .; Numbers 33:51 .; Exodus 34:11 .).

[Bible] 30:18. I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to possess it. 30:19. I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 30:20. And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them. Deuteronomy Chapter 31 Moses encourageth the people, and Josue, who is appointed to succeed him. He delivereth the law to the priests. God foretelleth that the people will often forsake him, and that he will punish them. He commandeth Moses to write a canticle, as a constant remembrancer of the law. 31:1. And Moses went, and spoke all these words to all Israel, 31:2. And he said to them: I am this day a hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer go out and come in, especially as the Lord also hath said to me: Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. 31:3. The Lord thy God then will pass over before thee: he will destroy all these nations in thy sight, and thou shalt possess them: and this Josue shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. 31:4. And the Lord shall do to them as he did to Sehon and Og the kings of the Amorrhites, and to their land, and shall destroy them. 31:5. Therefore when the Lord shall have delivered these also to you, you shall do in like manner to them as I have commanded you. 31:6. Do manfully and be of good heart: fear not, nor be ye dismayed at their sight: for the Lord thy God he himself is thy leader, and will not leave thee nor forsake thee.