The Pulpit Commentary
Last acts of Moses.

And Moses went; i.e. disposed or set himself. The meaning is not that he "went away" into the tent of teaching, as one of the Targums explains it, which does not agree with what follows; nor is "went" merely equivalent to "moreover;" nor is it simply redundant;—it intimates that the speaking was consequent on Moses having arranged, disposed, or set himself to speak (cf. Exo_2:1; Jos_9:4; Job_1:4).

The Pulpit Commentary
I am an hundred and twenty years old this day. When Moses stood before Pharaoh he was eighty years old (Exo_7:7); since then forty years had elapsed during the wanderings in the wilderness. I can no more go out and come in; I am no longer able to work among and for the nation as I have hitherto done (cf. Num_27:17). This does not conflict with the statement in Deu_34:7, that up to the time of his death his eyes were not dim nor his natural strength abated, for this is the statement of an observer, and it often happens that an individual feels himself to be failing, when to those around him he appears to possess unabated vigor. There is no need, therefore, for resorting, with Raschi and others, to the expedient of reading "for" instead of "and" in the following clause; as if the cause why Moses could no longer go in and out among the people was God's prohibition of his going over Jordan. This is simply another and collateral reason why he had now to retire flora his post as leader.

The Pulpit Commentary
But though Moses was no longer to be their leader, he assures them that the Lord would fulfill his engagement to conduct them to the possession of Canaan, even as he had already given them the territory of the kings of the Amorites; and he therefore exhorts them to be of good courage and fearlessly go forward to the conquest of the laud (cf. Deu_1:21; Deu_10:3).

Deu_31:7, Deu_31:8

Moses, having in view the appointment of Joshua as his successor, also encourages him to go forward on the strength of the Divine promise. Thou must go with this people. This is a correct rendering of the words as they stand in the Hebrew text. The Samaritan, Syriac, and Vulgate have, "Thou shalt bring this people;" but this is probably an arbitrary correction in order to assimilate this to verse 23. And thou shalt cause them to inherit it; i.e. shalt conduct them to the full possession of the land.

Moses turns next to the priests and the elders, and to them he commits the Law which he had written, with the injunction to read it to the people at the end of every seven years during the festival of the year of release, viz. at the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Lev_23:34), when they appeared before the Lord. At the end of every seven years (cf. Deu_15:1). The Law was committed to the priests and elders, not merely to preserve it in safe keeping, but that they might see to its being observed by the people; else why commit it to the elders whose it was to administer rule in the nation, as well as to the priests who alone had access to the ark of the covenant where the Law was deposited? Moses "entrusted the reading to the priesthood and the college of elders, as the spiritual and secular rulers of the congregation; and hence the singular, Thou shalt read this Law to all Israel" (Keil). By the Law here is meant the Pentateuch; but it does not necessarily follow that the whole of the Pentateuch was to be thus read. As the reading was to be only once in seven years, it may be concluded that it was not so much for the information of the people that this was done, as for the purpose of publicly declaring, and by a solemn ceremony impressing on their minds the condition on which they held their position and privileges as the chosen people of the Lord; and for this the reading of select portions of the Torah would be sufficient. The Feast of Tabernacles was appointed as the season for the reading, doubtless because there was a connection between the end for which the Law was read and the spirit and meaning of that festival as a festival of rejoicing because of their deliverance from the uncertainty and unsettledness of their state in the wilderness, and their establishment in a well-ordered state where they could in peace and quietness enjoy the blessings which the bounty of God bestowed. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord (cf. Deu_16:16). Thou shalt read this law (cf. Jos_8:34; 2Ki_23:2; Neh_8:1, etc.).

After nominating Joshua as his successor, and assigning the keeping of the Law to the priesthood and body of elders, Moses was summoned by the Lord to appear with Joshua in the tabernacle, that Joshua might receive a charge and appointment to his office. At the same time, God announced to Moses that after his death the people would go astray, and turn to idolatry, and violate the covenant, so that God's anger should be kindled against them, and he would leave them to suffer the consequences of their folly and sin. In view of this, Moses was directed to write a song and teach it to the people, that it might abide with them as a witness against them, rising up, as songs will do, in the memory of the nation, even after they had apostatized from the path in which the author of the song had led them.

The tabernacle of the congregation; properly, the tent of meeting (cf. Exo_33:7; Exo_39:32). May give him a charge; may constitute him (צִוָּה; cf. Num_27:19; "and constitute him in their sight," Gesenius), appoint and confirm him in this office.

The Pulpit Commentary
The Lord appeared … in a pillar of a cloud (cf. ExDeu_33:9; 40:38; Le Deu_16:2; Num_12:5).

The Pulpit Commentary
Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers (cf. 2Sa_7:12; Psa_13:3; Psa_76:5; Dan_12:2; Mat_27:52; Joh_11:11; 1Th_4:14). "The death of men, both good and bad, is often called a sleep, because they shall certainly awake out of it by resurrection" (Peele). Go a whoring (cf. Exo_34:15; Jdg_2:17) after the gods of the strangers of the land; literally, after gods of strangeness of the land; i.e. after gods foreign to the land, as opposed to Jehovah, the alone proper God of the land he had given to them.

The Pulpit Commentary
I will hide my face from them; will not look on them with complacency, will withdraw from them my favor and help (cf. Deu_32:20; Isa_8:17; Isa_64:7; Eze_39:23).

The Pulpit Commentary
Write ye this song. This refers to the song which follows in next chapter. Moses and Joshua were both to write this song, Moses probably as the author, Joshua as his amanuensis, because both of them were to do their endeavor to keep the people from that apostasy which God had foretold.

The Pulpit Commentary
And he gave, etc. The subject here is God, not Moses, as is evident partly from Deu_31:14, and partly from the expression, the land which I aware unto them; and I will be with thee (cf. Exo_3:12).

The Pulpit Commentary
After the installation of Joshua, only one thing remained for Moses to do that all things might be set in order before his departure. This was the finishing of the writing of the Book of the Law, and the committing it finally to the priests, to be by them placed by the ark of the covenant, that it might be kept for all future generations as a witness against the people, whose apostasy and rebellion were foreseen.

Whether this section is to be regarded as wholly written by Moses himself, or as an appendix to his writing added by some other writer, has been made matter of question. It is quite possible, however, that Moses himself, ere he laid down the pen, may have recorded what he said when delivering the Book of the Law to the priests, and there is nothing in the manner or style of the record to render it probable that it was added by another. What follows from verse 30 to the end of the book was probably added to the writing of Moses by some one after his death, though, of course, both the song in Deu_32:1-52, and the blessing in Deu_33:1-29, are the composition of Moses (see Introduction, § 6).

The Levites, which bare the ark; i.e. the priests whose business it was to guard and to carry the ark of the covenant; "the priests the sons of Levi," as in Deu_31:9. According to Num_4:4, etc; it was the Kohathites who carried the ark on the journey through the desert; but they seem merely to have acted in this respect as the servants or helpers of the priests, who alone might touch the ark, and by whom it was carefully wrapped up before it was handed to the Kohathites. On special occasions the priests themselves carried the ark (cf. Jos_3:3, etc.; Jos_4:9, Jos_4:10; Jos_6:6, Jos_6:12; Jos_8:33; 1Ki_8:3).

The Pulpit Commentary
In the side of the ark; at or by the side of the ark. According to the Targum of Jonathan, it was in a coffer by the right side of the ark that the book was placed; but the Talmudists say it was put within the ark, along with the two tables of the Decalogue ('Baba Bathra,' 14); but see 1Ki_8:8.

The Pulpit Commentary
I know thy rebellion; rather, rebelliousness, i.e. tendency to rebel. In Num_17:1-13 :25 [10], the people are described as בְנֵי מְרִי, "sons of rebelliousness;" Authorized Version, "rebels."

The Pulpit Commentary
Call heaven and earth to record against them (cf. Deu_32:1). These words; the words of his charge, and especially the song he had composed, and which it would be the business of these officers to teach to the congregation.

The Pulpit Commentary
Ye will utterly corrupt yourselves; literally, corrupting, ye will corrupt (הַשְׁחַת תשׁחִתוּן, sc. דַרֵכֵיֶכם); i.e. your ways (cf. for the phrase, Gen_6:12). The latter days; the after-time, the future, as in Deu_4:30; Num_24:14, etc. The work of your hands; the idols they might make (cf. Deu_4:28). By some, however, the phrase is interpreted of evil deeds in general