The moment had come. Moses was about to die. He had seen his sister Miriam and brother Aaron pre-decease him. He had prayed to God – not to live forever, not even to live longer, but simply, ‘Please let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and the Lebanon’ (Deut. 3:25). His request was simple. Please let me complete the journey. Let me reach the destination. But God said no:

‘It is enough!’ the Lord said… ‘Never speak to Me about this again! (Deut. 3:26)

‘It is enough!’ the Lord said… ‘Never speak to Me about this again! (Deut. 3:26)

God, who had acceded to almost every other prayer Moses prayed, refused him this.[1]

What then did Moses do on these last days of his life? He told the people:

‘At the end of every seventh year, the year of remission, of cancelling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that He will choose, you shall read out this law in the presence of all Israel, for them to hear. Assemble the people – men, women, and children, including migrants living in your towns – so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully keep all the words of this Law, and so that their children, who do not know it, may listen and learn to be in awe of the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. (Deut. 31:10-13)

‘At the end of every seventh year, the year of remission, of cancelling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that He will choose, you shall read out this law in the presence of all Israel, for them to hear. Assemble the people – men, women, and children, including migrants living in your towns – so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully keep all the words of this Law, and so that their children, who do not know it, may listen and learn to be in awe of the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. (Deut. 31:10-13)

There is no specific reference to this command in the later books of Tanach, but there are accounts of very similar gatherings, covenant renewal ceremonies, in which the king or his equivalent assembled the nation, reading from the Torah or reminding the people of their history, and calling on them to reaffirm the terms of their destiny as a people in covenant with God.

That, in fact, is what Moses had been doing for the last month of his life. The entire book of Deuteronomy is a restatement of the covenant, almost forty years and one generation after the original covenant at Mount Sinai. There is a similar occurrence in Tanach, after Joshua fulfils his mandate as Moses’ successor, brings the people across the Jordan, leads them in their battles, and settles the land.[2] Another occurred many centuries later in the reign of King Josiah. His grandfather, Menasseh, who reigned for fifty-five years, was one of the worst of Judah’s kings, introducing various forms........

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