Deuteronomy 31:29

29 For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the Lord's sight, infuriating Him with what your hands have made."^[a]

Deuteronomy 31:29 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 31:29

For I know that after my death
Which was just at hand, some time after that, not immediately; this he knew by a spirit of prophecy, namely, what follows:

ye will utterly corrupt [yourselves];
their ways, works, and manners, and so themselves; corrupt the worship of God by making idols, and serving them, which is the corruption chiefly intended:

and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you:
from the way of the commandments of God, which Moses had given them in his name, and in which they were directed to walk; but, as here foretold, would wander and swerve from them as they did:

and evil will befall you in the latter days;
not only in the times of the judges, and in the time of the Babylonish captivity, but in their present captivity, as they call it; which shows that the following song has things in it which respect times at a great distance, and even the present ones, and yet to come:

because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to
anger through the work of your hands;
their idols, idolatry being the evil chiefly designed, which is of all things the most provoking of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 31:29 In-Context

27 For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more [will you rebel] after I am dead!

28 Assemble all your tribal elders and officers before me, so that I may speak these words directly to them and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.

29 For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the Lord's sight, infuriating Him with what your hands have made."

30 Then Moses recited aloud every single word of this song to the entire assembly of Israel:

Footnotes

• [a]. Dt 4:25; Jdg 2:6-13