Moses' Farewell and Death

1 At that time Moses killed the nations and gave half of the spoils to the people, and he began to declare to them the words of the law that God spoke to them at Horeb. 2 He spoke to them, saying, “I am about to sleep with my fathers and will go to my people. But I know that you will arise and forsake the words ordained for you by me, and God will be angry with you and forsake you and depart out of your land, and bring against you those who hate you, and they will have dominion over you, but not to the end, for he will remember the covenant he made with your fathers. 3 “But then you and your sons and all your generations after you will arise and seek the day of my death and will say in your heart, ‘Who will give us a shepherd like Moses, or such a judge for the children of Israel, to pray for our sins at all times and to be heard for our iniquities?’ 4 “Today I call heaven and earth to witness against you, for the heaven will hear this and the earth will take it in with her ears, that God has revealed the end of the world, that he might make a covenant with you on his high places, and has kindled an everlasting lamp among you. Remember, you wicked ones, how when I spoke to you, you answered, saying, ‘All that God has said to us we will hear and do. But if we transgress or corrupt our ways, he will call a witness against us and cut us off.’ 5 “But know that you ate the bread of angels for 40 years. And now I bless your tribes before my end comes. But you, know my labor in which I have labored with you since the day you came up out of the land of Egypt.” 6 When he had said this, God spoke to him a third time, saying, “You are about to sleep with your fathers, and this people will arise and seek me, and will forget my law by which I have enlightened them, and I will forsake their offspring for a season. 7 “But to you I will show the land before you die, though you will not enter it in this age, so that you do not see the carved images by which this people will be deceived and led astray. I will show you the place where they will serve me for 850 years. And afterward it will be handed over into the hand of their enemies, and they will destroy it, and strangers will surround it; and it will be in that day as it was in the day when I broke the tablets of the covenant I made with you at Horeb, when they sinned, and what was written on them vanished away.” Now that day was the 17th day of the 4th month.

Moses Prays for Israel

8 Moses went up Mount Horeb, as God had commanded him, and prayed, saying, “I have fulfilled the time of my life, even 120 years. Now I pray you, let your mercy be with your people, and let your compassion continue upon your inheritance, Lord, and your patience in your dwelling upon the race of your choosing, for you have loved them more than all. 9 “You know that I was a shepherd of sheep, and when I fed the flock in the desert, I brought them to your Mount Horeb, and there I first saw your angel in fire out of the bush; and you called me out of the bush, and I was afraid and turned away my face, and you sent me to them and delivered them out of Egypt, and you sank their enemies in the water. You gave them a law and judgments by which they should live. For what man is there who has not sinned against you? How will your inheritance be established unless you have mercy on them? Or who will ever be born without sin? Yet you will correct them for a season, but not in anger.”

Moses Sees the Land and the World to Come

10 Then the Lord showed him the land and all that is in it and said, “This is the land that I will give to my people.” He showed him the place from which the clouds draw up water to water all the earth, and the place from which the river receives its water, and the land of Egypt, and the place of the firmament from which the holy land alone drinks. He showed him also the place from which it rained manna for the people, and even the paths of paradise. He showed him the measures of the sanctuary and the number of the offerings, and the sign by which men will interpret the heaven, and said, “These are the things that were forbidden to the sons of men because they sinned. 11 “And now, the rod you used to perform signs will serve as a witness between me and my people. When they sin, I will become angry, but I will look upon the rod, remember my mercy, and spare them. The rod will remain before me as a lasting reminder, just like the bow I set in the clouds when I made a covenant with Noah after the flood, saying, ‘I will set my bow in the cloud, and it will be a sign between me and humankind that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy the earth.’ 12 “I will take you from here and lay you down to sleep with your fathers, and I will give you rest in your resting place and bury you in peace. All the angels will mourn over you, and the heavenly hosts will grieve. But no angel or mortal will know the place where you are buried, until I visit the world. I will raise up you and your fathers from the earth in which you sleep, and you will come together and dwell in the immortal dwelling place that is not subject to time. 13 “This heaven will be in my sight like a fleeting cloud, like yesterday when it is past. When I draw near to visit the world, I will command the years and order the times, and they will be shortened. The stars will hasten,⁠a the light of the sun will hurry to set, and the light of the moon will not endure, because I will hasten to raise up you who sleep, so that all who are able to live may dwell in the place of holiness that I showed you.” 14 Moses said, “If I may ask one more thing of you, O Lord, according to the greatness of your mercy, do not be angry with me. Show me how much time has passed and how much remains.” 15 The Lord said to him, “An instant, the tip of a hand, the fullness of a moment, and the drop of a cup. And time has fulfilled all. For four and a half have passed by, and two and a half remain.” When Moses heard this, he was filled with understanding, and his appearance was gloriously changed; and he died in glory according to the word of the Lord, and God buried him as he had promised him. The angels mourned at his death, and lightnings and torches and arrows went before him with one accord. On that day the hymn of the hosts was not sung because of the departure of Moses. There was no day like it since the Lord made man upon earth, nor will there be such forever, that he should make the hymn of the angels cease because of a man; for he loved him greatly, and he buried him with his own hands on a high place of the earth, and in the light of the whole world.