Deuteronomy 1
And Moses felt the light was dying,
And Moses girded himself for one last speech,
And Moses stood and started,
Being about to retire finally from public life, I beg leave to offer you my grateful thanks for the many proofs of kindness and confidence which I have received at your hands. It has been my fortune in the discharge of public duties, civil and military, frequently to have found myself in difficult and trying situations, where prompt decision and energetic action were necessary, and where the interest of the people required that high responsibilities should be fearlessly encountered; and it is with the deepest emotions of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued and unbroken confidence with which you have sustained me in every trial. My public life has been a long one, and I cannot hope that it has at all times been free from errors; but I have the consolation of knowing that if mistakes have been committed they have not seriously injured the nation I so anxiously endeavoured to serve, and at the moment when I surrender my last public trust I leave this great people prosperous and happy, in the full enjoyment of liberty and peace, and honoured and respected by every nation of the world.
I leave you as a nation on the brink of great things. We have come together through the trial and tribulations of the exodus from Egypt and the wandering in the desert; we have forged new laws to live by and the identity of our nation has emerged from the crucible of the desert. We have passed by Seir and by Ar, and been stung by the Amorites and smitten the Sihonites. We destroyed Og of Bashan and divided his lands and we have looked upon Canaan and mapped out our future. Your future lies in Joshua’s hands, charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him and he shall cause you to inherit the land you see. Take care not to undermine nor to secede from Joshua’s leadership. What have you to gain by division and dissension? Delude not yourselves with the belief that a breach once made may be afterwards repaired. If the nation is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled by debate will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword. Neither should you deceive yourselves with the hope that the first line of separation would be the permanent one, and that nothing but harmony and concord would be found in the new associations formed upon the dissolution of this nation. Local interests would still be found there, and unchastened ambition. And if the recollection of common dangers, in which the people of this nation stood side by side against the common foe, the memory of victories won by their united valour, the prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed under the present Laws, the proud name they bear as citizens of this great nation—if all these recollections and proofs of common interest are not strong enough to bind us together as one people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of empire when these bonds have been broken and this nation dissevered ? The first line of separation would not last for a single generation; new fragments would be torn off, new leaders would spring up, and this great and glorious nation would soon be broken into a multitude of petty States, without commerce, without credit, jealous of one another, armed for mutual aggression, loaded with taxes to pay armies and leaders, seeking aid against each other from foreign powers, insulted and trampled upon by other nations, until, harassed with conflicts and humbled and debased in spirit, they would be ready to submit to the absolute dominion of any military adventurer and to surrender their liberty for the sake of repose.
But in order to maintain the nation unimpaired it is absolutely necessary that the laws passed by me should be faithfully executed in every part, and that every good citizen should at all times stand ready to put down, with the combined force of the nation, every attempt at unlawful resistance, under whatever pretext it may be made or whatever shape it may assume. But the laws cannot be maintained nor the nation preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the mere exertion of the coercive powers confided to the General Government. The foundations must be laid in the affections of the people, in the security it gives to life, liberty, character, and property in every quarter of the country, and in the fraternal attachment which the citizens bear to one another as members of one family, mutually contributing to promote the happiness of each other. Even those citizens who must be exiled must not be cast away entirely – Bezer, Ramoth and Golan shall be set aside as a safe harbour for exiles of our nation so they might not be at the mercy of alien powers.
Deuteronomy 5
And that should really have been that, but Moses being Moses and feeling power slipping from his grasp felt compelled to give some last pointers and recaps and caveats.
And Moses commenced with a recap of the commandments;
And always recall that we are the Hebrew nation, which has come out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, we are of pure blood and these are the rules by which we shall live.
We shall not corrupt our purity nor bow down nor serve any other master; for we are the Hebrew nation.
We shall visit the iniquity of them that stray from our identity upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. But those that remain within the bosom of the nation shall know our mercy.
We shall not take the name of our nation in vain, and we will not hold him guiltless that doth take our name in vain.
We shall honour our fathers and our mothers, and our days shall belong upon the land which the nation shall grant unto us.
We shall remember every seventh day is for rest. Six days we shall labour, and do all our work. But the seventh day is the day of rest: in it no man may force labour, nor shall we force labour on our son, nor our daughter, nor our manservant, nor our maidservant, nor our cattle, nor any stranger that is within our gates.
We shall not kill.
We shall not commit adultery. We shall not steal.
We shall not bear false witness against our neighbour, nor shall we covet our neighbour’s house, nor our neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his ass, nor any thing that is our neighbour’s.
Remember these rules when you are in cities thou buildest not; and houses full of all good things which thou fillest not; and wells digged thou diggest not; and vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full – beware lest you forget the laws and the identity which brought you there out of the land of Egypt, out of bondage.
Remember them and make sure your children remember them, and their children unto eternity. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What means the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments then thou shalt say unto thy son, we were the Pharaoh’s bondsmen in Egypt and Moses brought us out of Egypt with great leadership and he brought us here and forged us as a nation and left us on the brink of greatness.
And Moses recapped the next most important Rules and recommended that false prophets be killed and heathen cities destroyed and abominations stoned to death.
And Moses went over a last bit of military strategy and explained that newlyweds, new farmers and cowards need not fight,
And nations should be offered vassaldom rather than destroying them straight up,
And in destruction be careful not to destroy useful stuff, like olive trees.
And, warming to his theme, Moses had a last finger wagging about general day to day life, banning cross dressing, bastards, eunuchs, Ammonites and Moabites; exhorting the people to dig holes for their shit and not play with whores nor sodomites.
And Moses did rant and rant and lecture and moralise until finally he was done and finished with, For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way I have commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because you will do evil, and Moses took his book of Rules and placed it in the Ark and handed the reins to Joshua, singing a final paean as he did.
And Moses and maybe Joshua with him went up the mountain of Nebo to survey the future lands of the nation,
And Moses’ eye was not dim nor his natural force abated,
And yet Moses did not return from that trip And his body was never found,
And Joshua, unconstrained by Moses, took the reins.