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Deuteronomy 31 · a question people ask

"I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them" (31:17). Is that the end?

In the text

The chapter says what will happen and why: "I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods" (31:18), and the people will ask, "Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?" (31:17). The chapter doesn't say how long it lasts. It does say the LORD leaves them words that won't go away: the song "will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants" (31:21). The song itself goes on past the hiding: "I will hide my face from them" (32:20), and later, "For the LORD will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants" (32:36). The chapter before promised that when they "return to the LORD your God and obey his voice" (30:2), "the LORD your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you" (30:3). And through Isaiah the LORD uses the same two Hebrew verbs, forsake and hide: "For a small moment I have forsaken you, but I will gather you with great mercies" (Isaiah 54:7), "In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you" (Isaiah 54:8).

The verses

“Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’ I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.”
Deuteronomy 31:17-18 · World English Bible
“It will happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song will testify before them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants; for I know their ways and what they are doing today, before I have brought them into the land which I promised them.””
Deuteronomy 31:21 · World English Bible
“He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.”
Deuteronomy 32:20 · World English Bible
“For the LORD will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.”
Deuteronomy 32:36 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 31

Deuteronomy 31: He will not forsake you

"He will not fail you nor forsake you" (31:6) and "This people… will forsake me" (31:16) stand ten verses apart, with the same Hebrew verb. The LORD knew what they would do (31:21), and still the chapter holds the promise that he goes with them, and gives them a song and a book of the law as witnesses (31:19, 31:26).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions