16. The Lord spoke to me. He said, "You are going to join the members of your family who have already died. The people will not be faithful to me. They will soon join themselves to the strange gods that are worshiped in the land they are entering. The people will desert me. They will break the covenant I made with them.
17. "On that day I will become angry with them. I will desert them. I will turn my face away from them. And they will be destroyed. Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. On that day they will say, 'Trouble has come on us. Our God isn't with us!'
18. "I will certainly turn away from them on that day. I will do it because they did a very evil thing when they turned to other gods.
19. "I want you to write down a song for yourselves. Teach it to the people of Israel. Have them sing it. It will be my witness against them.
20. "I will bring them into a land that has plenty of milk and honey. I promised the land to their fathers. I took an oath when I promised it. In that land they will eat until they have had enough. They will get fat. When they do, they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will turn their backs on me. They will break my covenant.
21. "Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. Then the song I am giving you will be a witness against them. That is because the song will not be forgotten by their children and their children's children. I know what they are likely to do. I know it even before I bring them into the land I promised them with an oath."
22. So that day I wrote the song down. And I taught it to the people of Israel.
23. The Lord gave a command to Joshua, the son of Nun. He said, "Be strong and brave. You will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them with an oath. I myself will be with you."
24. I finished writing the words of that law in a scroll. I wrote them down from beginning to end.
25. Then I gave a command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. I said,