וילך משה וגו' ... אנכי היום AND MOSES WENT ... I AM [HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS OLD] THIS DAY — Today my days and my years become full: for on this day (the seventh of Adar; cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:3) I was born and on this day I must die (Sotah 13b).

לא אוכל עוד לצאת ולבוא I CAN NO LONGER GO OUT AND COME IN — One might think that this was because his physical strength failed him! Scripture, however, states (Deuteronomy 34:7) “His eye was not dim nor his natural force abated!” What then is the meaning of לא אוכל? It means: “I am not permitted” (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 12:17 and Deuteronomy 24:4), because the power (leadership) is being taken from me and given to Joshua. — Another explanation of לצאת ולבוא is: I can no more take the lead in the matter of the Law; this teaches us that the traditions and the well-springs of wisdom were stopped up for him (cf. Sotah 13b).

וה' אמר אלי — This (according to the previous comment) is the explanation of לא אוכל עוד לצאת ולבוא: I can no more go out and come in because (ו = because) the Lord has said unto Me, [Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan].

לא ירפך means He will give you no looseness that you should be abandoned by Him (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 4:31).

כי אתה תבוא את העם הזה — Translate this as the Targum does: ארי אתה תעול עם עמא הדין, THOU SHALT GO WITH THIS PEOPLE. Moses, by the statement “Thou shall go with this people” (as one of them) said in effect to Joshua: The elders of the generation will be with thee: everything has to be done according to their opinion and their advice. The Holy One, blessed be He, however, said to Joshua, (v. 23) “For thou shalt bring (תביא) the children of Israel into the land which I swore unto them” — thou shalt bring them even against their will; everything depends on you alone: if necessary take a stick and beat them over the head: there can be but one leader for a generation, and not two leaders for a generation (Sanhedrin 8a).

ויכתב משה ... ויתנה AND MOSES WROTE [THIS LAW] AND GAVE IT [UNTO THE PRIESTS, THE SONS OF LEVI] — When it was completely finished he gave it to the sons of his tribe.

מקץ שבע שנים AT THE END OF EVERY SEVEN YEARS [AT THE APPOINTED SEASON OF THE SHEMITTAH YEAR] — This means in the first year of the new Shemittah-period — in the eighth year (Sotah 41a). But why does Scripture call it the “Shemittah-year”, which name usually implies the seventh year? Because the law of the “seventh year” still applies to it, viz., in connection with the harvest of the seventh year’s produce that actually goes forth into (takes place in) the year following the seventh year (the eighth year) (Rosh Hashanah 12b; cf. Rashi on Exodus 34:21).

תקרא את התורה הזאת [WHEN ALL ISRAEL IS COME TO APPEAR BEFORE THE LORD …] THOU SHALT READ THIS LAW [BEFORE ALL ISRAEL] — The king read from the beginning of the section “These are the words” (Deuteronomy 1:1), — as is set forth in Treatise Sotah 41a — upon a wooden platform that was erected in the forecourt.

האנשים [ASSEMBLE THE PEOPLE,] MEN [WOMEN, AND LITTLE ONES] — the men, in order to learn,

והנשים THE WOMEN, in order to listen to the words of the Law,

והטף AND THE LITTLE ONES — Why did they come? For no other purpose than that a reward should be given to those who bring them (Chagigah 3a).

ואצונו means, THAT I MAY EXHORT HIM.

נכר הארץ [THIS PEOPLE WILL … GO ASTRAY AFTER THE GODS OF] נכר הארץ — i.e., [after the gods of] the peoples of the land (Onkelos).

והסתרתי פני AND I WILL HIDE MY FACE FROM THEM, as though I do not see their distress.

את השירה הזאת [NOW THEREFORE WRITE YE] THIS SONG — i.e. the text “Give ear, O ye heavens”, till “and make expiation for his ground, and his people” (Deuteronomy 32:1—43).

ונאצוני means AND THEY WILL PROVOKE ME TO ANGER. So, too, every form of the root נאץ denotes anger.

וענתה השירה הזאת לפניו לעד [AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS …] THAT THIS SONG SHALL TESTIFY that in it I had warned them concerning all the things that had befallen them.

כי לא תשכח מפי זרעו FOR IT SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF THEIR SEED — This is an assurance to Israel that the Torah in which this song is contained will never be entirely forgotten by their descendants (Shabbat 138b).

ויצו את יהושע בן נון AND HE COMMANDED JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN — This has to be connected with v. 14 above, and it refers to the Shechinah (to God; “He commanded” means “God commanded”), as it distinctly states here “[for thou shalt bring the children of Israel] into the land which “I” swore unto them, [and “I” will be with thee]”.

לקח — The grammatical form and its meaning are the same as in (Exodus 20:8) זכור; (Deuteronomy 5:12) שמור; (Jeremiah 2:2) הלוך‎.

מצד ארון ברית ה׳ [TAKE THIS BOOK OF THE LAW AND PUT IT] AT THE SIDE OF THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD — The sages of Israel differ about it (the meaning of the phrase “at the side of the Ark”) in Treatise Bava Batra 14a. Some of them say: A board projected from the Ark outside it and there it (the song) lay, whilst others say that it lay at the side of the Tablets within the Ark.

הקהילו אלי ASSEMBLE UNTO ME [ALL THE ELDERS OF YOUR TRIBE] — They did not, however, blow the trumpets that day to call the congregation together (as is prescribed in Numbers 10:3), because it states (Numbers 10:2) “Make for thee [two trumpets of silver]” (which Rashi explains to mean that no one should use them except himself), and he had not empowered Joshua to use them. Indeed they were hidden away even during his (Moses) lifetime — on the day of his death, thus fulfilling the words of the text, (Ecclesiastes 8:8) “There is no authority on the day of death” (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 2 on ויחי and ‎Midrash Tanchuma, Beha'alotcha 10 on בהעלתך).‎

ואעידה בם את השמים ואת הארץ I WILL CALL THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AS WITNESSES AGAINST THEM — But if you ask, “Behold he has already above (Deuteronomy 30:19) called heaven and earth as witnesses: “I call [the heaven and the earth] as witnesses this day against you etc.”?! Then I reply: There he said this to the Israelites (he told them that He would do this), but now he intends to say (Deuteronomy 32:1) “Give ear, O ye heavens, [and I will speak; and hear earth] etc.”, thus calling them as witnesses.

אחרי מותי כי השחת תשחתון [FOR I KNOW THAT] AFTER MY DEATH YE WILL UTTERLY CORRUPT YOURSELVES — But, you see, as a matter of fact, that all the days of Joshua they did not corrupt themselves, for it states, (Judges 2:7) “And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua”?! (How, then, could Moses say that they would corrupt themselves after his death, by which he evidently meant immediately after his death, cf. v. 16)? But we may derive from here that one’s pupil should be as dear to him as his own self: — it appeared to Moses that so long as Joshua would live it would be as though he himself would be living (he thus alluded by the words “after my death” to a period after Joshua’s death).