DEUTERONOMY 31 — THE HANDOVER: MOSES' FINAL CHARGES AND THE SONG DELIVERED

The song's function is diagnostic and redemptive: it confronts, but confrontation aims at return. God's prophecy of apostasy includes the recognition-formula (v. 17's "have not these evils come... because our God is not among us?") — the testimony is designed to work. Romans 15:4's principle — whatever was written was written for our instruction — names the design: Scripture's witness against failure exists to prevent failure, or to end it.

The text's "this law... in a book to the very end" (v. 24) most naturally points to Deuteronomy itself, deposited as the covenant's witness-document (compare 17:18's royal copy). The tradition of Mosaic authorship with later editorial framing — the Torah as Mosaic core with updates (the death notice of ch. 34, the glosses) — fits the evidence: Moses writes the covenant book; the Pentateuch as we have it received the finishing touches under later inspiration. Either way, the custody chain — Moses to Levites to ark-side — is the chapter's point: the word outlives the prophet.