Deuteronomy31:1–8

Be strong and courageous — Deuteronomy 31:6 ↔ Joshua 1:9 verbal / quotation — confirmed

Moses' plural charge to the nation here is taken up, word for word, in God's own charge to Joshua at the threshold of the conquest. The link is firm because it rests on a rare verb — ʻârats ("be terrified," H6206) occurs in only fifteen verses in all Scripture — shared with the more common ’âmats ("be courageous," H553, 41 verses) and châzaq ("be strong," H2388). The Verifier records the shared lexemes as ʻârats (H6206), ’âmats (H553), châzaq (H2388), and the negative ’al (H408); the rarity of ʻârats is what lifts this from theme to quotation. The formula given first to Israel (v. 6, plural) and then to Joshua (v. 7, singular) is the one God will repeat three times in Joshua 1 — the new leader is commissioned in the exact words of the old.

Deuteronomy 31:6 · Joshua 1:9

basis: shared Strong's lexemes H6206 ʻârats (rare — 15 vv), H553 ʼâmats (41 vv), H2388 châzaq (266 vv), H408 ʼal; the rare ʻârats fixes the verbal link

He will not leave you nor forsake you — Deuteronomy 31:8 ↔ 1 Chronicles 28:20 verbal / quotation — confirmed

The promise sealed on Joshua ("do not fear, neither be dismayed; He will not let you drop nor forsake you") recurs almost intact in David's charge to Solomon for the building of the temple. The Verifier records shared lexemes râphâh ("let drop / fail," H7503, 45 vv), châthath ("be dismayed," H2865, 46 vv), ʻâzab ("forsake," H5800), and yârêʼ ("fear," H3372). Two of these — râphâh and châthath — are relatively uncommon (45 and 46 verses), so their joint appearance with the same cadence is a genuine verbal echo, not coincidence. A new leader facing a great work (conquest, then construction) is steadied by the identical assurance, a formula the canon evidently kept and re-used. Cambridge lists exactly this chain on v. 6.

Deuteronomy 31:8 · 1 Chronicles 28:20

basis: shared Strong's lexemes H7503 râphâh (45 vv), H2865 châthath (46 vv), H5800 ʻâzab (206 vv), H3372 yârêʼ (306 vv); the paired low-frequency râphâh + châthath fix the verbal echo

As He did to Sihon and Og — Deuteronomy 31:4 ↔ Psalm 135:11 verbal / quotation — confirmed

Moses cites the defeat of the two Amorite kings as the pledge of the conquest to come; the psalmist later recites the same pair in praise. The Verifier records the shared proper nouns ʻÔwg (Og, H5747, 22 vv), Çîychôwn (Sihon, H5511, 34 vv), and ʼĔmôrîy (Amorite, H567), with melek (king, H4428). Because Sihon and Og are rare names — a fixed pair appearing together in only a handful of texts — the link is a firm verbal one: this exact conquest-formula became a standing memorial of Yahweh's power, recited in Deuteronomy (1:4; 2:30; 3:8), the historical books (1 Kings 4:19; Nehemiah 9:22), and the Psalter (135:11; 136:19–20).

Deuteronomy 31:4 · Psalm 135:11

basis: shared Strong's lexemes H5747 ʻÔwg (rare — 22 vv), H5511 Çîychôwn (34 vv), H567 ʼĔmôrîy (86 vv), H4428 melek; the rare paired names Sihon+Og fix the recital-formula link

Joshua he shall cross before you — Deuteronomy 31:3 ↔ Deuteronomy 3:28 structural / thematic — confirmed

The appointment of Joshua to cross over before the people fulfils the earlier word in this same book, where God told Moses to "charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people." The Verifier records shared lexemes Yᵉhôwshûaʻ (Joshua, H3091), ʻâbar (cross over, H5674), hûwʼ (he, H1931), and pânîym (before, H6440). These are common words, so the connection is best tiered as structural/thematic: it is the same narrative thread (Joshua's commission to lead the crossing) picked up across chapters, not a rare-word quotation. The thread is internal to Deuteronomy — the book preparing for its own sequel.

Deuteronomy 31:3 · Deuteronomy 3:28

basis: shared Strong's lexemes H3091 Yᵉhôwshûaʻ, H5674 ʻâbar, H1931 hûwʼ, H6440 pânîym — all common; a shared commissioning pattern, not a rare-word quotation

Be strong; you shall cause them to inherit — Deuteronomy 31:7 ↔ Joshua 1:6 verbal / quotation — confirmed

Moses' singular charge to Joshua — "be strong and courageous… you shall cause them to inherit it" — is matched by God's charge in Joshua 1:6: "be strong and of good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers." The Verifier records shared lexemes ’âmats (H553, 41 vv), nâchal (inherit/apportion, H5157, 57 vv), shâbaʻ (swore, H7650), and châzaq (H2388). The presence of two moderately rare verbs — ’âmats and nâchal — alongside the courage-formula makes this a verbal link: Moses' words to Joshua are quoted back to Joshua by God himself.

Deuteronomy 31:7 · Joshua 1:6

basis: shared Strong's lexemes H553 ʼâmats (41 vv), H5157 nâchal (57 vv), H7650 shâbaʻ (175 vv), H2388 châzaq; the paired ʼâmats + nâchal with the courage-formula fix the verbal link

I will never leave you nor forsake you — Deuteronomy 31:6 → Hebrews 13:5 (FLAGGED) flagged — verify source

The author of Hebrews grounds his exhortation to contentment in the promise "I will never leave you, nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5), which the older commentators on this passage — Henry, Benson, Gill, Cambridge — all assign to Deuteronomy 31:6 / 31:8 (and the parallel Joshua 1:5). This is a cross-Testament link (Greek New Testament ↔ Hebrew Old Testament), so it cannot rest on a shared Strong's number; the Verifier confirms "no shared original-language lexeme found in the index." The provenance of the citation is genuinely debated: the Greek of Hebrews 13:5 matches the Septuagint of Joshua 1:5 (and resembles Genesis 28:15 and Deuteronomy 31:6/8) more closely than any single verse, and some trace it to a saying current in Jewish liturgy (cf. Philo). Because the apostle names no source and the wording sits between several candidate texts, we flag this link for verification rather than asserting a single Old Testament original. The link is theologically secure and patristically ancient; the precise textual provenance is not.

Deuteronomy 31:6 · Deuteronomy 31:8 · Joshua 1:5 · Hebrews 13:5

basis: cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): no shared Strong's lexeme possible; the Verifier finds none. The NT quotation's provenance is debated — Hebrews 13:5 sits between Joshua 1:5 (LXX), Genesis 28:15, and Deuteronomy 31:6/8, and the apostle names no source

Joshua — the saving name that crosses where the law cannot ancient/widely-held

The man appointed to lead Israel across the Jordan bears the name Yᵉhôshûaʻ (H3091), "Yahweh saves" — the Hebrew name that comes into Greek as Ἰησοῦς, Jesus (a connection the New Testament itself makes when Hebrews 4:8 distinguishes the Joshua of the conquest from the rest that remains). The commentators read the typology on the text itself: Gill, on v. 2, writes that since Moses "must not lead them there, this work was reserved for Joshua, a type of Christ; not Moses and his law, or obedience to it, is what introduces any into the heavenly Canaan only Jesus and his righteousness." The figural logic is structural, not merely verbal: the law (Moses), good and undimmed to the last, brings the people to the river's edge but is forbidden to cross; a second leader who shares the divine name carries them through the waters into the inheritance. This is the typology Hebrews 3–4 develops at length — the rest the first Joshua gave was not the final rest, which only the greater Joshua secures.

Deuteronomy 31:3 · Deuteronomy 31:7 · Hebrews 4:8

Jehovah and Joshua in one grammar — a foreshadowing of God who saves novel

Ellicott's grammatical observation carries a christological weight he draws out himself: in v. 3 "Jehovah and Joshua are spoken of in exactly the same language, and that there is no distinguishing conjunction between them… 'Jehovah, He is going over; Joshua, he is going over.' Verbally, the two are as much identified as 'The God who fed me… the Angel that redeemed me' (Genesis 48:15–16). The prophetical truth of this identification is too remarkable to be missed." The same emphatic pronoun hū and the same participle ‘ō·ḇêr stand over both the LORD and the man who bears his saving name. We mark this as a more particular (less universally drawn) reading than the bare Joshua-type: Ellicott's identification of Jehovah and Joshua in the syntax is a striking but not anciently-standard observation, a 19th-century reading we present as suggestive rather than settled — the union of God and the one who saves, glimpsed in the grammar and fulfilled when the Word became flesh and went before his people.

Deuteronomy 31:3

He will never leave you nor forsake you — the abiding presence in Christ ancient/widely-held

The promise repeated to Israel and to Joshua — "He will not let you drop nor forsake you" (vv. 6, 8) — is the assurance the New Testament gathers up into the presence of Christ. Hebrews 13:5 cites it to anchor Christian contentment ("be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"), and the risen Christ pronounces its substance in his own voice: "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). The presence that steadied the conquest under Joshua is, for the church, the presence of the greater Joshua who promised never to depart. We hold this application as the apostle himself made it, while noting (see the flagged thread) that the exact Old Testament source of the Hebrews citation is debated.

Deuteronomy 31:6 · Deuteronomy 31:8 · Hebrews 13:5 · Matthew 28:20