diff --git a/lib/rubygems/version.rb b/lib/rubygems/version.rb
index d8aeb6f278..c59501ad5d 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/version.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/version.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
+
+require_relative "deprecate"
+
 ##
 # The Version class processes string versions into comparable
 # values. A version string should normally be a series of numbers
@@ -149,8 +152,6 @@
 # For the last example, single-digit versions are automatically extended with
 # a zero to give a sensible result.
 
-require_relative "deprecate"
-
 class Gem::Version
   autoload :Requirement, File.expand_path('requirement', __dir__)