1Here are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab. The terms were added to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Horeb.2Moses sent for all the Israelites. Here is what he said to them. With your own eyes you have seen everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh. You have seen what he did to all Pharaoh’s officials and to his whole land.3With your own eyes you saw how the LORD really made them suffer. You saw the signs and amazing things he did.4But to this day the LORD hasn’t given you a mind that understands. He hasn’t given you eyes that see. He hasn’t given you ears that hear.5Yet the LORD says, ‘I led you through the desert for 40 years. During that time your clothes didn’t wear out. The sandals on your feet didn’t wear out either.6You didn’t eat any bread. You didn’t drink any kind of wine. I did all these things because I wanted you to know that I am the LORD your God.’7When you got here, Sihon and Og came out to fight against us. Sihon was the king of Heshbon. And Og was the king of Bashan. But we won the battle over them.8We took their land. We gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh as their share.9Be careful to obey the terms of this covenant. Then you will have success in everything you do.10Today all of you are standing here in the sight of the LORD your God. Your leaders and chief men are here. Your elders and officials are here. So are all the other men of Israel.11Your children and wives are here with you too. So are the outsiders living in your camps. They chop your wood and carry your water.12All of you are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God. He is making the covenant with you today. He’s giving you his word.13Today he wants to show you that you are his people and that he is your God. That’s what he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.14I’m making this covenant and the promise that goes along with it. I’m making this covenant with you.15You are standing here with us today in front of the LORD our God. And I’m also making this covenant with those who aren’t here today.16You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt. You also know how we passed through other countries on the way here.17You saw the statues of their gods made out of wood, stone, silver and gold. The LORD hates those statues.18Make sure there isn’t a man or woman among your families or tribes who turns away from the LORD our God. No one must worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that kind of worship doesn’t spread like bitter poison through your whole community.19Some people who worship those gods will hear the promise that seals the covenant I’m making. They think they can escape trouble by what they’re saying. They say, ‘We’ll be safe, even though we’re stubborn and go our own way.’ But they will bring trouble on the whole land.20The LORD will never be willing to forgive those people. His great anger will blaze out against them. All the curses I’ve written down in this book will fall on them. And the LORD will erase any mention of them from the earth.21He will find those people in all the tribes of Israel and give them nothing but trouble. That will agree with all the curses of the covenant. They are written down in this Book of the Law.22Even your children’s children will see the troubles that have fallen on the land. They’ll see the diseases the LORD has brought on it. People who come from countries far away will also see those things.23The whole land will be burned. Nothing but salt and sulphur will be left. Nothing will be planted there. Nothing will grow there. In fact, nothing will even start to grow there. The land will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim after they were destroyed. The LORD wiped out those cities because he was very angry.24All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done this to the land? What could have made him so very angry?’25And they will hear the answer, ‘It’s because the people living there have broken the covenant of the LORD. He’s the God of their people of long ago. He made that covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt.26They went off and worshipped other gods. They bowed down to them. They hadn’t known anything about those gods before. The LORD hadn’t given those gods to them.27So the LORD became very angry with this land. He brought on it all the curses written down in this book.28The LORD’s anger blazed out against his people. So he pulled them up out of their land. He threw them into another land. And that’s where they are now.’29The LORD our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children for ever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29
English Standard Version
The Covenant Renewed in Moab
1[1] These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. (De 1:5; De 5:2)2[2] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, (Ex 19:4; Jos 23:3)3the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. (De 4:34)4But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Isa 6:9; Isa 63:17; Joh 8:43; Ac 28:26; Ro 11:8; Ro 11:10)5I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. (De 1:3; De 8:2; De 8:4; Am 2:10; Ac 13:18)6You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. (Ex 16:4; De 8:3)7And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. (Nu 21:21; Nu 21:33; De 2:24; De 2:26; De 2:32; De 3:1)8We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. (Nu 32:33; De 3:12)9Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper[3] in all that you do. (De 4:6)10“You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,[4] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,11your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, (Ex 12:38; Jos 9:21; Jos 9:23; Jos 9:27)12so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, (Ne 10:29)13that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (Ge 17:7; Ge 50:24; Ex 6:7; De 28:9)14It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, (Jer 31:31; Heb 8:8)15but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today. (Ac 2:39)16“You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.17And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.18Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, (Heb 12:15)19one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.20The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. (De 9:14; Ps 74:1; Ps 79:5)21And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.22And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— (De 29:24)23the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— (Ge 14:2; Ge 19:24; Jud 9:45; Jer 17:6; Jer 20:16; Jer 49:18; Jer 50:40; Eze 47:11; Ho 11:8; Zep 2:9; 2Pe 2:6)24all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ (De 29:22; 1Ki 9:8; Jer 22:8)25Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,26and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.27Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, (Le 26:14; De 28:15; Da 9:11)28and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’ (1Ki 14:15; 2Ch 7:20; Jer 12:14; Jer 22:26)29“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.