1I have told you about all these blessings and curses. The LORD your God will bring them on you. Then you will think carefully about the blessings and curses. You will think about them everywhere the LORD your God scatters you among the nations.2You and your children will return to the LORD your God. You will obey him with all your heart and with all your soul. That will be according to everything I’m commanding you today.3When all that happens, the LORD your God will bless you with great success again. He will be very kind to you. He’ll bring you back from all the nations where he scattered you.4Suppose you have been forced to go away to the farthest land on earth. The LORD your God will bring you back even from there.5He will bring you to the land that belonged to your people of long ago. You will take it over. He’ll make you better off than your people were. He’ll cause there to be more of you than there were of them.6The LORD your God will keep you from being stubborn. He’ll do the same thing for your children and their children. Then you will love him with all your heart and with all your soul. And you will live.7The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies. They hated you and hunted you down.8You will obey the LORD again. You will obey all his commands that I’m giving you today.9Then the LORD your God will give you great success in everything you do. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. The LORD will take delight in you again. He’ll give you success. That’s what he did for your people of long ago.10But you must obey the LORD your God. You must keep his commands and rules. They are written in this Book of the Law. You must turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Choose life, not death
11What I’m commanding you today is not too hard for you. It isn’t beyond your reach.12It isn’t up in heaven. So you don’t have to ask, ‘Who will go up into heaven to get it? Who will announce it to us so we can obey it?’13And it isn’t beyond the ocean. So you don’t have to ask, ‘Who will go across the ocean to get it? Who will announce it to us so we can obey it?’14No, the message isn’t far away at all. In fact, it’s really near you. It’s in your mouth and in your heart so that you can obey it.15Today I’m giving you a choice. You can have life and success. Or you can have death and harm.16I’m commanding you today to love the LORD your God. I’m commanding you to live exactly as he wants you to live. You must obey his commands, rules and laws. Then you will live. There will be many of you. The LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.17Don’t let your hearts turn away from the LORD. Instead, obey him. Don’t let yourselves be drawn away to other gods. And don’t bow down to them and worship them.18If you do, I announce to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You are about to go across the River Jordan and take over the land. But you won’t live there very long.19I’m calling for the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against you this very day. I’m offering you the choice of life or death. You can choose either blessings or curses. But I want you to choose life. Then you and your children will live.20And you will love the LORD your God. You will obey him. You will remain true to him. The LORD is your very life. He will give you many years in the land. He promised to give that land to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 30
English Standard Version
Repentance and Forgiveness
1“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, (Le 26:40; De 4:29; De 11:26; 1Ki 8:47)2and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, (Ne 1:9; Isa 55:7; La 3:40; Joe 2:12)3then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. (Ps 126:1; Ps 126:4; Jer 32:37; Eze 34:13; Eze 36:24)4If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. (De 28:64; Ne 1:9)5And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (De 28:63; Zep 3:19)6And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (De 10:16; De 30:16; Jer 31:33; Jer 32:39; Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26)7And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you.8And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today.9The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, (De 28:11; De 28:63; Zep 3:19)10when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life and Death
11“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. (Isa 45:19; Isa 48:16)12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ (Ro 10:6)13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’14But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.15“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. (De 11:26; De 32:47)16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God[1] that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules,[2] then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. (De 6:5; De 30:6)17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, (De 29:18)18I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. (De 4:26)19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, (De 30:1)20loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (De 1:8; De 10:20; Ps 27:1; Ps 66:9; Joh 11:25)