Add parallel Print Page Options

16 You know firsthand how we used to live in Egypt and how we passed right through the nations that you passed through. 17 You saw the horrific things, the filthy idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they had with them. 18 Make sure there isn’t any one among you right now—male or female, clan or tribe—whose mind is turning from being with the Lord our God in favor of going to serve these nations’ gods. Make sure there isn’t any root among you that is sprouting poison and bitterness. 19 When that kind of person hears the words of this agreement, they congratulate themselves, thinking: I’ll be fine even though I insist on being stubborn. This would cause something wet to dry up and become like something parched.[a] 20 The Lord won’t be willing to forgive that kind of person; instead, the Lord’s anger and passion will smolder against that person. Every curse written in this scroll will stretch out over them, and the Lord will wipe out their name from under the heavens. 21 Out of all Israel’s tribes, the Lord will single them out for disaster in compliance with all the covenant curses that are written in this Instruction scroll.

22 Future generations, your children after you, or foreigners from distant lands will say: Look[b] at all that land’s plagues and the sicknesses that the Lord laid on it! 23 Look at all its land burned by sulfur and salt, unsuitable for planting, unable to grow or produce any vegetation, as devastated as Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord devastated in anger and wrath! 24 Indeed, all nations will ask: Why did the Lord do this to this land? What led to this terrible display of anger? 25 They will deduce: It was because those people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, their ancestors’ God, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They followed other gods, serving them and worshipping them—other gods that they hadn’t experienced before and that the Lord hadn’t designated for them. 27 Then the Lord’s anger burned against that land, and he brought against it every curse written in this scroll. 28 The Lord ripped them off their land in anger, wrath, and great fury. He threw them into other lands, and that’s how things still stand today.

29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God. The revealed things belong to us and to our children forever: to keep all the words of this covenant.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 29:19 Heb uncertain; perhaps the agricultural imagery of 29:18 is continued here or the terms are metaphors for human states.
  2. Deuteronomy 29:22 Or after they see

16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.(A) 18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns(B) away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.(C)

19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing(D) on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,”(E) they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The Lord will never be willing to forgive(F) them; his wrath and zeal(G) will burn(H) against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot(I) out their names from under heaven. 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster,(J) according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.(K)

22 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.(L) 23 The whole land will be a burning waste(M) of salt(N) and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,(O) Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.(P) 24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land?(Q) Why this fierce, burning anger?”

25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.(R) 26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.(S) 28 In furious anger and in great wrath(T) the Lord uprooted(U) them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God,(V) but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.(W)

Read full chapter

16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;

17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

20 The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

21 And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it;

23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

27 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:

28 And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Read full chapter