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Deuteronomy 29:16-29
International Standard Version
Deuteronomy 29:16-29
International Standard Version
Incurring the Judgment of God
16 “Now, you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the territory of[a] other nations. 17 You have seen their detestable practices, their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold that they had with them. 18 Be alert so there is no man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart is turning away from the Lord your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Be alert so there will be no root among you that produces poisonous and bitter fruit,[b] 19 because when such a person[c] hears the words of this oath, he will bless himself and say:
‘I will have a peaceful life, even though I’m determined to be stubborn.’[d] By doing this he will be sweeping away both watered and parched ground alike.’
20 “The Lord won’t forgive such a person.[e] Instead, the zealous anger of the Lord will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the Lord will wipe out his memory[f] from under heaven. 21 The Lord will set him apart from all the tribes of Israel for destruction,[g] according to the curses of the covenant that were written in this Book of the Law.”
A Reminder of Sodom and Gomorrah
22 “Then the generation to come—your descendants after you and the foreigners who come from afar—will see plagues and illnesses infecting the land that the Lord will inflict on it. 23 The whole land will be covered[h] with salt pits and burning sulfur, with nothing planted, nothing sprouting, and producing no vegetation—overthrown like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, when the Lord overthrew them in his raging fury. 24 All the nations will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land? What is the meaning of this fierce and great anger?’ 25 Then they will answer themselves,[i]
‘Because they’ve abandoned the covenant of their Lord, the God of their ancestors that he had made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They followed and worshipped other gods whom they had not known and whom he did not assign to them. 27 For this reason, the anger of the Lord raged against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that were written in this book. 28 The Lord uprooted them from the land in his anger, wrath, and great fury, deporting them to another land, and that’s the way things are today.’
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but what has been revealed belongs to us and to our children forever, so that we might observe the words of this Law.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Deuteronomy 29:16 The Heb. lacks the territory of
- Deuteronomy 29:18 Lit. wormwood; i.e. bitter things
- Deuteronomy 29:19 Lit. he
- Deuteronomy 29:19 The quotation possibly ends here.
- Deuteronomy 29:20 Lit. him
- Deuteronomy 29:20 Lit. name
- Deuteronomy 29:21 Lit. evil
- Deuteronomy 29:23 The Heb. lacks will be covered
- Deuteronomy 29:25 The Heb. lacks themselves
Deuteronomy 29:16-29
New International Version
Deuteronomy 29:16-29
New International Version
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)
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