Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20

Tree of Life Version

Parashat Nitzavim

You Are Standing Before the Lord

⁹ “You are standing today, all of you, before Adonai your God—the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officials, all the men of Israel, ¹⁰ your children, your wives, and the outsider within your camp (from your woodchopper to your water carrier). ¹¹ Each of you is to cross over into the covenant of Adonai your God that He is cutting with you today, and into His oath.

¹² “This is in order to confirm you today as His people. So He will be your God, just as He promised you and just as He swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. ¹³ Not with you alone am I cutting this covenant and this oath, ¹⁴ but with whomever is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and with whomever is not here with us today.

¹⁵ “Indeed you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations that we passed through. ¹⁶ You saw their detestable things and their idols^[a]—wood and stone, silver and gold—that were with them. ¹⁷ Beware in case there is among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Adonai our God to go serve the gods of those nations. Beware in case there is among you a root producing poison and bitter fruit.^[b]

¹⁸ “Now when someone hears the words of this oath and in his heart considers himself blessed, thinking, ‘Shalom will be mine, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart’—thus sweeping away the moist with the dry— ^{[c] 19} Adonai will be unwilling to forgive him. For then the anger of Adonai and His jealousy will smoke against that person. So all the oath that is written in this scroll will settle on him, and Adonai will blot out his name from under the heavens. ²⁰ Adonai will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, according to all the oaths of the covenant written in this scroll of the Torah.

²¹ “The following generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land will say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses Adonai afflicted on it: ²² ‘Sulfur and salt, the whole land burnt! It cannot be planted, it cannot sprout, no grass can grow up on it—like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Adonai overturned in His anger and in His wrath!’

²³ “All the nations will say, ‘Why has Adonai done this to this land? Why this great burning anger?’

²⁴ “Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought them out from the land of Egypt. ²⁵ They went and served other gods and bowed down to them—gods they never knew, that He had not allotted to them. ²⁶ So Adonai’s anger burned against that land, bringing on it every curse written in this scroll. ²⁷ Adonai has uprooted them from their soil, in anger and wrath and great fury, and hurled them into another land, as is the case this day.’

²⁸ “The secret things belong to Adonai our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever—in order to do all the words of this Torah.

30 “Now when all these things come upon you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart in all the nations where Adonai your God has banished you, ² and you return to Adonai your God and listen to His voice according to all that I am commanding you today—you and your children—with all your heart and with all your soul, ³ then Adonai your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples where Adonai your God has scattered you. ⁴ Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the heavens, from there Adonai your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. ⁵ Adonai your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, and you will possess it; and He will do you good and multiply you more than your fathers. ⁶ Also Adonai your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants—to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.

⁷ “Adonai your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸ Then you—you will return and listen to the voice of Adonai and do all His mitzvot that I am commanding you today. ⁹ Adonai your God will make you prosper in all the work of your hand—in the fruit of your womb, and the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil—for good. For Adonai will again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers— ¹⁰ when you listen to the voice of Adonai your God, to keep His mitzvot and His statutes that are written in this scroll of the Torah, when you turn to Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹¹ “For this mitzvah that I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off. ¹² It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ ¹³ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ ¹⁴ No, the word is very near to you—in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.^[d]

¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil. ¹⁶ What I am commanding you today is to love Adonai your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His mitzvot, statutes and ordinances. Then you will live and multiply, and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are going in to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away and bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I tell you today that you will certainly perish! You will not prolong your days on the land, where you are about to cross over the Jordan to go in to possess.

¹⁹ “I call the heavens and the earth to witness about you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰ by loving Adonai your God, listening to His voice, and clinging to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell on the land that Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob—to give them.