Deuteronomy 29

Tree of Life Version

29 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Adonai did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land— ² the great trials that your eyes saw, those great signs and wonders. ³ But to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. ^{[a] 4} I led you 40 years in the wilderness—your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. ⁵ Bread you have not eaten and wine and strong drink you have not drunk—in order that you may know that I am Adonai your God.

⁶ “When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of the Bashan came out against us to battle, but we struck them down. ⁷ We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. ⁸ So keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all that you do.

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^[b]—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.^[c]

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— ^{[d] 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.