29 These are the words of the covenant that Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he made with them in Horeb.

² And Moses called to all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that Jehovah did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his bondmen, and to all his land:

³ the great trials that thine eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders.

⁴ But Jehovah hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.

⁵ And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not grown old upon you, and thy sandal is not grown old upon thy foot;

⁶ ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink, that ye might know that I am Jehovah your God.

⁷ And ye came to this place; and Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us for battle, and we smote them.

⁸ And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of the Manassites.

⁹ Ye shall keep then the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

¹⁰ Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God: your chiefs [of] your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,

¹¹ your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, as well the hewer of thy wood as the drawer of thy water;

¹² that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh with thee this day;

¹³ that he may establish thee this day for a people unto himself, and [that] he may be to thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

¹⁴ Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,

¹⁵ but with him that standeth here with us this day before Jehovah our God, and with him that is not here with us this day

¹⁶ (for ye know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations which ye passed;

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 Jehovah 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 stubbornness of my heart, to sweep away the drunken with the thirsty.

²⁰ Jehovah will not pardon him, but the anger of Jehovah and his jealousy will then smoke against that man, and all the curse shall be upon him that is written in this book; and Jehovah will blot out his name from under the heavens;

²¹ and Jehovah will separate him for mischief out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.

²² And the generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and its sicknesses wherewith Jehovah hath visited it,

²³ [that] the whole ground thereof is brimstone and salt, [and] burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, and no grass groweth in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger and in his fury:

²⁴ even all nations shall say, Why has Jehovah done thus to this land? whence the heat of this great anger?

²⁵ And men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah the God of their fathers, which he had made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt;

²⁶ and they went and served other gods, and bowed down to them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not assigned to them.

²⁷ And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book;

²⁸ and Jehovah rooted them out of their land in anger, and in fury, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as [it appears] this day.

²⁹ The hidden things belong to Jehovah our God; but the revealed ones are ours and our children's for ever, to do all the words of this law.

30 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt take them to heart among all the nations whither Jehovah thy God hath driven thee,

² and shalt return to Jehovah thy God, and shalt hearken to his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy sons, with all thy heart and with all thy soul;

³ that then Jehovah thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will gather thee again from all the peoples whither Jehovah thy God hath scattered thee.

⁴ Though there were of you driven out unto the end of the heavens, from thence will Jehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee;

⁵ and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land that thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

⁶ And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

⁷ And Jehovah thy God will put all these curses on thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, who have persecuted thee.

⁸ But thou shalt return and hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

⁹ And Jehovah thy God will make thee abound in every work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, for good; for Jehovah will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers;

¹⁰ if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if thou turn to Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

¹¹ For this commandment which I command thee this day is not too wonderful for thee, neither is it far off.

¹² It is not in the heavens, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to the heavens, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it?

¹³ And it is not beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it?

¹⁴ For the word is very near to thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

¹⁵ See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil,

¹⁶ in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

¹⁷ But if thy heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and thou shalt bow down to other gods and serve them;

¹⁸ I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whereunto thou passest over the Jordan to possess it.

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you: life and death have I set before you, blessing and cursing: choose then life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed,

²⁰ in loving Jehovah thy God, in hearkening to his voice, and in cleaving to him—for this is thy life and the length of thy days—that thou mayest dwell in the land which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

31 And Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel;

² and he said unto them, I am a hundred and twenty years old this day, I can no more go out and come in; and Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

³ Jehovah thy God, he will go over before thee, he will destroy these nations from before thee, that thou mayest take possession of them: Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as Jehovah hath said.

⁴ And Jehovah will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed.

⁵ And when Jehovah giveth them up before you, ye shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.

⁶ Be strong and courageous, fear them not, neither be afraid of them; for Jehovah thy God, he it is that goeth with thee; he will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.

⁷ And Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and courageous, for thou must go with this people into the land which Jehovah hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.

⁸ And Jehovah, he it is that goeth before thee: he will be with thee; he will not leave thee, nor forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.

⁹ And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰ And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles,

¹¹ when all Israel cometh to appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he will choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their ears.

¹² Gather the people together, the men, and the women, and the children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Jehovah your God, and take heed to do all the words of this law;

¹³ and that their children who do not know it may hear it and learn, that they may fear Jehovah your God, as long as ye live in the land, whereunto ye pass over the Jordan to possess it.

¹⁴ And Jehovah said to Moses, Lo, the days are near for thee to die; call Joshua, and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting.

¹⁵ And Jehovah appeared at the tent in the pillar of cloud; and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance to the tent.

¹⁶ And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the strange gods of the land into which they enter, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

¹⁷ And my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, and they will say in that day, Have not these evils befallen me because my God is not in my midst?

¹⁸ And I will entirely hide my face in that day for all the evils that they have wrought, because they turned unto other gods.

¹⁹ And now, write ye this song, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

²⁰ For I shall bring them into the land which I swore unto their fathers, which floweth with milk and honey; and they will eat and fill themselves, and wax fat, and will turn unto other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.

²¹ And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles have befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imagination which they are forming already this day, before I bring them into the land which I have sworn [unto them].

²² And Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.

²³ And [Jehovah] commanded Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and courageous; for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I have sworn unto them; and I will be with thee.

²⁴ And it came to pass, when Moses had ended writing the words of this law in a book, until their conclusion,

²⁵ that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, saying,

²⁶ Take this book of the law, and put it at the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee;

²⁷ for I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck. Lo, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah; and how much more after my death!

²⁸ Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and take heaven and earth to witness against them.

²⁹ For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and will turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and mischief will befall you at the end of days; because ye do evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

³⁰ And Moses spoke in the ears of the whole congregation of Israel the words of this song, until their conclusion.