Deuteronomy 29
King James Version
29 These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
4 Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen 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 the Lord your God.
7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keep therefore 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 the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day:
13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto 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 the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
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.
Deuteronomy 29
GOD’S WORD Translation
Israel’s Past, Present, and Future
29 [a]These are the terms of the promise [b] that the Lord commanded Moses to give to the Israelites in Moab. This was in addition to the promise the Lord gave them at Mount Horeb.
2 Moses summoned all the people of Israel and said to them:
You’ve seen with your own eyes everything that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole country. 3 You also saw those terrible plagues, those miraculous signs, and those spectacular, amazing things. 4 But to this day the Lord hasn’t given you a mind that understands, eyes that see, or ears that hear. 5 For 40 years I led you through the desert. During that time your clothes and shoes never wore out. 6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or liquor. I did this so that you would know that I am the Lord your God.
7 When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight us, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh as their property. 9 Faithfully obey the terms of this promise. Then you will be successful in everything you do.
10 All of you are standing here today in the presence of the Lord your God. The heads of your tribes,[c] your leaders, your officers, and all the men of Israel are here. 11 Your children, your wives, and the foreigners who cut wood and carry water in your camp are also here. 12 You are ready to accept the terms and conditions of the promise that the Lord your God is giving you today. 13 With this promise the Lord will confirm today that you are his people and that he is your God. This is what he told you, and this is what he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with an oath. 14 You aren’t the only people to receive this promise and its conditions. 15 It is for those of you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and also for those who are not here today.
16 You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through other countries on our way here. 17 You saw their disgusting gods and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold. 18 Make sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you today who turns from the Lord our God to worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that no one among you is the source of this kind of bitter poison.
19 Someone may hear the conditions of this promise. He may think that he is so blessed that he can say, “I’ll be safe even if I go my own stubborn way. After all, ⌞the Lord would never⌟ sweep away well-watered ground along with dry ground.” 20 The Lord will never be willing to forgive that person, because the Lord’s burning anger will smolder against him. All the curses described in this book will happen to him. The Lord will erase ⌞every memory of⌟ that person’s name from the earth. 21 And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster based on all the conditions of the promise written in this Book of the Teachings.
22 Then the next generation of your children and foreigners who come from distant countries will see the plagues that have happened in this land and the diseases the Lord sent here. 23 They will see all the soil poisoned with sulfur and salt. Nothing will be planted. Nothing will be growing. There will be no plants in sight. It will be as desolate as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, cities the Lord destroyed in fierce anger. 24 Then all the other nations in the world will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to their land? Why is he so angry?”
25 The answer will be, “Because they abandoned the promise of the Lord God of their ancestors. He made this promise to them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them. These were gods they never heard of, gods the Lord didn’t permit them to have. 27 So the Lord became angry with this land and brought on it all the curses described in this book. 28 In his fierce anger and fury the Lord uprooted these people from their land and deported them to another country, where they still are today.”
29 Some things are hidden. They belong to the Lord our God. But the things that have been revealed in these teachings belong to us and to our children forever. We must obey every word of these teachings.
Footnotes
- 29:1 Deuteronomy 29:1–29 in English Bibles is Deuteronomy 28:69–29:28 in the Hebrew Bible.
- 29:1 Or “covenant.”
- 29:10 Syriac, Greek, Targum; Masoretic Text “your heads, your tribes.”
Deuteronomy 29
New King James Version
The Covenant Renewed in Moab
29 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the (A)covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: (B)“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land— 3 (C)the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 Yet (D)the Lord has not given you a heart to [a]perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. 5 (E)And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. (F)Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. 6 (G)You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, (H)Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. 8 We took their land and (I)gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. 9 Therefore (J)keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may (K)prosper in all that you do.
10 “All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from (L)the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— 12 that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and (M)into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, 13 that He may (N)establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, (O)just as He has spoken to you, and (P)just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “I make this covenant and this oath, (Q)not with you alone, 15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, (R)as well as with him who is not here with us today 16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, 17 and you saw their [b]abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); 18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, (S)whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, (T)and that there may not be among you a root bearing (U)bitterness or wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I [c]follow the (V)dictates of my heart’—(W)as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
20 (X)“The Lord would not spare him; for then (Y)the anger of the Lord and (Z)His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord (AA)would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord (AB)would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the (AC)Law, 22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they (AD)see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:
23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, (AE)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, (AF)like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 All nations would say, (AG)‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26 for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, (AH)to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28 And the Lord (AI)uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 29:4 understand or know
- Deuteronomy 29:17 detestable things
- Deuteronomy 29:19 walk in the stubbornness or imagination
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
