Deuteronomy 29-30

Revised Standard Version

29 ^[a] These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he had made with them at Horeb.

The Covenant Renewed in Moab

^2 [b] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “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 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders; ⁴ but to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. ⁵ I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet; ⁶ you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am the Lord your God. ⁷ And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them; ⁸ we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manas′sites. ⁹ Therefore be careful to do the words of this covenant, that you may prosper^[c] in all that you do.

¹⁰ “You stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; the heads of your tribes,^[d] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, both he who hews your wood and he who draws your water, ¹² that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God makes with you this day; ¹³ that he may establish you this day as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ¹⁴ Nor is it with you only that I make this sworn covenant, ¹⁵ but with him who is not here with us this day as well as with him who stands here with us this day before the Lord our God.

¹⁶ “You know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; ¹⁷ and you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. ¹⁸ Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations; lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹ one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This would lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. ²⁰ The Lord would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy would smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book would settle upon him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ And the Lord would single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. ²² And the generation to come, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— ²³ the whole land brimstone and salt, and a burnt-out waste, unsown, and growing nothing, where no grass can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomor′rah, Admah and Zeboi′im, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— ²⁴ yea, all the nations would say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What means the heat of this great anger?’ ²⁵ Then men would say, ‘It is because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, ²⁶ and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them; ²⁷ therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book; ²⁸ and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as at this day.’

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

God’s Fidelity Assured

30 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, ² and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you this day, with all your heart and with all your soul; ³ then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes, and have compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. ⁴ If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will fetch you; ⁵ and the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, that you may possess it; and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. ⁶ And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. ⁷ And the Lord your God will put all these curses upon your foes and enemies who persecuted you. ⁸ And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord, and keep all his commandments which I command you this day. ⁹ The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground; for the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, ¹⁰ if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Exhortation to Choose Life

¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

¹⁵ “See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. ¹⁶ If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God^[e] which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰ loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”