The Ten Commandments Reviewed^(A)

5 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. ^2 (B)The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ The Lord ^(C)did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. ^4 (D)The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ^5 (E)I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for ^(F)you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And ^(Z)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The People Afraid of God’s Presence^(AA)

^23 (AB)“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴ And you said: ‘Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and ^(AC)we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he ^(AD)still lives. ²⁵ Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; ^(AE)if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. ^26 (AF)For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷ You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and ^(AG)tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. ^(AH)They are right in all that they have spoken. ^29 (AI)Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and ^(AJ)always keep all My commandments, ^(AK)that it might be well with them and with their children forever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But as for you, stand here by Me, ^(AL)and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

³² “Therefore you shall ^[h]be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; ^(AM)you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in ^(AN)all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live ^(AO)and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(AP)the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ^2 (AQ)that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, ^(AR)and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore hear, O Israel, and ^[i]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may ^(AS)multiply greatly ^(AT)as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—^(AU)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

^4 (AV)“Hear, O Israel: ^[j]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ^5 (AW)You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, ^(AX)with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And ^(AY)these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ^7 (AZ)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^8 (BA)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (BB)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[k]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(BC)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(BD)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(BE)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(BF)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(BG)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(BH)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(BI)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(BJ)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (BK)“You shall not ^[l]tempt the Lord your God ^(BL)as you ^[m]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(BM)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(BN)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (BO)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (BP)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(BQ)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[n]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[o]observe all these ^[p]statutes, ^(BR)to fear the Lord our God, ^(BS)for our good always, that ^(BT)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[q]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(BU)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

A Chosen People^(BV)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(BW)possess, and has cast out many ^(BX)nations before you, ^(BY)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(BZ)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(CA)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (CB)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(CC)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(CD)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[r]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[s]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(CE)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(CF)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(CG)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(CH)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(CI)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(CJ)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[t]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(CK)the faithful God ^(CL)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[u]be ^(CM)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Blessings of Obedience^(CN)

¹² “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ And He will ^(CO)love you and bless you and ^[v]multiply you; ^(CP)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He ^[w]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female ^(CQ)barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the ^(CR)terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ Also you shall ^[x]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(CS)be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall ^(CT)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (CU)the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ^20 (CV)Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. ²² And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you ^(CW)little by little; you will be unable to ^[y]destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(CX)He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; ^(CY)no one shall be able to stand ^[z]against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not ^(CZ)covet^[aa] the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, ^(DA)for it is an ^[ab]accursed thing.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(DB)you must ^[ac]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(DC)multiply,^[ad] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[ae]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(DD)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(DE)test you, ^(DF)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(DG)allowed you to hunger, and ^(DH)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(DI)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (DJ)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (DK)You should ^[af]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(DL)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(DM)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (DN)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (DO)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[ag]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[ah]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (DP)when your heart ^[ai]is lifted up, and you ^(DQ)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(DR)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(DS)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(DT)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(DU)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(DV)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(DW)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(DX)that He may ^[aj]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(DY)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(DZ)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Blessings on Obedience^(A)

28 “Now it shall come to pass, ^(B)if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God ^(C)will set you high above all nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and ^(D)overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:

^3 (E)“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be ^(F)in the country.

⁴ “Blessed shall be ^(G)the ^[a]fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

⁵ “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

^6 (H)“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷ “The Lord ^(I)will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

⁸ “The Lord will ^(J)command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you ^(K)set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

^9 (L)“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are ^(M)called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be ^(N)afraid of you. ¹¹ And ^(O)the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord ^[b]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The Lord will open to you His good ^[c]treasure, the heavens, ^(P)to give the rain to your land in its season, and ^(Q)to bless all the work of your hand. ^(R)You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³ And the Lord will make ^(S)you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you ^[d]heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. ^14 (T)So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses on Disobedience^(U)

¹⁵ “But it shall come to pass, ^(V)if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

¹⁷ “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the ^[e]fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ “The Lord will send on you ^(W)cursing, ^(X)confusion, and ^(Y)rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. ²¹ The Lord will make the ^[f]plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. ^22 (Z)The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with ^(AA)scorching,^[g] and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And ^(AB)your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

^25 (AC)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become ^[h]troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. ^26 (AD)Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. ²⁷ The Lord will strike you with ^(AE)the boils of Egypt, with ^(AF)tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and ^(AG)confusion of heart. ²⁹ And you shall ^(AH)grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

^30 (AI)“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; ^(AJ)you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; ^(AK)you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to ^(AL)another people, and your eyes shall look and ^(AM)fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be ^[i]no strength in your ^(AN)hand. ³³ A nation whom you have not known shall eat ^(AO)the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. ³⁴ So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will ^(AP)bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and ^(AQ)there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become ^(AR)an^[j] astonishment, a proverb, ^(AS)and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.

^38 (AT)“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for ^(AU)the locust shall ^[k]consume it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the ^(AV)wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for ^(AW)they shall go into captivity. ⁴² Locusts shall ^[l]consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

⁴³ “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you ^[m]did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be upon ^(AX)you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

^47 (AY)“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, ^(AZ)for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in ^(BA)hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He ^(BB)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. ^49 (BC)The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^(BD)as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance, ^(BE)which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.

⁵² “They shall ^(BF)besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. ^53 (BG)You shall eat the ^[n]fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. ⁵⁴ The ^[o]sensitive and very refined man among you ^(BH)will^[p] be hostile toward his brother, toward ^(BI)the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. ⁵⁶ The ^[q]tender and ^[r]delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, ^[s]will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, ⁵⁷ her ^[t]placenta which comes out ^(BJ)from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

⁵⁸ “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear ^(BK)this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants ^(BL)extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. ⁶⁰ Moreover He will bring back on you all ^(BM)the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. ⁶² You ^(BN)shall be left few in number, whereas you were ^(BO)as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. ⁶³ And it shall be, that just as the Lord ^(BP)rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord ^(BQ)will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be ^(BR)plucked^[u] from off the land which you go to possess.

⁶⁴ “Then the Lord ^(BS)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and ^(BT)there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And ^(BU)among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; ^(BV)but there the Lord will give you a ^[v]trembling heart, failing eyes, and ^(BW)anguish of soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. ^67 (BX)In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and ^(BY)because of the sight which your eyes see.

⁶⁸ “And the Lord ^(BZ)will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ^(CA)‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

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 ^(CB)covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

² Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: ^(CC)“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 (CD)the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. ⁴ Yet ^(CE)the Lord has not given you a heart to ^[w]perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. ^5 (CF)And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. ^(CG)Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. ^6 (CH)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, ^(CI)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 ^(CJ)gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. ⁹ Therefore ^(CK)keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may ^(CL)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 ^(CM)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 ^(CN)into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, ¹³ that He may ^(CO)establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, ^(CP)just as He has spoken to you, and ^(CQ)just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ “I make this covenant and this oath, ^(CR)not with you alone, ¹⁵ but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, ^(CS)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 ^[x]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, ^(CT)whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, ^(CU)and that there may not be among you a root bearing ^(CV)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 ^[y]follow the ^(CW)dictates of my heart’—^(CX)as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

^20 (CY)“The Lord would not spare him; for then ^(CZ)the anger of the Lord and ^(DA)His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord ^(DB)would blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ And the Lord ^(DC)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 ^(DD)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 ^(DE)see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:

²³ ‘The whole land is brimstone, ^(DF)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, ^(DG)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, ^(DH)‘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, ^(DI)to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. ²⁸ And the Lord ^(DJ)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.

The Blessing of Returning to God

30 “Now ^(DK)it shall come to pass, when ^(DL)all these things come upon you, the blessing and the ^(DM)curse which I have set before you, and ^(DN)you ^[z]call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, ² and you ^(DO)return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, ^3 (DP)that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and ^(DQ)gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. ^4 (DR)If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. ⁵ Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. ⁶ And ^(DS)the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

⁷ “Also the Lord your God will put all these ^(DT)curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸ And you will ^(DU)again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. ^9 (DV)The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the ^[aa]fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again ^(DW)rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over 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, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life or Death

¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today ^(DX)is ^[ab]not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. ^12 (DY)It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Nor 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, ^(DZ)in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

¹⁵ “See, ^(EA)I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, ^18 (EB)I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. ^19 (EC)I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that ^(ED)I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ²⁰ that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your ^(EE)life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

Joshua the New Leader of Israel^(EF)

31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ² And he said to them: “I ^(EG)am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer ^(EH)go out and come in. Also the Lord has said to me, ^(EI)‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ ³ The Lord your God ^(EJ)Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. ^(EK)Joshua himself crosses over before you, just ^(EL)as the Lord has said. ^4 (EM)And the Lord will do to them ^(EN)as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them. ^5 (EO)The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you. ^6 (EP)Be strong and of good courage, ^(EQ)do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, ^(ER)He is the One who goes with you. ^(ES)He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

⁷ Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, ^(ET)“Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. ⁸ And the Lord, ^(EU)He is the One who goes before you. ^(EV)He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

The Law to Be Read Every Seven Years

⁹ So Moses wrote this law ^(EW)and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, ^(EX)who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the ^(EY)year of release, ^(EZ)at the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to ^(FA)appear before the Lord your God in the ^(FB)place which He chooses, ^(FC)you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ^12 (FD)Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, ¹³ and that their children, ^(FE)who have not known it, ^(FF)may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

Prediction of Israel’s Rebellion

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(FG)“Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that ^(FH)I may ^[ac]inaugurate him.”

So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. ¹⁵ Now ^(FI)the Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle.

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will ^[ad]rest with your fathers; and this people will ^(FJ)rise and ^(FK)play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will ^(FL)forsake Me and ^(FM)break My covenant which I have made with them. ¹⁷ Then My anger shall be ^(FN)aroused against them in that day, and ^(FO)I will forsake them, and I will ^(FP)hide My face from them, and they shall be ^[ae]devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ^(FQ)‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is ^(FR)not among us?’ ¹⁸ And ^(FS)I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

¹⁹ “Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be ^(FT)a witness for Me against the children of Israel. ²⁰ When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves ^(FU)and grown fat, ^(FV)then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant. ²¹ Then it shall be, ^(FW)when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for ^(FX)I know the inclination ^(FY)of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them.”

²² Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. ^23 (FZ)Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, ^(GA)“Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”

²⁴ So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, ²⁵ that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: ²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law, ^(GB)and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there ^(GC)as a witness against you; ^27 (GD)for I know your rebellion and your ^(GE)stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then 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 hearing ^(GF)and call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will ^(GG)become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And ^(GH)evil will befall you ^(GI)in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”

The Song of Moses

³⁰ Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:

Moses Dies on Mount Nebo

34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab ^(A)to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, ² all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the ^[a]Western Sea, ³ the South, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho, ^(B)the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. ⁴ Then the Lord said to him, ^(C)“This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ ^(D)I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”

^5 (E)So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. ⁶ And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but ^(F)no one knows his grave to this day. ^7 (G)Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. ^(H)His ^[b]eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor ^[c]diminished. ⁸ And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab ^(I)thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended.

⁹ Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the ^(J)spirit of wisdom, for ^(K)Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹⁰ But since then there ^(L)has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, ^(M)whom the Lord knew face to face, ¹¹ in all ^(N)the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, ¹² and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.