DeuteronomyChapter 29

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¹These are the words of the covenant the LORD told Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab. This was added to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ²Moses called all Israel together. He said to them, "You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD did in Egypt. You saw what he did to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land. ³With your own eyes you saw the great testings. You saw those miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴But even now the LORD has not given you a mind that understands. He has not given you eyes that see or ears that hear. ⁵For forty years I led you in the wilderness. Yet your clothes did not wear out, and neither did your sandals. ⁶You ate no bread. You drank no wine or strong drink. This was so you would know that I am the LORD your God. ⁷When you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight us. But we beat them. ⁸We took their land. We gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to half the tribe of Manasseh to keep as their own. ⁹So keep the words of this covenant and do them. Then you will do well in all you do. ¹⁰Today all of you are standing in front of the LORD your God. Here are the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials. Here are all the men of Israel, ¹¹your children and your wives. Here are the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and carry your water. ¹²You are here to enter into the covenant of the LORD your God. He is making it with you today, and he is making his oath with you. ¹³This is so that today he may make you his people, and he may be your God. He promised you this. He promised it with an oath to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ¹⁴I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. ¹⁵I am making it with those who stand here with us today in front of the LORD our God. And I am making it with those who are not here today. ¹⁶You know how we lived in the land of Egypt. You know how we passed through the nations on the way here. ¹⁷You saw their hateful things and their idols. They were made of wood and stone, and of silver and gold. ¹⁸Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God. Make sure no one goes to worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that grows such poison and bitter fruit. ¹⁹This is because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he blesses himself. He says, 'I will be safe, even though I go my own stubborn way.' This will bring ruin on the watered land and the dry land alike. ²⁰The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. His anger and jealousy will burn against that man. Every curse written in this book will fall on him. The LORD will wipe out his name from under heaven. ²¹He will pick him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster. It will match all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. ²²Then the people who come later will see it. Your sons who come after you will see it. So will the foreigner who comes from a land far away. They will see the plagues of the land. They will see the sicknesses the LORD has brought on it. ²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt. Nothing will be planted, and nothing will grow. No plant will come up on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. The LORD destroyed them in his fierce anger. ²⁴All the nations will ask, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why is his anger so great and so hot?' ²⁵And people will answer, 'It is because they left the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers. He made it with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶They went and served other gods. They worshiped gods they had not known. The LORD had not given those gods to them. ²⁷So the LORD's anger burned against this land. He brought on it every curse written in this book. ²⁸The LORD pulled them up by the roots from their land. He did it in his anger, his rage, and his great fury. He threw them into another land, where they are today.' ²⁹The secret things belong to the LORD our God. But the things he has shown us belong to us and to our children forever. They are so we can obey all the words of this law.