Deuteronomy 30

1 “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you,

“I have now told you about the ways that Yahweh our God will bless you [if you obey him] and the ways that he will curse you [if you disobey him]. I am saying that you must choose which you want. But when [you choose not to obey his laws], some day you will be living in the countries to which he will scatter you, and you will remember [what I told you].

2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,

Then, if you return to Yahweh our God and faithfully [IDM] obey all that I have today commanded you to do,

3 then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you.

he will be merciful to you. He will bring you back from the nations to which he scattered you, and he will cause you to be prosperous again.

4 Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.

Even if you have been scattered to the most distant places on the earth, Yahweh our God will gather you from there and bring you back [to your land].

5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.

He will enable you to possess again the land where your ancestors lived. And he will cause you to be more prosperous and more numerous than you are now.

6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

Yahweh our God will change [MET] your inner beings, with the result that you will love him more than you love anything else and want to do only what he wants you to do. And then you will continue to live in that land.

7 Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you.

Yahweh our God will cause your enemies and those who oppressed/persecuted you to experience all the disasters that I have told you about.

8 And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today.

You will do what Yahweh wants you to do, as you did before, and you will obey all the commands that I have given to you today.

9 So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your goodness, as He delighted in that of your fathers,

Yahweh our God will cause you to be very successful in all that you do. You will have many children [IDM], and a lot of cattle, and you will have abundant crops. He will again be happy to enable you to prosper, just like he was happy to enable your ancestors to prosper.

10 if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

[But he will do those things only] if you do what he has told you to do, and if you obey all his rules and regulations that I have written about [in this scroll], and if you will love him more than you love anything else and want to do only what he wants you to do.

11 For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

The commands that I am giving to you today are not very difficult for you [to obey], and they are not [difficult to know].

12 It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

They are not in heaven, with the result that you need to say, ‘(Who will need to go up to heaven for us to bring them [down here to us] in order that we can hear them and obey them?/Someone will need to go up to heaven for us to bring them [down here to us] in order that we can hear them and obey them.)’ [RHQ]

13 And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

And they are not on the other side of the sea, with the result that you need to say, ‘(Who will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order that we can hear them and obey them?/Someone will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order that we can hear them and obey them.)’ [RHQ]

14 But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.

[You do not need to do that because] his commands are here with you. You know them [MTY] and you have (memorized them/put them in your minds). So you can [easily] obey them.

15 See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster.

So listen! Today I am allowing you to choose between [doing what is] evil and [doing what is] good, between what will enable you to live [for a long time] and [what will cause you] to die [while you are still young].

16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

[I say again], if you obey the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving to you today, and if you love him and conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and if you obey all his rules and regulations, you will prosper and become very numerous, and Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

But if you turn away [from Yahweh] and refuse to heed what he says, and if you allow yourselves to be led away to worship other gods,

18 I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

I am warning you today that you will [soon] die. You will not live for a long time in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan [River] to enter and possess.

19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,

I am requesting that [everyone in] heaven and the earth testify to you, that today I am allowing you to choose whether you [want to] live for a long time or to soon die, whether [you want Yahweh to] bless you or to curse you. So choose to live.

20 and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

[Choose to] love Yahweh our God, and to obey him [MTY], and to (be faithful to/have a close relationship with) him. If you do that, you and your descendants will live for a long time in the land that Yahweh solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give to them.”