Deuteronomy 30

1 “Now when all these things will have fallen over you, the blessing or the curse that I have set forth in your sight, and you will have been led to repentance in your heart among all the nations to which the Lord your God will have dispersed 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 will have returned to him, so as to obey his commandments, just as I have instructed you this day, with your sons, with your whole heart and with your whole soul,

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

3 then the Lord your God will lead you away from your captivity, and he will take pity on you, and he will gather you again from all the nations to which he had dispersed you before.

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 will have been scattered as far as the poles of the heavens, the Lord your God will retrieve 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 he will take you up and lead you into the land which your fathers had possessed, and you shall obtain it. And in blessing you, he will make you greater in number than your fathers ever were.

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 heart, and the heart of your offspring, so that you may love the Lord your God with your entire heart and with your entire soul, so that you may be able to 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 And he will turn all these curses upon your enemies, and upon those who hate 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 But you shall return, and you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God. And you shall carry out all the commandments which I am entrusting to you this day.

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 And the Lord your God will cause you to abound in all the works of your hands, in the progeny of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, in the fertility of your land, and with an abundance of all things. For the Lord will return, so that he may rejoice over you in all good things, just as he rejoiced in 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 but only if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep his precepts and ceremonies, which have been written in this law, and only if you return to the Lord your God 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 This commandment, which I entrust to you today, is not high above you, nor has it been placed far away.

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 Nor is it in heaven, so that you would be able to say, ‘Which of us can ascend to heaven, so as to carry it back to us, and so that we may hear it and fulfill it in deed?’

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 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you would excuse yourself by saying, ‘Which of us is able to cross the sea, and to carry it back to us, so that we may be able to hear and to do what has been instructed?’

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 Instead, the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do 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 Consider what I have set forth in your sight this day, life and good, or, on the opposite side, death and evil,

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 so that you may love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and so that you may live, and he may multiply you and bless you in the land, which you shall enter in order 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 will have been turned aside, so that you are not willing to listen, and, having been deceived by error, you adore strange gods and serve 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 then I predict to you this day that you will perish, and you will remain for only a short time in the land, for which you shall cross the Jordan, and which you shall enter in order 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 this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your offspring 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 so that you may love the Lord your God, and obey his voice, and cling to him, (for he is your life and the length of your days) and so that you may live in the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them.”

[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.”