Deuteronomy 29

1 The following are the terms of the agreement that the Lord ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in the country of Moab This was in addition to the agreement he had made with them at Horeb.

These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

2 Moses called all the Israelites together and announced to them, You saw with your own eyes everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole country.

And Moses called to 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 You saw with your own eyes the amazing tests, and those great signs and miracles.

The great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:

4 But up to now the Lord has not given you minds that understand, or eyes that see, or ears that hear, saying,

Yet the LORD has not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.

5 For forty years I led you through the desert, but your clothes and sandals didn't wear out.

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old on you, and your shoe is not waxen old on your foot.

6 You didn't have bread to eat, or wine or alcohol to drink in order that you would realize that I am the Lord your God.

You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the LORD your God.

7 When we arrived here, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan marched out to fight us in battle, but we defeated them.

And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we smote them:

8 We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to own.

And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.

9 So make sure you keep and follow the terms of this agreement in order that you may be successful in everything you do.

Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

10 Every one of you is stand here today before the Lord your God: you tribal leaders, officials, and all the men of Israel,

You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

11 your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your firewood and carry your water.

Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water:

12 You're here so you can enter into the agreement of the Lord your God, which he is making with you today, and accept his solemn promise,

That you should enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day:

13 and so he can confirm you today as his people. He will be your God as he told you and as he promised your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

That he may establish you to day for a people to himself, and that he may be to you a God, as he has said to you, and as he has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 It's not only with you that the Lord is making this agreement and solemn promise,

Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

15 those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here today.

But with him that stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

16 You know very well what it was like when we lived in the land of Egypt and our experiences as we passed through the nations on the way here.

(For you know how we have dwelled in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;

17 You saw their disgusting religious practices and their idols of wood and stone, and silver and gold.

And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them: )

18 You need to make sure today that there's no man or woman, family or tribe of yours who wants to turn from the Lord our God and go and worship the gods of these nations. Make sure there is nothing like that among you that would produce such poison and bitterness.

Lest there should be among you 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 these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;

19 For when someone like that hears the words of this solemn promise, they think they'll still receive a blessing, telling themselves, “I'll be safe, even though I'll go on doing whatever I feel like.” Such an attitude would destroy good and bad alike.

And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

20 The Lord would never want to pardon them. In fact, his passionate anger will burn against them, and every curse written in this book will fall on them. The Lord will erase their name from the earth,

The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie on him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

21 and punish them as an example of them for all the Israelite tribes, in accordance with all the curses of the agreement written in this Book of the Law.

And the LORD shall separate him to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

22 Later generations, your descendants and foreigners from far away, will see how the Lord has brought disaster on the country and devastated it.

So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it;

23 The whole country will be burning wasteland of sulfur and salt. Nothing is sown; it's totally unproductive; no plant grows there—just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his furious anger.

And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

24 Everyone everywhere will ask, “Why did the Lord do this to the country? Why did he get so terribly angry?”

Even all nations shall say, Why has the LORD done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger?

25 The people will answer, “It's because they abandoned the agreement of the Lord, the God of their forefathers, which he made with them when he led them out of Egypt.

Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

26 They went off and worshiped other gods, bowing down to gods they'd never heard of—gods that the Lord had not given to them.

For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given to them:

27 That's why the Lord was so angry with this land, and he rained down on it every curse written in this book.

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book:

28 The Lord uprooted them from their country in his anger, rage, and fury, and he threw them out, leaving them in another land, where they are to this day.”

And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

29 The Lord our God has secrets that belong to him, but what has been revealed belong to us and to our descendants forever, so that we may follow everything in this law.

The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.