Deuteronomy 29
1 These are the words of the covenant which YHWH commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
These are the things that the Israelis were required to do to keep the agreement that Yahweh was making with them. Moses/I commanded them to keep this agreement [when they/we were] in the Moab region [on the east side of the Jordan River]. This was in addition to the agreement that Yahweh had made with them/us at Sinai [Mountain].
2 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that YHWH did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;
Moses/I summoned all the Israeli people and said to them, “You saw [SYN] for yourselves what Yahweh did to the king of Egypt and to his officials and to his entire country.
3 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:
You [SYN] saw all the plagues [that Yahweh caused them to experience], and all the various miracles [DOU] [that Yahweh performed].
4 but YHWH has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
But until now, Yahweh has not enabled you to understand [the meaning of] all that you have seen and heard.
5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your shoes have not worn out on your feet.
For 40 years Yahweh has led you while you traveled/walked through the desert. During that time, your clothes and your sandals have not worn out.
6 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am YHWH your God.
You did not have bread to eat or wine or other fermented/strong drinks to drink, but Yahweh [took care of you], in order that you would know that he is your God.
7 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 struck them:
“And when we came to this place, Sihon, the king who ruled in Heshbon [city], and Og, the king who ruled the Bashan [region], came [with their armies] to attack us, but we defeated them.
8 and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.
We took/conquered their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
“So faithfully keep all of this agreement, in order that you will be successful in everything that you do.
10 You stand this day all of you before YHWH your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,
Today all of us are standing in the presence of Yahweh our God. The leaders of all our tribes, our elders, our officials, all you Israeli men,
11 your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;
your wives, your children, and the foreigners who live among you and cut wood for you and carry water for you, are here.
12 that you may enter into the covenant of YHWH your God, and into his oath, which YHWH your God makes with you this day,
[We are here] today to promise to keep this solemn agreement with Yahweh.
13 so that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may your God, as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
[He is making this agreement with you] in order to confirm that you are his people, and that he is your God. This agreement is what he promised you, and which is what he vowed to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,
This agreement is not only with you.
15 but with him who stands here with us this day before YHWH our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day
He is making this agreement with us [who are here today] and also with our descendants who are not yet born.
16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;
“You remember [the things that our ancestors suffered] in Egypt, and how they traveled through the land that belonged to other nations [after they came out of Egypt].
17 and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);
In those countries they saw those disgusting idols made of wood and stone and [decorated with] silver and gold.
18 lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from YHWH our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
So be sure that no man or woman or family or tribe that is here [today] turns away from Yahweh our God, to worship/serve the gods of those nations. Doing that would be like a root [of a plant that would grow] among you and bear poisonous and bitter fruit [MET].
19 and it happen, 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 stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry."
“Be sure that no one here today who hears this agreement thinks, ‘Everything will go well with me, even if I stubbornly do what I want to.’ If you are stubborn like that, the result will be that Yahweh will eventually get rid of all of you, both good people and evil people [MET].
20 God will not be willing to forgive him, but then the anger of YHWH and his jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book shall rest on him, and YHWH will blot out his name from under heaven.
Yahweh will not forgive anyone who is [stubborn] like that. Instead, he will be extremely angry [DOU] with that person, and that person will experience all the curses that I have told you about, until Yahweh gets rid of that person and his family [IDM].
21 YHWH will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.
From all the tribes of Israel, Yahweh will separate that individual. Yahweh will cause him to experience all the disasters that I have listed in the agreement that states the things that Yahweh will do to curse [those who disobey] the laws [that I have written] in this scroll/book.
22 The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which YHWH has made it sick;
“In the future, your descendants and people from other countries will see the disasters and the illnesses that Yahweh has caused to happen to you.
23 and that the whole land of it is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which YHWH overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
They will see that all your land has been ruined by burning sulfur and salt. Nothing will have been planted. Not even weeds will grow there. Your land will resemble Sodom and Gomorrah [cities], and Admah and Zeboiim [cities], which Yahweh destroyed when he was very angry [DOU] [with the people who lived there].
24 even all the nations shall say, "Why has YHWH done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?"
And the people from those other nations will ask, ‘Why did Yahweh do this to this land? Why was he very angry [with the people who lived here]?’
25 Then men shall say, "Because they forsook the covenant of YHWH, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,
“Then other people will reply, ‘It is because they refused to keep the agreement that Yahweh, the God whom their ancestors [worshiped], had made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.
26 and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they did not know, and that he had not given to them:
Instead, they served/worshiped other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that Yahweh had told them not to worship.
27 therefore the anger of YHWH was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;
So, Yahweh became very angry with the Israeli people in this land, and he caused them to experience all the disasters that their leader warned them about.
28 and YHWH rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day."
Yahweh became extremely angry [DOU] with them and took/yanked them [MET] out of their land and banished them into another land, and they are still there.’
29 The secret things belong to YHWH our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
“[There are some] things that Yahweh our God has (kept secret/not revealed), but he has revealed his laws to us, and [he expects] us and our descendants to obey them forever.”
