Deuteronomy 29
1 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].
These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb.
2 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.
Moses summoned all Israel and proclaimed to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land.
3 You [SYN] saw all the plagues [that Yahweh caused them to experience], and all the various miracles [DOU] [that Yahweh performed].
You saw with your own eyes the great trials, and those miraculous signs and wonders.
4 But until now, Yahweh has not enabled you to understand [the meaning of] all that you have seen and heard.
Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.
5 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.
For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
6 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.
You ate no bread and drank no wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.
7 “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.
When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them.
8 We took/conquered their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh.
We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9 “So faithfully keep all of this agreement, in order that you will be successful in everything that you do.
So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do.
10 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,
All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel,
11 your wives, your children, and the foreigners who live among you and cut wood for you and carry water for you, are here.
your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—
12 [We are here] today to promise to keep this solemn agreement with Yahweh.
so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath,
13 [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.
and so that He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 This agreement is not only with you.
I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you,
15 He is making this agreement with us [who are here today] and also with our descendants who are not yet born.
but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, as well as with those who are not here today.
16 “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].
For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the nations on the way here.
17 In those countries they saw those disgusting idols made of wood and stone and [decorated with] silver and gold.
You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold.
18 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].
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,
19 “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].
because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.
20 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].
The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
21 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.
and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
22 “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.
Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it.
23 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].
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
24 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]?’
So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’
25 “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.
And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.
26 Instead, they served/worshiped other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that Yahweh had told them not to worship.
They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them.
27 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.
Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book.
28 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.’
The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
29 “[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.”
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.
