Deuteronomy 30

1 “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].

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt take them to heart among all the nations whither Jehovah thy God hath driven thee,

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

and shalt return to Jehovah thy God, and shalt hearken to his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy sons, with all thy heart and with all thy soul;

3 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.

that then Jehovah thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will gather thee again from all the peoples whither Jehovah thy God hath scattered thee.

4 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].

Though there were of you driven out unto the end of the heavens, from thence will Jehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee;

5 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.

and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land that thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

6 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.

And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

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

And Jehovah thy God will put all these curses on thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, who have persecuted thee.

8 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.

But thou shalt return and hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

9 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.

And Jehovah thy God will make thee abound in every work of thy hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, for good; for Jehovah will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers;

10 [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.

if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if thou turn to Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

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

For this commandment which I command thee this day is not too wonderful for thee, neither is it far off.

12 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]

It is not in the heavens, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to the heavens, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it?

13 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]

And it is not beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it?

14 [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.

For the word is very near to thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

15 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].

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil,

16 [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.

in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

17 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,

But if thy heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and thou shalt bow down to other gods and serve them;

18 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.

I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whereunto thou passest over the Jordan to possess it.

19 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.

I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you: life and death have I set before you, blessing and cursing: choose then life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed,

20 [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.”

in loving Jehovah thy God, in hearkening to his voice, and in cleaving to him — for this is thy life and the length of thy days — that thou mayest dwell in the land which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.