Deuteronomy 29
1 These [are] the words of the covenant which Jehovah hath commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, apart from the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
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.
2 And Moses calleth unto all Israel, and saith unto them, 'Ye — ye have seen all that which Jehovah hath done before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;
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.
3 the great trials which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders;
You saw with your own eyes the amazing tests, and those great signs and miracles.
4 and Jehovah hath not given to you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, till this day,
But up to now the Lord has not given you minds that understand, or eyes that see, or ears that hear, saying,
5 and I cause you to go forty years in a wilderness; your garments have not been consumed from off you, and thy shoe hath not worn away from off thy foot;
For forty years I led you through the desert, but your clothes and sandals didn't wear out.
6 bread ye have not eaten, and wine and strong drink ye have not drunk, so that ye know that I [am] Jehovah your God.
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.
7 'And ye come in unto this place, and Sihon king of Heshbon — also Og king of Bashan — doth come out to meet us, to battle, and we smite them,
When we arrived here, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan marched out to fight us in battle, but we defeated them.
8 and take their land, and give it for an inheritance to the Reubenite, and to the Gadite, and to the half of the tribe of Manasseh;
We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to own.
9 and ye have kept the words of this covenant, and done them, so that ye cause all that ye do to prosper.
So make sure you keep and follow the terms of this agreement in order that you may be successful in everything you do.
10 'Ye are standing to-day, all of you, before Jehovah your God — your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your authorities — every man of Israel;
Every one of you is stand here today before the Lord your God: you tribal leaders, officials, and all the men of Israel,
11 your infants, your wives, and thy sojourner who [is] in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water —
your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your firewood and carry your water.
12 for thy passing over into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into His oath which Jehovah thy God is making with thee to-day;
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,
13 in order to establish thee to-day to Him for a people, and He Himself is thy God, as He hath spoken to thee, and as He hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
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.
14 'And not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath;
It's not only with you that the Lord is making this agreement and solemn promise,
15 but with him who is here with us, standing to-day before Jehovah our God, and with him who is not here with us to-day,
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.
16 for ye have known how ye dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we passed by through the midst of the nations which ye have passed by;
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.
17 and ye see their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which [are] with them,
You saw their disgusting religious practices and their idols of wood and stone, and silver and gold.
18 lest there be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart is turning to-day from Jehovah our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations, lest there be in you a root fruitful of gall and wormwood:
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.
19 'And it hath been, in his hearing the words of this oath, and he hath blessed himself in his heart, saying, I have peace, though in the stubbornness of my heart I go on, in order to end the fulness with the thirst.
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.
20 Jehovah is not willing to be propitious to him, for then doth the anger of Jehovah smoke, also His zeal, against that man, and lain down on him hath all the oath which is written in this book, and Jehovah hath blotted out his name from under the heavens,
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,
21 and Jehovah hath separated him for evil, out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the oaths of the covenant which is written in this book of the law.
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.
22 'And the latter generation of your sons who rise after you, and the stranger who cometh in from a land afar off, have said when they have seen the strokes of that land, and its sicknesses which Jehovah hath sent into it, —
Later generations, your descendants and foreigners from far away, will see how the Lord has brought disaster on the country and devastated it.
23 ([with] brimstone and salt is the whole land burnt, it is not sown, nor doth it shoot up, nor doth there go up on it any herb, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overturned in His anger, and in His fury, ) —
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.
24 yea, all the nations have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land? what the heat of this great anger?
Everyone everywhere will ask, “Why did the Lord do this to the country? Why did he get so terribly angry?”
25 'And they have said, Because that they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah, God of their fathers, which He made with them in His bringing them out of the land of Egypt,
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.
26 and they go and serve other gods, and bow themselves to them — gods which they have not known, and which He hath not apportioned to them;
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.
27 and the anger of Jehovah burneth against that land, to bring in on it all the reviling that is written in this book,
That's why the Lord was so angry with this land, and he rained down on it every curse written in this book.
28 and Jehovah doth pluck them from off their ground in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath, and doth cast them unto another land, as [at] this day.
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.”
29 'The things hidden [are] to Jehovah our God, and the things revealed [are] to us and to our sons — to the age, to do all the words of this law.
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.
