Deuteronomy 29-30New King James Version (NKJV)
The Covenant Renewed in Moab
29 These are the words of the
covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of
Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in
Horeb.
2 Now Moses called 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 the great trials which your eyes have seen,
the signs, and those great wonders. 4 Yet
the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and
ears to hear, to this very day. 5 And
I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on
you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. 6 You
have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink,
that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And
when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came
out against us to battle, and we conquered them. 8 We
took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the
Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. 9 Therefore
keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that
you do.
10 “All of you stand today before
the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and
your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your
little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your
camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— 12 that
you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His
oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, 13 that
He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He
may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to
your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “I make this covenant and this
oath, not with you alone, 15 but with him who
stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as
with him who is not here with us today 16 (for
you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the
nations which you passed by, 17 and you saw their
abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and
stone and silver and gold); 18 so that there may
not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today
from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of
these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or
wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he
hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I
shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates[a] of my heart’—as though
the drunkard could be included with the sober.
20 “The Lord would not
spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn
against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on
him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And
the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for
adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this
Book of the Law, 22 so that the coming generation
of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far
land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses
which the Lord has laid on it:
23 ‘The whole land is brimstone,
salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow
there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which
the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 “All
nations would say, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does
the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 Then people would
say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of
their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of
Egypt; 26 for they went and served other gods and
worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to
them. 27 Then the anger of the Lord was
aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this
book. 28 And the Lord uprooted them from
their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into
another land, as it is this day.’
29 “The secret things belong to
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to
us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words
of this law.
The Blessing of Returning to God
30 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these
things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you,
and you call them to mind among all the nations where
the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you
return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that
I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all
your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will
bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again
from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of
you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from
there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring
you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring
you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will
prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And
the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your
descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul, that you may live.
7 “Also the Lord your God
will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who
persecuted you. 8 And you will again obey the voice
of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you
today. 9 The Lord your God will make you
abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase
of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For
the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over
your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of
the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which
are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
11 “For this commandment which I
command you today is not too mysterious for
you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not
in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring
it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it
beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring
it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But
the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart,
that you may do it.
15 “See, I have set before you today
life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command
you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep
His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and
multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you
go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so
that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve
them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely
perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you
cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I
call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I
have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life,
that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that
you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that
you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of
your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to
your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
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