Deuteronomy 29-31

Deuteronomy 29

¹These are the words of the agreement which Moses was ordered by the Lord to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the agreement which he made with them in Horeb.

²And Moses said in the hearing of all Israel, You have seen all the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and all his land;

³The great tests which your eyes saw, and the signs and wonders:

⁴But even to this day the Lord has not given you a mind open to knowledge, or seeing eyes or hearing ears.

⁵For forty years I have been your guide through the waste land: your clothing has not become old on your backs, or your shoes on your feet.

⁶You have had no bread, or wine, or strong drink: so that you might see that I am the Lord your God.

⁷When you came to this place, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, came out to make war against us and we overcame them:

⁸And we took their land and gave it to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, for their heritage.

⁹So keep the words of this agreement and do them, so that it may be well for you in everything you do.

¹⁰You have come here today, all of you, before the Lord your God; the heads of your tribes, the overseers, and those who are in authority over you, with all the men of Israel,

¹¹And your little ones, your wives, and the men of other lands who are with you in your tents, down to the wood-cutter and the servant who gets water for you:

¹²With the purpose of taking part in the agreement of the Lord your God, and his oath which he makes with you today:

¹³And so that he may make you his people today, and be your God, as he has said to you, and as he made an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴And not with you only do I make this agreement and this oath;

¹⁵But with everyone who is here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with those who are not here:

¹⁶(For you have in mind how we were living in the land of Egypt; and how we came through all the nations which were on your way;

¹⁷And you have seen their disgusting doings, and the images of wood and stone and silver and gold which were among them:)

¹⁸So that there may not be among you any man or woman or family or tribe whose heart is turned away from the Lord our God today, to go after other gods and give them worship; or any root among you whose fruit is poison and bitter sorrow;

¹⁹If such a man, hearing the words of this oath, takes comfort in the thought that he will have peace even if he goes on in the pride of his heart, taking whatever chance may give him:

²⁰The Lord will have no mercy on him, but the wrath of the Lord will be burning against that man, and all the curses recorded in this book will be waiting for him, and the Lord will take away his name completely from the earth.

²¹He will be marked out by the Lord, from all the tribes of Israel, for an evil fate, in keeping with all the curses of the agreement recorded in this book of the law.

²²And future generations, your children coming after you, and travellers from far countries, will say, when they see the punishments of that land and the diseases which the Lord has sent on it;

²³And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:

²⁴Truly all the nations will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land? what is the reason for this great and burning wrath?

²⁵Then men will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he took them out of the land of Egypt:

²⁶And they went after other gods and gave them worship, gods who were strange to them, and whom he had not given them:

²⁷And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against this land, to send on it all the curse recorded in this book:

²⁸Rooting them out of their land, in the heat of his wrath and passion, and driving them out into another land, as at this day.

²⁹The secret things are the Lord our God's: but the things which have been made clear are ours and our children's for ever, so that we may do all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 30

¹Now when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse which I have put before you, if the thought of them comes back to your minds, when you are living among the nations where the Lord your God has sent you,

²And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God, and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul:

³Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate, and taking you back again from among all the nations where you have been forced to go.

⁴Even if those who have been forced out are living in the farthest part of heaven, the Lord your God will go in search of you, and take you back;

⁵Placing you again in the land of your fathers as your heritage; and he will do you good, increasing you till you are more in number than your fathers were.

⁶And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life.

⁷And the Lord your God will put all these curses on those who are against you, and on your haters who put a cruel yoke on you.

⁸And you will again give ear to the voice of the Lord, and do all his orders which I have given you today.

⁹And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land: for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers:

¹⁰If you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his orders and his laws which are recorded in this book of the law, and turning to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹¹For these orders which I have given you today are not strange and secret, and are not far away.

¹²They are not in heaven, for you to say, Who will go up to heaven for us and give us knowledge of them so that we may do them?

¹³And they are not across the sea, for you to say, Who will go over the sea for us and give us news of them so that we may do them?

¹⁴But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.

¹⁵See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil;

¹⁶In giving you orders today to have love for the Lord your God, to go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions, so that you may have life and be increased, and that the blessing of the Lord your God may be with you in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage.

¹⁷But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut, and you go after those who would make you servants and worshippers of other gods:

¹⁸I give witness against you this day that destruction will certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the other side of Jordan.

¹⁹Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed:

²⁰In loving the Lord your God, hearing his voice and being true to him: for he is your life and by him will your days be long: so that you may go on living in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 31

¹So Moses said all these things to Israel.

²Then he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to go out and come in: and the Lord has said to me, You are not to go over Jordan.

³The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their land as your heritage: and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has said.

⁴The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he put to destruction.

⁵The Lord will give them up into your hands, and you are to do to them as I have given you orders.

⁶Be strong and take heart, and have no fear of them: for it is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take away his help from you.

⁷Then Moses sent for Joshua, and before the eyes of all Israel said to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go with this people into the land which the Lord, by his oath to their fathers, has given them; by your help they will take it for their heritage.

⁸It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not take away his help from you or give you up: so have no fear.

⁹Then Moses put all this law in writing, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, and to all the responsible men of Israel.

¹⁰And Moses said to them, At the end of every seven years, at the time fixed for the ending of debts, at the feast of tents,

¹¹When all Israel has come before the Lord your God in the place named by him, let a reading be given of this law in the hearing of all Israel.

¹²Make all the people come together, men and women and children, and anyone from another country who is with you, so that hearing they may become wise in the fear of the Lord your God, and take care to do all the words of this law;

¹³And so that your children, to whom it is new, may give ear and be trained in the fear of the Lord your God, while you are living in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.

¹⁴At that time the Lord said to Moses, The day of your death is near: send for Joshua, and come to the Tent of meeting so that I may give him his orders. So Moses and Joshua went to the Tent of meeting.

¹⁵And the Lord was seen in the Tent in a pillar of cloud resting by the door of the Tent.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them.

¹⁷In that day my wrath will be moved against them, and I will be turned away from them, veiling my face from them, and destruction will overtake them, and unnumbered evils and troubles will come on them; so that in that day they will say, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not with us?

¹⁸Truly, my face will be turned away from them in that day, because of all the evil they have done in going after other gods.

¹⁹Make then this song for yourselves, teaching it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

²⁰For when I have taken them into the land named in my oath to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they have made themselves full of food and are fat, then they will be turned to other gods and will give them worship, no longer honouring me or keeping my agreement.

²¹Then when evils and troubles without number have overtaken them, this song will be a witness to them, for the words of it will be clear in the memories of their children: for I see the thoughts which are moving in their hearts even now, before I have taken them into the land of my oath.

²²So that same day Moses made this song, teaching it to the children of Israel.

²³Then he gave orders to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go at the head of the children of Israel into the land which I made an oath to give them; and I will be with you.

²⁴Now after writing all the words of this law in a book till the record of them was complete,

²⁵Moses said to the Levites who were responsible for taking up the ark of the Lord's agreement,

²⁶Take this book of the law and put it by the ark of the Lord's agreement, so that it may be a witness against you.

²⁷For I have knowledge of your hard and uncontrolled hearts: even now, while I am still living, you will not be ruled by the Lord; how much less after my death?

²⁸Get together before me all those who are in authority in your tribes, and your overseers, so that I may say these things in their hearing, and make heaven and earth my witnesses against them.

²⁹For I am certain that after my death you will give yourselves up to sin, wandering from the way which I have given you; and evil will overtake you in the end, because you will do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of your hands.

³⁰Then in the hearing of all the meeting of Israel, Moses said the words of this song, to the end.