Deuteronomy 29
Living Bible
29 It was on the plains of Moab that Moses restated the covenant that the Lord had made with the people of Israel at Mount Horeb. 2-3 He summoned all Israel before him and told them, “You have seen with your own eyes the great plagues and mighty miracles that the Lord brought upon Pharaoh and his people in the land of Egypt. 4 But even yet the Lord hasn’t given you hearts that understand or eyes that see or ears that hear! 5 For forty years God has led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes haven’t become old, and your shoes haven’t worn out! 6 The reason he hasn’t let you settle down to grow grain for bread or grapes for wine and strong drink is so that you would realize that it is the Lord your God who has been caring for you.
7 “When we came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we destroyed them, 8 and took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance. 9 Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do. 10 All of you—your leaders, the people, your judges, and your administrative officers—are standing today before the Lord your God, 11 along with your little ones and your wives and the foreigners that are among you—those who chop your wood and carry your water. 12 You are standing here to enter into a contract with Jehovah your God, a contract he is making with you today. 13 He wants to confirm you today as his people, and to confirm that he is your God, just as he promised your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14-15 This contract is not with you alone as you stand before him today, but with all future generations of Israel as well.
16 “Surely you remember how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how as we left, we came safely through the territory of enemy nations. 17 And you have seen their heathen idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold. 18 The day that any of you—man or woman, family or tribe of Israel—begins to turn away from the Lord our God and desires to worship these gods of other nations, that day a root will be planted that will grow bitter and poisonous fruit.
19 “Let no one blithely think, when he hears the warnings of this curse, ‘I shall prosper even though I walk in my own stubborn way!’ 20 For the Lord will not pardon! His anger and jealousy will be hot against that man. And all the curses written in this book shall lie heavily upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 The Lord will separate that man from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out upon him all the curses (which are recorded in this book) that befall those who break this contract. 22 Then your children and the generations to come and the foreigners that pass by from distant lands shall see the devastation of the land and the diseases the Lord will have sent upon it. 23 They will see that the whole land is alkali and salt, a burned over wasteland, unsown, without crops, without a shred of vegetation—just like Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, destroyed by the Lord in his anger.
24 “‘Why has the Lord done this to his land?’ the nations will ask. ‘Why was he so angry?’
25 “And they will be told, ‘Because the people of the land broke the contract made with them by Jehovah, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 For they worshiped other gods, violating his express command. 27 That is why the anger of the Lord was hot against this land, so that all his curses (which are recorded in this book) broke forth upon them. 28 In great anger the Lord rooted them out of their land and threw them away into another land, where they still live today!’
29 “There are secrets the Lord your God has not revealed to us, but these words that he has revealed are for us and our children to obey forever.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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