Deuteronomy 29-31

New International Reader's Version

Obey the Terms of the Covenant

29 Here are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab. The terms were added to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Horeb.

²Moses sent for all the Israelites. Here is what he said to them.

With your own eyes you have seen everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh. You have seen what he did to all Pharaoh’s officials and to his whole land. ³With your own eyes you saw how the Lord really made them suffer. You saw the signs and amazing things he did. ⁴But to this day the Lord hasn’t given you a mind that understands. He hasn’t given you eyes that see. He hasn’t given you ears that hear. ⁵Yet the Lord says, “I led you through the desert for 40 years. During that time your clothes didn’t wear out. The sandals on your feet didn’t wear out either. ⁶You didn’t eat any bread. You didn’t drink any kind of wine. I did all these things because I wanted you to know that I am the Lord your God.”

⁷When you got here, Sihon and Og came out to fight against us. Sihon was the king of Heshbon. And Og was the king of Bashan. But we won the battle over them. ⁸We took their land. We gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh as their share.

⁹Be careful to obey the terms of this covenant. Then you will have success in everything you do. ¹⁰Today all of you are standing here in the sight of the Lord your God. Your leaders and chief men are here. Your elders and officials are here. So are all the other men of Israel. ¹¹Your children and wives are here with you too. So are the outsiders living in your camps. They chop your wood and carry your water. ¹²All of you are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God. He is making the covenant with you today. He’s giving you his word. ¹³Today he wants to show you that you are his people and that he is your God. That’s what he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹⁴I’m making this covenant and the promise that goes along with it. I’m making this covenant with you. ¹⁵You are standing here with us today in front of the Lord our God. And I’m also making this covenant with those who aren’t here today.

¹⁶You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt. You also know how we passed through other countries on the way here. ¹⁷You saw the statues of their gods made out of wood, stone, silver and gold. The Lord hates those statues. ¹⁸Make sure there isn’t a man or woman among your families or tribes who turns away from the Lord our God. No one must worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that kind of worship doesn’t spread like bitter poison through your whole community.

¹⁹Some people who worship those gods will hear the promise that seals the covenant I’m making. They think they can escape trouble by what they’re saying. They say, “We’ll be safe, even though we’re stubborn and go our own way.” But they will bring trouble on the whole land. ²⁰The Lord will never be willing to forgive those people. His great anger will blaze out against them. All the curses I’ve written down in this book will fall on them. And the Lord will erase any mention of them from the earth. ²¹He will find those people in all the tribes of Israel and give them nothing but trouble. That will agree with all the curses of the covenant. They are written down in this Book of the Law.

²²Even your children’s children will see the troubles that have fallen on the land. They’ll see the sicknesses the Lord has brought on it. People who come from countries far away will also see those things. ²³The whole land will be burned up. Nothing but salt and sulfur will be left. Nothing will be planted there. Nothing will grow there. In fact, nothing will even start to grow there. The land will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim after they were destroyed. The Lord wiped out those cities because he was very angry. ²⁴All the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to the land? What could have made him so very angry?”

²⁵And they will hear the answer, “It’s because the people living there have broken the covenant of the Lord. He’s the God of their people of long ago. He made that covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶They went off and worshiped other gods. They bowed down to them. They hadn’t known anything about those gods before. The Lord hadn’t given those gods to them. ²⁷So the Lord became very angry with this land. He brought on it all the curses written down in this book. ²⁸The Lord’s anger blazed out against his people. So he pulled them up out of their land. He threw them into another land. And that’s where they are now.”

²⁹The Lord our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children forever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.

The Lord Will Bless His People

30 I have told you about all these blessings and curses. The Lord your God will bring them on you. Then you will think carefully about the blessings and curses. You will think about them everywhere the Lord your God scatters you among the nations. ²You and your children will return to the Lord your God. You will obey him with all your heart and with all your soul. That will be according to everything I’m commanding you today. ³When all that happens, the Lord your God will bless you with great success again. He will be very kind to you. He’ll bring you back from all the nations where he scattered you. ⁴Suppose you have been forced to go away to the farthest land on earth. The Lord your God will bring you back even from there. ⁵He will bring you to the land that belonged to your people of long ago. You will take it over. He’ll make you better off than your people were. He’ll cause there to be more of you than there were of them. ⁶The Lord your God will keep you from being stubborn. He’ll do the same thing for your children and their children. Then you will love him with all your heart and with all your soul. And you will live. ⁷The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies. They hated you and hunted you down. ⁸You will obey the Lord again. You will obey all his commands that I’m giving you today. ⁹Then the Lord your God will give you great success in everything you do. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. The Lord will take delight in you again. He’ll give you success. That’s what he did for your people of long ago. ¹⁰But you must obey the Lord your God. You must keep his commands and rules. They are written in this Book of the Law. You must turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Choose Life, Not Death

¹¹What I’m commanding you today is not too hard for you. It isn’t beyond your reach. ¹²It isn’t up in heaven. So you don’t have to ask, “Who will go up into heaven to get it? Who will announce it to us so we can obey it?” ¹³And it isn’t beyond the ocean. So you don’t have to ask, “Who will go across the ocean to get it? Who will announce it to us so we can obey it?” ¹⁴No, the message isn’t far away at all. In fact, it’s really near you. It’s in your mouth and in your heart so that you can obey it.

¹⁵Today I’m giving you a choice. You can have life and success. Or you can have death and harm. ¹⁶I’m commanding you today to love the Lord your God. I’m commanding you to live exactly as he wants you to live. You must obey his commands, rules and laws. Then you will live. There will be many of you. The Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.

¹⁷Don’t let your hearts turn away from the Lord. Instead, obey him. Don’t let yourselves be drawn away to other gods. And don’t bow down to them and worship them. ¹⁸If you do, I announce to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You are about to go across the Jordan River and take over the land. But you won’t live there very long.

¹⁹I’m calling for the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against you this very day. I’m offering you the choice of life or death. You can choose either blessings or curses. But I want you to choose life. Then you and your children will live. ²⁰And you will love the Lord your God. You will obey him. You will remain true to him. The Lord is your very life. He will give you many years in the land. He promised to give that land to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Joshua Becomes the New Leader

31 Here are the words Moses spoke to all the Israelites. ²He said, “I am now 120 years old. I’m not able to lead you anymore. The Lord has said to me, ‘You will not go across the Jordan River.’ ³The Lord your God himself will go across ahead of you. He’ll destroy the nations there in order to make room for you. You will take over their land. Joshua will also go across ahead of you, just as the Lord said he would. ⁴The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og. He destroyed those Amorite kings along with their land. ⁵The Lord will hand those nations over to you. Then you must do to them everything I’ve commanded you to do. ⁶Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t be terrified because of them. The Lord your God will go with you. He will never leave you. He’ll never desert you.”

⁷Then Moses sent for Joshua. Moses spoke to him in front of all the Israelites. He said, “Be strong and brave. You must go with these people. They are going into the land the Lord promised to give to their people of long ago. You must divide it up among them. They will each receive their share. ⁸The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will never leave you. He’ll never desert you. So don’t be afraid. Don’t lose hope.”

The Law Must Be Read to the People

⁹Moses wrote down this law. He gave it to the priests, who are sons of Levi. They carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He also gave the law to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰Then Moses commanded them, “You must read this law at the end of every seven years. Do it in the year when you forgive people what they owe. Read it during the Feast of Booths. ¹¹That’s when all the Israelites come to appear in front of the Lord your God at the holy tent. It will be at the place he will choose. You must read this law to them. ¹²Gather the people together. Gather the men, women and children. Also bring together the outsiders living in your towns. Then they can listen and learn to have respect for the Lord your God. And they’ll be careful to obey all the words of this law. ¹³Their children must hear it read too. They don’t know this law yet. They too must learn to have respect for the Lord your God. They must honor him as long as you live in the land. You are about to go across the Jordan River and take that land as your very own.”

The Israelites Will Refuse to Obey the Lord

¹⁴The Lord said to Moses, “The day when you will die is near. Have Joshua go to the tent of meeting. Join him there. That is where I will appoint him as the new leader.” So Joshua and Moses went to the tent of meeting.

¹⁵Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud. It stood over the entrance to the tent. ¹⁶The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “You are going to join the members of your family who have already died. The Israelites will not be faithful to me. They will soon join themselves to the false gods that are worshiped in the land they are entering. The people will desert me. They will break the covenant I made with them. ¹⁷In that day I will become angry with them. I will desert them. I will turn my face away from them. And they will be destroyed. Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. On that day they will say, ‘Trouble has come on us. Our God isn’t with us!’ ¹⁸I will certainly turn away from them on that day. I will do it because they did a very evil thing when they turned to other gods.

¹⁹“I want you to write down a song and teach it to the Israelites. Have them sing it. It will be my witness against them. ²⁰I will bring them into a land that has plenty of milk and honey. I promised the land to their people of long ago. In that land they will eat until they have had enough. They will get fat. When they do, they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will turn their backs on me. They will break my covenant. ²¹Many horrible troubles and hard times will come on them. Then the song I am giving you will be a witness against them. That is because the song will not be forgotten by their children and their children’s children. I know what they are likely to do. I know it even before I bring them into the land I promised them.” ²²So that day Moses wrote the song down. And Moses taught it to the Israelites.

²³The Lord gave a command to Joshua, the son of Nun. He said, “Be strong and brave. You will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them. I myself will be with you.”

²⁴Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book. He wrote them down from beginning to end. ²⁵Then he gave a command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Moses said, ²⁶“Take this Book of the Law. Place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. It will remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷I know how you refuse to obey the Lord. I know how stubborn you are. You have refused to obey him while I’ve been living among you. So you will certainly refuse to obey him after I’m dead! ²⁸Gather together all the elders of your tribes and all your officials. Bring them to me. Then I can speak these words to them. I can call for the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against them. ²⁹I know that after I’m dead you will certainly become very sinful. You will turn away from the path I’ve commanded you to take. In days to come, trouble will fall on you. That’s because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. You will make him very angry because of the statues of gods your hands have made.”