Deuteronomy 29
1 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 Choreb.
2 And Moses called all the sons of
Israel and said to them, Ye have seen all things that the Lord did in the land
of Egypt before you to Pharao and his servants, and all his land;
3 the great temptations which thine
eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.
4 Yet the Lord God has not given you a
heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day.
5 And he led you forty years in the
wilderness; your garments did not grow old, and your sandals were not worn
away off your feet. 6 Ye did not eat
bread, ye did not drink wine or strong drink, that ye might know that I
am the Lord your God.
7 And ye came as far as this place;
and there came forth Seon king of Esebon, and Og king of Basan, to meet us in
war. 8 And we smote them and took
their land, and I gave it for an inheritance to Ruben and Gad, and to the
half-tribe of Manasse. 9 And ye shall
take heed to do all the words of this covenant, that ye may understand all
things that ye shall do.
10 Ye all stand to-day before the
Lord your God, the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and your judges, and
your officers, every man of Israel,
11 your wives, and your children, and
the stranger who is in the midst of your camp, from your hewer of wood even to
your drawer of water, 12 that thou
shouldest enter into the covenant of the Lord thy God and into his oaths, as
many as the Lord thy God appoints thee this day;
13 that he may appoint thee to
himself for a people, and he shall be thy God, as he said to thee, and as he
sware to thy fathers, Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob.
14 And I do not appoint to you alone
this covenant and this oath; 15 but
to those also who are here with you to-day before the Lord your God, and to
those who are not here with you to-day.
16 For ye know how we dwelt in the
land of Egypt, how we came through the midst of the nations through whom ye
came. 17 And ye beheld their
abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which are
among them. 18 Lest there be among
you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart has turned aside from the
Lord your God, having gone to serve the gods of these nations; lest there be
in you a root springing up with gall and bitterness.
19 And it shall be if one shall hear
the words of this curse, and shall flatter himself in his heart, saying,
aLit. May holy things happen to me. See the use of ὅσια in Is. 55. 3; Acts
13. 34.Let good happen to me, for I will walk in the error of my heart, lest the
sinner destroy the guiltless with him:
20 God shall by no means be willing
to pardon him, but then the wrath of the Lord and his jealousy shall flame out
against that man; and all the curses of this covenant shall attach themselves
to him, which are written in this book, and the Lord shall blot out his name
from under heaven. 21 And the Lord
shall separate that man for evil of all the children of Israel, according to
all the curses of the covenant that are written in the book of this law.
22 And another generation shall
say—even your sons who shall rise up after you, and the stranger who shall
come from a land afar off, and shall see the plagues of that land and their
diseases, which the Lord has sent upon it,
23 brimstone and burning salt, (the
whole land shall not be sown, neither shall any green thing spring, nor rise
upon it, as Sodom and Gomorrha were overthrown, Adama and Seboim, which the
Lord overthrew in his wrath and anger:)—
24 and all the nations shall say, Why
has the Lord done thus to this land? what is this
great fierceness of anger? 25 And
men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of
the Lord God of their fathers, the things which he appointed to their fathers,
when he brought them out of the land of Egypt:
26 and they went and served other
gods, which they knew not, neither did he assign
them to them.
27 And the Lord was exceedingly angry
with that land to bring upon it according to all the curses which are written
in the book of this law. 28 And the
Lord removed them from their land in anger, and wrath, and very great
indignation, and cast them out into another land as at present.
29 The secret things
belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are
revealed belong to us and to our children for ever,
to do all the words of this law.