Deuteronomy 29

Listen to Deuteronomy 29

The Covenant Renewed in Moab

1 [a] These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel 1in the land of Moab, besides 2the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.
2 [b] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: 3"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 4trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.
4 But to this day 5the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
5 6I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
6 7You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.
7 And when you came to this place, 8Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them.
8 We took their land and 9gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites.
9 10Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper[c] in all that you do.
10 "You are standing today all of you before the LORD your God: the heads of your tribes,[d] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,
11 your little ones, your wives, and the 11sojourner who is in your camp, from 12the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water,
12 so that you may enter into the 13sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you today,
13 that he may 14establish you today as his people, and that 15he may be your God, as he promised you, and 16as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 It is not with you alone 17that I am making this sworn covenant,
15 but with whoever is standing here with us today before the LORD our God, 18and with whoever is not here with us today.
16 "You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.
17 And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.
18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you 19a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,
19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.
20 The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather 20the anger of the LORD and 21his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD 22 will blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, 23will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick--
23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and 24salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, 25an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, 26Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and wrath--
24 all the nations 27will say, 28'Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?'
25 Then people will say, 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,
26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.
27 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, 29bringing upon it all the curses written in this book,
28 and the LORD 30uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and 31cast them into another land, as they are this day.'
29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Cross References 31

  • 1. Deuteronomy 1:5
  • 2. Deuteronomy 5:2, 3
  • 3. Exodus 19:4; [Joshua 23:3]
  • 4. See Deuteronomy 4:34
  • 5. [Isaiah 6:9, 10; Isaiah 63:17; John 8:43; Acts 28:26, 27; Romans 11:8, 10]
  • 6. Deuteronomy 1:3; Deuteronomy 8:2, 4; Amos 2:10; Acts 13:18
  • 7. Deuteronomy 8:3; See Exodus 16:4
  • 8. Deuteronomy 2:24, 26, 32; Deuteronomy 3:1; See Numbers 21:21-24, 33-35
  • 9. Deuteronomy 3:12, 13; Numbers 32:33
  • 10. Deuteronomy 4:6
  • 11. [Exodus 12:38]
  • 12. [Josh. 9:21, 23, 27]
  • 13. Nehemiah 10:29
  • 14. Deuteronomy 28:9
  • 15. Exodus 6:7
  • 16. Genesis 17:7; [Genesis 50:24]
  • 17. [Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8:8-10]
  • 18. [Acts 2:39]
  • 19. Hebrews 12:15
  • 20. Psalms 74:1
  • 21. Psalms 79:5
  • 22. See Deuteronomy 9:14
  • 23. ver. 24
  • 24. Judges 9:45; Jeremiah 17:6; Ezekiel 47:11; Zephaniah 2:9
  • 25. Genesis 19:24, 25; Jeremiah 20:16; Jeremiah 49:18; Jeremiah 50:40; 2 Peter 2:6
  • 26. Genesis 14:2; Hosea 11:8
  • 27. ver. 22
  • 28. 1 Kings 9:8, 9; Jeremiah 22:8, 9
  • 29. See Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Leviticus 26:14-39; Daniel 9:11-14
  • 30. 1 Kings 14:15; 2 Chronicles 7:20; Jeremiah 12:14
  • 31. Jeremiah 22:26

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Ch 28:69 in Hebrew
  • [b]. Ch 29:1 in Hebrew
  • [c]. Or deal wisely
  • [d]. Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew your heads, your tribes

Deuteronomy 29 Commentaries

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.