New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites while they were in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Sinai.
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These are the terms of the Covenant that God commanded Moses to make with the People of Israel in the land of Moab, renewing the Covenant he made with them at Horeb.
2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to his whole country—
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Moses called all Israel together and said, You've seen with your own eyes everything that God did in Egypt to Pharaoh and his servants, and to the land itself -
3 all the great tests of strength, the miraculous signs, and the amazing wonders.
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the massive trials to which you were eyewitnesses, the great signs and miracle-wonders.
4 But to this day the LORD has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear!
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But God didn't give you an understanding heart or perceptive eyes or attentive ears until right now, this very day.
5 For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
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I took you through the wilderness for forty years and through all that time the clothes on your backs didn't wear out, the sandals on your feet didn't wear out,
6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but he provided for you so you would know that he is the LORD your God.
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and you lived well without bread and wine and beer, proving to you that I am in fact God, your God.
7 “When we came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.
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When you arrived here in this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan met us primed for war but we beat them.
8 We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their grant of land.
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We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9 “Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.
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Diligently keep the words of this Covenant. Do what they say so that you will live well and wisely in every detail.
10 All of you—tribal leaders, elders, officers, all the men of Israel—are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God.
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You are all standing here today in the Presence of God, your God - the heads of your tribes, your leaders, your officials, all Israel:
11 Your little ones and your wives are with you, as well as the foreigners living among you who chop your wood and carry your water.
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your babies, your wives, the resident foreigners in your camps who fetch your firewood and water
12 You are standing here today to enter into the covenant of the LORD your God. The LORD is making this covenant, including the curses.
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- ready to cross over into the solemnly sworn Covenant that God, your God, is making with you today,
13 By entering into the covenant today, he will establish you as his people and confirm that he is your God, just as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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the Covenant that this day confirms that you are his people and he is God, your God, just as he promised you and your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “But you are not the only ones with whom I am making this covenant with its curses.
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I'm not making this Covenant and its oath with you alone.
15 I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the LORD our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.
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I am making it with you who are standing here today in the Presence of God, our God, yes, but also with those who are not here today.
16 “You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left.
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You know the conditions in which we lived in Egypt and how we crisscrossed through nations in our travels.
17 You have seen their detestable practices and their idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
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You got an eyeful of their obscenities, their wood and stone, silver and gold junk-gods.
18 I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you—no man, woman, clan, or tribe—will turn away from the LORD our God to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter and poisonous fruit.
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Don't let down your guard lest even now, today, someone - man or woman, clan or tribe - gets sidetracked from God, our God, and gets involved with the no-gods of the nations; lest some poisonous weed sprout and spread among you,
19 “Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin!
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a person who hears the words of the Covenant-oath but exempts himself, thinking, "I'll live just the way I please, thank you," and ends up ruining life for everybody.
20 The LORD will never pardon such people. Instead his anger and jealousy will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the LORD will erase their names from under heaven.
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God won't let him off the hook. God's anger and jealousy will erupt like a volcano against that person. The curses written in this book will bury him. God will delete his name from the records.
21 The LORD will separate them from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out on them all the curses of the covenant recorded in this Book of Instruction.
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God will separate him out from all the tribes of Israel for special punishment, according to all the curses of the Covenant written in this Book of Revelation.
22 “Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the LORD inflicts on it.
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The next generation, your children who come after you and the foreigner who comes from a far country, will be appalled when they see the widespread devastation, how God made the whole land sick.
23 They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed in his intense anger.’
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They'll see a fire-blackened wasteland of brimstone and salt flats, nothing planted, nothing growing, not so much as a blade of grass anywhere - like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which God overthrew in fiery rage.
24 “And all the surrounding nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why was he so angry?’
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All the nations will ask, "Why did God do this to this country? What on earth could have made him this angry?"
25 “And the answer will be, ‘This happened because the people of the land abandoned the covenant that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
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Your children will answer, "Because they abandoned the Covenant of the God of their ancestors that he made with them after he got them out of Egypt;
26 Instead, they turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods that were not from the LORD .
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they went off and worshiped other gods, submitted to gods they'd never heard of before, gods they had no business dealing with.
27 That is why the LORD ’s anger has burned against this land, bringing down on it every curse recorded in this book.
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So God's anger erupted against that land and all the curses written in this book came down on it.
28 In great anger and fury the LORD uprooted his people from their land and banished them to another land, where they still live today!’
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God, furiously angry, pulled them, roots and all, out of their land and dumped them in another country, as you can see."
29 “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.
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God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.