Deuteronomy 29:10-20

10 Ye stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God, your princes of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

11 your little ones, your wives, and thy strangers that dwell within thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water,

12 that thou may enter into covenant with the LORD thy God and into his oath, which the LORD thy God makes with thee today,

13 to confirm thee today as his people and that he may be unto thee as God, as he has said unto thee, and as he has sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,

15 but with those that stand here with us today before the LORD our God and also with those that are not here with us today.

16 For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the Gentiles which ye passed by;

17 and ye have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which they have among them.

18 Peradventure there shall be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those Gentiles; peradventure there shall be among you a root that bears poison and wormwood;

19 and it shall be, when that one hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.

20 The LORD will not forgive him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

Deuteronomy 29:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 29

This chapter begins with an intimation of another covenant the Lord was about to make with the people of Israel, De 29:1; and, to prepare their minds to an attention to it, various things which the Lord had done for them are recited, De 29:2-9; the persons are particularly mentioned with whom the covenant would now be made, the substance of which is, that they should be his people, and he their God, De 29:10-15; and since they had seen the idols in Egypt and other countries, with which they might have been ensnared, they are cautioned against idolatry and idolaters, as being most provoking to the Lord, De 29:16-21; which would bring destruction not only on particular persons, but upon their whole land, to the amazement of posterity; who, inquiring the reason of it, will be told, it was because they forsook the covenant of God, and particularly were guilty of idolatry, which, whether privately or openly committed, would be always punished, De 29:22-29.