Deuteronomy 29:4-14

4 but to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.

5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet;

6 you 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, Sihon 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 gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manas'sites.

9 Therefore be careful to do the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all that you do.

10 "You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,

11 your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, both he who hews your wood and he who draws your water,

12 that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God makes with you this day;

13 that he may establish you this day as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 Nor is it with you only that I make this sworn covenant,

Deuteronomy 29:4-14 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.