Deuteronomy 29:5-15

5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not waxed old upon you, and thy shoe has not waxed old upon thy foot.

6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink, that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.

7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us unto battle, and we smote them.

8 And we took their land and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the halftribe of Manasseh.

9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

10 "Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God-- your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

11 your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water--

12 that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into His oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day,

13 that He may establish thee today for a people unto Himself, and that He may be unto thee a God, as He hath said unto thee and as He hath 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 him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day

Deuteronomy 29:5-15 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.