These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab: beside that covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

²And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all the things that the Lord did before you in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land.

³The great temptations, which thy eyes have seen, those mighty signs and wonders,

⁴And the Lord hath not given you a heart to understand, and eyes to see, and ears that may hear, unto this present day.

⁵He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn out, neither are the shoes of your feet consumed with age.

⁶You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the Lord your God.

⁷And you came to this place: and Sehon king of Hesebon, and Og king of Basan, came out against us to fight. And we slew them.

⁸And took their land, and delivered it for a possession to Ruben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses.

⁹Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and fulfil them: that you may understand all that you do.

¹⁰You all stand this day before the Lord your God, your princes, and tribes, and ancients, and doctors, all the people of Israel,

¹¹Your children and your wives, and the stranger that abideth with thee in the camp, besides the hewers of wood, and them that bring water:

¹²That thou mayst pass in the covenant of the Lord thy God, and in the oath which this day the Lord thy God maketh with thee.

¹³That he may raise thee up a people to himself, and he may be thy God as he hath spoken to thee, and as he swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴Neither with you only do I make this covenant, and confirm these oaths,

¹⁵But with all that are present and that are absent.

¹⁶For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we have passed through the midst of nations, and passing through them,

¹⁷You have seen their abominations and filth, that is to say, their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which they worshipped.

¹⁸Lest perhaps there should be among you a man or a woman, a family or a tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations: and there should be among you a root bringing forth gall and bitterness.

¹⁹And when he shall hear the words of this oath, he should bless himself in his heart saying: I shall have peace, and will walk on in the naughtiness of my heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty,

²⁰And the Lord should not forgive him: but his wrath and jealousy against that man should be exceedingly enkindled at that time, and all the curses that are written in this volume should light upon him: and the Lord should blot out his name from under heaven,

²¹And utterly destroy him out of all the tribes of Israel, according to the curses that are contained in the book of this law and covenant:

²²And the following generation shall say, and the children that shall be born hereafter, and the strangers that shall come from afar, seeing the plagues of that land and the evils wherewith the Lord hath afflicted it,

²³Burning it with brimstone, and the heat of salt, so that it cannot be sown any more, nor any green thing grow therein, after the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim, which the Lord destroyed in his wrath and indignation:

²⁴And all the nations shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land? what meaneth this exceeding great heat of his wrath?

²⁵And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, which he made with their fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt:

²⁶And they have served strange gods, and adored them, whom they knew not, and for whom they had not been assigned:

²⁷Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this volume:

²⁸And he hath cast them out of their land, in anger and in wrath, and in very great indignation, and hath thrown them into a strange land, as it is seen this day.

²⁹Secret things to the Lord our God: things that are manifest, to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Chapter 30

Now when all these things shall be come upon thee, the blessing or the curse, which I have set forth before thee, and thou shalt be touched with repentance of thy heart among all the nations, into which the Lord thy God shall have scattered thee,

²And shalt return to him, and obey his commandments, as I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul:

³The Lord thy God will bring back again thy captivity, and will have mercy on thee, and gather thee again out of all the nations, into which he scattered thee before.

⁴If thou be driven as far as the poles of heaven, the Lord thy God will fetch thee back from hence,

⁵And will take thee to himself, and bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and blessing thee, he will make thee more numerous than were thy fathers.

⁶The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed: that thou mayst love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayst live.

⁷And he will turn all these curses upon thy enemies, and upon them that hate and persecute thee.

⁸But thou shalt return, and hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and shalt do all the commandments which I command thee this day:

⁹And the Lord thy God will make thee abound in all the works of thy hands, in the fruit of thy womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, in the fruitfulness of thy land, and in the plenty of all things. For the Lord will return to rejoice over thee in all good things, as he rejoiced in thy fathers:

¹⁰Yet so if thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep his precepts and ceremonies, which are written in this law: and return to the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

¹¹This commandment, that I command thee this day is not above thee, nor far off from thee:

¹²Nor is it in heaven, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go up to heaven to bring it unto us, and we may hear and fulfil it in work?

¹³Nor is it beyond the sea: that thou mayst excuse thyself, and say: Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it unto us: that we may hear, and do that which is commanded?

¹⁴But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayst do it.

¹⁵Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil:

¹⁶That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and bless thee in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

¹⁷But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them:

¹⁸I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to possess it.

¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

²⁰And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them.

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