Deuteronomy 29:1–31:30

The Agreement in Moab

29The Lord commanded Moses to make an agreement with the Israelites in Moab in addition to the agreement he had made with them at Mount Sinai. These are the words of that agreement.

²Moses called all the Israelites together and said to them:

You have seen everything the Lord did before your own eyes to the king of Egypt and to the king’s leaders and to the whole country. ³With your own eyes you saw the great troubles, signs, and miracles. ⁴But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands; you don’t really understand what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears. ⁵I led you through the desert for forty years, and during that time neither your clothes nor sandals wore out. ⁶You ate no bread and drank no wine or beer. This was so you would understand that I am the Lord your God.

⁷When you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight us, but we defeated them. ⁸We captured their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh to be their own.

⁹You must carefully obey everything in this agreement so that you will succeed in everything you do. ¹⁰Today you are all standing here before the Lord your God—your leaders and important men, your elders, officers, and all the other men of Israel, ¹¹your wives and children and the foreigners who live among you, who chop your wood and carry your water. ¹²You are all here to enter into an agreement and a promise with the Lord your God, an agreement the Lord your God is making with you today. ¹³This will make you today his own people. He will be your God, as he told you and as he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ¹⁴But I am not just making this agreement and its promises with you ¹⁵who are standing here before the Lord your God today, but also with those who are not here today.

¹⁶You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries when we came here. ¹⁷You saw their hateful idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold. ¹⁸Make sure no man, woman, family group, or tribe among you leaves the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. They would be to you like a plant that grows bitter, poisonous fruit.

¹⁹These are the kind of people who hear these curses but bless themselves, thinking, “We will be safe even though we continue doing what we want to do.” Those people may destroy all of your land, both wet and dry. ²⁰The Lord will not forgive them. His anger will be like a burning fire against those people, and all the curses written in this book will come on them. The Lord will destroy any memory of them on the earth. ²¹He will separate them from all the tribes of Israel for punishment. All the curses of the Agreement that are written in this Book of the Teachings will happen to them.

²²Your children who will come after you, as well as foreigners from faraway lands, will see the disasters that come to this land and the diseases the Lord will send on it. They will say, ²³“The land is nothing but burning cinders and salt. Nothing is planted, nothing grows, and nothing blooms. It is like Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed because he was very angry.” ²⁴All the other nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to the land? Why is he so angry?”

²⁵And the answer will be, “It is because the people broke the Agreement of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶They went and served other gods and bowed down to gods they did not even know. The Lord did not allow that, ²⁷so he became very angry at the land and brought all the curses on it that are written in this book. ²⁸Since the Lord became angry and furious with them, he took them out of their land and put them in another land where they are today.”

²⁹There are some things the Lord our God has kept secret, but there are some things he has let us know. These things belong to us and our children forever so that we will do everything in these teachings.

The Israelites Will Return

30When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you, and the Lord your God has sent you away to other nations, think about these things. ²Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today. ³Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom. He will feel sorry for you, and he will bring you back again from the nations where he scattered you. ⁴He may send you to the ends of the earth, but he will gather you and bring you back from there, ⁵back to the land that belonged to your ancestors. It will be yours. He will give you success, and there will be more of you than there were of your ancestors. ⁶The Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love him with your whole being so that you will live. ⁷The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, who hate you and are cruel to you. ⁸And you will again obey the Lord, keeping all his commands that I give you today. ⁹The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do. You will have many children, your cattle will have many calves, and your fields will produce good crops, because the Lord will again be happy with you, just as he was with your ancestors. ¹⁰But you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands and rules that are written in this Book of the Teachings. You must return to the Lord your God with your whole being.

Choose Life or Death

¹¹This command I give you today is not too hard for you; it is not beyond what you can do. ¹²It is not up in heaven. You do not have to ask, “Who will go up to heaven and get it for us so we can obey it and keep it?” ¹³It is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask, “Who will go across the sea and get it? Who will tell it to us so we can keep it?” ¹⁴No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

¹⁵Look, today I offer you life and success, death and destruction. ¹⁶I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what he wants you to do, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws. Then you will live and grow in number, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take as your own.

¹⁷But if you turn away from the Lord and do not obey him, if you are led to bow and serve other gods, ¹⁸I tell you today that you will surely be destroyed. And you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and take as your own.

¹⁹Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live. ²⁰To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him. He is your life, and he will let you live many years in the land, the land he promised to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Joshua Takes Moses’ Place

31Then Moses went and spoke these words to all the Israelites: ²“I am now one hundred twenty years old, and I cannot lead you anymore. The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River; ³the Lord your God will lead you across himself. He will destroy those nations for you, and you will take over their land. Joshua will also lead you across, as the Lord has said. ⁴The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when he destroyed them and their land. ⁵The Lord will give those nations to you; do to them everything I told you. ⁶Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them and don’t be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.”

⁷Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in front of the people, “Be strong and brave, because you will lead these people into the land the Lord promised to give their ancestors, and help them take it as their own. ⁸The Lord himself will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forget you. Don’t be afraid and don’t worry.”

Moses Writes the Teachings

⁹So Moses wrote down these teachings and gave them to the priests and all the elders of Israel. (The priests are the sons of Levi, who carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord.) ^10–11Then Moses commanded them: “Read these teachings for all Israel to hear at the end of every seven years, which is the year to cancel what people owe. Do it during the Feast of Shelters, when all the Israelites will come to appear before the Lord your God and stand at the place he will choose. ¹²Gather all the people: the men, women, children, and foreigners living in your towns so that they can listen and learn to respect the Lord your God and carefully obey everything in this law. ¹³Since their children do not know this law, they must hear it. They must learn to respect the Lord your God for as long as they live in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to take for your own.”

The Lord Calls Moses and Joshua

¹⁴The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will die. Get Joshua and come to the Meeting Tent so that I may command him.” So Moses and Joshua went to the Meeting Tent.

¹⁵The Lord appeared at the Meeting Tent in a cloud; the cloud stood over the entrance of the Tent. ¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, “You will soon die. Then these people will not be loyal to me but will worship the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will leave me, breaking the Agreement I made with them. ¹⁷Then I will become very angry at them, and I will leave them. I will turn away from them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible things will happen to them. Then they will say, ‘It is because God is not with us that these terrible things are happening.’ ¹⁸I will surely turn away from them then, because they have done wrong and have turned to other gods.

¹⁹“Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites. Then have them sing it, because it will be my witness against them. ²⁰When I bring them…