29:1 These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.

29:2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows:¹ You have seen all that the LORD did in your presence² in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land, 29:3 the great testings that you yourselves³ saw, those signs and mighty⁴ wonders. 29:4 But to this very day the LORD has not given you an understanding mind,⁵ perceptive eyes, or discerning ears. 29:5 I have led you in the desert for 40 years. Your clothing has not worn out⁶ nor have your sandals⁷ deteriorated. 29:6 You have eaten no bread nor drunk wine or beer—all that you might know that I⁸ am the LORD your God. 29:7 When you came to this place Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, came out to make war⁹ and we dealt them a blow.¹⁰ 29:8 Then we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

29:9 Therefore, keep the terms¹¹ of this covenant and obey them so that you might be successful in everything you do. 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the LORD your God—the heads of your tribes,¹² your elders, your officials, every Israelite, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the¹³ alien in the midst of your encampment from the woodsman to the drawer of water—29:12 so that you might enter into the covenant of the LORD your God and into the benefits of his oath that he¹⁴ is making with you today, 29:13 in order that he might affirm you today as his people and himself as your God just as he said to you and already swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 And it is not with you alone that I am making this covenant and oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the LORD your God as well as those not with us here today.

29:16 (For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the midst of the nations that we traversed. 29:17 And you have seen their detestable things¹⁵ and idols—the wood, stone, silver, and gold that were with them.) 29:18 Lest there should be a man, woman, clan, or tribe among you whose heart is turning away from the LORD our God today in order to go and serve the gods of those nations; and lest there be among you a root producing gall and wormwood; 29:19 and it come about that when he hears the words of this oath that he bless himself within¹⁶ and say, I will have peace though I walk in stubbornness of spirit,¹⁷ thus destroying the watered with the parched.¹⁸ 29:20 The LORD will be unwilling to forgive him, and his zealous wrath¹⁹ will smoke against that man; the entire curse written in this book will lie in wait against him and the LORD will blot his very remembrance²⁰ out from under heaven. 29:21 Then the LORD will select²¹ him for harm from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. 29:22 And the generation to come—your descendants who will rise up after you as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places—will say when they see the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the LORD has brought upon it, 29:23 and that the whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning, not sown nor sprouting nor producing grass, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim which the LORD overthrew in his fury and rage, 29:24 all the nations will ask, “Why has the LORD done so to this land? What is the heat of this great wrath all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 29:26 and they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they had not known and that he had not allowed²² them, 29:27 the wrath of the LORD broke out against this land, bringing²³ upon it all the curses written in this book. 29:28 So the LORD has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land as is clear²⁴ today.” 29:29 Secret things belong to the LORD our God but those that are revealed to us and our descendants forever are shown so that we might accomplish all the things of this law.