The Covenant Renewed in Moab
1 Thesearethe words of thecovenant which theLordcommanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them:“You have seen all that theLorddid before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land—
3 the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.
4 YettheLordhas not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to thisveryday.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness.Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.
6 You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine orsimilardrink, that you may know that IamtheLordyour God.
7 And when you came to this place,Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them.
8 We took their land andgave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh.
9 Thereforekeep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you mayprosper in all that you do.
10 “All of you stand today before theLordyour God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel,
11 your little ones and your wives—also the stranger whoisin your camp, fromthe one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water—
12 that you may enter into covenant with theLordyour God, andinto His oath, which theLordyour God makes with you today,
13 that He mayestablish you today as a people for Himself, andthatHe may be God to you,just as He has spoken to you, andjust as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “I make this covenant and this oath,not with you alone,
15 but withhimwho stands here with us today before theLordour God,as well as withhimwhoisnot here with us today
16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by,
17 and you saw their abominations and their idols whichwereamong them—wood and stone and silver and gold);
18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe,whose heart turns away today from theLordour God, to goandserve the gods of these nations,and that there may not be among you a root bearingbitterness or wormwood;
19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow thedictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
20 “TheLordwould not spare him; for thenthe anger of theLordandHis jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and theLordwould blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And theLordwould separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of theLaw,
22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when theysee the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which theLordhas laid on it:
23 ‘The whole landisbrimstone,salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there,like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which theLordoverthrew in His anger and His wrath.’
24 “All nations would say,‘Why has theLorddone so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’
25 Thenpeoplewould say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of theLordGod of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt;
26 for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them.
27 Then the anger of theLordwas aroused against this land,to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.
28 And theLorduprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, asitisthis day.’
29 “The secretthingsbelongto theLordour God, but thosethingswhicharerevealedbelongto us and to our children forever, thatwemay do all the words of this law.