he may be your God, as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Neither do I make this covenant and this oath with you only, 15 but with those who stand here with us today before the LORD our God, and also with those who are not here with us today 16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the middle of the nations through which you passed; 17 and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them); 18 lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison; 19 and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the moist with the dry. 20 The LORD will not pardon him, but then the LORD’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under the sky. 21 The LORD will set him apart for evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the Torah.
22 The generation to come—your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land—will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick, 23 that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. 24 Even all the nations will say, “Why has the LORD done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”
25 Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. 27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. 28 The LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”
29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
30
1 It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2 and return to the LORD your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that then the LORD your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. 5 The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and increase your numbers more than your fathers. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 You shall return and obey the LORD’s voice, and do all his commandments which I command you today. 9 The LORD your God will make you prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you will obey the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this scroll of the Torah, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
31
1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 The LORD your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will go over before you, as the LORD has spoken. 4 The LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 The LORD will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them, for the LORD your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”
7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8 The LORD himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.”
9 Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of booths, 11 when all Israel has come to appear before the LORD your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, learn, fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
14 The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, your days approach that you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him.”
Moses and