Renewing the Covenant

1These are the words of the covenanta the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb.b 2cMoses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyesd everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his entire land. 3You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders.e 4Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.f 5I led you 40 years in the wilderness; your clothes and the sandals on your feet did not wear out;g 6you did not eat bread or drink wine or beer — so that you might know that I am •Yahweh your God.h 7When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them.i 8We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.j 9Therefore, observe the words of this covenantk and follow them, so that you will succeed in everything you do.l

10“All of you are standing today before the LORD your God — your leaders, tribes, elders, officials, all the men of Israel, 11your children, your wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water — 12so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, so that you may enter into His oath 13and so that He may establish you today as His people and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.m 14I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, 15but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God and with those who are not here today.

Abandoning the Covenant

16“Indeed, you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations where you traveled. 17You saw their detestable images and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them.n 18Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.o 19When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt,p thinking, ‘I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.’ This will lead to the destruction of the well-watered land as well as the dry land. 20The LORD will not be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that person, and every curse written in this scroll will descend on him. The LORD will blot out his name under heaven,q 21and single him out for harm from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.

22“Future generations of your children who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it. 23All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD demolished in His fierce anger.r 24All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger? ’ 25Then people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He had made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26They began to worship other gods, bowing down to gods they had not knowns — gods that the LORD had not permitted them to worship.t 27Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, and He brought every curse written in this book on it. 28The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.’ 29The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.