Covenant Renewal, Oaths, Restoration, Charges to the Nation

^{1 1} These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the ⌞Israelites⌟² in the land of Moab ⌞besides⌟³ the covenant that he made with them at Horeb.

1. Deuteronomy 29:1–29 in the English Bible is 28.69–29:28 in the Hebrew Bible
2. Literally “sons/children of Israel”
3. Literally “from to alone”

² And Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, “You saw all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt and to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land;

³ that is, the great trials that your eyes saw, and those great signs and wonders.

⁴ But Yahweh has not given to you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, even ⌞to this day⌟.¹

1. Literally “until the day the this”

⁵ And I have led you forty years¹ in the desert; your clothes have not worn out ⌞on you⌟,² and your sandal has not worn out ⌞on your foot⌟.³

1. Hebrew “year”
2. Literally “from on you”
3. Literally “from on your foot”

⁶ You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine and strong drink, so that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.

⁷ And when you came to this place then Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out to meet you for battle, and we defeated them.

⁸ And we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites¹ and to the Gadites² and to the half-tribe of Manasseh.

1. Hebrew “Reubenite”
2. Hebrew “Gadite”

⁹ And ⌞you must diligently observe the words of this covenant⌟,¹ so that you may succeed in all that you do.

1. Literally “you must keep the words of the covenant the this and you must do them”

¹⁰ “You are standing ⌞today⌟,¹ all of you, ⌞before⌟² Yahweh your God, your leaders, your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel,

1. Literally “the day”
2. Literally “to the face of”

¹¹ your little children, your women and your aliens¹ who are in the midst of your camp, from the choppers² of your wood to the drawers³ of your water,

1. Hebrew “alien”
2. Hebrew “chopper”
3. Hebrew “drawer”

¹² ⌞in order for you to enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God⌟,¹ and into² his oath that Yahweh your God is ⌞making with you⌟³ ⌞today⌟,⁴

1. Literally “for you to go over into the covenant of Yahweh your God”
2. Or “with”
3. Literally “cutting with you”
4. Literally “the day”

¹³ in order to establish you ⌞today⌟¹ ⌞to himself⌟² as a people and so that he may be for you as God, just as he ⌞promised⌟³ to you and ⌞just as⌟⁴ he swore to your ancestors,⁵ to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

1. Literally “the day”
2. Literally “for him”
3. Literally “spoke”
4. Literally “according to that which”
5. Or “your fathers”

¹⁴ “Now I am not ⌞making this covenant⌟¹ and this oath ⌞with you alone⌟.²

1. Literally “cutting this covenant”
2. Literally “with you to alone you”

¹⁵ But with ⌞whoever is standing here⌟¹ with us ⌞today⌟² ⌞before⌟³ Yahweh our God, and with ⌞whoever is not standing here⌟⁴ with us ⌞today⌟.⁵

1. Literally “with who he is here with us standing”
2. Literally “the day”
3. Literally “to the face of”
4. Literally “with who he is not standing here with us”
5. Literally “the day”

¹⁶ For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the midst of the nations that you traveled¹ through.

1. Or “journeyed”

¹⁷ And you have seen their detestable things and their idols of wood and stone, silver, and gold that were among them,

¹⁸ so that ⌞there is not⌟¹ among you a man or a woman or a clan or a tribe ⌞whose heart⌟² turns ⌞today⌟³ from being with Yahweh our God to go to serve the gods of these nations, so that there is not among you a root sprouting poison and wormwood.

1. Literally “lest there be/develop”
2. Literally “his heart”
3. Literally “the day”

¹⁹ And then when he hears the words of this oath, then¹ ⌞he will assure himself⌟² in his heart, ⌞saying⌟,³ ‘⌞Safety shall be mine even though I go in the stubbornness of my heart⌟,’⁴ thereby destroying the well-watered land along with the parched.⁵

1. Or “and”
2. Literally “he will bless himself”; HALOT 160 suggests “to consider oneself fortunate”
3. Literally “to say”
4. Literally “Peace shall happen/be for me, although/even if in the stubbornness of my heart I go”
5. Some translators prefer to include the last clause as a part of the words of the wicked man (NASV vs. NEB)

²⁰ Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him, for by then the anger of Yahweh will smoke, and his passion against that man and all the curses written in this scroll will descend on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven.

²¹ And Yahweh will single him out for calamity out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in the scroll of this law.

²² “And the next generation, that is, your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a distant land, when¹ they will see the plagues of that land and its diseases that Yahweh has inflicted upon it, will say,

1. Hebrew “and”

²³ ‘All its land is brimstone and salt left by fire, ⌞none of its land will be sown⌟,¹ and it will not make plants sprout out and it will not grow any vegetation; it is as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adman and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overturned in his anger and in his wrath.’

1. Literally “all of its land will not be sown”

²⁴ And all the nations will say, ‘⌞Why⌟¹ has Yahweh done ⌞such a thing⌟² to this land? What caused the fierceness of this great anger?’

1. Literally “On what basis”
2. Literally “so”

²⁵ And they will say,¹ ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,² which he ⌞made⌟³ with them ⌞when he brought them out⌟⁴ from the land of Egypt.

1. Or “answer/respond”
2. Or “fathers”
3. Literally “cut”
4. Literally “at/in his to bring them out from the land of Egypt”

²⁶ And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods whom they did not know them and he¹ had not allotted to them.

1. That is, Yahweh

²⁷ So ⌞the anger of Yahweh was kindled⌟¹ against that land to bring upon it all the curses written in this scroll,

1. Literally “became hot the nose of Yahweh”

²⁸ and Yahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in wrath and in great fury, and he cast them into another land, ⌞just as it is today⌟.’¹

1. Literally “as the day the this”

²⁹ “The hidden things ⌞belong to Yahweh⌟¹ our God, but the revealed things ⌞belong to us⌟² to know and to our children ⌞forever⌟,³ in order to do all the words of this law.”

1. Literally “are for Yahweh”
2. Literally “are for us”
3. Literally “until eternity”