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Deuteronomy - Chapter 29

¹ Moses called all Israel together and said to them: 'You have seen everything that Yahweh did before your eyes in Egypt, to Pharaoh, to his servants and to his whole country-

² the great ordeals which you yourselves witnessed, those signs and the great wonders.

³ But until today Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

⁴ 'I have been leading you for forty years in the desert, yet the clothes which you have been wearing have not worn out, nor have the sandals on your feet.

⁵ You have had no bread to eat, you have had no wine or fermented liquor to drink, so that you would learn that I, Yahweh, am your God.

⁶ 'When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to do battle against us; we defeated them.

⁷ We conquered their country and gave it as heritage to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁸ 'Keep the words of this covenant, put them into practice, and you will thrive in everything you do.

⁹ 'All of you are standing here today in the presence of Yahweh your God: your tribal leaders, your elders, your scribes, all the men of Israel,

¹⁰ with your children and your wives (and the foreigner too who is in your camp, be he your wood-cutter or your water-carrier),

¹¹ and you are about to pass into the covenant of Yahweh your God, sworn with imprecation, which he has made with you today,

¹² and by which, today, he makes you a nation for himself and he himself becomes a God to you, as he has promised you, and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

¹³ Not only on your behalf am I today making this covenant and pronouncing this solemn curse,

¹⁴ not only on behalf of those standing here with us in the presence of Yahweh our God today, but also on behalf of those not here with us today.

¹⁵ 'Yes, you know the people with whom we used to live in Egypt, and those through whose countries we have travelled -- the nations through whom we have passed.

¹⁶ You have seen their abominations and their idols made of wood and stone, silver and gold, which were there.

¹⁷ 'Let there be no man or woman of you, no clan or tribe, whose heart turns away from Yahweh your God today, to go and serve the gods of these nations. Among you let there be no root which bears poison or wormwood.

¹⁸ If, after hearing this imprecation, anyone, blessing himself, should say in his heart, "I shall do well enough if I follow the dictates of my heart; much water drives away thirst,"

¹⁹ Yahweh will not pardon him. The wrath and jealousy of Yahweh will blaze against such a person; every curse written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot his name out under heaven.

²⁰ Yahweh will single him out of all the tribes of Israel for misfortune, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in the book of this Law.

²¹ 'The future generation, that of your children coming after you, and the foreigner arriving from some far-away land, on seeing the plagues and diseases inflicted on this country by Yahweh, will exclaim,

²² "Sulphur! Salt!-The whole country is burning! No one will sow, nothing grow, no vegetation spring ever again! Devastation like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, devastated by Yahweh in his furious wrath!"

²³ And all the nations will exclaim, "Why has Yahweh treated this country like this? Why this great blaze of anger?"

²⁴ 'And people will say, "Because they deserted the covenant of Yahweh, God of their ancestors, the covenant which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt;

²⁵ because they went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods hitherto unknown to them, gods that were no part of their heritage from him:

²⁶ this is why Yahweh's anger has blazed against this country, afflicting it with all the curses written in this book.

²⁷ In anger, in fury, in fierce wrath, Yahweh has torn them from their own country and flung them into another country, where they are today."

²⁸ Things hidden belong to Yahweh our God, but things revealed are ours and our children's for ever, so that we can put all the words of this Law into practice.'