Day 56: Deuteronomy 29-31
Covenant Renewal, Choosing Life, and the Passing of Leadership
Deuteronomy 29
The Covenant in Moab
1 These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land; 3 the great trials which your eyes saw, the great signs, and those great wonders. 4 But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes haven’t grown old on you, and your shoes haven’t grown old on your feet. 6 You haven’t eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
7 When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them. 8 We took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.
9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 All of you stand today in the presence of Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the middle of your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, 12 that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you today, 13 that he may establish you today as a people for his own possession, and that 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 It is not with you only that I make this covenant and this oath, 15 but with him who stands here with us today before Yahweh our God, and also with him who is 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 You have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and 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 Yahweh 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 happens, when he hears the words of this oath, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I will have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,’ to destroy the moist with the dry.
20 Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will rest on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky. 21 Yahweh will set him apart for evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.
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 diseases with which Yahweh has made it sick; 23 and that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it isn’t sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. 24 Even all the nations will say, “Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”
25 Then men will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, 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 Yahweh’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book. 28 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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.
Deuteronomy 30
Return to Yahweh
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 Yahweh your God has driven you, 2 and return to Yahweh 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 Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you.
4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there Yahweh your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. 5 Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers. 6 Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
7 Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 You will return and obey Yahweh’s voice, and do all his commandments which I command you today. 9 Yahweh your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you will obey Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life
11 For this commandment which I command you today isn’t too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It isn’t in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, 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, and bring it to us, 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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 shall be drawn away, worshiping other gods and serving them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall 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, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your offspring, 20 to love Yahweh 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 Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Deuteronomy 31
Joshua to Succeed Moses
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. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 Yahweh 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 Yahweh has spoken.
4 Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he destroyed. 5 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. 8 Yahweh himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you, neither 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 Yahweh’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 comes to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel so that they hear it.
12 Assemble the people, the men, and the women, and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh 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 Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
Yahweh Appears to Moses and Joshua
14 Yahweh 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 Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud. The pillar of cloud stood over the Tent’s door.
16 Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land where they are going. They will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they will be devoured, and many evils and troubles will come on them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Aren’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us?’ 18 I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.
19 Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. 20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten their fill, and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
21 It shall happen, when many evils and troubles have come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their offspring. For I know their intent which they are forming today, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.”
22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
23 He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
The Law Placed Beside the Ark
24 When Moses made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25 Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, saying, 26 “Take this book of the law, and put it beside the ark of Yahweh your God’s covenant, that it may be there for a witness against you.
27 For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death? 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. Evil will happen to you in the latter days, because you will do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”
30 Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
