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Deuteronomy 29

1These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he made with them at Horeb.

2Moses called all Israel and said to them, “You have seen everything Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land: 3the great trials your eyes saw, those great signs and wonders. 4But to this day Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. 5I led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your sandal did not wear out on your foot. 6You ate no bread and drank no wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am Yahweh your God. 7When you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to meet us in battle, and we defeated them. 8We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. 9Keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may succeed in everything you do.

10“Today all of you stand before Yahweh your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officers, every man of Israel, 11your little children, your wives, and the resident foreigner within your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, 12to enter the covenant of Yahweh your God and its oath that Yahweh your God is making with you today, 13so that he may establish you today as his people and be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14I am making this covenant and this oath not with you alone, 15but with whoever is here standing with us today before Yahweh our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.

16“You know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the nations through which you passed. 17You saw their detestable things and their filthy idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, that were among them. 18Make sure there is no man or woman, family or tribe among you whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you bearing poison and wormwood. 19When someone hears the words of this oath and blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart’—thus sweeping away the well-watered with the dry— 20Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him. Instead, Yahweh’s anger and jealousy will smoke against that man. Every curse written in this scroll will settle upon him, and Yahweh will wipe out his name from under heaven. 21Yahweh will single him out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the covenant curses written in this scroll of instruction.

22“The later generation, your children who rise after you, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land will see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which Yahweh has afflicted it. They will say, 23‘Its whole land is sulfur and salt, a burned-out waste, unsown and unfruitful, with no grass growing on it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger and wrath.’ 24All the nations will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land? Why this great burning anger?’ 25They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26They went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27So Yahweh’s anger burned against that land, bringing upon it every curse written in this scroll. 28Yahweh uprooted them from their ground in anger, wrath, and great fury, and cast them into another land, as is the case today.’

29“The hidden things belong to Yahweh our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may carry out all the words of this instruction.

Translation notes 7

29:1 — Another covenant occasion. The covenant in Moab is distinguished from the one at Horeb. This verse is numbered 28:69 in the Hebrew text; the remainder of this chapter is numbered 29:1–28 there.

29:4–6 — Understanding and the speaker. The failure of heart, eyes, and ears to understand is stated directly. Verse 6 speaks in Yahweh’s first person within Moses’ address; the translation retains that shift rather than changing “I” to “he.”

29:10–15 — Those entering the covenant. The passage names leaders, men, women, children, and resident foreigners. “Sons of Israel” in verse 1 names this people collectively. The oath binds those present and those not present.

29:18 — Poison and wormwood. The harmful plant images describe destructive disloyalty within the community. The first plant’s precise identity is uncertain; wormwood is bitter.

29:19 — The well-watered and the dry. This difficult Hebrew expression may mean that one person’s presumption brings indiscriminate destruction, sweeping others away too. Another interpretation concerns adding drunkenness to thirst. The translation preserves the contrasting image without making a debated explanation part of the sentence.

29:23 — Zeboiim. The place-name follows the traditional reading of the written spelling. The four cities recall the overthrow associated with the Dead Sea region.

29:29 — Hidden and revealed. The verse assigns what is hidden to Yahweh and what has been revealed to the community’s obedience. The received text places special scribal dots over part of the wording, but these are not additional spoken words.