The Agreement in Moab
1 So Moses finished telling the Israelites what they had to do in order to keep the agreement the Lord was making with them in Moab, which was in addition to the one the Lord had made with them at Mount Sinai.
The Third Speech: Israel Must Keep Its Agreement with the Lord
The Lord Is Your God
2-3 Moses called the nation of Israel together and told them:
When you were in Egypt, you saw the Lord perform great miracles that caused trouble for the king, his officials, and everyone else in the country. 4-6 He has even told you, “For 40 years I, the Lord, led you through the desert, but your clothes and your sandals didn't wear out, and I gave you special food. I did these things so you would realize that I am your God.”
But the Lord must give you a change of heart before you truly understand what you have seen and heard.
7 When we first camped here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan attacked, but we defeated them. 8 Then we captured their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh.
Keep the Agreement
Moses said:
9 Israel, the Lord has made an agreement with you, and if you keep your part, you will be successful in everything you do. 10-12 Today everyone in our nation is standing here in the Lord's presence, including leaders and officials, parents and children, and even those foreigners who cut wood and carry water for us. We are at this place of worship to promise that we will keep our part of the agreement with the Lord our God.
13-15 In this agreement, the Lord promised that you would be his people and that he would be your God. He first made this promise to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and today the Lord is making this same promise to you. But it isn't just for you; it is also for your descendants.
16-17 When we lived in Egypt, you saw the Egyptians worship disgusting idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold. Then as we traveled through other nations, you saw those people worship other disgusting idols. 18 So make sure that everyone in your tribe remains faithful to the Lord and never starts worshiping gods of other nations.
If even one of you worships idols, you will be like the root of a plant that produces bitter, poisonous fruit. 19 You may be an Israelite and know all about the Lord's agreement with us, but he won't bless you if you rebel against him. You may think you can get away with it, but you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you. 20-21 The Lord will be furious, and instead of forgiving you, he will separate you from the other tribes. Then he will destroy you, by piling on you all the curses in The Book of God's Law, and you will be forgotten forever.
22 The Lord will strike your country with diseases and disasters. Your descendants and foreigners from distant countries will see that your land 23 has become a scorching desert of salt and sulfur, where nothing is planted, nothing sprouts, and nothing grows. It will be as lifeless as the land around the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, after the Lord became angry and destroyed them.
24 People from other nations will ask, “Why did the Lord destroy this country? Why was he so furious?”
25 And they will be given this answer:
Our ancestors worshiped the Lord, but after he brought them out of Egypt and made an agreement with them, they rejected the agreement 26 and decided to worship gods that had never helped them. The Lord had forbidden Israel to worship these gods, 27-28 and so he became furious and punished the land with all the curses in The Book of God's Law. Then he pulled up Israel by the roots and tossed them into a foreign country, where they still are today.
29 The Lord our God hasn't explained the present or the future, but he has commanded us to obey the laws he gave to us and our descendants.
1 These are the wordes of the couenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the lande of Moab beside the couenant which hee had made with them in Horeb. 2 And Moses called all Israel, and said vnto them, Ye haue seene all that the Lord did before your eyes in the lande of Egypt vnto Pharaoh and vnto all his seruantes, and vnto all his lande, 3 The great tentations which thine eyes haue seene, those great miracles and wonders: 4 Yet the Lord hath not giuen you an heart to perceiue, and eyes to see, and eares to heare, vnto this day. 5 And I haue led you fourty yere in the wildernesse: your clothes are not waxed olde vpon you, neyther is thy shooe waxed olde vpon thy foote. 6 Ye haue eaten no bread, neither drunke wine, nor strong drinke, that ye might know how that I am the Lord your God. 7 After, ye came vnto this place, and Sihon King of Heshbon, and Og King of Bashan came out against vs vnto battell, and we slewe them, 8 And tooke their lande, and gaue it for an inheritance vnto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the halfe tribe of Manasseh. 9 Keepe therefore the wordes of this couenant and doe them, that ye may prosper in all that ye shall doe. 10 Ye stand this day euery one of you before the Lord your God: your heads of your tribes, your Elders and your officers, eue al ye me of Israel: 11 Your children, your wiues, and thy stranger that is in thy campe from the hewer of thy wood, vnto the drawer of thy water, 12 That thou shouldest passe into the couenant of the Lord thy God, and into his othe which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day, 13 For to establish thee this day a people vnto him selfe, and that he may be vnto thee a God, as he hath said vnto thee, and as he hath sworne vnto thy fathers, Abraham, Izhak, and Iaakob. 14 Neither make I this couenant, and this othe with you onely, 15 But aswel with him that standeth here with vs this day before the Lord our God, as with him that is not here with vs this day. 16 For ye knowe, how we haue dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we passed thorowe the middes of the nations, which ye passed by. 17 And ye haue seene their abominations and their idoles (wood, and stone, siluer and golde) which were among them, 18 That there should not be among you man nor woman, nor familie, nor tribe, which should turne his heart away this day from the Lord our God, to goe and serue the gods of these nations, and that there shoulde not be among you any roote that bringeth forth gall and wormewood, 19 So that when he heareth the words of this curse, he blesse him selfe in his heart, saying, I shall haue peace, although I walke according to the stubburnes of mine owne heart, thus adding drunkennesse to thirst. 20 The Lord will not be mercifull vnto him, but then the wrath of the Lord and his ielousie shall smoke against that man, and euery curse that is written in this booke, shall light vpon him, and the Lord shall put out his name from vnder heauen, 21 And the Lord shall separate him vnto euil out of all the tribes of Israel, according vnto all the curses of the couenant, that is written in the booke of this Lawe. 22 So that the generatio to come, euen your children, that shall rise vp after you, and the stranger, that shall come from a farre lande, shall say, when they shall see the plagues of this lande, and the diseases thereof, wherewith the Lord shall smite it: 23 (For all that land shall burne with brimstone and salt: it shall not be sowen, nor bring forth, nor any grasse shall growe therein, like as in the ouerthrowing of Sodom, and Gomorah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord ouerthrewe in his wrath and in his anger) 24 Then shall all nations say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus vnto this lande? how fierce is this great wrath? 25 And they shall answere, Because they haue forsaken the couenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he had made with them, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 And went and serued other gods and worshipped them: euen gods which they knewe not, and which had giuen them nothing, 27 Therefore the wrath of the Lord waxed hot against this land, to bring vpon it euery curse that is written in this booke. 28 And ye Lord hath rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and hath cast them into another land, as appeareth this day. 29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things reueiled belong vnto vs, and to our children for euer, that we may doe all the wordes of this Lawe.