Deuteronomy 29

1 These, are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to solemnise with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, —besides the covenant, which he solemnised with them in Horeb.

The following are the terms of the agreement that the Lord ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in the country of Moab This was in addition to the agreement he had made with them at Horeb.

2 And Moses called unto all Israel and said unto them, —Ye yourselves, saw all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his land:

Moses called all the Israelites together and announced to them, You saw with your own eyes everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole country.

3 the great provings which thine own eyes saw, —those great signs and wonders:

You saw with your own eyes the amazing tests, and those great signs and miracles.

4 yet hath Yahweh not given onto you a heart to know, or eyes to see or ears to hear, —until this day.

But up to now the Lord has not given you minds that understand, or eyes that see, or ears that hear, saying,

5 I led you, therefore forty years in the desert, —your mantles fell not with age, from off you, even thy sandal, fell not with age from off thy foot:

For forty years I led you through the desert, but your clothes and sandals didn't wear out.

6 Bread, ye did not eat, and wine and strong drink, ye did not drink, —that ye might know that, I, Yahweh, was your God.

You didn't have bread to eat, or wine or alcohol to drink in order that you would realize that I am the Lord your God.

7 And when ye entered into this place, then came forth Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan to meet us in battle and we smote them;

When we arrived here, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan marched out to fight us in battle, but we defeated them.

8 and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites, —and unto the half tribe of Manasseh.

We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to own.

9 Ye must, therefore, keep the words of this covenant, and do them, —that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

So make sure you keep and follow the terms of this agreement in order that you may be successful in everything you do.

10 Ye are stationed, to-day, all of you, before Yahweh your God, —your heads your tribes, and your elders and your officers, every man of Israel;

Every one of you is stand here today before the Lord your God: you tribal leaders, officials, and all the men of Israel,

11 your little ones your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, —from him that heweth thy wood unto him that draweth thy water:

your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your firewood and carry your water.

12 that thou mayest pass through into the covenant of Yahweh thy God and into his oath, —which Yahweh thy God is solemnising with thee, to-day:

You're here so you can enter into the agreement of the Lord your God, which he is making with you today, and accept his solemn promise,

13 that he may confirm thee to-day as his own people, while, he, becometh thine own God, as he spake unto thee, —and as he sware unto thy fathers, unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob.

and so he can confirm you today as his people. He will be your God as he told you and as he promised your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

14 And not with you alone, am I solemnising this covenant and this oath;

It's not only with you that the Lord is making this agreement and solemn promise,

15 but with him who is here with us, standing to-day before Yahweh our God, —and with him who is not here with us to-day.

those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here today.

16 (For, ye, know, how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, —and how we passed through the midst of the nations which ye did pass through;

You know very well what it was like when we lived in the land of Egypt and our experiences as we passed through the nations on the way here.

17 and ye saw their disgusting images, and their manufactured gods, —the wood and the stone, the silver and the gold that are with them.)

You saw their disgusting religious practices and their idols of wood and stone, and silver and gold.

18 Lest there be among you—a man or a woman or a family or a tribe, whose heart is turning to-day, from Yahweh our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations, —lest there be among you a root fruitful of poison and wormwood;

You need to make sure today that there's no man or woman, family or tribe of yours who wants to turn from the Lord our God and go and worship the gods of these nations. Make sure there is nothing like that among you that would produce such poison and bitterness.

19 and so it come to pass while he is hearing the words of this oath, that he will bless himself in his heart—saying, Prosperity, shall I have, although in the stubbornness of my heart, I go on, —so that the drunkenness addeth to the thirst:

For when someone like that hears the words of this solemn promise, they think they'll still receive a blessing, telling themselves, “I'll be safe, even though I'll go on doing whatever I feel like.” Such an attitude would destroy good and bad alike.

20 Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him, but, then, will the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy smoke against that man, and all the oath that is written in this scroll, shall settle down upon him, —and Yahweh wipe out his name from under the heavens;

The Lord would never want to pardon them. In fact, his passionate anger will burn against them, and every curse written in this book will fall on them. The Lord will erase their name from the earth,

21 and Yahweh single him out for calamity, out of all the tribes of Israel, —according to all the oaths of the covenant that is written in this scroll of the law.

and punish them as an example of them for all the Israelite tribes, in accordance with all the curses of the agreement written in this Book of the Law.

22 So that the generation coming after—your sons who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come in from a far-off land, will say—when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses thereof wherewith Yahweh hath made it sick:

Later generations, your descendants and foreigners from far away, will see how the Lord has brought disaster on the country and devastated it.

23 brimstone and salt burning up all the land thereof, it shall not be sown neither shall it shoot forth neither shall there come up thereon any herbage, —like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrow in his anger and in his wrath:

The whole country will be burning wasteland of sulfur and salt. Nothing is sown; it's totally unproductive; no plant grows there—just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his furious anger.

24 yea all the nations will say, For what cause, hath Yahweh done, thus, unto this land? what meaneth this great heat of anger?

Everyone everywhere will ask, “Why did the Lord do this to the country? Why did he get so terribly angry?”

25 Then will men say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh the God of their fathers, —which he solemnised with them, when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt;

The people will answer, “It's because they abandoned the agreement of the Lord, the God of their forefathers, which he made with them when he led them out of Egypt.

26 and went and served other gods, and bowed down to them, —gods which they had not known, and in which he had given them no share:

They went off and worshiped other gods, bowing down to gods they'd never heard of—gods that the Lord had not given to them.

27 therefore did the anger of Yahweh kindle upon that land, —to bring in upon it all the curse that is written in this scroll;

That's why the Lord was so angry with this land, and he rained down on it every curse written in this book.

28 and therefore hath Yahweh rooted them out, from off their own soil, in anger and in wrath and in great indignation, —and cast them into another land as at this day.

The Lord uprooted them from their country in his anger, rage, and fury, and he threw them out, leaving them in another land, where they are to this day.”

29 The secret things, [belong unto Yahweh our God] and, the things that are revealed, belong to us and to our children unto times age-abiding, that we may do all the words of this law.

The Lord our God has secrets that belong to him, but what has been revealed belong to us and to our descendants forever, so that we may follow everything in this law.