Another conclusion
1 ① Moses summoned all the people of Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to his servants and to all his land, 2the great plagues which you yourselves witnessed, the signs and the marvels. 3But to this very day, Yahweh has not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.
4Yahweh made you wander in the desert for forty years, but your clothes did not wear out and neither did your sandals from so much journeying. 5You did not have bread to eat, or wine or fermented liquor to drink, so that you might know that I, Yahweh, am your God. 6And when we came to this place, Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, set out to fight against us, but we defeated them 7and seized their lands, which we then gave as an inheritance and a possession to Reuben, Gad and to half of the tribe of Manasseh.
8So observe the conditions of this Covenant and put them into practice, that you may succeed in whatever you do. 9You are all here today in the presence of Yahweh, your God: your leaders, your elders, your secretaries, all the people of Israel, 10with your sons and daughters, and with your wives, together with the foreigner who lives in your field, who cuts the firewood or fetches water for you. 11You are here in this place to celebrate a Covenant with Yahweh, your God. 12Through this oath he makes you his people and he becomes your God, as he said to you and promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
13And not only with you do I make this covenant and this oath today, 14but I make it both with those who are here with you today in the presence of Yahweh and with those who are not here.
15You know very well how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through other lands. 16You have seen the abominations and the loathsome idols they kept: of stone, wood, gold and silver.
17So may there be no man or woman, family or tribe among you whose heart turns away from Yahweh to go and serve the gods of those nations. May no poisonous and bitter plants sprout among you.
18If anyone does not heed the words of this sworn Covenant, thinking, “I shall have peace though I do as I please, the just and the sinner perish together,” 19Yahweh shall not pardon him. His rage and jealousy shall burn against that man, and all the curses written in this book await him. Yahweh will wipe out his name from under the heavens, 20and will separate him from the tribes of Israel to his misfortune, according to all the curses of the Covenant expressed in this book of the Law.
21The future generations that will come after you and the foreigners who come from distant countries shall see the plagues of this land and the plagues Yahweh inflicted on it, and they shall say, 22“A land of salt and sulfur is this one, burned and unsown; not even grass can be seen. So it was with Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, when Yahweh destroyed them and laid them waste in his anger and rage.”
23All the nations shall ask: “Why has Yahweh dealt so with this nation? What does such anger mean?” 24And they shall answer: “This happened because they abandoned the Covenant which Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, made with them when he brought them out of Egypt, 25because they went to serve other gods and worshiped them, gods that were not theirs and to whom Yahweh had not entrusted them.
26Therefore Yahweh was angry with that land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book. 27Yahweh has pulled them out of their land with anger, rage and great indignation, and cast them into another land, as you can see today.
28The secret things belong to Yahweh, our God, but what he made known to us belongs to us and our children forever. So we have to put into practice all the provisions of this Law!
- Dt 29,1 This new discourse was written on the return from the Exile when, determined to be faithful to the Law of the Lord from then on, the Jews began to rebuild their nation.
