Bible in 90 Days
12 Designate an area outside the camp as a latrine. 13 When you go there to relieve yourself, bring the spade you carry with your equipment and turn the soil to cover your excrement. 14 Treat your camp as a sacred place because the Eternal your God will be walking around in it. He travels with your army to bring you victory and defeat your enemies. If He saw something indecent, He’d leave the camp.
15 Don’t send back any slaves who escape from their masters and come to you. 16 Let them live with you in any of your cities, anywhere they choose, wherever seems good to them. And don’t take advantage of them!
17 Neither the women nor the men of Israel shall become cult prostitutes. 18 The Eternal, your True God, will not accept income from male or female prostitution in payment of a vow in His house. Both kinds of cult prostitution are horrifying to Him! 19 You may not charge interest to a fellow Israelite who borrows money or food or anything else you could charge interest for. 20 You may charge foreigners interest, but you may not charge interest to your fellow Israelites. If you follow these instructions, the Eternal your God will bless you in everything you do in the land where you’re going to live when you cross the Jordan.
21 When you make a vow to the Eternal, your True God, pay it promptly. He will be looking for you to fulfill your promise; and if you don’t, it will be a sin. 22 It isn’t a sin to make a vow in the first place. 23 But whatever you do say, you must fulfill completely: you made a vow of your own free will to the Eternal your God, and you must keep your word.
The law in verses 9-14 is loosely connected with those in the preceding group by the theme of someone being excluded from a community that is defined by the Eternal One’s presence. In this case, however, both the exclusion and the community are temporary.
The concern for “decency” in this law doesn’t relate to moral or immoral acts, but rather to personal bodily functions that should be kept private and discrete. Otherwise, they expose too much of the person to community view. They’re described literally as a form of “nakedness.” In this context, being “unclean” means needing to deal with a private matter before being able to reengage the community.
An essential principle in the Old Testament is that what is unclean must never come into contact with what is holy. The Eternal One’s presence is supremely holy, thus the concern for decency in the camp where the Eternal One travels with the army.
24 When you’re passing through another Israelite’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want there, but don’t carry any away in a container. 25 When you’re passing through another Israelite’s field, you may pluck the grain with your hand and eat it, but you’re not allowed to bring a sickle to cut down the grain and carry it away.
24 Moses: Suppose a man marries a woman but then isn’t happy with her because he discovers she is sexually indecent,[a] and he writes a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away from his house. 2 Suppose she leaves his house and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and that second man also isn’t happy with her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away; or suppose that second man who married her dies. 4 In either case, the first man who divorced her isn’t allowed to take her back as his wife because the intimacy of the second marriage defiled her for her first husband. The Eternal would be horrified if anyone did this. It would bring sin on the land the Eternal your God is giving you to live in and pass down to your children.
5 When a man first gets married, he’s free from military service and any other civic duty for one year. He and his wife may spend that year happily together in their home.
6 A creditor is not allowed to take a pair of millstones for grinding grain, or to take even a single millstone (which would leave the other one useless) as security for a debt.
How can debtors stay alive if they can’t prepare food? When a person’s debt is due, God has instructions for Israelite life and ethic, and He always considers both parties.
7 If someone is caught kidnapping and enslaving other Israelites or selling them into slavery, the penalty is death. Expel the wicked from your own community.[b]
8 Do everything you can to prevent an outbreak of any infectious skin disease. I’ve commanded the Levitical priests what to do in these cases. Follow all of their instructions very carefully! 9 Remember what the Eternal your God did to Miriam as you were on your way out of Egypt.[c]
As the Israelites are traveling through the wilderness, the prophetess Miriam, Moses’ sister, is struck with an infectious skin disease for questioning her brother’s authority as the Lord’s representative (Numbers 12:1–15). Moses prays for her, and she is healed after a week. The allusion to this event seems intended to stress that God has complete power over diseases that cause impurity—both to strike people and to heal them—and that the Israelites therefore need to respect the authority of the Lord’s representatives, the priests, as they treat cases.
Moses: 10 If you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t go into his house to collect the security. 11 Wait outside, and let him bring it out to you. 12 If the borrower is poor and gives a cloak as security, don’t keep it overnight. 13 Give the cloak back at sunset so he can sleep in it and stay warm. He’ll bless you, and the Eternal your God will recognize your good deed.
14 Don’t exploit the poor and needy people whom you hire to work for you, whether they’re fellow Israelites or some of the foreigners who live in your cities. 15 Pay them on the same day they work for you, before the sun goes down, because they’re poor and they’re really counting on the money. If you don’t, they’ll cry out to the Eternal, and He’ll find you guilty of wicked actions.
16 Don’t put parents to death for anything their children have done, and don’t put children to death for anything their parents have done. People are only to be executed for their own crimes.
17 Don’t deny justice to someone just because he or she is defenseless, such as a foreigner or an orphan, and don’t take a widow’s garment as security for a debt. 18 Remember you were helpless slaves in Egypt, and the Eternal your God rescued you from there. That’s why I’m commanding you to do this and protect defenseless people yourselves.
19 When you’re harvesting your field, if you forget a sheaf, don’t go back out into the field to get it. Let the foreigners, orphans, and widows take it. If you do this, the Eternal your God will bless everything you do. 20 When you beat your olive tree to knock the olives onto the ground where you can harvest them, don’t shake each branch again and again to strip the tree clean. Leave some for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you cut the grapes off your vines, don’t go around a second time and get all the ones you missed. Leave them for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember you, too, were destitute slaves in Egypt. That’s why I’m commanding you to do this and provide for the needy people around you.
Gleaning is a right given by God to pick up anything left in the fields at harvest time, and this is a special gift for those with real need.
25 Moses: If two people have a dispute and bring it to court, the judges there will decide the case and declare which one is innocent and which one is guilty. 2 If the judges decide the guilty party should be punished with a beating, the judge will make him lie down and be beaten in front of the judge with the number of strokes appropriate to the evil offense— 3 but it can never be more than 40. This limit is to prevent excessive beatings, which would be publicly degrading.
4 Don’t muzzle the ox while it is treading out your grain.[d]
5 When two brothers are living together, sharing family property that hasn’t been divided, if one of them dies leaving a widow without sons, his widow must not be married to a man outside the family. The brother should marry his sister-in-law and try to have children with her in his brother’s name.[e]
The widow and any children she has by her second husband, by custom, lose their share in his property. When a widow and her children become the family of her brother-in-law, this is a Levirate marriage.
Moses: 6 Her firstborn son will be named after the brother who died, so that the first husband’s name will not disappear from Israel and that son will receive his share of the family inheritance. 7 If a man doesn’t want to marry his brother’s widow, she should go to the elders at the city gate and make a formal complaint: “My husband died, and his brother refuses to keep his name alive in Israel. He won’t marry me and give me children!” 8 The elders of his city will send for him and try to persuade him. He may resist and say, “I don’t want to marry her!” 9 In that case, the widow will come up to him, with the elders looking on, and pull one of his sandals off his foot, spit in his face, and then say, “If a man won’t make sure his brother’s family line continues, he deserves this kind of disgrace for not continuing his brother’s house!” 10 From then on, throughout Israel, his family will be known as “the house with the missing sandal,” and they’ll all be disgraced.
11 If two Israelites are fighting, and one man’s wife comes to help her husband because he’s getting beaten, if she grabs the other man by the genitals, she has disrespected his source of procreative power. 12 Cut her hand off; don’t show any pity!
13 Don’t keep two different weighing stones in your bag, a heavy one for when you want to weigh out full value and a light one for when you want to try to cheat someone. 14 Don’t keep two different measuring containers in your house, a large one for when you want to measure out full value and a small one for when you want to try to cheat someone. 15 Your weighing stone must be a full and fair weight, and your measuring container must be a full and fair size. That way you will live a long time on the ground the Eternal your God is giving to you, 16 because the Eternal your God is horrified by anyone who is so unjust as to cheat other people in weights or measures.
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you as you were coming out of Egypt? 18 They found you on the road when you were all worn out, and they attacked those who had fallen behind and were isolated and defenseless. They showed no fear of God. 19 When you’re in a position to punish them for this, when all of your other enemies are defeated and you’re living peacefully in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, then wipe out every trace of the Amalekites under the sky. Don’t forget!
The Old Testament places a very high value on plans being brought to fruition. “Futility curses,” in which plans fail to reach fruition, are among the worst imagined in the ancient world. To prevent futility from happening, men are exempt from military service if they have not yet married their fiancées, if they have not enjoyed the fruit of a vineyard they have planted, or if they have not lived in a house they have built. Plans reaching fruition are cause for formal celebration and public acknowledgment of the Lord’s help. The fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob takes tangible form in the first crops from the new land, and this fulfillment calls for a ceremony of celebration and acknowledgment by each Israelite.
26 Moses: When you go into the land the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, when you’ve taken possession of it and are living there, 2 then take some of the very first produce you harvest from the land He is giving you, put it in a basket, and go to the place He will choose for His name. 3 Go to the priest who is serving at the time and say, “The Eternal promised our ancestors He’d give us this land, and I’m here today to acknowledge to the Eternal, my True God—I’ve officially settled in!” 4 Then the priest will take the basket from you and set it in front of the altar of the Eternal your God. 5 You will then testify in the presence of Him, “I’m descended from an Aramean nomad. The Lord watched over him everywhere he went. When he and his family moved to Egypt, there were only a few of them. But as they lived there as foreigners, they grew into a large, great, and powerful nation. 6 The Egyptians mistreated us and oppressed us. They made us their slaves and worked us mercilessly. 7 Then we cried out to the Eternal, the God of our ancestors, and He heard us. He saw that we were oppressed and exploited and mistreated. 8 He delivered us with overwhelming power, totally terrifying the Egyptians by testing them with plagues and showing He was the true God by doing amazing things to them. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And now I’ve brought the very first produce from the ground that You, the Eternal, have given to me.” Then present the basket to the Eternal your God, and bow down before Him, 11 and celebrate all the good things He has given to you and your household. Be sure to invite the Levites and the foreigners who live in your town to the feast.
12 When you’ve gathered a tenth of your produce at the end of the third year, the year for local tithing, give it to the Levites, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who live in your town. Let them come and take as much as they want to eat for as long as these supplies last. 13 And then pray this prayer to the Eternal, your True God: “I haven’t kept this sacred tithe for myself in my own house. I’ve given it to the Levites, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows, just as You commanded me. I haven’t broken or forgotten any of Your commands. 14 I haven’t eaten any of it while in mourning. I didn’t bring any of it here while I was ritually impure, and I haven’t offered any of it to the dead. I’ve listened to the voice of the Eternal, my God. I’ve done everything You commanded me to do. 15 Look down from heaven, from the holy place where You live, and bless Your people Israel and this land flowing with milk and honey, this ground You’ve given us just as You promised our ancestors.”
16 Today the Eternal your God commands you to follow all these regulations and decrees. Obey them carefully and devotedly with your whole heart and soul. 17 You’ve declared today that the Eternal will be your God, that you’ll live as He wants you to, that you’ll obey His regulations, commands and decrees, and that you’ll listen to His voice. 18 And today the Eternal has declared that you are His people—His own special possession, just as He said—and He’s acknowledged your promise to keep all His commands. 19 He’s declared that He’ll lift you up high above all the other nations He’s made. You’ll be praised, renowned, and honored. You also will be a people who are set apart for the Eternal your God, just as He said.
This major section of the book closes with a declaration that a covenant has now officially been made between the Lord and the current generation in Israel. Now the covenant has to be ratified and enforced.
Ancient treaties that great kings made with their subjects included a “document clause” that specified what each party would do with its own copy of the treaty. These copies were kept in prominent places, typically in the temples of the gods the kings worshiped. In the case of the covenant between God and Israel, the stone tablets are to stay inside the Lord’s covenant chest at Israel’s central place of worship. In addition, Moses specifies that a copy of the entire treaty must be written on giant stones and put on top of a mountain in the middle of Israel’s new territory.
27 Moses (commanding the people, with Israel’s elders supporting him): Obey all the commands I’m giving you today, and listen to the elders when they help you enact them. 2 When you cross the Jordan into the land the Eternal your God is giving you, set up some giant stones and whitewash them with lime. 3 Write each word of this law on them when you cross the Jordan to enter the land He is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey that the Eternal, God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 When you cross the Jordan, you will set up these stones on Mount Ebal and whitewash them with lime just as I’ve commanded you this day. 5 Build an altar there to Him with stones that iron has never struck; 6 with stones you find whole, build an altar to Him. Offer burnt offerings on the altar to Him. 7 Then sacrifice peace offerings and have a celebration feast in His presence. 8 And remember, write a complete copy of the law on the large stones. Make it clearly legible.
Ancient treaties included a list of blessings and curses. Ordinarily each party would call upon their own gods and ask for particular blessings for keeping the treaty or for particular curses if they broke it. In this treaty, however, the blessings and curses are spoken only to the people of Israel. It’s not necessary to pronounce any blessing or curses on the Lord because there’s no danger He’ll forget or break any of His agreements!
Moses (to all of Israel, with the Levitical priests supporting him): 9 Keep silent, and listen, Israel! Today you’ve become the Eternal’s very own people, and He’s become your God; 10 so listen to the voice of the Eternal your God and obey the commands and regulations I’m giving you today.
11 That day Moses charged the people.
Moses: 12 When you cross the Jordan River and settle in the land, hold a ceremony to ratify this covenant with the Lord. The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin will stand on the slope of Mount Gerizim to bless the people, 13 and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali will stand on Mount Ebal, representing the curse that will fall on anyone who breaks the covenant. 14 The Levites will shout in a loud voice, so that every Israelite can hear them and respond to the curses.
Levites: 15 A curse on anyone who carves or casts an idol, something so horrifying to the Eternal, and secretly worships what human craftsmen have made!
People: Let it be so![f]
Levites: 16 A curse on anyone who treats his father or mother with contempt!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 17 A curse on anyone who steals his neighbor’s land by moving a boundary marker!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 18 A curse on anyone who leads a blind person down the wrong road!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 19 A curse on anyone who deprives a foreigner, orphan, or widow of justice!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 20 A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his father’s wife, who violates the sanctity of his father’s intimate relations!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 21 A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with an animal!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 22 A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his sister—his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 23 A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his wife’s mother!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 24 A curse on anyone who murders his neighbor when no one else is watching!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 25 A curse on anyone who causes the death of the innocent just for a bribe!
People: Let it be so!
Levites: 26 A curse on anyone who doesn’t live by and do all that is written in the law![g]
People: Let it be so!
It is a fearful thing to promise God obedience and break that promise.
28 Moses: If you listen closely to the voice of the Eternal your God and carefully obey all the commands I’m giving you today, He’ll lift you up high above every other nation on earth. 2 All of the following blessings will be yours—in fact, they’ll chase after you—if you’ll listen to what He tells you.
Moses now recites the blessings that will come to the people if they keep their covenant with the Lord and the curses they’ll experience if they don’t. By making these a part of the treaty itself, Moses is calling on God to use them to enforce the covenant.
The blessings are listed first. This reflects God’s primary intention toward us: to bless and not to curse. When the Lord reveals His glory and character to Moses (Exodus 34:6–7), He declares at length that He’s a God of love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness, and only then adds that He will never allow injustice.
Moses: 3 You’ll be blessed in the city and blessed in the fields.
4 You’ll be blessed with children and crops and cattle.
Your herds will multiply, and your flocks will increase.
5 Your basket will be blessed; it will be full at harvest time,
and your kneading bowl will be blessed; you’ll always have plenty of bread.
6 You’ll be blessed when you go out of your home
and blessed when you return to your home.
7 When your enemies attack you, the Eternal will defeat them for you. They’ll come against you from one direction, but scatter and flee chaotically from you in seven different directions. 8 He will bless your barns, and they’ll be full of grain; He’ll bless everything you do. You’ll be blessed throughout the land He is giving you. 9 The Eternal will make you a nation that belongs to Him in a special way, just as He promised He would, if you’ll obey the commands of the Eternal your God and live as He wants you to. 10 Every other nation on earth will see the Eternal has called you by His own name, so they’ll be in awe of you.
11 The Eternal will give you more than enough of every good thing—children, cattle, and crops—as you live on the ground He promised your ancestors He’d give you. 12 He will open up the reservoirs of water in the sky and make the rainy seasons come each year, so that everything you do will be blessed. Your produce will be so abundant that you’ll lend to many nations, but you won’t have to borrow from any. 13 He will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be on top and never on the bottom—if you’ll just listen to the commands I’m giving you today from the Eternal your God, and obey them carefully. 14 All these blessings will be yours if you don’t deviate at all, neither to the right nor to the left, from any of the things I’m commanding you today, if you don’t go and worship other gods!
Moses must now invoke the curses that will come upon the people if they break their covenant with the Lord and worship other gods. He begins with a series of general curses that reverse the general blessings that have just been promised for obedience and faithfulness. But the curses quickly become very specific, predicting that things like plague, disease, and war will devastate the land. These curses will eventually become very personal with skin diseases; they will also make a person ritually impure and thus unable to participate in the community’s worship. As long as the diseases are present, even if they are incurable, those who suffer from them are banned from the temple. The punishment for choosing not to worship God, in other words, is ultimately not being able to worship God.
Moses: 15 But if you won’t listen to the voice of the Eternal your God, if you don’t carefully obey the commands and regulations I’m giving you today, then you’ll experience all of the following curses—in fact, they’ll come after you!
16 You’ll be cursed in the city and cursed in the fields.
17 Your baskets will be cursed, and your harvests will be small.
Your kneading bowl will be cursed, and you’ll always be short of food.
18 Your children and your crops will be cursed.
Your herds will dwindle, and your flocks will shrink.
19 You’ll be cursed when you return to your home and cursed when you go out from your home.
Eternal One: 20 I’ll oppose everything you try to do! I’ll send curses and panic and setbacks until you’re destroyed, suddenly and completely, because of the evil things you did when you abandoned Me!
Moses: 21-22 The Eternal will strike you with plague—consumption and fever and inflammation—in the land where you’re going to live, and it will never leave until none of you are left alive there. He’ll afflict your land with heat and drought; He’ll afflict your crops with blight and mildew. All of these things will keep coming after you until you’re destroyed! 23 The skies overhead will be like a bronze shield that no rain can penetrate, and the land beneath your feet will be like iron that no seeds can sprout through. 24 Instead of rainstorms, the Eternal will send dust storms down on your land, and you’ll be destroyed. 25 He will hand you over to your enemies already defeated. You’ll attack them in an organized unit from one direction, but you’ll scatter and flee from them as scared individuals in seven different directions. Every kingdom on earth will tremble with fear when they hear what happens to you. 26 Your dead bodies will lie unburied in the open field. The wild birds and animals will eat them, and no one will chase the scavengers away.
27 The Eternal will afflict you with all kinds of incurable skin diseases, such as the boils that were a plague in Egypt; you’ll suffer tumors[h] and scurvy and itch, but you’ll never find relief. 35 He will afflict you with severe, incurable boils on your knees and legs, and they’ll spread until they cover your whole body, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.[i]
28 The Eternal will afflict you
with madness and blindness and confusion.
29 As you try to figure out which way to go in life,
you’ll be groping around the way a blind person gropes in the darkness,
even in the middle of the day.
You’ll never find your way, and you’ll never be prosperous.
You’ll be exploited and robbed all the time, and no one will rescue you.
30 You’ll get engaged to a woman, but another man will violate her.
You’ll build a house but never live in it.
You’ll plant a vineyard but never enjoy its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered as you look on helplessly, and others will eat it.
Your donkey will be taken away from you and never returned.
Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you get them back.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to foreigners as slaves. You’ll always be watching for their return, until your eyes grow dim, but there will be nothing you can do to bring them back. 33 Foreigners will eat up all your crops and take everything else you’ve worked for. You’ll be oppressed and abused constantly. 34 You’ll be driven mad by what you see! 36 The Eternal will send all of you, including your chosen king, into exile, to a country you’ve never heard of, not even from your ancestors. There you’ll worship other gods made of wood and stone. 37 Whenever the people who live in the places where the Eternal has sent you want to scare someone or insult someone or teach a lesson, they’ll say that what happened to you is going to happen to them. Your name will be synonymous with disaster!
38 You’ll sow many seeds, but you’ll harvest only a few because locusts will devour them before they produce. 39 You’ll plant vineyards and tend them, but you won’t drink any wine or collect any grapes because worms will eat them. 40 You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t anoint yourself with oil because the trees will be diseased and the olives will drop off before they ripen. 41 You’ll still have children, but they won’t stay with you; they’ll be taken into captivity. 42 Your orchards and crops will be infested with buzzing locusts. 43 The foreigners who live in your country will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower in every aspect of life. 44 They will lend to you, but you won’t lend to them; they’ll be the head, and you’ll be the tail. 45 You’ll experience all of these curses—they’ll chase after you and overtake you and destroy you—because you did not listen to the voice of the Eternal and obey the commands and regulations He gave you. 46 These curses will test you and leave you in awe of His signs and wonders against you and your descendants forever.
This list of futility curses is followed by a grisly description of the horrors of foreign invasion and siege. The people, unfortunately, will experience these very terrors when Assyria invades the Northern Kingdom of Israel, conquering it in 722 b.c. and exiling the population, and when Babylon invades the Southern Kingdom of Judah, destroying Jerusalem in 587 b.c. and carrying the people off into exile.
Moses: 47 Because you didn’t serve the Eternal your God in joy and gladness when you had an abundance of everything, 48 you’ll serve the enemies the Eternal sends against you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness and destitution. He’ll put an iron yoke on your neck until He’s destroyed you.
49 The Eternal will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like an eagle. This will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, 50 a ruthless nation that doesn’t respect the old or spare the young. 51 They’ll eat up your young cattle and crops until you have nothing left. They won’t leave you any grain or new wine or oil, or young animals in your herds or flocks. And that lack will kill you. 52 They’ll lay siege to all of you and all of your cities throughout the land the Eternal your God is giving you, until the high, fortifying walls you feel so safe within have all been knocked down all over your nation.
53 These enemy sieges will cause you so much hardship that you’ll resort to cannibalism! You’ll eat the flesh of the sons and daughters that the Eternal your God has given you. 54 Even the gentlest, most sensitive man among you will turn against his brother and his beloved wife and the rest of his children who haven’t been exiled. 55 He won’t even give them anything to eat from the flesh of the children he’s devouring because the hardship of the enemy siege will be so severe in every city that he’ll have nothing else to eat himself. 56 Even the gentlest, most delicate woman among you, who wouldn’t even let her foot touch the ground because she’s so refined, will turn against her beloved husband and against her son and daughter. 57 She’ll feel no compassion toward any other children she bears and no delicacy about the afterbirth when it comes out. She’ll eat her newborns and the afterbirth in secret because the hardship of the enemy siege will be so severe in every city that she’ll have nothing else to eat.
58 If you don’t carefully obey every word of this law that’s written in this book, if you don’t fear your God’s glorious and awesome name, “Eternal One,” 59 then He will strike you and your descendants with extraordinary plagues that will be widespread and long-lasting, with serious, persistent illnesses. 60 He’ll bring back all the Egyptian diseases you were so afraid of when you lived there, and you’ll suffer from them continuously. 61 He will even afflict you with diseases and plagues that aren’t written about in this book of the law until you’re destroyed. 62 Only a few of you will be left, even though there used to be as many of you as there were stars in the sky, because you wouldn’t listen to the voice of the Eternal your God. 63 Even though it used to give the Eternal great pleasure to do good things for you and to increase your numbers, He’ll delight in killing and destroying you completely. You’ll be torn from the land you’re going to possess, 64 and He will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you’ll worship other gods, made of wood and stone, that you and your ancestors have never worshiped before. 65 Among those nations you’ll never be at rest, and you’ll never be able to settle down. He will make your hearts tremble, your eyes fail from crying, and your soul languish from despair. 66 Your life will hang by a thread; you’ll be terrified day and night, knowing you could die any minute. 67 You’ll be so terrified, and you’ll see such awful things, that in the morning you’ll say, “If only evening would come, and this day would be over!” And in the evening you’ll say, “If only morning would come, and this night would be over!” 68 The Eternal will bring you back to Egypt in ships, even though I told you you’d never go back there again. You’ll offer yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
The covenant treaty found in this book ends on a very bleak note. Unfortunately its dismal warnings are not heeded. The people of Israel are unfaithful to the Lord. They worship other gods; and as a result, their land is conquered and they are carried away into exile. However, the covenant God has made with their ancestors is unconditional. Even though the people have broken the specific covenant He has made with them at Mount Horeb, forfeiting the blessings it promised, the Lord is still bound to His covenant relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants forever. And so He enters into a new covenant with them, to replace the one that has been broken.
29 These are the terms of the covenant the Eternal commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He made with them at Horeb.
Moses (summoning all of Israel): 2 You saw with your own eyes what the Eternal did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and his whole country. 3 You saw with your own eyes how He tested them with the great plagues He sent against them and the amazing signs and wonders He did to demonstrate His reality and power. 4 But to this day, He hasn’t given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.
Spiritual insensitivity is its own punishment. It’s not that the Lord doesn’t want the people to be able to see and understand how His great works disclose His character and purposes, it’s just that such insights are only available to those who will humbly acknowledge and obey Him in response. Spiritual perception is a special gift from God, and it isn’t given to those who stubbornly resist. Instead, they are allowed to continue having eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear, and minds that don’t understand.
Eternal One: 5 I’ve led you through the wilderness for 40 years. The clothes on your back and the sandals on your feet haven’t worn out. 6 You haven’t had bread to eat or wine or strong drink to consume, but I’ve fed you each day with manna so you’d know that I, the Eternal, am your God who protects you and provides for you.
Moses: 7 When we arrived here in the territory east of the Jordan, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan attacked us, but we defeated them in battle. 8 We took their land and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half of Joseph’s children—the tribe of the Manassites—as their families’ perpetual land. 9 If you carefully obey all the terms of this covenant, then you’ll be successful in everything you do.
10 You’re all standing here today in the presence of the Eternal your God: your leaders, your tribes, your elders, and your representatives, all you men of Israel, 11 with your children and wives, and even the foreigners who are living with you and working for you—who chop your wood and draw your water— 12 you’re all standing here to take an oath and become part of the covenant He is making with you today. 13 He’ll establish you as His people; and He’ll become your God, just as He told you He would, and just as He promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 But I’m not making this covenant only with you who are here taking this oath; 15 it’s with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Eternal our God, and also with those who aren’t with us here today.
16 You know what life was like in the land of Egypt, and you saw how other nations lived when you traveled through their territories. 17 You saw the detestable things they had with them, their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold. 18 There could be a man or a woman among you, or even a whole clan or tribe, that might be willfully turning away from the Eternal this very day to go worship the gods of those nations! They’d be like a root that would bear bitter, poisonous fruit among you. 19 Even when they hear the words of the covenant oath, they’ll exult, “We can keep going our own way, and we’ll be just fine!” They will end up destroying everything in the country. 20 He will never forgive them; He’ll be furious with jealousy, and they will be struck with all the curses written in this book. He will wipe away every trace of them under heaven. 21 He’ll single them out for misery from all the tribes of Israel and bring disaster on them according to all the covenant curses recorded in this book of the law.
22 Future generations of your descendants and foreigners who come from distant countries will see how the Eternal has struck the land and sickened it, and they’ll say, 23 “This whole place is a burned-out wasteland of sulfur and salt! No one plants anything here because nothing grows here—not even grass! It’s like what happened when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,[j] Admah and Zeboiim, when He was so furious with those cities.” 24 People from the surrounding nations will say, “But why did the Eternal do this to this land? Why did He get so furiously angry?” 25 And bystanders will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant the Eternal, the God of their ancestors, made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They went and worshiped other gods. They bowed down to gods they’d never known that He didn’t allow them to worship. 27 That’s why He was furiously angry with that land and struck it with all the curses recorded in this book. 28 He was so incredibly angry that He uprooted the people from the land in his wrath and tossed them away into other countries, where they still are today.”
29 Only the Eternal knows the secret things. But we and our descendants are always responsible for what has been revealed to us, and we need to obey every word of this law.
30 Moses: When everything I’ve described to you has happened, and you’ve experienced first the blessings of obedience and then the curses for disobedience, if you reflect on these blessings and curses while you’re living in the nations where the Eternal your God has scattered you; 2 and if you and your descendants return to Him completely, heart and soul, and listen to His voice, obeying everything I’ve commanded you this day, 3 then He will have mercy on you and bring you back from captivity. He’ll gather you from all the peoples you’ve been scattered among. 4-5 Even if you’ve been sent to the ends of the heavens, He will gather you together and bring you back from there to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and it will be yours once again. You’ll be a bigger and more prosperous nation than ever before. 6 The Eternal your God will cut away and circumcise the hardness around your hearts and your descendants’ hearts so that you’ll love Him completely, heart and soul, and you’ll live.
Circumcision of the body is a physical sign of membership in the covenant God has made with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:9–14). When Moses says here that the people’s hearts will be circumcised, that the hardness around them will be cut away, he means their thoughts, desires, and intentions will be brought into the covenant—that is, they will want to be faithful to their relationship with the Eternal One. (The same idea is expressed in 10:16, where Moses literally tells the people to “circumcise their hearts,” meaning that they should commit to the covenant with the Eternal One not just outwardly but inwardly.) The prophets describe the new covenant in the same way: “a new heart and new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26–28).
Moses: 7 The Eternal your God will strike your enemies, those who hated you and came after you, with all these curses. 8 But you’ll listen once again to the voice of the Eternal, and you’ll obey all the commands I’m giving you today. 9 Then, in whatever you do, the Eternal your God, will give you more than enough of every good thing—children and cattle and crops—because the Eternal will once again delight to do you good as He delighted to do good to your ancestors. 10 All this will happen if you’ll return to the Eternal your God, heart and soul, and you’ll listen to His voice and obey His commands and remember His regulations, which are written in this book of the law.
11 After all, what I’m commanding you today isn’t too difficult for you; it’s not out of reach. 12 It’s not up in the sky, so you don’t have to say, “Who will go up into heaven and get it for us and tell us what it is, so we can obey it?” 13 It’s not across the sea, so you don’t have to say, “Who will go beyond the watery abyss and get it for us and tell us what it is, so we can obey it?” 14 No, the words you need to be faithful to the Eternal are very close to you. They are in your mouth (always talk about these laws, as I’ve commanded you) and in your heart (treasure them there).[k]
15 Look, I’ve given you two choices today: you can have life with all the good things it brings, or death and all the bad things it brings. 16 If you do what I’ve commanded you today and love the Eternal your God; if you live as He wants you to, if you obey His commands, regulations and judgments, then you’ll live and have many descendants. He will bless you in the land where you’re going to live. 17 But if your heart turns away and you don’t listen, if you go astray and you bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 then today I assure you you’ll be destroyed. You’ll cross the Jordan River into the land that’s going to belong to you, but you won’t live there very long at all.
Covenants between two people are typically witnessed by a third party. If one person doesn’t live up to his obligations and tries to argue that it was not necessary, the other person can then appeal to the witness to confirm the original terms of the agreement. Moses calls on the sky and the land to be the witnesses here. They will always be around to testify about the covenant terms that were offered to the people and how they agreed to them.
The formal treaty and its supplement have now been drawn up and witnessed. The only business remaining is to establish how the treaty will be carried on once the people who originally made it are gone. The Lord chooses Joshua to succeed Moses, to lead Israel into the land and represent them in their relationship with Him.
Moses: 19 I’m calling on the heavens and the earth to be the witnesses against you. I gave you the choice today between life and death, between being blessed or being cursed. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live! 20 If you love the Eternal your God and listen to His voice and always remain loyal to Him, for He is your life, then you’ll be able to live a long time in the land the Eternal promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
31 When Moses had finished giving all the words of this whole covenant to the people of Israel, 2 he spoke to them.
Moses: I’m now 120 years old. I’m not physically able to lead you anymore, and the Eternal has told me, “You’re not going to cross the Jordan River.” 3 Instead, it will be the Eternal your God who leads you across the Jordan. He’ll clear out the nations who live there, and you’ll take their place. As my successor and the Eternal’s representative, Joshua will lead you across, just as He has said. 4 The Eternal will do to those nations just what He did to Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and their land when He destroyed them. 5 He will defeat them for you. Then you must do to them exactly what I’ve commanded you to do. 6 Be strong and brave, and don’t tremble in fear of them, because the Eternal your God is going with you. He’ll never fail you or abandon you!
7 Then Moses spoke to Joshua, with all of Israel looking on.
Moses: Be strong and brave! You’re going to lead these people into the land the Eternal promised their ancestors He’d give them. You’ll give it to them, and they’ll give it to their descendants. 8 And He will be leading you. He’ll be with you, and He’ll never fail you or abandon you. So don’t be afraid!
9 Then Moses wrote down everything in this law and gave it to the priests (the descendants of Levi who transported the Eternal’s covenant chest) and to the elders of Israel. 10 He gave them these instructions:
Moses: At the end of every seven years, as I’ve already told you, you’re going to cancel all debts. In that same year, during the Feast of Shelters, 11 when all the people of Israel come into the presence of the Eternal your God, at the place He’ll choose, read this law aloud to them. 12 Assemble everyone—men, women, children, and any foreigners who are living in the cities with you—so they can listen and learn and fear Him and carefully obey every word of this law. 13 If you do this every seven years, their descendants, who otherwise wouldn’t know these things, will hear the law and learn to fear Him, and the nation will be faithful to Him for as long as you live in the land you’re going to take possession of when you cross the Jordan River.
Eternal One (to Moses): 14 It’s almost time for you to die. Call Joshua and stand with him by the congregation tent, where I’ll formally install him and give him his instructions.
So Moses and Joshua went and waited at the congregation tent. 15 The Eternal came and met them at the door of the tent, appearing in the form of a cloud pillar.
Eternal One (to Moses): 16 You’re about to leave this world to lie down with your ancestors in death. After you’re gone, these people are going to be unfaithful to Me. They’re going to worship foreign gods, the gods of the land they’re going into. They’re going to abandon Me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 When they do, I’ll be furious with them and abandon them. I won’t look on them when they pray. I won’t protect them, and they’ll be eaten alive. They’ll be in so much trouble and distress then that they’ll say, “We must be in all this trouble because our God isn’t with us anymore!” 18 And they’ll be right. In those days, I won’t look at them when they pray because they’ll have done such an evil thing by turning to other gods. 19 So I want you to write down this song and teach it to the children of Israel. Teach them to sing it, so it can be a witness for Me against them. 20-21 I know what they’re already inclined to do before I’ve even brought them into the land I promised them. I know that when I’ve brought them into the land I promised to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey, when they have had more than enough to eat and they’ve grown fat, they’ll turn to other gods and worship them. They’ll reject Me and break My covenant. Then, when they’re in so much trouble and distress, this song will testify against them since their descendants will still be singing it.
22 So Moses wrote down this song that day, and he taught it to the children of Israel.
The Lord commissions Moses to write a song that will serve as an enduring witness of His covenant with the people of Israel. It is to be passed down from generation to generation; and even if it cannot last quite as long as the sky and the land, so long as it does last it will speak in a way that they cannot. Of course, since the song is recorded in the Scriptures the people of God will always cherish it as they do all of His Word!
23 Then the Eternal formally installed Joshua (Nun’s son) and gave him instructions.
Eternal One: Be strong and brave, because you’re going to lead the children of Israel into the land I promised them. I am going with you!
24 Then Moses wrote down each word of this law in a book. When he finished, 25 he gave instructions to the Levites who carried the Eternal’s covenant chest.
Moses: 26 Take this book of the law, and put it next to the covenant chest of the Eternal your God, so it will be there as a witness against you. 27 I know how stubborn and rebellious you are. Even now, while I’m still alive and here with you, you’ve been rebelling against the Eternal. I can only imagine what you’ll do when I’m dead! 28 Bring all the tribes’ elders and representatives here so they can listen to everything I must say, and so I can call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against them. 29 I know that after I’m dead you’ll become corrupt and stop doing what I’ve commanded. You’ll have all kinds of trouble there because you’ll have done what the Eternal sees as wrong. You’ll make Him furious by your deeds, crafting idols and worshiping them!
30 Then Moses presented this whole song, while everyone in Israel was listening.
32 Moses: Listen, O sky, so I may speak!
Pay attention, O earth, to what I say!
2 Let my teaching fall on you like raindrops;
let what I say collect like the dew,
Like rain sprinkling the grass,
like showers on the green plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the Eternal;
I will utter greatness to our God.
4 He’s the Rock, and His work is perfect; everything He does is right.
He’s the God who can be trusted, who never does wrong
because He’s righteous and upright.
5 But a perverse and crooked generation has broken its word to Him.
They are not counted as His children—not with such deficiencies.
6 Is this how you repay the Eternal,
you foolish, unwise people?
Isn’t He your Father who produced you,
who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days long ago;
consider the years of past generations.
Ask your father, and he’ll explain it to you;
ask the elders, and they’ll tell you:
8 When God, the Most High in heaven gave all the nations their inherited territory,
when He divided the descendants of Adam into nations,
When He established the boundaries of the peoples,
as the number of the sons of God,
9 Because the Eternal’s territory is His people;
and Jacob is the territory of God’s inheritance.
10 The Eternal found Jacob out in the wilderness,
out in an empty, windswept desert wasteland.
He put His arms around him and took care of him;
He protected him as the apple of His eye.
11 Just as an eagle stirs up its nest, encouraging its young to fly,
and then hovers over them in case they need help,
And spreads its wings and catches them if they fall,
and carries them up high on its wings;
12 So the Eternal guided Jacob through the wilderness
without the help of any foreign god.
13 He set him on the heights of the land
and fed him from the produce of the fields.
He even fed him honey from the rocks
and oil from flinty stones,
14 Butter from his cows and milk from his flocks,
fattened young lambs, rams raised in Bashan, and goats,
the finest fatty kernels of wheat, and wine from the lifeblood of grapes.
15 But Jeshurun—my upright ones of Israel—got fat and kicked back—
yes, you were fat and bloated and stuffed.
He abandoned the God who made him
and disdained the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made Him jealous by worshiping foreign gods;
they infuriated Him with their disgusting idols.
17 They offered sacrifices to demons that are not God;
they worshiped gods they hadn’t known,
New ones that had just appeared,
gods their ancestors had never been acquainted with.
18 You ignored the Rock who bore you
and forgot the God who gave birth to you.
Earlier Moses has described the Eternal One as Israel’s “Father” (verse 6). Now he uses the image of a mother going into labor and giving birth to describe the Eternal One’s tender affection and sacrificial love for the nation.
19 Moses: The Eternal saw this and rejected them
because His sons and daughters had made Him so angry.
20 Eternal One: I won’t look at them when they pray;
I’ll just watch and see what happens to them
Because they’re a perverse generation,
children who are unfaithful.
21 They’ve made Me jealous by worshiping something that isn’t God,
and they’ve angered Me with their idols!
So I’ll make them jealous by favoring those who aren’t a people;
I’ll infuriate them with a godless nation.[l]
22 My anger will start a fire that will burn down to the land of the dead.
It will consume the land and all its crops
and set the mountains ablaze, right down to their foundations.
23 I’ll pile disasters on them
and use all My arrows against them.
24 They’ll be emaciated by famine
and consumed by fevers and destroyed by bitter pestilence.
I’ll attack them with the fangs of wild animals
and the venom of snakes that crawl in the dust.
25 While the sword is killing their children outside,
they’ll be huddling in terror inside their homes.
Everyone will be destroyed: young men and women,
infants and old people with gray hair.
26 I thought I would smash them in pieces
until no one remembered they ever existed,
27 But I was afraid of how their enemies would gloat,
how their opponents would get the wrong impression and say,
“We conquered them by our own power;
the Eternal didn’t do all of this!”
28 Moses: They’re a nation with no sense—
they have no understanding.
29 If only they were wise and understood this
and realized what was going to happen to them!
30 How could one of their enemies pursue a thousand of them,
and two of their enemies make ten thousand of them run away,
Unless their Rock had abandoned them,
unless the Eternal had handed them over?
31 It’s not because their rock is anything like our Rock—
even our enemies admit this!
32 No, it’s because their vine is grafted from the vines of Sodom,
from the terraces of Gomorrah:
It grows poisonous grapes in bitter clusters
33 and makes wine that’s snake venom and deadly cobra poison.
34 Eternal One: Haven’t I been saving this judgment,
sealing it away in My storehouse?
35 Revenge is Mine. I will settle all scores![m]
Soon they’ll stumble because the day of disaster is almost here,
And their doom is coming quickly!
36 Moses: The Eternal will judge His people[n]
and have mercy on His servants
When He sees they have no strength left
and they’re all gone, both slave and free.
37 Then He’ll say about Israel, “Now where are their gods,
the rocks where they took shelter,
38 The gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine they offered?
Let them get up and help you, Israel!
Let them protect you!”
39 Eternal One: Now do you see that I am the One,
and there is no other God besides Me?
I have power over life and death;
I wound, and I heal;
no one can resist My power!
40 I’m lifting up My hand toward the sky to take an oath,
and I swear, “As I live forever,
41 When I sharpen My flashing sword
and use it to bring about justice,
I’ll give My enemies what they deserve
and pay back those who hate Me!
42 I’ll get My arrows drunk with blood,
the blood of the dead and the prisoners,
And My sword will feast on flesh,
on the heads with their uncut hair of the enemy leaders!”
43 Moses: You nations, celebrate with His covenant people[o]
because He’s going to avenge the blood of His servants.
He’ll give His enemies what they deserve
and atone for His land and His people.
44 This was the song that Moses presented, together with Joshua[p] (Nun’s son), while all the people were listening. 45 After Moses had said all of these words, everything recorded in this book, to everyone in Israel, 46 he spoke to them.
Moses: Every word I’ve said to you today will be a witness against you, so set it in your heart, remember it well, and teach it to your children, so they’ll be careful to obey every word of this law. 47 You can’t afford to ignore even one word; your very life depends on it! It’s how you’ll be able to live a long time in the land on the other side of the Jordan that will be your territory.
48 The Eternal spoke to Moses on that same day.
God gives Moses a peek at the blessing he missed because of his disobedience.
Eternal One: 49 Climb to the top of Mount Nebo, one of the Abarim mountains here in the land of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I’m giving to the people of Israel as their property. 50 Just as Aaron died when he climbed Mount Hor and joined his ancestors in death, you’ll die on top of the mountain you climb and join your ancestors in death. 51 This is because you and Aaron disobeyed Me in front of all the Israelites at Meribah-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, when you struck the rock instead of commanding it to give water. You did not honor Me, your holy God, as if you could ignore My instructions if you wanted to, in front of all the Israelites![q] 52 So you can look at this land from a distance, but you can’t go into it, this land I’m giving to the Israelites.
33 Before he died, Moses, the man of God, blessed the people of Israel with this blessing.
The Lord has “called Israel His own” in the way that cities and territories in the ancient world are named after those who have explored, settled, or conquered them. It is understood that the person whose name is attached to a place will have continuing interests there, such as preventing anyone else from taking the crops, oppressing the people, and so forth. The Lord’s name is literally “over” the people of Israel, providing shelter and protection. Anyone who wants to harass them has to answer to Him, so His great reputation will keep them safe from marauders. If they are trusting and obedient, they will be protected from spiritual dangers and attacks by the power and reputation of the One who has called them by His own name.
2 Moses: The Eternal came from Mount Sinai:
He glowed like the dawn over Mount Seir;
He shone like the sun over Mount Paran;
He arose in the middle of His chosen ones, gathered in their tens of thousands.
The law was a flame in His right hand.[r]
3 Truly He loves His people;
all Your chosen ones are in Your hand.
They gathered at Your feet and received Your words.
4 Moses gave us a law to keep;
it will always belong to the people of Jacob.
5 When all their leaders gathered and the Israelite tribes came together,
the Eternal became king of Jeshurun—
6 Let Reuben live and not die,
and let not his people be few.
7 Moses said this about Judah:
Moses: Listen, Eternal, to the voice of Judah,
and bring him back to his people safely.
He defends himself with his own hands;
help him against his enemies!
8 About Levi he said,
Moses: Your Thummim and Urim belong to your loyal servant,
the man you tested at Massah and had a dispute with at Meribah about the water.
9 When the Levites carry out the law,
they don’t give special treatment to their fathers or mothers
Or favor their relatives or recognize their children.
They obey Your word and keep Your covenant.
10 They teach Jacob Your rules;
they teach Israel Your law.
They set incense before You
and offer burnt sacrifices on Your altar.
11 Bless Levi with strength, Eternal,
and accept the service he offers You.
Crush the loins of those who hate him and attack him,
so they’ll never attack them again!
12 About Benjamin he said,
Moses: The Eternal’s beloved rests safely next to Him,
protected all through the day,
resting between His shoulders.
13 About Joseph he said,
Moses: May his land be blessed by the Eternal
with the best the sky has to offer—abundant rains—
and with the dew and the waters that lie below the ground.
14 May it be blessed with the best the sun can produce
and the best crops of each month,
15 With the best that grows on the ancient mountains
and the everlasting hills,
16 With the best the land has to offer
when it’s filled with good things,
And most of all may it be blessed
with the favor of the One who appeared in the burning bush.
Let all these blessings rest on Joseph’s head,
on the head of this prince among his brothers.
17 He’s majestic, like a firstborn bull;
he has powerful horns, as does a wild ox.
With them he will gore the nations, driving them away to the ends of the earth.
This is the power of Ephraim’s ten thousands,
of Manasseh’s thousands of troops.
18 About Zebulun and Issachar he said,
Moses: Rejoice, Zebulun, as you go out to sea,
and rejoice, Issachar, in your tents!
19 They call peoples to the mountain
where they offer right sacrifices;
Because they feast on the abundance of the sea,
and they profit from the hidden treasures of the sand.
20 About Gad he said,
Moses: Blessed is the one who expands Gad’s territory!
He lives there like a lioness,
tearing at the arm and the top of the head.
21 He chose the best for himself;
a commander’s portion was hidden for him there, east of the Jordan.
He came at the head of the army to help the other tribes conquer their land.
He carried out the righteousness of what the Eternal said was to happen,
What was right, and carried out His decrees with the rest of Israel.
22 About Dan he said,
Moses: Dan is a lion’s cub,
leaping up from Bashan.
23 About Naphtali he said,
Moses: Naphtali, you’re satisfied with favor and filled with the Eternal’s blessing.
Take possession of the Sea of Galilee and the land on its western and southern shores.
24 About Asher he said,
Moses: Asher is the most blessed of Israel’s sons;
may he be the favorite of his brothers!
May the olive trees in his land produce so abundantly
that he’ll be wading in olive oil!
25 May the bolts of your gates be iron and bronze,
and may you have the strength you need for every day.
In Hebrew this expression, “There is no god like God,” makes an extremely strong statement. God is one of a kind.
26 There is no god like the God of Jeshurun—
the God of the upright ones of Israel—
Who comes across the sky to rescue you,
riding on the clouds in His majesty.
27 The Eternal God is your shelter;
He holds you up in His everlasting arms.
He chased away your enemies ahead of you,
shouting to you, “Destroy them!”
28 Now Israel lives in safety;
Jacob’s spring is isolated
In a land of grain and new wine
where dew falls from the sky.
29 How happy you are, Israel! Who is like you?
You’re the people the Eternal has saved.
He’s the shield that protects you
and the sword that brings you pride.
Your enemies will cringe and surrender before you,
and you’ll stamp out their high places of worship into the ground.
34 Moses climbed up from the plains of Moab to the top of Mount Nebo, to the peak at Mount Pisgah on the east side of the Jordan River across from Jericho. The Eternal showed him the whole land that would be Israel’s territory: Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all of Judah’s territory to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, 3 the southern desert,[s] and the basin in the valley of Jericho, the “city of palms,” as far as Zoar.
Eternal One (to Moses): 4 This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I told them, “I’ll give it to your descendants.” I’ve let you see it, even though you won’t be going into it.
God Himself buried Moses, with no grave and no monument that the Israelites could use to create another idol for worship.
5 So Moses, the Eternal’s servant, died there in the land of Moab, just as the Eternal had said. 6 He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died, but his eyesight hadn’t failed and his strength hadn’t diminished. 8 The children of Israel stayed in the plains of Moab and mourned for Moses for 30 days, until the grieving period was over.
9 Now Joshua (Nun’s son) was filled with a spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on this successor. The children of Israel obeyed Joshua, and they did what the Eternal had commanded Moses. 10 Since then there’s never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The Eternal knew him face-to-face! 11 No one has ever done anything like the amazing things the Eternal sent Moses to do in the land of Egypt to demonstrate His reality and power to Pharaoh and his servants and his whole country. 12 And no one has shown such great power or done such terrifying things as everyone in Israel saw Moses do.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.