Deuteronomy 29:10-21

29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ¹  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ²  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ³  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ⁴  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ⁵  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ⁶ 

The Results of Disobedience

29:16 “(For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations as we traveled. 29:17 You have seen their detestable things ⁷  and idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold.) ⁸  29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ⁹  29:19 When such a person ¹⁰  hears the words of this oath he secretly ¹¹  blesses himself ¹²  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ¹³  This will destroy ¹⁴  the watered ground with the parched. ¹⁵  29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹⁶  will rage ¹⁷  against that man; all the curses ¹⁸  written in this scroll will fall upon him ¹⁹  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ²⁰  29:21 The Lord will single him out ²¹  for judgment ²²  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law.

[29:10]  ¹ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

[29:11]  ² tn Heb “your.”

[29:12]  ³ tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

[29:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[29:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[29:15]  ⁵ tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[29:17]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term שִׁקּוּץ (shiquts) refers to anything out of keeping with the nature and character of Yahweh and therefore to be avoided by his people Israel. It is commonly used with or as a synonym for תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “detestable, abhorrent”; 2 Kgs 23:13; Jer 16:18; Ezek 5:11; 7:20; 11:18, 21; see note on the term “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:243-46.

[29:17]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “which were with them.” Verses 16-17 constitute a parenthetical comment.

[29:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”

[29:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[29:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.

[29:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “heart.”

[29:19]  ¹² tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.

[29:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”

[29:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ¹² tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”