Deuteronomy 29:9-15

The Present Covenant Setting

29:9 “Therefore, keep the terms ¹  of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do. 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ²  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ³  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. ⁴  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ⁵  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ⁶  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. ⁷ 

[29:9]  ¹ tn Heb “words.”

[29:10]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “your.”

[29:12]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[29:15]  ⁷ tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).