Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land:¹ Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar.² The Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”³

Then Moses, the servant of the Lord,⁴ died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command.⁵ He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.⁶ Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.⁷

Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses.⁸ Never since⁹ has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.¹⁰ He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.¹¹

1 A positive look to end it.

2 Israel is claiming as much as they can here – they have never actually held all that land at any point.

3 God fulfills his word.

4 “servant” as the greatest title.

5 To the end, Moses is obedient.

6 Interesting - “to this day” clearly indicates a much later author.

7 They mourned for him according to tradition, as they had with Aaron.

8 A point of obedience for the Israelites to end the book.

9 Once again clearly a far later comment.

10 Even Elijah did not match Moses's knowledge of God.

11 Moses's greatness completes the text.

Take-home: Deuteronomy ends by exalting Moses as the great man of God who brought Israel to the cusp of the Holy Land.

Deuteronomy 33:1-29

This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death.¹ He said:

“The Lord came from Sinai,² and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran. With him were myriads of holy ones; at his right, a host of his own. Indeed, O favorite among peoples, all his holy ones were in your charge; they marched at your heels, accepted direction from you. Moses charged us³ with the law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob. There arose a king⁴ in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people assembled— the united tribes of Israel.”

“May Reuben live, and not die out,⁵ even though his numbers are few.”

And this he said of Judah: “O Lord, give heed to Judah, and bring him to his people; strengthen his hands for him, and be a help against his adversaries.”⁶

And of Levi he said: “Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your loyal one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah; who said of his father and mother, 'I regard them not'; he ignored his kin, and did not acknowledge his children.⁷ For they observed your word, and kept your covenant. They teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law; they place incense before you, and whole burnt offerings on your altar. Bless, O Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries,⁸ of those that hate him, so that they do not rise again.”

Of Benjamin he said: “The beloved of the Lord rests in safety— the High God surrounds him all day long— the beloved rests between his shoulders.”⁹

And of Joseph he said: “Blessed by the Lord be his land, with the choice gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that lies beneath; with the choice fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the months; with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the abundance of the everlasting hills; with the choice gifts of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of the one who dwells on Sinai. Let these come on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. A firstborn bull—majesty is his! His horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he gores the peoples, driving them to the ends of the earth; such are the myriads of Ephraim, such the thousands of Manasseh.”¹⁰

And of Zebulun he said: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents. They call peoples to the mountain;¹¹ there they offer the right sacrifices; for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

And of Gad he said: “Blessed be the enlargement of Gad! Gad lives like a lion; he tears at arm and scalp. He chose the best for himself, for there a commander’s allotment was reserved; he came at the head of the people, he executed the justice of the Lord, and his ordinances for Israel.”¹²

And of Dan he said: “Dan is a lion’s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan.”¹³

And of Naphtali he said: “O Naphtali, sated with favor, full of the blessing of the Lord, possess the west and the south.”

And of Asher he said: “Most blessed of sons be Asher; may he be the favorite of his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil. Your bars are iron and bronze; and as your days, so is your strength.”

“There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, majestic through the skies. He subdues the ancient gods,¹⁴ shatters the forces of old; he drove out the enemy before you, and said, 'Destroy!' So Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacob’s abode in a land of grain and wine, where the heavens drop down dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs.”¹⁵

1 Reminiscent of Jacob's blessing at the end of Genesis.

2 Only place in Deuteronomy that “Sinai” is used instead of “Horab, suggesting a separate origin.

3 Talking about himself in the third person?

4 King? Who? Study Bible suggests that this refers to God, but I'm not convinced, though the idea that verses 1-5 and 26-29 were once connected as a separate, earlier prayer is believable.

5 Very low-goal blessing, but of course the most central need of the tribe.

6 Unity with others, and protection from enemies.

7 Rare point at which family loyalty is not commended.

8 Protection from enemies again.

9 No request – protection from God is assured.

10 Blessing again is focused on land and defeat of enemies.

11 What does it mean that they call people to the mountain?

12 Again prosperity and defeat of enemies.

13 Quite minor reference.

14 Here they are again referred to as other gods. Is this only a metaphor? Study Bible notes that the translation is difficult though.

15 This all seems to refer to the coming conquest, with no hint of the disaster to come that Moses spoke of in the last song.

Take-home: A hymn of blessing recalls God's greatness and briefly notes characteristics of each tribe, with a focus on their prosperity and physical protection from enemies.

Deuteronomy 32:48-52

On that very day the Lord addressed Moses as follows:

“Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession; you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin,¹ as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin;because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin,² by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites.³ Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelites.”⁴

1 Seeing “the land” as a last act is a great way to go.

2 I'm still unclear on what they did wrong, which you think would be one of the most important tales of the book. Deuteronomy 3:26 and Numbers 20:12-13 don't really clear it up.

3 Deuteronomy 32:48-51 is a near-exact copy of Numbers 27:12-1. Study Bible states that Moses's death was originally placed there, but got moved here to make way for the Deuteronomical retelling of the law.

4 Not that they've been particularly more holy, but a promise is a promise.

Take-home: God show Moses he will be true to his promise to the people, but keeps his word to punish Moses for what happened in Meribeth Kadesh.

Deuteronomy 31:30-32:47

Then Moses recited the words of this song,¹ to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth.² May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew; like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just.³ A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he; yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him, a perverse and crooked generation.⁴ Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;⁵ the Lord’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.⁶ As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him; no foreign god was with him. He set him atop the heights of the land, and fed him with produce of the field; he nursed him with honey from the crags, with oil from flinty rock; curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams; Bashan bulls and goats, together with the choicest wheat— you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.

Jacob ate his fill; Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked.⁷ You grew fat, bloated, and gorged! He abandoned God who made him,⁸ and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. They made him jealous with strange gods, with abhorrent things they provoked him. They sacrificed to demons,⁹ not God, to deities they had never known, to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

The Lord saw it, and was jealous¹⁰ he spurned¹¹ his sons and daughters. He said: I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be;¹² for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness. They made me jealous with what is no god,¹³ provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled by my anger, and burns to the depths of Sheol; it devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap disasters upon them,¹⁴ spend my arrows against them: wasting hunger, burning consumption, bitter pestilence. The teeth of beasts I will send against them, with venom of things crawling in the dust. In the street the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers terror, for young man and woman alike, nursing child and old gray head.

I thought to scatter them and blot out the memory of them from humankind; but I feared provocation by the enemy, for their adversaries might misunderstand and say, 'Our hand is triumphant; it was not the Lord who did all this.'¹⁵ They are a nation void of sense; there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern what the end would be.¹⁶ How could one have routed a thousand, and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, the Lord had given them up? Indeed their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools. Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries? Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly.¹⁷ Indeed the Lord will vindicate¹⁸ his people, have compassion¹⁹ on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, neither bond nor free remaining. Then he will say: Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection!²⁰

See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god beside me.²¹ I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear: As I live forever, when I whet my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.²² I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh— with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired enemy.²³ Praise, O heavens, his people, worship him, all you gods! For he will avenge the blood of his children, and take vengeance on his adversaries; he will repay those who hate him, and cleanse the land for his people.”²⁴

Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua²⁵ son of Nun. When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them:

“Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law.²⁶ This is no trifling matter for you,²⁷ but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

1 Interesting that it doesn't explicitly say the song comes from God.

2 To our ears, very strange start for an address to an assembly.

3 The first point is to glorify God. Interesting that the starting point for God's greatness is his justice.

4 Israel's unfaithfulness contrasted with God's faithfulness.

5 That's an incredibly weird statement. My Study Bible attributes it to ancient tradition tht God gave guardianship of the nations to lesser gods (later “guardian angels”). Later manuscripts of the book have “gods” removed.

6 Focus is brought back to God's provision for his people.

7 Fascinating to use “Jacob” and “Jeshurun” together here – Jeshurun is used as a name for Israel only in chapter 33 and Isaiah.

8 Quick transition to unfaithfulness – once again it seems that lack of need led to lack of faith.

9 Other gods (all other gods?) are demons.

10 “jealous”, as we understand it in human terms, doesn't seem like it could fit God, especially in this context. God jealous of demons? Study Bible states that the literal meaning of the Hebrew is “to provoke to strong emotion”, which isn't really equivalent to the English word “jealous”.

11 “spurned” is in the past tense? What is this referring to – the exile coming 600 years from now?

12 They will choose their end, God simply observes.

13 Now calls them “no god”, rather than “other gods” or “demons”. This passage is difficult in that sense.

14 Now God says tit is Him that heaps disaster...the anger and suffering caused is disturbing.

15 The only thing saving them is that other people might take it the wrong way. No word of love, mercy, compassion.

16 Now the tables are turned, and foreign nations are criticized.

17 God will punish the foreign nations too...even here, vengeance is his.

18 What does “vindicate” mean here? Did they not all go astray? Study Bible says that “vindicate” literally means “to pass judgement” here.

19 Finally, compassion.

20 Despite the compassion, the focus still seems to be on disproving the foreign gods.

21 This is the point of the whole song.

22 Now the exceedingly vicious language gain, this time against Israel's enemies.

23 Long-haired enemy? Huh?

24 Really strange in this context, when they haven't even entered the land in question yet, and he's talking about cleansing it a second time!

25 Odd addition – did Joshua recite the words of the song as well?

26 Yet again! “So they may observe the words of the Law.”

27 No trifling matter indeed.

Take-home: God's judgement of his people is assured, and just, but so is his future vindication. In the end, ll who fail to worship God alone will be judged.

Deuteronomy 31:14-29

The Lord said to Moses, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.”¹

So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting, and the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.

The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.² My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them.³ In that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’ On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors,⁴ and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them,⁵ despising me and breaking my covenant. And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness, because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants. For I know what they are inclined to do even now,⁶ before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.”

That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.⁷ Then the Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them;⁸ I will be with you.”

When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end,⁹ Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, “Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you. For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the Lord while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death!¹⁰ Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you.¹¹ In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”

1 The commissioning involves only Joshua and Moses – no one else is necessary, for God is the authority.

2 The people's failure, the breaking of the covenant, is already assured. Crappy way to go out.

3 God's anger is allowing them to face natural consequences – God does not bring the destruction himself here.

4 Making clear that it was no fault of God's.

5 Wealth, not suffering, leads people to turn away – see Proverbs, the soils, Timothy.

6 Sounds not so much predestined as simply foretelling.

7 Awful song to have to learn.

8 Well, you've just given him a great lead-in to that task, God.

9 Which refers to which part of the Torah now?

10 This is really getting depressing now.

11 Moses is just as pessimistic as God.

Take-home: God held up his end of the covenant, but he knows that Israel will not hold up theirs, and they will see great destruction as a result.

Deuteronomy 31:9-13

Then Moses wrote down this law,¹ and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. Moses commanded them:

“Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission,² during the festival of booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.³ Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law,⁴ and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear theLord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

1 Simply says he wrote it down, not specifying inspiration of any action of God. Though that's a lot to write! This part seems to refer to those 20-odd chapters of “law”, not the whole Torah.

2 Emphasizing the practice of the year of remission one more time.

3 Only doing this once every seven years would make it a huge event.

4 Again, obeying the law is the center of everything.

Take-home: Provision is make for a regular public reading of the entire law to the entire nation, to make clear that all Israelites will always need to know and obey it.

Deuteronomy 31:1-8

When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them:

“I am now one hundred twenty years old.¹ I am no longer able to get about, and the Lord has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them.² Joshua also will cross over before you, as the Lord promised. The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. The Lord will give them over to you³ and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you. Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel: “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their ancestors to give them; and you will put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.⁴ Do not fear or be dismayed.”

1 I wonder how much this number for his age is related to Genesis 6:3.

2 Before introducing Joshua, Moses makes clear that they know that YHWH is the one who will destroy.

3 It is not your strength that will defeat them, it is God's.

4 Yet one more reminder that it is God, not Moses or Joshua, who is in control.

Take-home: Moses begins passing leadership over to Joshua with the clear message that God, not any man, is in control.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you,¹ nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”² No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.³ If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances,⁴ then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.⁵ Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him;⁶ for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors,⁷ to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

1 Interesting – the law is not too hard for us.

2 Quite vivid language.

3 The choice is clearly in their hands.

4 Yet again focused on obedience.

5 Again, the choice.

6 Love and obedience hand-in-hand.

7 Life, prosperity, fertility and the land

Take-home: Moses declares that all Israel has a choice before them and it's in their hands to choose, life or death.

Deuteronomy 30:1-10

When all these things have happened to you,¹ the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you,² and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today,³ then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.⁴ Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.⁵ The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous⁶ than your ancestors.⁷ Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,⁸ in order that you may live. The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you.⁹ Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today,¹⁰ and the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil.¹¹ For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.¹²

1 Makes the assumption of the exile clear.

2 Again, exile clear.

3 Fascinating – he says, “as I am commanding you today”, yet he is giving a command meant to apply 700 years in the future!

4 There is still hope.

5 Making it clear that God can do anything, can restore them no matter how far they've fallen.

6 In fact, he can restore them to even more than they were before.

7 Strange, because in the story “your ancestors” that they are “more prosperous then” are the people he's actually talking to in the moment.

8 God will do the work to help them love Him.

9 Can't go without a little revenge!

10 Like everywhere else in Deuteronomy, the central objective is obedience to the commandments.

11 Prosperity, fertility, and security (the curses on the enemies) are the central blessings.

12 Obedience to commandments and fidelity to God are necessary for this to come to pass.

Take-home: After all the curses, a message of hope for the exiles – if they will return to God, inwardly and outwardly, then God will restore them, inwardly and outwardly.

Deuteronomy 29:2-29

Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:

“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw,¹ the signs, and those great wonders.² But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.³ I have led you forty years in the wilderness. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out;⁴ you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink⁵—so that you may know that I am the Lord your God. When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us for battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Therefore⁶ diligently observe the words of this covenant, in order that you may succeed in everything that you do.”

“You stand assembled today, all of you, before the Lord your God—the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water⁷— to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God,⁸ sworn by an oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today; in order that he may establish you today as his people,⁹ and that he may be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I am making this covenant, sworn by an oath, not only with you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here with us today.¹⁰ You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. You have seen their detestable things, the filthy idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, that were among them.¹¹ It may be that there is among you a man or woman, or a family or tribe, whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth.¹² All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, “We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways” (thus bringing disaster on moist and dry alike)— the Lord will be unwilling to pardon them, for the Lord’s anger and passion will smoke against them. All the curses written in this book will descend on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.¹³ The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. The next generation,¹⁴ your children who rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who comes from a distant country, will see the devastation of that land and the afflictions with which the Lord has afflicted it— all its soil burned out by sulfur and salt, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, unable to support any vegetation, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his fierce anger— they and indeed all the nations will wonder, “Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused this great display of anger?” They will conclude, “It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.¹⁵ They turned and served other gods,¹⁶ worshiping them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them;so the anger of the Lord was kindled against that land, bringing on it every curse written in this book.¹⁷ The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is now the case.”¹⁸ The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to observe all the words of this law.¹⁹

1 It wasn't their eyes, though, right? Those who were in Egypt died, no?

2 Everyone has seen what God can do, and knows that he “means business”.

3 Why not?

4 Metaphor or historical reality? And why? Surely growing children would need sandals and clothes even if none had worn out, so they needed some way of making them, right?

5 I'm not seeing the connection of bread and strong drink to the other stuff. I would think this is somehow a reference to the fact that they didn't have time for yeast processes during the wandering, but don't see where it goes from there.

6 A strange “therefore” - perhaps “because God has provided all this – and you have seen all these signs” is the implication.

7 Aliens appear to be predominantly lowly laborers.

8 Men, children, women, and laborers all enter into the covenant.

9 They are established today as his people. Weren't they already his people in Egypt?

10 Future generations, I assume.

11 Switching to the idol-focus. The venom for such things, “detestable”, is clear.

12 The language here is elegant, and unlike much of the previous writing.

13 God's anger, cursing, and lack of forgiveness is hard to miss here.

14 That soon? What does “next generation” refer to here?

15 Even in Israel's destruction, other nations will learn of God.

16 Funny to see the phrase “other gods” placed in the mouths of people who worship those other gods.

17 What would they know of the book? Late perspective – even to Israel there was no “book” yet.

18 Again predicting the dispersion. “As is now the case” really sounds like postscript.

19 In other words, “only God knows everything, but you need to practice those things which you do know.”

Take-home: Israel has had the choice laid before them clearly and has been given plenty of reasons to trust God – when their land is destroyed, it will be their own fault, because they followed other gods and failed to observe the words of the law.

Deuteronomy 28:47-29:1

“Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,¹ therefore you shall serve your enemies² whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed³ you. The Lord will bring a nation from far away,⁴ from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young.⁵ It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil, nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish.⁶ It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.⁷ In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.⁸ Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children,⁹ giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating,¹⁰ because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter, begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else,¹¹ in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.

If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book,¹² fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies.¹³ He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you. Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed.¹⁴ Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number,¹⁵ because you did not obey the Lord your God.

And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction;¹⁶ you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess. The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.¹⁷ Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and at evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!” —because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.¹⁸ The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again;¹⁹ and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab,²⁰ in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.

1 You were not grateful to God, who gave you plenty of reasons to be grateful.

2 Here service of enemies is a curse.

3 Destroyed! Incredibly harsh.

4 Such a strange prophecy/threat. Again, it gives the feel of something written after-the-fact.

5 Interesting phrase. The Israelites did not show these things to their neighbors either, did they?

6 Threatening their prosperity.

7 Threatening their safety and their land.

8 Threatening their fertility – does this reflect actual cannibalism that occurred?

9 The extremes of selfishness.

10 Such disturbing imagery!

11 And it gets even worse.

12 Interesting, because no mention of a written book has been made yet.

13 All these curses seem to be brought directly from God.

14 Again “destroyed”.

15 The opposite of the promise to Abraham.

16 God will delight in destroying them. I can't believe that's meant to be taken literally.

17 Again, so strange that idolatry seems to be part of the curse God gives them.

18 Fantastic imagery of unrest.

19 Does that mean the Lord goes back on his promises?

20 So that: the end. What an ending.

Take-home: An incredibly vivid picture ends the giving of the law – when Israel fails to obey, all the blessings and promises from the Lord will be reversed in the cruelest manner imaginable, and Israel's state will degrade to the most unimaginably immoral behavior.

Deuteronomy 28:15-46

“But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees,¹ which I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:

Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.

Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.²

The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.

The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess. The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.

The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.³

The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind; you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way; and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.

You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, without anyone to help you. Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything. A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed, and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see.⁴

The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

The Lord will bring you, and the king whom you set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known,⁵ where you shall serve other gods,⁶ of wood and stone. You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.

You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity. All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over. Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower. They shall lend to you but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head and you shall be the tail.⁷

All these curses⁸ shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God, by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.

1 Again, the crux is obeying the commandments.

2 So far just the reverse of the blessings.

3 Disease is taking a very prominent role in the curses.

4 A series of prophecies that sound very much like allusions to exile.

5 Now an extremely specific prophecy of exile.

6 Very very odd that God would curse them by leading them to a nation where they will serve other gods.

7 Lack of power and position over others stated as a curse.

8 The curses were far more extensive and detailed than the blessings.

Take-home: Their safety, health, prosperity, and freedom will all be deeply cursed by God if they do not follow His commandments.