Obey the Terms of the Covenant
1Here are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab. The terms were added to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Horeb.
2Moses sent for all the Israelites. Here is what he said to them.
With your own eyes you have seen everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh. You have seen what he did to all Pharaoh’s officials and to his whole land. 3With your own eyes you saw how the Lord really made them suffer. You saw the signs and amazing things he did. 4But to this day the Lord hasn’t given you a mind that understands. He hasn’t given you eyes that see. He hasn’t given you ears that hear. 5Yet the Lord says, “I led you through the desert for 40 years. During that time your clothes didn’t wear out. The sandals on your feet didn’t wear out either. 6You didn’t eat any bread. You didn’t drink any kind of wine. I did all these things because I wanted you to know that I am the Lord your God.”
7When you got here, Sihon and Og came out to fight against us. Sihon was the king of Heshbon. And Og was the king of Bashan. But we won the battle over them. 8We took their land. We gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh as their share.
9Be careful to obey the terms of this covenant. Then you will have success in everything you do. 10Today all of you are standing here in the sight of the Lord your God. Your leaders and chief men are here. Your elders and officials are here. So are all the other men of Israel. 11Your children and wives are here with you too. So are the outsiders living in your camps. They chop your wood and carry your water. 12All of you are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God. He is making the covenant with you today. He’s giving you his word. 13Today he wants to show you that you are his people and that he is your God. That’s what he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14I’m making this covenant and the promise that goes along with it. I’m making this covenant with you. 15You are standing here with us today in front of the Lord our God. And I’m also making this covenant with those who aren’t here today.
16You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt. You also know how we passed through other countries on the way here. 17You saw the statues of their gods made out of wood, stone, silver and gold. The Lord hates those statues. 18Make sure there isn’t a man or woman among your families or tribes who turns away from the Lord our God. No one must worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that kind of worship doesn’t spread like bitter poison through your whole community.
19Some people who worship those gods will hear the promise that seals the covenant I’m making. They think they can escape trouble by what they’re saying. They say, “We’ll be safe, even though we’re stubborn and go our own way.” But they will bring trouble on the whole land. 20The Lord will never be willing to forgive those people. His great anger will blaze out against them. All the curses I’ve written down in this book will fall on them. And the Lord will erase any mention of them from the earth. 21He will find those people in all the tribes of Israel and give them nothing but trouble. That will agree with all the curses of the covenant. They are written down in this Book of the Law.
22Even your children’s children will see the troubles that have fallen on the land. They’ll see the sicknesses the Lord has brought on it. People who come from countries far away will also see those things. 23The whole land will be burned up. Nothing but salt and sulfur will be left. Nothing will be planted there. Nothing will grow there. In fact, nothing will even start to grow there. The land will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim after they were destroyed. The Lord wiped out those cities because he was very angry. 24All the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done this to the land? What could have made him so very angry?”
25And they will hear the answer, “It’s because the people living there have broken the covenant of the Lord. He’s the God of their people of long ago. He made that covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26They went off and worshiped other gods. They bowed down to them. They hadn’t known anything about those gods before. The Lord hadn’t given those gods to them. 27So the Lord became very angry with this land. He brought on it all the curses written down in this book. 28The Lord’s anger blazed out against his people. So he pulled them up out of their land. He threw them into another land. And that’s where they are now.”
29The Lord our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children forever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.
Opfordring til lydighed mod pagten
1-2Moses fortsatte med at tale til folket: „I har hørt om de vældige undere og frygtelige plager, som Herren sendte over egypterkongen, hans tjenere og hele hans folk. 3Men Herren har endnu ikke givet jer forstand til at fatte det, øjne til at se det eller ører til at høre det. 4I 40 år har han ført jer gennem ørkenen, uden at jeres tøj og sko blev slidt op. 5I fik hverken almindeligt brød eller vin og øl, men Herren sørgede for jeres behov for at lære jer at sætte jeres lid til ham som Herren, jeres Gud.
6Da vi kom hertil, rykkede kong Sihon af Heshbon og kong Og af Bashan ud imod os, men vi tilintetgjorde dem 7og overdrog deres land til Rubens og Gads stammer samt Manasses halve stamme. 8Overhold derfor omhyggeligt pagtens betingelser, så I må få velsignelse og fremgang i alt, hvad I tager jer for. 9I dag står I for Herrens ansigt sammen med jeres stammeoverhoveder og ledere på alle niveauer, 10jeres koner og børn og de fremmede, som hugger brænde og henter vand for jer. 11I står her for under ed at skulle tilslutte jer den pagt, som Herren i dag vil indgå med jer. 12Gør I det, skal I være hans folk, og han vil være jeres Gud, sådan som han også lovede jeres forfædre Abraham, Isak og Jakob. 13-14Denne pagt gælder ikke kun jer, som står her i dag, men også de kommende generationer i Israel.
Advarsel imod ulydighed mod pagten
15I husker, hvordan det var at bo i Egypten, og I husker, hvordan vi passerede gennem andre folkeslags territorier, 16og med jeres egne øjne så I deres afskyelige afgudsbilleder af træ, sten, sølv og guld. 17Der må ikke være nogen iblandt jer, mand eller kvinde, slægt eller stamme, der vender sig fra Herren for at dyrke den slags fremmede guder. Der må ikke være nogen bitter rod, som vokser op og spreder gift omkring sig. 18Skulle der findes nogen, som har hørt denne pagts ord og alligevel tror, at der ikke sker dem noget, hvis de gør oprør imod deres Gud, så vil Guds straf ramme både dem og andre omkring dem. 19-20Herren vil ikke tilgive sådanne mennesker, men straffe dem hårdt, for han vil ikke dele jeres hengivenhed med andre guder. Hans vrede vil blusse op imod dem, og han vil ramme dem med alle de forbandelser, som er nævnt i denne bog, indtil de er udryddet og deres slægtsnavn glemt.
21Hvis I bryder pagten med Herren, vil jeres efterkommere og de fremmede, der kommer langvejsfra, se følgerne af den katastrofe og de sygdomme, som Herren vil ramme landet med. 22De vil se øde, svovlholdige saltsletter, en gold og uopdyrket brandtomt uden vegetation overhovedet, når Herren i sin voldsomme vrede har gjort landet så øde som Sodoma, Gomorra, Adma og Sebojim.
23‚Hvad skyldes Herrens voldsomme vrede imod det land?’ vil man spørge. 24Svaret lyder: ‚Landets indbyggere brød deres pagt med Herren, deres fædres Gud, efter at han havde ført dem ud af Egypten. 25De dyrkede fremmede guder, som de aldrig før havde kendt, og som Herren havde forbudt dem at dyrke. 26Derfor blussede Herrens vrede op imod dem, så han ramte dem med alle de plager, der er nævnt i denne bog. 27I sin store vrede rykkede Herren dem op med rode og smed dem bort, bort til det land, hvor de nu bor.’
28Der findes hemmeligheder, som Herren ikke har åbenbaret for os. Men hvad han har åbenbaret, de ord, som er nedskrevet i denne lov, har vi pligt til at adlyde, både vi og vores børn.
