Renewal of the Covenant
In Hebrew texts 29:1 is numbered 28:69, and 29:2-29 is numbered 29:1-28. 1These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.
2Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. 3With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. 4But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. 5Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. 6You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”
7When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. 8We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. 10All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, 11together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. 12You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, 13to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you 15who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.
16You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. 18Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
19When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. 21The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
22Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. 23The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. 24All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
25And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. 28In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
29The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
在摩押立約
1耶和華除了與以色列人在何烈山立約外，還在摩押吩咐摩西與以色列人立以下的約。
2摩西召來所有以色列人，對他們說：「你們曾親眼見過耶和華在埃及怎樣對付法老及其臣僕和國民， 3怎樣降下巨大的災難，行偉大的神蹟奇事。 4但耶和華至今還沒有賜給你們能明白的心、能看見的眼、能聽清的耳。 5四十年來，我領你們走過曠野，你們身上的衣服沒有穿破，腳上的鞋子沒有穿壞； 6你們沒有吃餅，也沒有喝淡酒和烈酒。這是為了讓你們知道耶和華是你們的上帝。 7我們來到這裡的時候，希實本王西宏和巴珊王噩都來攻擊我們，我們擊敗了他們， 8並將佔領的土地分給呂便支派、迦得支派和瑪拿西半個支派作產業。 9所以，你們要謹遵這約上的話，以便你們可以凡事順利。
10「今天，你們全都站在你們的上帝耶和華面前，包括你們的族長、長老、官員、所有以色列男子、 11你們的孩子、妻子和寄居在你們中間為你們砍柴挑水的外族人， 12為要接受你們的上帝耶和華與你們立的誓約。 13這樣，祂今天將宣告你們是祂的子民、祂是你們的上帝，正如祂對你們的應許和對你們祖先亞伯拉罕、以撒和雅各的誓言。 14耶和華的這誓約不僅是與你們立的， 15也是與今天一同站在我們的上帝耶和華面前的人，以及今天不在這裡的人29·15 「今天不在這裡的人」或譯「我們將來的子孫」。立的。
16「你們知道我們如何在埃及生活，也知道我們如何穿越列國來到這裡。 17你們也見過他們用木、石、金、銀造的可憎神像。 18你們中間，不論男人或女人，家族或支派，切不可有人背棄我們的上帝耶和華，去祭拜列國的神明，免得你們中間有殘根長出苦毒的果實， 19免得有人聽了這誓言後，心存僥倖地說，『即使我一意孤行，連累他人，也必平安無事。』 20耶和華絕不會赦免這樣的人，祂必向這樣的人發烈怒，使記在這書上的一切咒詛臨到他身上，從世上抹去他的名字。 21耶和華必把他從以色列各支派中隔離出來，使他按律法書上約中的一切咒詛受懲罰。
22「你們的子孫後代和從遠方來的外族人，必看見耶和華降在這地方的災禍和疾病。 23遍地將是硫磺和鹽，無法耕種，寸草不生，如同耶和華盛怒之下毀滅的所多瑪、蛾摩拉、押瑪和洗扁。 24萬國必問，『耶和華為什麼要這樣對待這地方？祂為什麼大發烈怒？』 25必有人回答說，『因為這地方的人背棄了他們祖先的上帝耶和華領他們出埃及時與他們所立的約， 26去供奉、祭拜他們所不認識、並非耶和華所分派的神明。 27因此，耶和華向這片土地發怒，把這書上的一切咒詛都降在這裡。 28耶和華盛怒之下把他們從這地方連根拔起，扔到別的地方，正如今日的情形。』
29「奧秘的事屬於我們的上帝耶和華，只有顯明的事永遠屬於我們和我們的子孫，以便我們可以遵守這律法上的一切話。」
