Deuteronomy 29:1-29

Cross-references For Better Understanding a Related Topics b Additional Materials c

Summary

• Affirmation of a covenant with God, in accordance with the promises God made to their ancestors.

• Blessings with obedience / curses with disobedience (idolatry and wickedness).

Details and/or Comments

• The judgments in this chapter proved prophetic - see also 30:1. Though, on occasion, they chose to obey God (and thus were blessed), their over-all tendency was to rebel (and thus reap the consequences).

• (This chapter is connected with Deuteronomy 30:1-20.)

Scripture

Deuteronomy 29 - Final warning (part 1)

Scripture Passage	Comments and Links
Deu 29:1 These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Deu 29:2 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; Deu 29:3 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders: Deu 29:4 but Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.	You have seen all that God has done, but your hearts remain unchanged (wicked) – a statement applicable to most of the people. *Contrast this with Deuteronomy 30:6, which tells us God will change their hearts if they turn to him. Miraculous Events Two Types of Seeing and Hearing
Deu 29:5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoes have not grown old on your feet. Deu 29:6 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God. Deu 29:7 When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them: Deu 29:8 and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.	You have seen God provide and how he gave you the land of our enemies.
Deu 29:9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. Deu 29:10 You stand this day all of you before Yahweh your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, Deu 29:11 your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water; Deu 29:12 that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you this day; Deu 29:13 that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Deu 29:14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, Deu 29:15 but with him who stands here with us this day before Yahweh our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day	Therefore obey God. You (and even those not present) are here, so that you may enter into a covenant with God - that he may establish you as his people, etc. - in accordance with the covenant he made with your forefathers. Abrahamic Covenant
Deu 29:16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; Deu 29:17 and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);	... and you know how the pagans live...
Deu 29:18 lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; Deu 29:19 and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.	Beware lest any of you choose to follow other gods and, while hearing this curse, think you will be blessed instead. The Influence of Wicked People on Others - like a wicked, poisonous root.
Deu 29:20 Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky. Deu 29:21 Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.	God will destroy you (who choose to go after the false gods of the surrounding nations), in accordance to what is written in this book of the law... Blessings with Obedience / Curses with Disobedience In the end, the entire nation rebelled; so the entire nation received the curses.
Deu 29:22 The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick; Deu 29:23 and that the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: Deu 29:24 even all the nations shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger?	Future generations will see the devastation of your judgment... Desolate Land Sodom and Gomorrah Ecological Judgments
Deu 29:25 Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, Deu 29:26 and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn't know, and that he had not given to them: Deu 29:27 therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book; Deu 29:28 and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.	They shall know that it was because you forsook the covenant of God. Covenant Breaking Idolatry And you will be in exile. Exile
Deu 29:29 The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Scripture Passages (Only books that have relevance to this study have active links. The others are in italics.) Genesis  •  Exodus  •  Leviticus  •  Numbers  •  Deuteronomy  •  Joshua  •  Judges  •  Ruth  •  1 Samuel  •  2 Samuel  •  1 Kings  •  2 Kings  •  1 Chronicles  •  2 Chronicles  •  Ezra  •  Nehemiah  •  Esther  •  Job  •  Psalms  •  Proverbs  •  Ecclesiastes  •  Song of Solomon  •  Isaiah  •  Jeremiah  •  Lamentations  •  Ezekiel  •  Daniel  •  Hosea  •  Joel  •  Amos  •  Obadiah  •  Jonah  •  Micah  •  Nahum  •  Habakkuk  •  Zephaniah  •  Haggai  •  Zechariah  •  Malachi Matthew  •  Mark  •  Luke  •  John  •  Acts  •  Romans  •  1 Corinthians  •  2 Corinthians  •  Galatians  •  Ephesians  •  Philippians  •  Colossians  •  1 Thessalonians  •  2 Thessalonians  •  1 Timothy  •  2 Timothy  •  Titus  •  Philemon  •  Hebrews  •  James  •  1 Peter  •  2 Peter  •  1 John  •  2 John  •  3 John  •  Jude  •  Revelation

—— To avoid any copyright issues, all Scripture is either from a public domain translation (such as the World English Bible), my own translation, or a combination of these. ——

The name "Yahweh," when present in an Old Testament passage, represents the Hebrew name for the God of the Bible.

Unless otherwise noted, all notes and comments are © by Dennis Hinks.