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 dem7og 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.
1[1] These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. (5.Mos 1,5; 5.Mos 5,2)2[2] And 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, (2.Mos 19,4; Josva 23,3)3the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. (5.Mos 4,34)4But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Es 6,9; Es 63,17; Joh 8,43; Ap G 28,26; Rom 11,8; Rom 11,10)5I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. (5.Mos 1,3; 5.Mos 8,2; 5.Mos 8,4; Amos 2,10; Ap G 13,18)6You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. (2.Mos 16,4; 5.Mos 8,3)7And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. (4.Mos 21,21; 4.Mos 21,33; 5.Mos 2,24; 5.Mos 2,26; 5.Mos 2,32; 5.Mos 3,1)8We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. (4.Mos 32,33; 5.Mos 3,12)9Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper[3] in all that you do. (5.Mos 4,6)10“You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,[4] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,11your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, (2.Mos 12,38; Josva 9,21; Josva 9,23; Josva 9,27)12so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, (Neh 10,29)13that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (1.Mos 17,7; 1.Mos 50,24; 2.Mos 6,7; 5.Mos 28,9)14It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, (Jer 31,31; Heb 8,8)15but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today. (Ap G 2,39)16“You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.17And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.18Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, (Heb 12,15)19one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.20The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. (5.Mos 9,14; Salm 74,1; Salm 79,5)21And the Lord will single him 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.22And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— (5.Mos 29,24)23the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— (1.Mos 14,2; 1.Mos 19,24; Dom 9,45; Jer 17,6; Jer 20,16; Jer 49,18; Jer 50,40; Ez 47,11; Hos 11,8; Zef 2,9; 2.Pet 2,6)24all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ (5.Mos 29,22; 1.Kong 9,8; Jer 22,8)25Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,26and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.27Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, (3.Mos 26,14; 5.Mos 28,15; Dan 9,11)28and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’ (1.Kong 14,15; 2.Krøn 7,20; Jer 12,14; Jer 22,26)29“The secret things belong to the Lord 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.