Deuteronomy 29
The full text of Deuteronomy 29 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 These 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.
2 Moses 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.
3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders.
4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.
5 Yet 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.
6 You 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."
7 When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.
8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9 Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.
10 All 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,
11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.
12 You 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,
13 to 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.
14 I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you
15 who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God but also with those who are not here today.
16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here.
17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.
18 Make 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.
19 When 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.
20 The 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.
21 The 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.
22 Your 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.
23 The 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.
24 All the nations will ask: "Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?"
25 And 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.
26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.
27 Therefore the LORD's anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.
28 In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.
29 The 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.
Translation notes (11)
- Deuteronomy 29:1a This verse is numbered 29:1 in standard English Bibles (which follow the Masoretic tradition), but 28:69 in the Hebrew Bible (the standard Hebrew text) chapter division, meaning Hebrew chapter 29 begins one verse later than the English (English 29:2 = Hebrew 29:1). The standard English numbering is followed here. This verse serves both as a concluding statement for the curses of chapter 28 and as the introduction to the covenant made in Moab; the Horeb covenant refers to the Sinai covenant described in chapter 5 and following.
- Deuteronomy 29:4a This is a difficult and significant statement: despite witnessing the exodus, Israel still lacks a discerning heart, seeing eyes, and hearing ears. It foreshadows the prophetic idea of spiritual blindness (Isaiah 6:9-10) and is echoed in the New Testament (Romans 11:8). Whether this lack is due to God's withholding, human dullness, or both is debated and not decided here.
- Deuteronomy 29:12a The phrase 'enter into' the covenant literally means 'pass into/through' (le'ovrekha bivrit), possibly referring to a ritual of passing between divided pieces when making a covenant (compare Genesis 15:17; Jeremiah 34:18). 'The oath' ('alah) is a curse that one calls upon oneself if the covenant is broken, thus binding the agreement.
- Deuteronomy 29:15a This verse explains that the covenant binds not only the present generation but also "those who are not here today," which includes future generations of Israel, extending the covenant beyond the assembly at Moab.
- Deuteronomy 29:17a "Detestable images and idols" translates the Hebrew words shiqqutseihem vegillulehem, which are two contemptuous terms for idols. The second word, gillulim, is a deliberately degrading term. The list of materials—wood, stone, silver, and gold—emphasizes that these idols are lifeless.
- Deuteronomy 29:18a The phrase "A root... that produces such bitter poison" translates the Hebrew shoresh poreh rosh vela'anah, which literally means "a root bearing poison-herb and wormwood." This image describes hidden apostasy spreading like a toxic plant. The phrase is quoted in Hebrews 12:15 as "a root of bitterness."
- Deuteronomy 29:19a The self-deceiver "blesses himself in his heart," showing false self-assurance, while walking "in the stubbornness of my heart" (bishrirut libbi). The closing phrase, "to sweep away the watered with the dry" (sefot haravah 'et hatseme'ah), is a difficult idiom that probably means the sinner's secret rebellion destroys the innocent along with the guilty.
- Deuteronomy 29:20a "His wrath and zeal" translates the Hebrew qin'ato, which refers to the LORD's covenant jealousy—his refusal to share his people's loyalty with idols. The phrase "blot out their names from under heaven" describes the severest punishment under the covenant.
- Deuteronomy 29:23a Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboyim are the four cities of the plain that were destroyed together, as described in Genesis 19 and Hosea 11:8. They serve as a proverbial image of total and irreversible divine judgment on a land.
- Deuteronomy 29:28a Three Hebrew words for wrath—be'af uvchemah uvqetsef gadol—are used together for cumulative force. The phrase "as it is now" (kayom hazeh) is written from the perspective of the exile, acknowledging that the covenant curse had been realized.
- Deuteronomy 29:29a This iconic verse discusses the limits of human knowledge and the sufficiency of revelation: what God has not disclosed (hanistarot) is his alone, but what he has revealed (haniglot) is given to his people to obey. In the standard Hebrew text, the words "to us and to our children" are marked with special scribal dots, called puncta extraordinaria, which are rare markings whose purpose is debated.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own translation of Scripture, made directly from the original Hebrew rather than revised from an older English Bible. Completed in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation available, and it is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Reading the TBV here on the web is free — the full study edition, with original-language tools and notes on every verse, lives in the Trinity Bible app.
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