Nitzavim

Moses summoned all Israel and said to them:
You have seen all that GOD did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his courtiers and to his whole country:
the wondrous feats that you saw with your own eyes, those prodigious signs and marvels.
Yet to this day GOD has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
I led you through the wilderness forty years; the clothes on your back did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet;
you had no bread to eat and no wine or other intoxicant to drink—that you might know that I the ETERNAL am your God.
When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to engage us in battle, but we defeated them.
We took their land and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their heritage.
Therefore observe faithfully all the terms of this covenant, that you may succeed in all that you undertake.
You stand this day, all of you, before the ETERNAL your God: your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials—the entire body of Israel^athe entire body of Israel As the ratifying party to the pending covenant with GOD; cf. 1 Kings 8.2. In contrast to others “all the men of Israel.”—
your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer,
to enter into the covenant of the ETERNAL your God, which the ETERNAL your God is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions;^bits sanctions I.e., the curses that covenant violations will entail.
in order to establish you this day as God’s people and in order to be your God, as promised you and as sworn to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone,
but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the ETERNAL our God and with those who are not with us here this day.
Well you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of various other nations;
and you have seen the detestable things and the fetishes of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they keep.
Perchance there is among you some man or woman, or some clan or tribe, whose heart is even now turning away from the ETERNAL our God to go and worship the gods of those nations—perchance there is among you a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood.
When hearing the words of these sanctions, they may imagine a special immunity, thinking, “I shall be safe, though I follow my own willful heart”—to the utter ruin of moist and dry alike.^cmoist and dry alike I.e., everything.
GOD will never forgive them. Rather, GOD’s anger and passion will rage against them, till every sanction recorded in this book comes down upon them, and GOD blots out their name from under heaven.
[As for such a clan or tribe,] GOD will single it out from all the tribes of Israel for misfortune, in accordance with all the sanctions of the covenant recorded in this book of Teaching.
And later generations will ask—the children who succeed you, and foreigners who come from distant lands and see the plagues and diseases that GOD has inflicted upon that land,
all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt, beyond sowing and producing, no grass growing in it, just like the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which GOD overthrew in fierce anger—
all nations will ask, “Why did GOD do thus to this land? Wherefore that awful wrath?”
They will be told, “Because they forsook the covenant that the ETERNAL, God of their ancestors, made with them upon freeing them from the land of Egypt;
they turned to the service of other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not experienced^dwhom they had not experienced See note at 11.28. and who had not been allotted^eallotted See 4.19–20. to them.
So GOD was incensed at that land and brought upon it all the curses recorded in this book.
GOD uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is still the case.”
Concealed acts concern the ETERNAL our God; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching.
When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which the ETERNAL your God has banished you,
and you return to the ETERNAL your God, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day,
then the ETERNAL your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love.^atake you back in love As a householder readmits a former outcast back into his household. You will be brought together again from all the peoples where the ETERNAL your God has scattered you.
Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world,^bworld Lit. “sky.” from there the ETERNAL your God will gather you—from there you will be fetched.
And the ETERNAL your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors possessed, and you shall possess it; and you will be made more prosperous and more numerous than your ancestors.
Then the ETERNAL your God will open up^copen up Lit. “circumcise.” your heart and the hearts of your offspring—to love the ETERNAL your God with all your heart and soul, in order that you may live.
The ETERNAL your God will inflict all those curses upon the enemies and foes who persecuted you.
You, however, will again heed GOD and obey all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day.
And the ETERNAL your God will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and your produce from the soil. For GOD will again delight in your well-being as in that of your ancestors,
since you will be heeding the ETERNAL your God and keeping the commandments and laws that are recorded in this book of the Teaching—once you return to the ETERNAL your God with all your heart and soul.
Surely, this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.
It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”
Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”
No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.
See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity.
For^dFor Septuagint reads “If you obey the commandments of the ETERNAL your God, which.” I command you this day, to love the ETERNAL your God, to walk in God’s ways, and to keep God’s commandments, laws, and rules—that you may thrive and increase, and that the ETERNAL your God may bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
But if your heart turns away and you give no heed, and are lured into the worship and service of other gods,
I declare to you this day that you shall certainly perish; you shall not long endure on the soil that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—if you and your offspring would live—
by loving the ETERNAL your God, by heeding God’s commands, and by holding fast to [God]. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil that GOD swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.