Chapter 30

God’s Forgiveness and Blessing. ¹ When all of these blessings and curses come upon you that I have set before you and you call them to mind wherever you are dispersed among all of the nations, ² and you and your children return to the Lord, your God, and you obey his voice in all that I command you today with all your heart and all your soul, ³ then the Lord, your God, will have compassion on you in your captivity, and he will bring you back, gathering you from all the nations where the Lord, your God, has scattered you. ⁴ The Lord, your God, will gather and fetch you back, even if your exiles are in the outermost parts of the heavens. ⁵ The Lord, your God, will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed so that you might possess it, and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. ⁶ The Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your offspring so that you might love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, and that you might live. ⁷ The Lord, your God, will cause all of these curses to come upon your enemies and those who hated and persecuted you. ⁸ You shall once again obey the voice of the Lord and observe all of his commandments that I have given you today. ⁹ The Lord, your God, will make you bountiful in all of your undertakings, your offspring, your livestock, and the produce from your land; the Lord will take as much delight in bringing you prosperity as the Lord delighted in your fathers ¹⁰ if you obey the voice of the Lord and observe his commandments and his statutes that are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and your whole soul.

^11 [a]This commandment that I give you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too distant from you. ¹² It is not in the heavens that you should say, “Who will go up into the heavens to bring it down to us so that we might hear it and observe it?” ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, “Who will cross over the sea to bring it to us so that we might hear it and observe it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near to you, it is in your heart and in your mouth, so that you might do it.

¹⁵ Israel’s Choice. See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil. ¹⁶ If you obey the command that I give you today, to love the Lord, your God, and to walk in his ways, and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees, then you will live and multiply, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your hearts turn away so that you will not listen, and you are drawn away to worship other gods and to serve them, ¹⁸ then, as I swear to you today, you will surely perish. You will not live a long time in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to enter and to possess.

¹⁹ I call upon the heavens and the earth to witness today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your descendants might live ²⁰ loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and holding on to him, for he is life and length of days to you, and so that you might dwell in the land that the Lord promised to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.