Deuteronomy 29 · WEB

The Covenant at Moab: A Second Covenant Renewal

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These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

²Moses called to 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;

³the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.

⁴But the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.

⁵I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you, and your sandal has not grown old on your foot.

⁶You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might know that I am the LORD your God.

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.

⁸We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites.

⁹Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰"All of you stand today before the LORD your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, your officers, even all the men of Israel,

¹¹your little ones, your wives, and the foreigner who is in the middle of your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water,

¹²that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today;

¹³that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

¹⁴"I am not making this covenant and this oath with you only,

¹⁵but with those who stand here with us today before the LORD our God, and also with those who are not here with us today—

¹⁶"(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the middle of the nations through which you passed;

¹⁷and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them),

¹⁸lest there should be among you a man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD your God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter fruit or wormwood;

¹⁹and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.'

²⁰The LORD will not pardon him, but then the LORD's anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under the sky.

²¹"The LORD will set him apart for 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.

²²The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick—

²³'All its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, not sown, nor bearing, nor any grass growing in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and in his wrath'—

²⁴even all the nations shall say, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?'

²⁵Then men will say, '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 that they didn't know and that he had not given to them.

²⁷Therefore the LORD's anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;

²⁸and the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and threw them into another land, as it is today.'

²⁹The 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.

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Summary

Moses renews the covenant with the entire community of Israel — including every social level from leaders to foreigners, woodcutters to water-carriers — at Moab, supplementing the original Sinai/Horeb covenant. He grounds the renewal in Israel's experience: the plagues of Egypt, the wilderness years, and the recent victories over Sihon and Og. Moses warns against a secret spiritual cancer — someone who privately thinks they can disobey while outwardly enjoying covenant blessings. The chapter closes with one of the most theologically profound statements in the Bible: the secret things belong to God, but what is revealed belongs to us and our children.

Themes

The covenant's scope: past generations, present generation, and future generations
The danger of self-deception — the person who thinks they can secretly disobey while receiving public blessing
Spiritual perception as a divine gift — "a heart to know, eyes to see, ears to hear"
God's sovereignty over secret things and our responsibility for what has been revealed
Corporate covenant identity: the community as a whole enters the covenant, not just individuals

Key verses

Deut 29:14-15 — “I am not making this covenant and this oath with you only, but with those who stand here with us today...and also with those who are not here with us today.”
Deut 29:29 — “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.”
Deut 29:4 — “But the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.”

Context & background

This covenant renewal ceremony takes place on the plains of Moab — the flat lowlands east of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan, just before Israel crosses the Jordan River into Canaan (modern Israel/Palestine). The covenant at Moab is described as "in addition to" the Horeb covenant (v. 1), showing that covenant relationship is not a once-for-all static event but can be renewed and deepened. The warning against "a root that produces bitter fruit or wormwood" (v. 18) became a famous phrase in later Jewish and Christian literature — the author of Hebrews quotes a related concept in Hebrews 12:15. The comparison of a destroyed Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 23) — cities in the region of the Dead Sea, identifiable in modern Jordan — was a powerful image of total desolation already known to Israel.

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 — What God has revealed by the Spirit — the "revealed things" principle
Hebrews 12:15 — "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up"
Jeremiah 31:31-34 — God promises a new covenant that addresses the "heart to know" problem of Deut 29:4
Romans 11:33 — "How unsearchable his judgments" — echoing the mystery of the "secret things" (v. 29)
Romans 11:8 — Paul quotes the "eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear" theme from this chapter

The Covenant at Moab: A Second Covenant Renewal

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Cross-references

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