Catholic Public Domain Version

Deuteronomy 29:16-29 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

16. For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of nations. And when passing through them,

17. you saw their abominations and filth, that is, their idols of wood and of stone, of silver and of gold, which they worshipped,

18. so that there would not be among you man or woman, family or tribe, whose heart has been turned away this day from the Lord our God, so as to go and serve the gods of those nations. For then there would be among you a root springing forth gall and bitterness.

19. And if he were to hear the words of this oath, he would bless himself in his own heart saying: 'There will be peace for me, and I will walk in the depravity of my heart.' And so, the one who is inebriated would consume the one who is thirsty.

20. But the Lord would not ignore him. Instead, at that time, his fury and zealousness would be very greatly enflamed against that man, and all the curses which have been written in this volume would settle upon him. And the Lord would abolish his name from under heaven,

21. and consume him unto perdition out of all the tribes of Israel, according to the curses which are contained in the book of this law and in the covenant.

22. And the subsequent generation would speak out, along with the sons who will be born afterward. And the sojourners, who will arrive from far away, will see the plagues of that land and the infirmities with which the Lord will have afflicted it,

23. having burned it with sulphur and molten salt, so that it can no longer be sown. And certainly no greenery would spring up, as in the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overturned with his wrath and fury.

24. And so, all the nations would say: 'Why has the Lord acted this way toward this land? What is this immense wrath of his fury?'

25. And they will respond: 'Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, which he formed with their fathers, when he led them away from the land of Egypt.

26. And they have served foreign gods, and adored them, though they did not know them, and though they had not been allotted to them.

27. For this reason, the fury of the Lord was enraged against this land, so as to lead over it all the curses which have been written in this volume.

28. And he has cast them out of their own land, with anger and fury, and with a very great indignation, and he has thrown them into a strange land, just as has been proven this day.'

29. These hidden things of the Lord our God have been revealed to us and to our sons in perpetuity, so that we may accomplish all the words of this law."